Music

Seeking a return to the longed for

note or chord which offers closure [full cadence?],

and - in every way possible, is delayed.

Ambiguity in the diatonic containment of chromaticity

(Leonard Bernstein Norton Lectures at Harvard, 1973)

The chord that lies between two scales,

leading you on to believe you are still in the realm of the first chord,

until the moment of negativity –

a note that harmonises with the chord,

but is not part of the scale you thought you were in,

but the second, new scale.

Surprise –

you are in a new world.

This world could lead more directly to your goal,

or take you away from it, offering other [unexpected] treasures along the way.

Likewise, a full cadence can reveal itself as something else –

the start of a new phrase...

Another ambiguity.

Marvin Minsky:

"If sonatas are lessons,

what are the subjects of those lessons?

The answer is in the question!

One thing the Fifth Symphony taught us is how

to hear those first four notes. The surface form is just:

descending major third, first tone repeated thrice.

At first, that pattern can be heard two different ways:

Fifth and third in minor mode,

or

Third and tonic in major mode.

But once we have heard the symphony,

the latter is unthinkable—a strange constraint to plant in all our heads!

Let us see how it is taught.

The Fifth declares at once its subject,

then its near-identical twin.

First comes the theme. Presented in a stark orchestral unison,

its minor mode location in tonality is not yet made explicit,

nor is its metric frame yet clear:

the subject stands alone in time.

Next comes its twin.

The score itself leaves room to view this transposed counterpart

as a complement or as a new beginning.

Until now, fermatas have hidden the basic metric frame,

a pair of twinned four-measure halves.

So far we have only learned to hear those halves as separate wholes.

The next four-measure metric half-frame

shows three versions of the subject,

one on each ascending pitch of the tonic triad. (Now we are sure the key is minor.)"

Computer Music Journal, Fall 1981, Vol. 5, Number 3

And then, of course, there is Haydn's Surprise Symphony...