Father José Maurício Nunes’ Sinfonia Fúnebre (1790): an analysis employing Robert Gjerdingen’s Musical Schemata
Ernesto HARTMANN
Original title: A Sinfonia Fúnebre (1790) do Padre José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830): análise com o conceito de Schema Musical de Robert Gjerdingen
Published in Music in Middle Ages and Early Modernity
Keywords: Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Galant Style, Schemata, Sinfonia Fúnebre (1790).
In this work I investigate the use in Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia’s Sinfonia Fúnebre (1790) of what the American musicologist Robert Gjerdongen calls Schemata. According to Gjerdingen, Schemata are abstract structures that were part of the Galant Style, either in Central Europe as in the Colonies, as Brazil is the case. In order to do so, I make a brief overview of the editions available for analysis; review of the Schemata concept in Gjerdingen and other authoritative authors; elaborate a table that articulates form, tonality, Schemata bar by bar; and last, exemplify the use of this Schemata in musical excerpts of the work. I conclude that the systematic and very sophisticated use of the Schemata by the Brazilian composer demonstrates that he is by no means just a mere imitator of the Galant Style, but instead, a great master of this idiom and capable to organize the Schemata at his will to fulfill his expressive needs as it is the case in this Sinfonia Funebre.
Mozart’s (1756-1791) Violin and Piano Sonata in E Minor K304: thematic and formal relations of the Schemata
Aline Mendonça PEREIRA; Ernesto HARTMANN
Original title: A Sonata para Violino e Piano K304 em Mi Menor de Mozart (1756-1791): relações temáticas e formais das Schemata
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Galant Style, Schemata, Sonata, Violin and Piano Sonata in E Minor K304, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
This paper analyses the relations between form and Schemata in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s E Minor Violin Sonata K304 (1778). Since this work is the composer’s sole composition in this genre in minor mode and has been attributed with remarkable expressive features once it was conceived during his travel to Mannheim, Munich and Paris – travel that coincide with his mother death – it’s compositional strategies and process are of particular interest. For this reason, through an approach via the Musical Schema concept, we seek to establish logical relations between the composer’s choice for Schemata disposition, form and unity in the work. We conclude that the either reiteration of internal variation process (especially increasing chromatism) in the Schema as the sharing of a set of Schemata on both movements of the work not only support the motivical but also the textural and aural unity, displaying aspects yet not much explored in the compositional process of this First Vienna School master.
Schemata, Motif and Topics in Theme and Variations in Sonata K305 for Piano and Violin in A Major by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Aline Mendonça PEREIRA; Ernesto HARTMANN
Original title: Schemata, Motivo e Tópicas no Tema e Variações da Sonata K305 para Piano e Violino em Lá Maior de W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
Keywords: Compositional Procedures, Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major K305, Schemata, Theme and Variations, Topics.
The present work investigates in the second movement of Mozart's Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major K305 (1778) – Tema con Variazioni – the compositional and expressive procedures employed by the composer. To this end, it reviews the literature on the Theme with Variations (Zamacois, Stein, Schoenberg and Scliar) concepts of Topic, Style, and Schemata (Ratner, Hatten, Sutcliffe, Day-O’Connell) proposing an analysis of the movement grounded on these concepts. The results are discussed in the light of the analysis and it is concluded that, even using the non-amplifying Variation or Fantasy model; preserving formal structures due to the Schemata repeatedly employed; and presenting themselves within the script described by Ratner (from his study of contemporary treatises), the diversity of styles and topics present ensure unity of the movement as expected of a part of a larger work without abstaining the contrast that is widely explored by the vast repertoire of composer of the constitutive elements of each style.
Schemata’s interchangeability and inter-functionality of Schemata in Themes with Variations of Mozart’s Sonatas for Piano and Violin
Ernesto HARTMANN, Aline Mendonça PEREIRA, Gabriel Azevedo GUERRA
Original title: Intercambialidade e interfuncionalidade das Schemata nos Temas com Variações das Sonatas para Piano e Violino de Mozart
Published in
Keywords: Mozart, Musical Analysis, Schemata, Sonatas for Piano and Violin.
In this article we examine in Theme and Variations set of the Sonatas for Piano and Violin by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) the relations between Schemata’s interchange, interpolation and inter-functionality. For this, we analyze the schematic composition of each movement, paying attention to the substitutions that the composer makes. In the theoretical basis we dialogue with the authors who discuss the relationship between Topic and Schemata. The work is structured as follows: conceptualization of Schemata, brief discussion about the problem of relationship between Schemata and Topic, analysis of selected works and final considerations. It is concluded that the functionality of each Schema, concept implied by Gjerdingen, is the way to understand the logic that regulates the substitutions observed in the works.
