On the Form Functionality of Recitative Intrusions in Le nozze di Figaro Paul Sherrill The College of Wooster psherrill@wooster.edu Society for Music Theory Arlington November 3, 2017 Example 1. Table of recitative intrusions in Mozart s Le nozze di Figaro Number Measure Recitative Recitative Form Songful Form Schemas Cinque... dieci... (I.1) 27 frage closing cadential Se a caso madama (I.2) Cosa sento! Tosto andate... (I.7) Non più andrai (I.10) Venite, inginocchiatevi (II.13) Susanna, or via sortite (II.14) 43 comma prua false fifth falling fourth closing complete phrase cadential + codetta 83 prua initiatory after arrested presentation embellishing 4 o cielo initiatory introduction 121 o cielo etc. initiatory medial new section after standing on V 141 quasi-colon vela medial standing on dominant prior to reprise 52 o cielo prua o initiatory sequence in couplet 2 cielo (developmental episode) 20; 52; albero; prua initiatory; initiatory; second basic idea of presentation; 83; 105 emb prua; initiatory + closing; entire presentation; entire prua comma medial presentation; cadential (repeated); susanna 3; 73 prua initiatory presentation 122 prua vela initiatory medial after DC Aprite presto, 53 triadic leaping initiatory codetta aprite (II.15) Vedrò mentre io sospiro (III.18) 87 o cielo initiatory after standing on dominant, before presentation Riconosci in 80; 89 o cielo initiatory leading to standing on dominant questo amplesso (III.19) 85; 94 prua initiatory after standing on dominant Dove sono (III.20) 77 false fifth medial standing on dominant between slow and fast sections of rondò Che soave 38 prua initiatory presentation zeffiretto (III.21) Aprite un po' 71 comma false weak closing medial initiates quasi-retransition quegl'occhi (IV.27) fifth falling fourth closing 78 prua initiatory standing on the dominant, connected to tonic 1
Example 2. Outline of the form of a recitative phrase, from Sherrill and Boyle, Galant Recitative Schemas, p. 13 (Figure 1) Example 3. Le nozze di Figaro, Act II Scene 3, recitative before Voi che sapete 2
Example 4. Focal recitative intrusion in Susanna, or via sortite (II.14), mm. 115 23 Example 5. Chain of implications and events surrounding Example 4 3
Example 6. Cinque dieci (I.1), mm. 2 9: Orchestral introduction Example 7. Cinque dieci, mm. 19 30: First recitative intrusion 4
Example 8. Chain of implications and events in Example 7 5
Example 9. Cinque dieci, mm. 36 48: Second recitative intrusion Example 10. Chain of implications and events in Example 9 6
Selected Bibliography Abbate, Carolyn. Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Abbate, Carolyn and Roger Parker. Dismembering Mozart. Cambridge Opera Journal 2/2 (1990): 187 95. Agawu, V. Kofi. Playing with Signs: An Interpretation of Classical Music. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Allanbrook, Wye Jamison. Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Caplin, William. Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Gjerdingen, Robert. Music in the Galant Style. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Lewin, David. Figaro s Mistakes. In Studies in Music with Text, 5 18. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Mirka, Danuta, ed. Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. Moortele, Steven Vande, Julie Pedneault-Deslauriers, and Nathan John Martin. Formal Functions in Perspective: Essays on Musical Form from Haydn to Adorno. Rochester, NY: Rochester University Press, 2015. Neuwirth, Markus and Pieter Bergé, eds. What is a Cadence?: Theoretical and Analytical Perspectives on Cadences in the Classical Repertoire. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2015. Rothstein, William. The Tristan Chord in Historical Context: A Response to John Rothgeb. Music Theory Online 1/3 (1995). http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.95.1.3/ mto.95.1.3.rothstein.html Sherrill, Paul and Matthew Boyle. Galant Recitative Schemas, Journal of Music Theory 59/1 (2015): 1 61. Webster, James. To Understand Verdi and Wagner We Must Understand Mozart. 19 th -Century Music 11 (1987 88), 175 93. 7