As the nineteenth century was drawing to a close the industrious Ebenezer Prout churned out a new textbook or supplement almost every year. His Analytical Key [1903] offers solutions to the exercises in the revamped six-teenth edition of his Harmony: Its Theory and Practice, first published in 1889. Prout’s readers were expected to be industrious as well: they were asked to supply a Roman numeral and indication of inversion for every chord of each exercise, in addition to composing three upper lines to realize the given figured bass [6.18]. They also grappled with the implications of chromatic pitches, invoking one of two analytical responses: modulation (e.g., Fs in measure 2 triggers a move to G Minor); or “transitional domi-nant”41(e.g., Bn in measure 3, En in measure 5, and Ab in measure 5 trigger the analysis of a single chord in the key of its successor).42The G minor chords in measures 1 and 2 are analyzed twice, in the contexts of the keys that precede and follow. They are what Prout calls “ambiguous” chords, yet another term to describe what others refer to as “mehrdeutig,” “doubtful,”
“intermediate,” or “pivot.”
Though Prout’s analysis might appear to be in order, the symbols do not add up to a compelling vision of how the example is fabricated. For example, 6.18 Prout: Analytical Key to the Exercises in “Harmony: Its Theory and Practice”
[1903], p. 28.
The variegation of Prout’s Roman numerals to indicate major, minor, and diminished qualities stems from Gottfried Weber. The letters b, c, and d correspond to first through third inversions, respectively. (This is a British phenomenon. Compare with 6.19c.) Prout interprets all 64chords harmonically as second inversions.
G Minor in measure 2 seems unduly favored, as the focus of the exercise’s only modulation. Is it not, however, just a step along the path between tonic and supertonic? Were its dominant not preceded by a 64(measure 2, beat 1), Prout likely would have analyzed it via a transitional dominant, as he did the supertonic in measure 3:
m. 1 2
Bb: vi (g: V) vi.
Moreover the half cadence in measure 4, which divides the progression into two four-measure phrases, has received no special analytical notice. A more selective Roman-numeral analysis, conceivable at about this time from Louis and Thuille in Munich or Schenker in Vienna, could better convey the similarity between the two phrases, both of which contain a bass line that extends from Bb through G to Eb on the way to F.43In Prout’s notation, such an analysis might appear as:
m. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 I vi iib V, I IVb iib V7 I.
An especially revealing detail of Prout’s analysis occurs at measure 5, beat 3. Viewed locally, these pitches indeed do form a dominant seventh chord in Eb Major, in a way described a century earlier by John Callcott as a
“partial modulation”:
Whenever the Dominant and Tonic of a new Key are employed without the Subdominant Harmony, such change constitutes a partial modulation.
One change of this kind arises when the Seventh of the Major Mode is flattened [e.g., Ab in 6.18, measure 5], and the Modulation returns again through the Leading Tone to the Tonic.44
The analytical symbols for Prout’s transitional dominant vividly convey the
“partial” nature of the modulation: only the chord containing the chro-matic pitch is interpreted in the temporary key; the goal chord retains its position within the original key. Prout thus accommodates the modulatory practice that was on display in recent German publications by Lobe and Jadassohn [6.19a, b] while attempting some commonality with his British predecessor Alfred Day, who rejects modulation in this context [6.19c].
Prout’s notion is appealing and, in less cumbersome notation, survives as the “secondary” or “applied” dominant chord in modern harmony text-books. Yet Louis and Thuille provide a more compelling analysis of a similar passage by extending a horizontal line from Roman numeral I, fos-tering the notion of multiple meaning – that even with an added minor
6.19a Lobe: Lehrbuch der musikalischen Komposition, vol. 1 (1850, 21858), p. 159 (transposed).
6.19b Jadassohn: Lehrbuch der Harmonie (1883, 131911), p. 98 (transposed).
(a) The dot above the 5 acknowledges the chordal seventh.
(b) Prout’s bass (measure 4, beat 3, through measure 6, beat 1, of 6.18) corresponds to Jadassohn’s soprano.
6.19c Day: Treatise on Harmony (1845), p. 77 (transposed).
“The seventh on the tonic may also be followed by the common chord of the subdominant . . . This is not a modulation into the subdominant.” The letters A and B indicate root position and first inversion, respectively.
6.19d Louis and Thuille: Harmonielehre ([1907], 41913), p. 383.
In this analysis of an excerpt from Brahms’s “Variations on a Theme by Händel” (op. 24), beat 3 of measure 1 is analyzed dually as tonic in Bb Major (“B”) and as dominant in Eb Major (“Es”).
a b
seventh, the subdominant’s dominant retains a tonic role [6.19d]. Thus just as the submediant and the supertonic in Prout’s first phrase are extended via their dominants (or dominant “derivative,” the leading tone chord), in measure 5 tonic is extended via its F major dominant, even if the tonic chord contains an added seventh, Ab, upon its return. Prout’s analytical notation makes it difficult to come to this reasonable conclusion [6.20].
A similar construction occurs in Chopin’s Prelude in Db Major [6.21].
Chopin fills in the tonic triad’s lower third (Db–Eb–F) in the soprano 6.20 Three perspectives on tonic’s prolongation (Prout’s measures 4 and 5)
In the models above, bass Ab and soprano D form an augmented fourth whose resolution tendency targets the subdominant chord, thereby strengthening tonic’s inherent propensity to lead to IV. Prout’s dominant (measure 5, beat 2 of 6.18) is hierarchically dependent upon the Bb chords that precede and follow it, even if an elision (bass Ab arriving with rather than after Bb) taints the succeeding tonic. Kirnberger displays similar instances of such elision in Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik (1771–79), vol. 1, pp. 89–90 [Beach and Thym, p. 108], suggesting that resolving bass A to Bb before moving to Ab would be characteristic of the strict style. Prout’s version (A–Ab in measure 5) could occur, according to Kirnberger, in the free style. See also 3.7b, in which Weber’s Roman numerals accord with Prout’s interpretation.
6.21a Schenker: Harmonielehre (1906), p. 428, ex. 366 [Borghese, p. 326, ex. 295].
(measures 8–9) while descending from tonic chromatically (Db–C–Cb) in an inner voice. (Compare with soprano Bb–C–D and bass Bb–A–Ab in Prout’s measures 4 and 5.) Both Schenker and Arnold Schoenberg label the Db-F-(Ab)-Cb chord at beat 4 of measure 9 as tonic. Schenker indicates with an Arabic numeral and accidental that the minor seventh is utilized. He also suggests, parenthetically, that the chord produces the effect (Wirkung) of a dominant in Gb Major. (Compare with 6.19d.) Schoenberg acknowledges Chopin’s use of “substitute tone” Cb by placing a horizontal line through the Roman numeral I. In this case tonic functions as an “artificial dominant seventh chord” leading to IV.
Prout asserts that “the value of a thorough analysis to the student who wishes for an intelligent mastery of his subject can hardly be overrated.”45 Though we may heartily support him in principle, we must acknowledge that his analytical practice lacks the sophistication and artistry that was emerging around this time especially in Munich and Vienna.
6.21b Schoenberg: Structural Functions of Harmony (1954), p. 122, ex. 128.
In their analyses of an excerpt from Chopin’s Prelude in Db Major (op. 28, no. 15), both Schenker and Schoenberg regard the Dbb7chord, which Prout would analyze exclusively in the context of Gb Major, as a representative of tonic in Db Major.