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Topic: Harmonic Structure - middle section Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen  (Read 10952 times)

Offline shaunarundell

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I've just started to work on the middle section/movement of one of Grieg's lyric  masterpieces  'Wedding Day at Troldhaugen' and I'm not totally clear on the harmonic structure.

Here is what I can figure out myself.

Its starts out in G with a 8, 7, 6 motif, making heavy use of Major 7ths, 6ths and suspended chords, giving it the modern/romantic/folksong feeling so common with Grieg lyric pieces. After passing through D for a few bars, it finishes on the resolution of Gsus4 chord, completing the first pass.

We then move onto B major restating the motif/themes and passing through C#/F# major, in a similar fashion with the first pass  and then back to G to develop the original motif with some lovely hand crossing and finishing the section/movement on on the same Gsus4 chord resolution.

I get the G->B modulation - we are moving in 3rds, a common device for more modern pieces trying to escape the old tonic/dominant straight jacket. So I guess the structure could be
first pass
G D G  (tonic/dominant/tonic) then modulate in 3rds and
2nd pass
B F# B (tonic/dominant/tonic)
and back to G, original tonic to finish

But they way I read it, we don't go through F# in the 2nd pass we go through  C#.

I suspect I have some errors in or  am missing some depth in my analysis.
Any views, comment ?

Shaun
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Offline ramseytheii

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I've just started to work on the middle section/movement of one of Grieg's lyric  masterpieces  'Wedding Day at Troldhaugen' and I'm not totally clear on the harmonic structure.

Here is what I can figure out myself.

Its starts out in G with a 8, 7, 6 motif, making heavy use of Major 7ths, 6ths and suspended chords, giving it the modern/romantic/folksong feeling so common with Grieg lyric pieces. After passing through D for a few bars, it finishes on the resolution of Gsus4 chord, completing the first pass.

We then move onto B major restating the motif/themes and passing through C#/F# major, in a similar fashion with the first pass  and then back to G to develop the original motif with some lovely hand crossing and finishing the section/movement on on the same Gsus4 chord resolution.

I get the G->B modulation - we are moving in 3rds, a common device for more modern pieces trying to escape the old tonic/dominant straight jacket. So I guess the structure could be
first pass
G D G  (tonic/dominant/tonic) then modulate in 3rds and
2nd pass
B F# B (tonic/dominant/tonic)
and back to G, original tonic to finish

But they way I read it, we don't go through F# in the 2nd pass we go through  C#.

I suspect I have some errors in or  am missing some depth in my analysis.
Any views, comment ?

Shaun

I'm not totally understanding your terminology.  What is an 8-7-6 motive?  Are you referring to notes in a scale?  If so, the motive clearly starts on the third of the scale, not the octave.. whatever that would be (where does the scale actually start?)...

I can't fathom what else you would be referring to.

Actually, the two phrases you mention add up harmonically, though they take slightly divergent routes.  In bar 64 (of my score), the e minor is clearly used as a dominant prep (ii) of D major.  In the analogous bar 80, the c# minor is the ii, or dominant prep, of B major.  So in other words, instead of modulating there, he keeps the harmony the same.

This is keeping with Classical principle, of using pivot chords that are common to two different keys in an exposition, but replacing them with another function in the recapitulation. 

Actually, if he had been perfectly symmetrical, the chord he would have used there would be g# minor.  But instead of that, he made the B major section a complete statement in itself: opens in B, ends in B.  It becomes a "vagrant" chord, by the theory of A. Schoenberg, one that adds nothing to harmonic development, but creates an image based on local color.

I think your analysis is incorrect in that the B major phrase doesn't "pass through" C# and F#, because to do that it would have to incorporate accidentals familiar with those keys.  Rather, those harmonies are all directly related to B major.  It's just a moment of different color, and he encapsulates it by echoing the phrase structure of the previous G major phrase, but instead of modulating to the dominant, keeps it in the same key.  By that way, he sets it apart, and makes it its own thing.

Hope that is helpful.

Walter Ramsey


Offline shaunarundell

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thanks Walter - very helpful. And i did mean a 3-2-1 motif, not 8-7-6.
 

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