metric displacement dissonance and romantic longing in the german.pdf

Wesleyan UniversityWesScholar

Division I Faculty Publications Arts and Humanities

January 2006

Metric Displacement Dissonance and RomanticLonging in the German LiedYonatan MalinWesleyan University, [email protected]

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This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts and Humanities at WesScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Division IFaculty Publications by an authorized administrator of WesScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected].

Recommended CitationMalin, Yonatan, "Metric Displacement Dissonance and Romantic Longing in the German Lied" (2006). Division I Faculty Publications.Paper 4.http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/div1facpubs/4

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Blackwell Publishing LtdOxford, UKMUSAMusic Analysis0262-5245 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.XXXOriginal Articlesthe german liedyonatan malin

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The topic of metric dissonance has received a good deal of attention in recentyears.

1

Theorists have developed typologies and generalised descriptions ofmetric conflicts, and applied this analytically to the music of Mozart,Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Schoenberg.

2

There has been relativelylittle work, however, on the hermeneutics of metric dissonance; that is, on themeanings which emerge when metric conflicts are combined with other musicalparameters and with texts.

3

This article seeks to examine the hermeneutics of metricdissonance by exploring an association between displacement or syncopation-type dissonance and Romantic longing (

Sehnsucht

).

4

In particular, it aims toshow how displacement dissonance and

Sehnsucht

evolved together over thecourse of the long nineteenth century.

5

Essentially, the four analyses presentedhere outline a pattern of introduction (in Schubert), intensification (in Schumann),complication (in Brahms) and refraction (in Schoenberg).

A convenient starting-point is Victor Zuckerkandls account of metre. ForZuckerkandl, metre is a cyclic process involving motion alternately away fromand back to points of initiation:

A piece of music is played; there is no accentuation. We count with the tonesone-two-one- . . . . Why did we say one here instead of three? What peculiarityin our perception of the third beat makes us count thus and not otherwise? Ifthe new beat did nothing but bring us a further fraction forward in time, thephenomenon would be incomprehensible. If we involuntarily and unconsciouslycount one to beat number 3, this expresses the fact that it is not so muchfurther as back that this beat carries us and back to the starting point. To beable to come back, one must first have gone away; now we also understand whywe count onetwo, and not oneone. Here two does not mean simply beatnumber 2, but also away from. The entire process is therefore an awayfrom-back to.

6

Zuckerkandls claim might well invite the question as to what happens to thisprocess of away fromback to when syncopations are superposed onto theprimary metre. In the terms of his analysis, a displaced or syncopated pulse

denies

the motion back to; it generates continued outward movement. Thisdenial may extend for one phase so as to resolve with the next beat, as in

{{~

.Alternatively, it may extend for several phases, resolving with a higher-level beatas in

{{ ~

. Or it may extend indefinitely as in

{{:{

. . .

. Furthermore, themovement away from, projected by the displaced pulse, may also start from

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a point of metric stability, as in the above examples. Or it may start as thoughalready in motion as in

{ : {

. . . . It may also, of course, occur in a varietyof metres and at a variety of metric levels.

Zuckerkandls ideas suggest a link between metric displacement dissonancesand

Sehnsucht

, since the outward movement of displacement dissonances isanalogous to the outward movement of longing. Metric displacement dissonancesmay symbolise

Sehnsucht

if they are used in conjunction with a text thatexpresses or depicts longing, and with melodic, harmonic, textural or dynamicexpansion. The first song from Schumanns

Dichterliebe

, Im wunderschnenMonat Mai, affords a classic example. At the end of both strophes, the pianoarticulates the melodic notes on the fourth semiquaver of each crochet beat,sustaining them into the following beats as the poet sings da ist in meinemHerzen die Liebe aufgegangen (then within my heart love broke forth), andDa hab ich ihr gestanden mein Sehnen und Verlangen (then I confessed toher my longing and desire). The pianos syncopations confound the primarymetre, pushing the melodic line upward as the poet gives voice to his longing.

Displacement dissonances may create a sense of separation, or distance, aswell as motion into the distance.

7

In Schuberts Im Dorfe (from

Winterreise

),for example, the Wanderers separation from the townspeople marking hissocial displacement is symbolised by the rhythmic conflict between the vocalline and the repeated piano chords. The repeated chords and rumbling bassconstitute downbeatupbeat patterns, which are opposed by the upbeatdownbeatgestures of the singer.

8

Similarly, moments of longing often arise from anawareness of separation or loss. Weak-beat accents symbolise distance to andfrom the homeland in Schumanns In der Fremde, from his

Liederkreis

,Op. 39. The weak-beat accents cease, significantly, with the repeat of thephrase da ruhe ich auch, at the point where the protagonist imagines herfinal rest.

9

My purpose is not to suggest that displacement dissonances always symboliselonging. Harald Krebs, for example, has shown that displacement dissonancesin Schumanns music actually express or symbolise a variety of affects, includingdisquiet, excitement, conflict (inner or outer), madness and humour, not tomention suspended or even dreamlike states.

10

Moreover, although

Sehnsucht

could be regarded as the emotive signature of the Romantic Lied in general,innumerable songs express longing

without

resorting to displacement dissonances.Nevertheless, the link between syncopation and

Sehnsucht

is so frequent andcompelling that we can learn about the nature of both terms through analysisof songs in which they are conjoined.

Wandrers Nachtlied II (Goethe/Schubert)

Although a number of possible examples might have been chosen for an initialcase study, Schuberts setting of Goethes Wandrers Nachtlied II (D. 768,c. 1823) provides an instructive starting point (Ex. 1). Quaver syncopations in

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Ex. 1 Schubert, Wandrers Nachtlied II

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the accompaniment of bars 58 create an effect of subtle movement, coincidingwith the mention of breath/breeze (

Hauch

). Intriguingly, the Wanderer feelshardly a breath (sprest du kaum einen Hauch), and the birds are silent (dieVglein schweigen im Walde). The syncopated accompaniment could thus beheard as a symbol of internal animation. We should also note that sprest dukaum einen Hauch is the first indication that the poem has a subject onewho experiences natures tranquility together with his or her own internalunrest.

The subjects internal animation, reflected in the musical animation generatedby the syncopations, leads to an explicit gesture of longing in the final sectionof the song. The melodic line rises expressively in bars 910 (and again in bars1112) through the third b

w

1

c

2

d

2

, and then more quickly up to f

2

. TheWanderer reaches upwards as if towards the heavens, giving voice to his longing,warte nur, warte nur, balde ruhest du auch (only wait, only wait, soon youtoo shall rest).

11

Focusing now on the poems text, we should note that, while the poemexpresses deep emotion, it does so indirectly. The poem was written around1780, a few years after Goethes move to Weimar and during a period in which,according to L. P. Johnson, a greater objectivity began to assert itself .

12

Conforming to the objectivity of Goethes Weimar period, the speaker ofWandrers Nachtlied could be thought of as an objective self who observesand comments on his experiences in the second person while standing apart.Conversely, Schuberts syncopations may be heard as expressing the responseof the subjective self . They cease as the objective self turns inward, urgingpatience (warte nur, warte nur), after which the melodic ascent gives voice tothe Wanderers (subjective) desire. This layering of voices and personae internalsubjective beneath external objective is an essential part of the song, distin-guishing Schuberts setting markedly from, for instance, Schumanns treatmentof Eichendorff.

The sources of animation and longing in the Wandrers Nachlied can betraced within the poems metrical and syntactic elements.

1. ber allen Gipfeln Over all summits2. Ist Ruh, Is peace,3. In allen Wipfeln In all treetops4. Sprest du You feel5. Kaum einen Hauch; Hardly a breath;6. Die Vgelein schweigen im Walde. The birds are silent in the woods.7. Warte nur, balde Only wait, soon8. Ruhest du auch. You too shall rest.

13

Lines 34 echo lines 12 very closely, as can be seen from the fully aligned text:

(1) ber

allen

G

ipfeln

/ (2)

Ist

R

uh

(3) In

allen

W

ipfeln

/ (4) Spr

est

d

u

/ (5) Kaum einen Hauch

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Whereas the second line stops abruptly (dramatising Ruh), the fourth lineleads on to the fifth through an enjambment.

14

Kaum einen Hauch thusemerges as a supplement, an extra line, which unsettles the parallelism of lines12 and 34. It is hardly a breath, but it is enough, especially as experiencedinternally, to create unrest in the subject and in the poetic structure. Line 4leading into line 5 also initiates a set of dactylic feet,

Sp

-rest du /

Kaum

ei-nenHauch, increasing the sense of motion.15 Finally, Hauch (the end of line 5)is an onomatopoeic word, symbolising life but not rest.16

The poem continues to sustain tension from line 5 through to line 8, andbeyond into the silence which follows. The fifth line is anomalous from theviewpoint of lines 14 since it introduces the new au diphthong in bothKaum and Hauch. Line 6, Die Vgelein schweigen im Walde, creates amoment of relative stability within the poem it is a complete statement withinone line, and it is the only statement that begins with its subject.17 The audiphthong from line 5, however, still protrudes as a non-recurring element, andline 6 is energised by a regular dactylic rhythm. Warte nur, balde (line 7)provides a rhyme for Walde from the end of line 6, but receives no responseto the au diphthong, nor a rhyme for Hauch until Ruhest du auch (line 8).As Johnson notes, in reading the poem and waiting for a rhyme for line 5, weshare the Wanderers anticipation.18 The final line brings together Ruh andauch, sounds that were oppositional in the syntax of lines 15. Nevertheless,full closure is undermined by the au diphthong (which can be read as beingmore animated than the pure u sound), as well as the relatively harsh chsound and the recollection of Hauch.

Returning to Schuberts setting, we find that the syncopations coincide notonly with the entry of the subject, but also with the onset of motion in thepoem sprest du/Kaum einen Hauch (lines 45). Schuberts harmony andline underscore this effect. Thus bars 56 feature motion to the dominant, withthe chromatic bass line EwEF (which reverses the FEEw chromatic descentof bar 2). A more subtle point concerns the Gw (the chromatic upper neighbourto F) which inflects the word Wipfeln just before the syncopations begin. Onthe one hand, Wipfeln echoes Gipfeln within the tight parallel structure oflines 12 and 34. On the other, the W of Wipfeln issues from the lips withan impetus suggestive of breath (Hauch), whereas the G of Gipfeln, articulatedin the throat, generates less energy. We can therefore recognise that the pianosyncopations from bar 5 are embedded in a process that generates motion andunrest in many ways: through the physical sound of the words; the syntax andmetre of the text; and the harmony and line of the music.

The syncopations from bar 5 can be understood within a still broader con-text, given that Schubert introduces hints of motion and unrest earlier in thesong. The piano plays a complete IVI progression in bars 12, evoking thetranquility of nature. This tranquility is then disturbed: the voices entrance, inimitation of the pianos dactylic rhythms, compresses the IVI motion into oneand a half bars; moreover, the second poetic statement (in allen Wipfeln . . .)

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begins in the middle of bar 4 with a burst of energy, a leap up to Ew. Thisunsettles the semibreve pulse of the notated bars.19 The singer also introducesarticulations at the level of the semiquaver pulse with the dotted rhythm ofber [allen]. This rhythm recurs on Wipfeln, and again on sprest (du) asthe pianos resultant rhythm begins to articulate a regular semiquaver pulse.

The intensification in bars 56 then expands into an energetic plateau inbars 78. The poetic line Die Vgelein schweigen im Walde itself embodies akind of energised stability, as has already been noted. Schubert sets this line inbars 78 with a regular oscillation of V7 and I. The semibreve layer of thenotated metre is projected clearly for the first time since the piano introduction,creating a broad sense of stability even as the syncopations continue.20 None-theless, the underlying dominant pedal prevents the tonic harmonies fromachieving full stability.

Schuberts gesture of longing culminates in the final section of the song. Thebw1c2d2 ascent of bars 910 comprises a nested version of the large-scaleinitial ascent from the bw1 in bar 3 to the c2 in bars 78 (also implied in bar 6)up to the d2 in bar 10 the long-delayed Kopfton.21 The ascent to f2 thusculminates as a moment of heightened expression and anticipation external tothe Urlinie progression. This climax is all the more effective as a gesture ofanticipation because f2 arrives both on a weak beat (beat two in bar 9 and beatfour in bar 12) and on a weak syllable. The weak beats lean forward withpauses, embodying the sense of anticipation.

Schubert often repeats words and text phrases in the concluding sections ofhis songs. Here, the text repetitions influence both the metric structure and thesense of anticipation. With the repetition of warte nur, the final two linesoccupy five minims, or two and a half bars. The concluding phrase (itself alsorepeated) thus unsettles the semibreve pulse, which was established briefly inbars 78. (In comparison, the repetition of schweigen in bars 78 helps thecomposer to confirm the semibreve pulse. Die Vglein schweigen, schweigenim Walde has four feet, which are set in four minims.)

To summarise, Schuberts Wandrers Nachtlied II stages longing as internalanimation followed by a reaching outwards towards the infinite. It expresseslonging as anticipation and deferral, both of which are embodied in a singleword, balde (soon). The syncopations generate a subtle sense of motionwhich coincides with away-from motion both in the harmony, and in thetextual domains of syntax, poetic metre and phonetics. The presence of anobjective voice in poem and song renders the expression of Sehnsucht all themore moving.

Wandrers Nachtlied II can be usefully compared with other songs bySchubert. As Susan Youens has observed,22 offbeat and weak-beat accents pervadeSchuberts Winterreise. They are associated with longing in two particularsongs, Letzte Hoffnung and Der Lindenbaum. Metre and harmony are bothsuspended in the opening of Letzte Hoffnung in ways which symbolise thehanging leaf and Wanderers hope. Here, the irrationality of hope (the leaf must

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surely fall) renders it analogous to longing; the initial metric deferrals suggesta flight from reality. Metre and harmony resolve at the end of the first vocalphrase, and with the phrase fllt mit ihm die Hoffnung ab (my hope falls with[the leaf]).

The first strophe of Der Lindenbaum features memory of a distant, idyllictime, set to a simple chordal accompaniment doubling the vocal line. Thesecond strophe brings the Wanderer closer to the present, and near to thelinden tree, the site of former ease, pleasure and love. Memory and longingimpinge painfully; Schubert sets the first half of this strophe in E minor, andplaces registral and dynamic accents on the second beats of the new pianofiguration. After a dramatised flight (die kalten Winde bliesen . . .) the Wandererreaches safety many hours away from the site of his past. Arpeggiated tripletsin the accompaniment echo those of the second stanza, but the dynamicaccents are now shifted onto the downbeats. In this song, distance representssafety, whether it is the temporal distance of the first strophe or the spatialdistance of the last (itself measured in hours of travel). The enticing call of thelinden tree in the second strophe, hier findst du deine Ruh (here you willfind your rest), becomes a safer subjunctive in the last strophe: du fndestRuhe dort (there you would find rest).

The second-beat accents in Der Lindenbaum are not syncopations; they donot sustain over the bar line. They do displace the primary accent, however, sowe can refer to them as metrical displacement dissonances. The piano tripletsgenerate momentum away from the downbeat and towards the second beat. InZuckerkandls terms, they emphasise motion away from and understate themotion back to. The forward motion depicts the wanderers steps, and itsymbolises his unease and longing.

A comparison with Beethovens An die ferne Geliebte further highlights thenature of Schuberts artistic insight. There is, of course, no pretence to artin Beethovens setting. The sixth song declares itself to be the product ofthe poets Sehnsucht (longing), ohne Kunstgeprng (without the stamp of art,or without artifice), as William Rothstein has observed.23 The songs inBeethovens cycle are mostly strophic, with variations in the accompaniment.In song one, strophe three, semiquavers and bass offbeat quavers animate thetexture as the poet sings of his glowing look which hurries to the beloved.Simple chords accompany the fourth strophe, in which the poet finds that thereis no messenger for his love. Syncopated semiquavers in the right hand thenanimate the accompaniment for the final strophe, in which space and timevanish and the loving heart reaches that which it holds sacred. The syncopatedaccompaniment may be taken to represent a quickening heart, but Beethovenattempts no subtle rhythmic shaping of individual strophes in response to thetext, as in the brief span of Schuberts Wandrers Nachlied II. (The poetry, byAlois Jeitteles, is itself not as finely crafted as Goethes poem.) The end of thisfirst song, which returns at the end of the cycle, suggests triumphant arrivalrather than a longing for that which is yet to come.24

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A closer precursor for Schuberts Wandrers Nachtlied II can be found inhis own earlier Wandrers Nachlied (Der du von dem Himmel bist, D. 224)of 1815. This song is similarly brief; it also begins with dactylic rhythms,animates its middle section with syncopations, and concludes with a repeatedexpression of longing. It seems in fact that Schubert must have had the earlierWandrers Nachtlied in mind when composing the later version. The latterpart of ber allen Gipfeln echoes the opening of Der du von dem Himmelbist especially closely; both feature prominent Ivi progressions, third motiveswith identical rhythms, and structural 123 ascents. The two poems wereprinted on the same page in the 1815 edition of Goethes works, with thesecond poem titled Ein Gleiches (A similar one).

The phrase ach, ich bin des Treibens mde! (oh, I am tired of striving!)included within the earlier Nachtlied is more personal and direct than anythingin the later song, and Schubert sets it with a brief moment of recitative.Nevertheless, the previous phrases, which describe the healing effects of thedeity, are relatively impersonal. Offbeat chords in the right hand and accentedsyncopations accompany the phrase den der doppelt elend ist, doppelt mitEntzckung fllst (the one who is doubly wretched, you fill doubly withdelight). Here, as in the Wandrers Nachtlied II, displacements suggest theinternal animation of a subject not yet identified in the text. As in Die Winterreise,the accented syncopations suggest emotional disturbance. Offbeat accentsreturn in the brief postlude, resolving each time with a prayer-like plagalcadence.

Intermezzo (Eichendorff/Schumann)

In 1843, Robert Schumann identified Eichendorff as one of the poets who hadinspired advances in the Lied. A more artistic and profound kind of Liedemerged, according to Schumann, as the new poetic spirit of Rckert,Eichendorff, Uhland and Heine was mirrored in music.25 The followinganalysis of Intermezzo, the second song of Liederkreis, will show how, in thecourse of setting Eichendorffs poem, Schumann made extensive use of a radicalform of syncopation so as to undermine the primary metre at all levels. Thecentral feature of Eichendorffs poem, which seems to have inspired Schumannssyncopated accompaniment, is a longing for the distant beloved.

In Eichendorff s poem, the poets longings emerge from an imagined visualexchange with the beloved. The poet gazes at an image of the beloved deepwithin his heart, and the image gazes back at him brightly and happily (stanza1). From this visual exchange, song and longing are born; the poets heart singsa beautiful old song, and this song soars out to the beloved (stanza 2).

1. Dein Bildniss wunderselig Your blessed image2. Hab ich im Herzensgrund, I have in the bottom of my heart,3. Das sieht so frisch und frhlich It looks so brightly and happily

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4. Mich an zu jeder Stund. At me through every hour.

5. Mein Herz still in sich singet My heart sings quietly within itself6. Ein altes, schnes Lied, An old, beautiful song,7. Das in die Luft sich schwinget Which soars into the air8. Und zu dir eilig zieht. And quickly flies to you.26

While, literally speaking, the beloved is absent in the first stanza, she isfiguratively ever present. (As Prometheus says to Minerva in an early dramaticfragment by Goethe, Abwesend auch mir immer gegenwrtig Even inabsence always present to me.27) David Wellbery has observed that, in Eichen-dorff s poetry, the object of desire is hallucinated as absented, withdrawn toan infinite remove, and . . . this very absence is experienced by the subject asfulfillment . . . . The beloved object becomes, paradoxically, the absence ofthe beloved.28 And as Adorno writes in his commentary on Eichendorff spoem Sehnsucht: longing opens out onto itself as its proper goal.29 This isthe situation in Intermezzo as well.

Longing becomes an end in itself which is realised as song. The flight of thesong in the second stanza represents the outward reach of the poets longing.We should observe that the song emerges quietly from within the poets heart.Thus, Eichendorff s poem figures longing as a gesture that moves from withinthe self, out into the distance. The poem, in other words, draws an affinitybetween the depth within and the distance without. And whereas this affinitywas only implicit in Schuberts song, in Schumanns it becomes as explicit asin Eichendorff s poem.

Schumanns song is in an ABA1 form (Ex. 2). Syncopated chords pulsatealmost through the entire song (with the single exception of bar 24). Thechords become most unsettling in the B section (bars 917), since the pianono longer grounds the syncopations with downbeat articulations. (Downbeatarticulations had also been absent in the piano in bars 69.) In the B section,furthermore, the upper voice of the chordal accompaniment doubles thesingers pitches so as to displace them by one semiquaver from the quaver pulseof the notated metre. The pulsating chords thereby symbolise the reverberationof song within the poets heart as well as its flight into the distance.30 In thisregard, they once again succeed in drawing an affinity between the depthwithin and the distance without. It should also be noted how the vocal line,with its delayed doubling in the piano, reaches up from e1 (bars 910) to f C2(bars 14 and 16), while the piano itself extends one step further to gC2 (bar 15).The syncopations seem to generate the energy for this melodic ascent and forthe rise and expansion of longing.31

The radical nature of these syncopations deserves further comment. Instandard practice, metric pulses could be thought to provide a sense ofpresent-ness; they initiate temporal spans that we experience as individualmoments or temporal gestalts. With Schumanns syncopations, by contrast,moments that would otherwise be experienced as present are split, eliciting a

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sense of movement and friction which is projected, by analogy, onto theimaginary persona of the beloved.32 In short, Schumanns syncopations createa feeling of movement and friction as they stage the outward flight of thepoets longing. Unlike the Wandrers Nachtlied, Eichendorff s poem portrays

Ex. 2 Schumann, Intermezzo, from Liederkreis, Op. 39

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no objective self; the poet identifies entirely with his longing, and gives himselfover to its dynamics. As Adorno has observed of Eichendorff s poetry, Theword wirr [confused, chaotic], one of his favorites . . . signals the suspensionof the ego, its surrender to something surging up chaotically.33 If this is trueof Eichendorff, then it is especially so of Schumanns Eichendorff. The dis-placement dissonance in Schumanns song escapes the frame of the notatedmetre, just as the self surrenders to surges of longing.34

The following analysis reveals how metrical and tonal displacements generatedissonance in strophe 1 (A), which is then intensified in strophe 2 (B), priorto being resolved in strophe 3 (A1). The piano subsequently restores outward

Ex. 2 Continued

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motion in the postlude, while the syncopations of the final bars seem to dissolvebefore fully resolving. The poem itself has an open ending, with the songseemingly reaching towards the beloved. Schumann initially imposes closure byreturning to the first stanza after the second, but then proceeds to re-open thestructure with the piano postlude. The song thus recreates the poems structureat a different level, transforming the poem-as-fragment into a song-as-fragment.

In harmonic terms, the initial tonic sonority constitutes an unstable second-inversion chord, grounded by the bass A articulated on the downbeat of bar 2.Bars 15 prolong the tonic with a bass pedal and secondary motion to V7/V(bar 3) and V7 (bar 4). Bars 69 then begin a decisive away from movement(as Zuckerkandl would put it), arriving at a structural cadence on V (E major)in bar 9. The second strophe effects local tonicisations of B minor and D major(bars 1011 and 1213), before reaching a repeated half-cadence in FC minor(bars 1417).35 Schumann returns to the tonic in the third strophe, but in aroundabout manner. The words Dein Bildnis in bars 1718 are set by V7/IV(rather than by I, as in bars 12), and the bass supports a sequence of secondarydominants in bars 1821 (rather than articulating a tonic pedal, as in bars 25).At the end of the third strophe Schumann confirms the tonic, resolving thestructural dissonance and completing the harmonic motion back to.36 Withthe tonic cadence of bar 25, the vocal line achieves a sense of closure andapparent satisfaction. The beginning of the postlude, however, overlaps withthis cadence, while the piano adds a further comment, attempting once againto bridge the distance between the poet and his beloved. The overhangingscale-degree 3 (CC) at bar 29 renders the ending partially open, since the tonicresolution is not reinforced by a 321 descent.

The metric narrative, by contrast, involves four interacting musical layers:the vocal line, the pulsating chords, the bass and the counter-melody in thepiano, right hand. The vocal line projects the notated metre with a regular 2-bar,4-bar and 8-bar hypermetre (Ex. 3). The pulsating chords initiate a syncopatedquaver pulse in bar 1, which continues through to bar 23. Employing Krebssterminology, we may refer to this syncopated pulse as 2+1 (unit = semiquaver).That is, in the formula x+y (unit = z), x denotes the periodicity of the displacedlayer (and the layer that it displaces), y refers to the amount of displacement,and z indicates the unit of measurement.37

The pulsating chords of bar 1 combine metric instability (experienced inretrospect, once the notated metre is established) with tonal instability (the

Ex. 3 Hypermetric pulses in Schumanns Intermezzo

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chords are in second inversion). The bass anchors both metre and harmonywith its downbeat As, beginning in bar 2. The bass then drops out in bar 6,while the syncopated chords take flight in the second strophe. The displacedquaver pulse (2+1) emerges unchallenged over bars 89 in the piano just asthe dominant becomes established as the secondary key area for the song. Wehave already observed a correlation between dominant harmony and displacedquaver motion in Schuberts Wandrers Nachtlied II. Here, however, both ofthe non-tonic phenomena are more firmly entrenched, making at least partialor temporary claims for tonic status. It is especially notable that the pulsatingchords refuse to resolve their metric displacement on the downbeat of bar 10,a beat that participates in the 2-bar, 4-bar and 8-bar hypermetric pulses. Thepulsating chords undermine the notated metre (that is, the singers metre) atall levels, sustaining forward motion into the second strophe.

In fact, the pulsating chords in the second strophe establish their own displacedmetric field with an entire set of displaced pulses. It is because of this that theyare able to create the effect of flight: at a basic level, the chords establish adisplaced quaver pulse, 2+1 (the semiquaver unit remaining throughout thisanalysis). The piano chords also change harmonies and registers in time witha displaced crochet pulse, 4+1, and a displaced minim pulse, 8+1. I haveannotated bars 1213 of the score to show how the piano articulates a D majorIVV I progression (with a 43 suspension on the tonic) displaced by onesemiquaver relative to the primary metre. Ex. 4 represents the primary metrein graphic form together with each of the three displaced pulses: 2+1, 4+1 and8+1. These displaced pulses align to create an independent metric hierarchy, afeature which may be referred to as hierarchically aligned displacements.38

The ascent of the vocal line and accompanying piano chords throughout thesecond stanza culminates in a further displacement at its apex. In bars 14 and16 both voice and piano successively leap to f C2, the piano continuing to climba further step to gC2 at bar 15. The pianos three successive apexes in bars 1416 respectively f C3, gC3 and f C3 (circled in the score) now proceed to generatean 8+4 pulse in relation to the previously established 8+1, and a further 8+5

Ex. 4 2+1, 4+1 and 8+1 (hierarchically aligned displacements)

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in relation to the minim pulse of the notated metre. The feeling of distance (aswell as motion into the distance) is thereby amplified as the melodic line attainsits peak. Schumanns old beautiful song truly soar[s] into the air. This is theapex of an energetic wave; from here on the poet returns to the image within,and the syncopations become grounded. The return of the bass at the beginningof the third strophe (bar 18) restabilises the metre, thereby providing metricand harmonic support for the singer. It also establishes an anchor againstwhich the pulsating chords can pull. In this sense, the bass enacts the groundingeffect of the image that the poet holds in his heart. The restoration of metricstability coincides with a return to the self in other words, to the image heldwithin.

These metric displacements resolve so as to prepare the structural cadenceat the end of the third strophe (bars 2325). Nevertheless, the resolution is farfrom simple. First, Schumann introduces a higher-level displacement. Theright-hand counter-melody plays a syncopated crochet pulse, 4+2, from thelast quaver of bar 20 to bar 23. (The first strophes counter-melody hadintroduced occasional displacements such as the CCs in bars 56 and the FC inbars 67. But it does not sustain these displacements into an independentmetric layer until the third strophe.) Accordingly, the structural cadence isprepared via the interaction of four layers (Ex. 5).

Three patterns are projected in bars 22: singer and piano bass line give thenotated metre; the pulsating chords play 2+1; the counter melody unfolds 4+2.Then, in bar 23, the pulsating chords resolve their 2+1 pulse onto the counter-melodys 4+2, including the singer in their syncopation. All four streamsconverge with the dominant harmony on the downbeat of bar 24. Schumanncreates a sense of relaxation by introducing the slower syncopation, 4+2, at theend of the third strophe. 4+2 works together with the locally tonicised subdominant

Ex. 5 Interaction of displaced layers in Schumanns Intermezzo

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to prepare the cadence. The displaced crochets of the right hand in bar 22participate in a voice exchange with the bass, thereby prolonging the subdominant.

The 2+1 and 4+2 pulses do not reinforce each other metrically: 2+1 displacesthe primary quaver pulse, while 4+2 confirms the primary quaver pulse anddisplaces the primary crochet pulse. Thus the two displacements neithergenerate an independent hierarchy nor significantly disrupt the primary metre.We may refer to them as rhythmically complementary displacements.39 Ex. 6presents a graphic representation of the primary metre overlaid with the twosyncopation schemes, 2+1 and 4+2. The beats of the two syncopated pulses fillout the texture, almost saturating the lowest-level pulse. Only the downbeats that is, the beats of the primary crochet pulse are empty.

The piano and singer simultaneously project multiple levels of the consonantmetric hierarchy at the end of the third strophe. The consonant metric hierarchysuggests the cyclical quality of time with its sense of eternal recurrence. Thus,by resolving all the metric displacements at the end of the third strophe, theline jeder, jeder Stund (every, every hour) seems to enact its ideal as ahealing reality. With the ritardando and repetition of jeder, jeder in bar 24,time appears to stand still, and Schumanns poet gives himself over to thefantasy of a fulfilling communion with the image that lies within.

As previously observed, the beginning of the postlude overlaps with thestructural cadence in bar 25. The piano sings alone, while the song reaches outonce more towards the distant beloved. Schumann inverts the originaldescending figure, which now ascends briskly to cC3, the same pitch that thecounter melody had reached for with the crochet syncopations in bars 5 and21. Metric displacements in the postlude symbolise both the distance betweenthe poet and his beloved, and a continuing desire to bridge that distance.Schumann resumes the displaced quaver pulse 2+1 in bars 2527, while thedisplaced crochet pulse 4+2 returns in bar 28. Bars 2829 contain no eventsto confirm the notated metres crochet pulse. If we hear the crochet pulse frombars 2527 as continuing into bars 2829, then the first two chords (vii7 andV7) are displacements; in this regard, the descent from FC to GC in bars 2829

Ex. 6 2+1 and 4+2 (rhythmically complementary displacements)

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could be interpreted as an echo of the pianos earlier syncopated FC to GCdescent (bars 2223). It becomes difficult, however, to hear the tonic arrival,on the second quaver of bar 29, as a syncopated event. (The amount ofritardando taken by performers in these final bars will affect our metricexperience.) The syncopation dissolves before fully resolving, reminding thelistener of the poets longings.40

Intermezzo is a quintessential example of syncopation and longing inSchumanns songs. There are other of his songs, however, which combine thetwo, and they do so in a variety of ways. Im wunderschnen Monat Maiexpresses longing by combining the pianos delayed doubling with a rising line,much as in Intermezzo. Metrical displacements in Im Rhein (from the samesong cycle) correspond with processes of interiorisation and the expression ofdesire.41 The songs opening bass octaves depict the cathedrals general air ofmonumentality, as well as the buildings reflection in the powerful Rhine. Thetone then softens as the poet moves into the cathedral, and describes thepicture that has shone into his life (in meines Lebens Wildness hats freundlichhinein gestrahlt). The interlude initiates displacements of semibreve and brevepulses; these displacements continue with a rising line as the poet notices thatthe Madonnas eyes, lips and cheeks resemble those of his beloved. This com-parison inflects both terms: the holy image becomes corporeal just as thebeloved is made to seem holy and pure. Nevertheless, the visual resemblancealso suggests a sensual recollection in the fourth song the poet looks into hisloves eyes, kisses her mouth and leans upon her bosom.

The syncopations of Intermezzo participate in a network of associationswith displacement dissonances in two other songs from the Eichendorff Liederkreis.In the first song, In der Fremde, accented pitches double the vocal line onbeats two and four. This delayed doubling generates a 2+1 layer (unit =crotchet). The right hand features expressive BFC leaps in bars 1011, withthe text wie bald, ach wie bald kommt die stille Zeit (how soon, oh how soonwill the time of quiet come). The repeated ascent to FC hints at a displacedsemibreve pulse 4+2 (unit = quaver), with a remarkable fusion of displacement,upward reach and longing. As previously observed, this motive is then echoedby Intermezzo through an analogous higher-level displacement (bars 3 and19).42 Krebss notation nicely illustrates the metric analogy. Both songs featurea pervasive 2+1 layer, and a brief 4+2 layer initiated by the BFC motive (theunit being a crochet in In der Fremde and a semiquaver in Intermezzo). Thesingers two ascents to FC in the middle strophe of Intermezzo echo the earliersongs BFC motive; as before, the FCs hint at a higher-level displacement (8+4,unit = semiquaver). This technique of delayed doubling continues virtuallythroughout the entire song. A salient moment occurs with the repetition daruhe ich, when the piano doubles the voice directly, suggesting that the pro-tagonist is imagining a unified self in a state of rest. The line EDCCBAC,setting auch, da ruhe ich auch, then returns at the beginning of Intermezzo,underscored by pulsating syncopations.

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Wehmuth (Sadness), the ninth song, has a richly textured accompaniment,with the piano doubling the vocal line, often in octaves. Syncopations in thetenor voice of the accompaniment are mostly hidden, since its pitches eithercoincide with upbeat figures or are subsumed within arpeggiated harmonies.An independent syncopated tenor does manage to emerge at one significantmoment, however, with the phrase der Sehnsucht Lied erschallen (soundforth the song of longing). This syncopated line would seem to represent, orat least contribute to, the song of longing (Sehnsucht Lied) sung by thepoems nightingales. The syncopations recall those of the altes schnes Liedin Intermezzo, and the tenor moves from E to FC and eventually up to B,replicating the pitches of Mein Herz still in sich singet. The syncopations inWehmut, however, are buried in an inner voice, and the nightingales sing theirsong of longing aus ihres Kerkers Gruft (from their imprisoning cage). Thispoem actually reflects directly back on Intermezzo, inverting its affectivemessage. Da lauschen alle Herzen, und Alles ist erfreut (all hearts listen, andall are gladdened), sings the poet in the last stanza of Wehmut, doch Keinerfhlt die Schmerzen, im Lied das tiefe Leid (yet no one feels the pain anddeep grief in the song).

Adorno identifies the suspension of ego in both Eichendorff s works andSchumanns music as a form of generosity: The ego no longer becomes callousand entrenched within itself. It wants to make amends for some of the primordialinjustice of being ego at all.43 For Schumann, this generosity led to transcend-ence and madness. (Zwielicht, from the Eichendorff Liederkreis, affords anexample of the latter.) What Adorno terms generosity is born, however, froma kind of optimism which was no longer prevalent in the latter half of thenineteenth century.44 Pursuing this line, I would now like to explore the meansby which Brahms infuses the Sehnsucht of his songs with despair, and howdisplacement dissonances create the haze of a Brahms fog (Brahmsnebel),which the protagonist can only penetrate through longing.45

Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer (Lingg/Brahms)

The protagonist in Brahmss Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, the secondof the five Songs, Op. 105, is a dying woman. Sorrow trembles over her likea veil through which she reaches for a final glimpse of her beloved. Indeed,Brahms uses syncopations in this setting precisely in order to obscure anddisorientate. At the end of the song, syncopations combine with a dramaticallyrising line to stage a desperate plea a form of longing that seeks to escapefrom futility only to fall backwards back again. Romantic Sehnsucht, accordingto Sybille Reichert, often features the succession of moments of the subjectsattempted escapes, of rise and expansion, of evocations of infinity, on the onehand, with inevitable moments of recoil and resignation, and the subjectspainfully heightened awareness of his or her finitude, on the other.46 Brahmsssong presents exactly such a succession of moments.

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Longing for Brahms looks back as much as forward. The melancholic aspectof his personality is beautifully illustrated in a letter sent to his friend, VincenzLachner. The composer writes that I would have to confess that I am, by theby, a severely melancholic person, that black wings are constantly flappingabove us.47 However pertinent this statement may be to Immer leiser wirdmein Schlummer, it certainly suggests that the songs longing is a feature ofBrahmss world view as well. It is also, as Reinhold Brinkmann has proposed,a feature of the age:

Brahmss plural (that black wings are constantly flapping above us) confirmsthe rightness of Ernst Blochs historical perspective of melancholy as the secretkeyword of the age . . . . Melancholy as depression, as a pessimistic and deep-seated feeling of inadequacy and failure, is a negative condition and experienceof the nineteenth century. Brahmss confession about the black wings that areconstantly flapping above us belongs to this late period in history.48

The poem Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer was written was by HermannLingg and published in his Gedichte of 1857. The first stanza describes thecourse of longing experienced in a dream an outward movement towards thesound of the beloveds voice, followed by recoil and resignation (as Reichertput it) as the woman awakes and weeps. The poems second stanza splintersthe hazy dream-longings of the first stanza into morbid realism (lines 13), anda phantasmatic wish that the beloved will return once more (lines 67). Inbetween, lines 45 indicate that death is imminent; indeed, that it will precedevernal awakenings.

1. Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, Ever softer grows my slumber,2. Nur wie Schleier liegt mein Kummer Only like a veil lies my sorrow3. Zitternd ber mir. Trembling over me.4. Oft im Traume hr ich dich In my dreams I often hear you5. Rufen drau vor meiner Tr, Calling outside my door,6. Niemand wacht und ffnet dir, No one wakes and lets you in,7. Ich erwach und weine bitterlich. I awake and weep bitterly.

1. Ja, ich werde sterben mssen, Yes, I shall have to die,2. Eine Andre wirst du kssen, You will kiss another,3. Wenn ich bleich und kalt. When I am pale and cold.4. Eh die Maienlfte wehn, Ere the May breezes blow,5. Eh die Drossel singt im Wald: Ere the thrush sings in the wood:6. Willst du mich noch einmal sehn, Will you see me yet once more,7. Komm, o komme bald! Come, oh come soon!49

Brahms sets the poem in a modified strophic form. Both strophes divide intothree parts: a tonally closed section in CC minor, setting lines 13 of eachstanza; a modulation to the relative major, setting lines 45; and a tonallyunstable section, setting lines 67 (Ex. 7). Just prior to this passage, the song

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moves into the relative major, E, as the protagonist remembers her dreams andthe beloveds call from outside her door. Brahms treats Niemand wacht undffnet dir (No one wakes and lets you in) in halting declamation, with abruptshifts from E major to G major and D major to F major: two chromatic

Ex. 7 Brahms, Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, from Five Songs, Op. 105

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mediants, or PR transformations, in neo-Riemannian terms. The chromaticshifts seem to perform the malleability and unreality of the dream state. At thesame time, crochet syncopations in the piano create a metric haze. Syncopationsemerge in the right hand from the last quaver of bar 14, and they continuethrough to bar 22. They ride over the semibreve pulse (that is, the bar-linepulse) directly, with no events falling on the downbeat of bar 15. In fact, thesyncopation can initially be heard as an anticipation at three levels: 21, 41and 81 (unit = quaver throughout the analysis): this is another example of ahierarchically aligned displacement. There is a partial metric re-orientation assinger and piano left hand articulate the downbeats of bars 16 and 18. Evenhere, however, the bass note is relatively weak, being the unstable fifth of eachharmony; likewise, the rising arpeggios end with chordal fifths on the lastquaver of bars 16 and 18. The syncopations continue, with the primary metrearticulated only at the downbeats of bars 18 and 20.50 In this way, the synco-pations help stage a hazy dream state. They emerge not with the first mentionof the beloved in lines 45, but with a longing that is already inflected byimpossibility.

How does Brahms respond to the despairing awakening of line 7 (icherwach und weine bitterlich)? The cadential on ich er-wach marks a returnto E (now E minor) and a break in the descending whole-tone sequence (E/Gin bars 1416, D/F in bars 1718 and C in bar 19). The tonal re-orientation,in other words, coincides with a return to bleak reality. Similarly, the syncopationscontinue in bars 2022, but now supported by more consistent articulationsof the primary bar line and minim pulses. The syncopations in fact emerge inbar 20 as delays (2+1; unit = quaver) rather than anticipations, as the singerawakes and ceases to anticipate a meeting with her beloved. The syncopationsthen shift up a level in the metric hierarchy: minim syncopations (4+2) replacethe quaver syncopations (2+1) in bar 23. (This shift, together with the elongated3/2 bars, constitutes one of the many instances where Brahms embeds temposhifts in the notation of rhythm and metre.51) CC minor, the key of the opening,returns with the repetition of weine bitterlich in bars 2223, and the CC minorcadence in bar 24 initiates the second strophe. The words of the opening,Immer leiser wird mein schlummer, seem to hover over the melody in bars2426, and the singer responds, Ja ich werde sterben mssen. In sum,waves of anticipatory dreaming give way to the recoil of bitter awakening inthe first strophe. Brahms renders Sehnsucht with deep pessimism; he expressesit against a backdrop of overriding futility. The latter part of strophe 2 (bars4153) recalls the waves of metric suspense and release in the first strophe(Ex. 8).

Syncopations sound by themselves in the right hand in bars 42, 44 and 46(once again riding over the bar lines), and the bass returns to ground the metrein bars 43, 45 and 47. Here, however, the alternation of metric suspense withrelease coincides with a rising minor-thirds sequence: E major (bars 4142),G major (bars 4344), Bw major (bars 4546) and Dw major (bars 4753).52

64

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Singer and piano right hand reach up together through a diminished seventh,gC1b1d2f2, with the f2 of bar 47 marking the songs registral climax.53 Theright-hand syncopations thus provide the energetic stimulus for the rise andexpansion of the songs second gesture of longing. With each successive waveof metric suspense and release, piano and singer climb to new registral heights,and new levels of intensity. A final burst of energy is reserved for the cry,komm, o komme bald! in bars 4648. The right hand temporarily resolves itssyncopations and strikes an augmented triad on the fourth beat of bar 46,accompanying the singers o, thus adding yet another degree of intensity andpain to the expression of Sehnsucht.

The singers o is a pressing call to the other. But it is also the womansmoment of exhaustion. Following the climax of bar 47, the song undergoes a

Ex. 8 Brahms, Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, bars 4153

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gradual descent and a loss of life energy.54 Brahms approaches the finalcadence by layering displacements at three levels of the metric hierarchy: theright hand continues its crochet syncopations (2+1); the singer has a minimsyncopation in bar 49 (4+2); and the left hand plays a semibreve syncopationin bars 4849 (8+4).55 (We should recall that in Schumanns Intermezzo,the final vocal cadence is prepared through the superposition of rhythmicallycomplementary displacement dissonances at two levels. In this respect, Brahmstakes Schumanns technique one step further.) The empty downbeat of bar49 marks a salient moment in this superposition of displacements; each of thevoices right hand, singer and left hand enters in turn after this point.Moreover, while sustaining the tension of a dominant ninth harmony, thisdownbeat also initiates the singers weakened repetition of her plea, komm, okomme bald! Displacements return in the final bars of Brahmss song, butmore as echoes than as new disturbances.

Hence the protagonist performs her second gesture of longing with a rise, aburst of energy, and an appeal to transcendence, after which she fades awayinto herself. The effect aptly evokes Reicherts notion of a painfully heightenedawareness of finitude. The protagonist is aware of her imminent death; it willoccur, as she says, ere the May breezes blow, ere the thrush sings in the wood.She emerges from and returns to this awareness as she gives voice to her finalplea.

Metric disturbances are common in Brahmss music. Since they seem to bea matter of style, one may balk at according them too much significance.Nevertheless, the way they emerge in individual songs in relation to form,harmony, line, motive and text does suggest possibilities for interpretation. Themetric haze in the first strophe of Immer leiser, created by syncopations ridingover the bar-line pulse, arguably evokes the blurred perception of the sickly,dreaming protagonist. It is through this blurred perception this veil ofsorrow that longing must penetrate. Displacement dissonances also correspondwith a sense of blurred perception in the final strophe of Wie Melodien ziehtes mir, the song immediately preceding Immer leiser in the Op. 105 set. WieMelodien zieht es mir is composed in modified strophic form. Syncopationsemerge in all three strophes before the repetition of the last line. The graduallydescending syncopations produce a hovering effect, which responds most closelyto the line und schwebt wie Duft dahin (and wafts away like a fragrance).In the final strophe, however, the piano introduces the displaced pulse earlier.The second and fourth crochets of bars 3435 (den mild aus stillem Keimeein feuchtes Auge ruft) are marked by bass agogic accents and right-handregistral accents, the metric blurring corresponding with the blurred perceptionof the moist eye (feuchtes Auge). The moist eye, an instrument of empatheticunderstanding, calls forth hidden essences in this poem. As in Immer leiser,the protagonist reaches through perceptual blurring to that which lies beyond.56

The association of syncopation with a dramatically rising line is also evidentin Brahmss earlier Dmmrung senkte sich von oben, the first song from the

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Op. 59 set, where they combine as an ecstatic gesture of hope. Dusk anddarkness in Goethes poem symbolise perceptual and emotional crisis (Allesschwanket ins Ungewisse All wavers in uncertainty). The first stanza endswith an image of black-deepened darkness (Schwarzvertiefte Finsternisse).The second stanza then begins with new light: Nun am stlichen Bereich/Ahnich Mondenglanz und -glut (Now in the eastern region I sense the shine andglow of the moon).57 Brahms sets this pair of lines with an octave ascentin the voice and syncopations in the right hand.58 The ecstatic quality of thisgesture flows from the way it drives upwards to its resolution. The vocal lineascends from ew1 to bw1 in four bars and then from aw1 to ew2 in two bars. Ahemiola in these last two bars (for Mondenglanz und Glut) contributes to thesense of acceleration, while the basss two-octave descent opens up a vastregistral expansion. Pulsating syncopations reach up and over the top, contin-uing through the entire second stanza. Perhaps just such a gesture is requiredto overcome darkness and melancholy in the age of Brahms.

Unterm Schutz (George/Schoenberg)

Brahmsian melancholy and post-1848 disillusion give way to decadence in thefin-de-sicle world of Stefan George and Arnold Schoenberg. Here Sehnsucht isrefracted into suppressed desire and eruptive passion. The rise and expansionof longing turns into sudden seismic release. Syncopations create tension, likethe tension of suppressed desire, and they resolve as the vocal line leapsupward. Indeed, syncopations are pervasive throughout Schoenbergs songsettings so much so, that at times there seems to be no metre left. The firstsong of his Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15, is Unterm Schutz (Ex. 9).Considering the songs opening, Carl Schorske argues that [The opening]motif, four times restated before the voice enters, is freed of formal order intime; it expands and contracts like breathing. Rhythm crosses the bar line,ignores the meter a free pattern of quarter notes first four, then two, thenfive, before they sweep upward and subside again.59 Syncopations thus createan effect of temporal suspension (Schweben), which matches the schwebendeTonalitt (suspended tonality) that Schoenberg himself heard in Wagner andMahler, as well as in some of his own songs.60 Because the music lacks clearmetric hierarchies, John Roeder has analysed Schoenbergs atonal works interms of interacting pulse streams, none of which assumes metric priority.61

On the other hand, the effect of temporal hovering may depend on hints of aregular metre, which can then be denied. Charles Morrison has shown thatsyncopations working against a regular metric frame emerge as motives in threeof Schoenbergs Op. 19 piano pieces.62 Similarly, syncopations create tensionin Unterm Schutz by working against implied pulses. In short, the listener isnot obliged to hear a regular metre in this song (there is certainly no singlemetric frame). Rather, by feeling syncopated events as syncopations it is possibleto discern an energetic process that stages critical features of the text.

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1. Unterm schutz von dichten blttergrnden Under the shade of dense groundleaves2. Wo von sternen feine flocken schneien Where fine flakes snow from the stars3. Sachte stimmen ihre leiden knden Soft voices announce their pains4. Fabeltiere aus den braunen schlnden Fabled beasts, from their brown gullets

Ex. 9 Schoenberg, Unterm Schutz, Op. 15 No. 1

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5. Strahlen in die marmorbecken speien Spout jets into the marble basins6. Draus die kleinen bche klagend eilen: From them small streams rush, complaining:7. Kamen kerzen das gestruch entznden Candles came, setting the foliage ablaze8. Weisse formen das gewsser teilen. White forms parse the water.63

Ex. 9 Continued

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The Op. 15 cycle relates a tale of sexual awakening and disillusion. In the firstpoem, Unterm Schutz, the garden itself mirrors the inner world of the stillundefined subject.64 There are soft voices that tell of their pains (line 3); fabledbeasts with brown throats presumably gargoyles spout jets into marblefountains (line 4); and the water itself complains, like the soft voices, as itrushes about in small streams (line 6). The scene recounted in the first six linestakes place in a leisurely flowing present. A colon at the end of the sixth line the only internal punctuation in Georges poem sets up the central event:Kamen kerzen das gestruch entznden (Candles came, setting the foliageablaze), which surely represents a moment of sexual awakening, forecastingthe events of songs 211.65 This is the moment when undefined complaints,analogues of the indefinite longings of the earlier Romantics, turn into desireor are set ablaze. Also notable is the shift from the matrix of water andvocality to that of light and fire.66 Just as the soft voices of line 3 representvocality without shape, the white forms of line 8 represent shape withoutvocality. Likewise, the brown throats in line 4 suggest dark interiority, and thewhite forms in line 8 depict bright exteriority. Finally, hearing hitherto theprevailing faculty yields to vision in the final line, so as to disrupt the flow ofvoice and water: Weisse formen das gewsser teilen (White forms parse thewater).67

How does Schoenberg respond to this text? A useful starting-point is themusic for kamen Kerzen das Gestruch entznden (bars 1718). In bar 17,the singer makes a sudden leap to a syncopated e2, eighteen semitones aboveher previous bw and a perfect fourth above her previous registral limit (the b1of bar 13). She then resolves the e2 syncopation with a further rise to gC2. Inits extremity the gesture effects a literal representation of setting ablaze. Andit is significant that the moment is preceded by a steady loss of energy. I haveannotated the vocal line in bars 1316 with asterisks to mark the structuraldescent, b1a1fC1e1dw1, which is followed by a further descent to bw, thevoices lowest pitch in the song.68 The vocal contour becomes broader through-out bars 1416: the fC1 on the second crochet of bar 14 continues into the thirdbeat of the bar before spilling over into a series of semiquavers; the e1 on thesecond crochet of bar 15 is followed by five quavers; and the dw1 on the secondcrochet of bar 16 is succeeded by only three quavers. The leap up to kamenKerzen thus emerges as a sudden breakthrough.

This leap, though startling and extreme, is not unprepared. The FCDFEprogression in the piano introduction escapes both its register and its centripetaltendencies with a leap up to gC. This gesture foreshadows kamen Kerzen bysimilarly resolving a syncopation with motion from E to GC. A key difference,however, is that the opening gestures E follows on from a series of syncopatedcrochets (2+1, unit = quaver). Since Unterm Schutz opens with a displacedlayer sounding by itself, a listener without a score hearing the song for the firsttime would perceive only the sounding crochet pulse. Conversely, those with ascore, or who know the song, might infer the missing pulse. The displaced

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pitches FC, D, F and E will then be heard to accrue potential energy, like thetension within a compressed spring. This energy would then be discharged asthe syncopations resolve, propelling the line from E to gC, with an extra lift fromthe immediately preceding FC.69 The rise from e2 to gC2 at kamen Kerzen (bar17) thus recalls the opening gesture, and partakes of its tension and release.The minor third descent from GC to EC on the word Ker-zen seems to correctthe semitone descent from GC to G at the end of the opening gesture, while atthe same time recalling the minor third at the end of the second gesture (CC toAC) in bars 34. A GC/EC oscillation in the piano then reverberates from bar 17through to the end of the song.

Ex. 10a Schoenberg, Unterm Schutz, bars 12

Ex. 10b Schoenberg, Unterm Schutz, bars 612

Ex. 10c Schoenberg, Unterm Schutz, bars 1416

Ex. 10d Schoenberg, Unterm Schutz, bars 1718

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The opening gesture (Ex. 10a) and the kamen Kerzen moment (Ex. 10d)are mediated by elements of bars 612 (Ex. 10b) and bars 1416 (Ex. 10c).In bar 6 the piano brings back the FCDF figure in minims, doubled now inoctaves. In other words, the opening gesture returns, but rhythmically augmentedand metrically aligned. It consequently loses its metric dynamism as well as itsability to function as a motivating force. The figure can thus no longer reachup to the GC: the music creates a prolonged moment of stillness expressing thetexts Unterm Schutz von dichten Blttergrnden. Meanwhile, E, the fourthnote of the opening gesture, is echoed by the octave Es of bars 89 (pianoleft-hand pedal e; right-hand e1s). The singer then syncopates the e at bar 11on sach-te, thereby re-energising the opening figure, and directing it uptowards the gC1 (renotated here as Aw). The e1/gC1 leap at bar 11 (Ex. 10b)mediates registrally between the E/gC of the opening and the e2/gC2 of kamenKerzen. The resolution of this GC (Aw) affords yet another link: by descendingto G, it recalls the opening gesture; by continuing down to F on ihre andknden, it anticipates the minor third descent of Kerzen at bar 17.

Thus Schoenberg lets the soft voices announce their pains by returningto and re-energising the opening figure. This figure becomes a recurring, evenobsessive, thought: we hear it in the opening; it is buried in the bass (from bar6) depleted of metric energy; and it re-emerges with the syncopated statementof sachte (bars 1112) in the middle register, as vocalised pain. This paincontinues to be vocalised in the repetitions of the opening motive at bars 1416. The process turns on Schoenbergs analogy of vocality with water. Thuswhen vocality returns in lines 46 of the poem, it is linked to the imagery ofjets of water spouting from the gargoyles throats, and of rushing, complainingstreams. Furthermore, Schoenbergs word-painting informs his motivic trans-formations of the opening figure into arch shapes evocative of the poemswater jets. Thus we hear the first five notes of this motive (significantly omittingthe GC) in their original ordering, followed by the first four notes transposeddown by two and four semitones (Ex. 10c). Mar-mor-be-cken at the end ofbar 14 transposes the permutated pitches of the opening gesture up a semitone.Its arching contour encapsulates transpositions unfolded across the entirepassage (bars 1416): {D, E, F, FC} transposed up a half step to {Ew, F, FC, G}, downa minor third to {C, D, Ew, E}, and down a whole step to {Bw, C, Dw, D}. Asbefore, the opening gesture is de-energised, after which the singer re-energisesand completes the gesture by syncopating the E and leading it up to GC (bar 17).

A peculiarity of the song is that the gesture recollected in bars 1416 doesnot actually indicate any need for completion. The breakthrough (Durchbruch)leaps up to e2 and gC2 in bar 17 mark the moment when vocality and water arereplaced by light, fire and form. Ironically, it is the extreme vocality of theseleaps which represents the emergence of light and fire in the songs performance.The moment is also peculiar on a metrical level, since the syncopation on ka-men(bar 17) seems to bear no relation to the immediately preceding rhythms. Infact, it arrives at the precise point to disrupt an established semibreve pulse.

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The vocal line has agogic accents on the second beats of bars 1416, whichgenerate the displaced semibreve pulse 8+2, unit = quaver (or 4+1, unit =crotchet). The syncopation rides over this displaced semibreve pulse, pushingthe agogic accent forwards to the third beat of bar 17.

In Schoenbergs setting of the poems final line (including the pianopostlude), the image of flickering candles is well expressed by the reverberationsof the GC/EC in octaves (piano right hand, bars 1819). This continues toproject the displaced crochet pulse (2+1, unit = quaver), with Arabic numeral2s in the score indicating the events that contribute to this layer.70 At bar 19the six-note figure which opened the song recurs in the left hand. Although thisfigure is syncopated, as before, Schoenberg institutes a crucial difference: itnow sounds against the primary quaver and crochet pulses projected by thesinger (Formen das Gewsser tei-(len)). By subdividing the left-hand syncopa-tions, the singer enacts what the text describes: an abnormal division Teilen of something (water, opening gesture) that should otherwise flow freely.

The word teilen signals a separation and splitting, but it may also indicatean ordering an interpretation which relates to a theme of Georges poeticcycle as a whole.71 There is a tension, as Schorske puts it, between the sociallyordered nature of the garden and the eruptive passion of an initiate to love.72

As we have seen, Schoenberg stages eruptive passion through the openinggestures metric tension and sudden release. The ordered quaver and crochetpulses of Formen das Gewsser tei-(len) seem to oppose the energy of thisgesture, and the opposition continues through the moment of release, thoughthe roles are reversed: gC arrives in bar 20 on the third crochet beat, and thefinal syllable of tei-len is delayed until the weak quaver.

Displacement dissonances are also apparent at other metric levels from bar17 to the end of the song. The singer generates a displaced semibreve pulse(8+4, unit = quaver) with the accented syllables Kerzen, entznden andFormen at bars 1719 (see Arabic numeral 8s). The most significant result ofthe (rhythmically complementary) superposition of 8+4 and 2+1 is an absenceof events on the downbeats of bars 18 and 19. Here the singer engages theintermediary minim syncopation, 4+2, with her final word, teilen. The pianothen picks up 4+2 in bars 2123 (see Arabic numeral 4s), and the songs finaltwo chords chime respectively with the 8+4 and 4+2 displacements. Bothmetre and tonality remain suspended. Desire a fin-de-sicle analogue ofRomantic longing is left hanging, ready to erupt again as the song cyclecontinues.

This specific configuration of pitch motive, syncopation, contour andrepressed/eruptive desire is unique to Unterm Schutz. Nevertheless, metricdisplacement dissonances continue to interact in significant ways with contourand motive in subsequent songs from the Op. 15 cycle, thereby tracing thedynamics of desire. The cycles second poem, for instance, describes the intricatebeauties of the garden-paradise. A subject emerges only in the last line, and incontrast to all the gardens enticements, his dream follows only one (mein

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traum verfolgt nur eines). Schoenbergs setting is restrained, as though thesubject, standing outside of the garden, has yet to experience the full force ofdesire. The songs vocal line proceeds to circle within a restricted registralrange; for example, its opening slow recitative (setting the first full sentence oftext) first descends from f1 to a, then gradually rises to g1, before continuingto b1, the songs apex. In the third song, the subject (a novice) describes hisawkward entrance into the beloveds enclosed space, and declares: KeinStaunen war vorher in meinen Mienen / Kein Wunsch in mir eh ich dich blickterege (there was no astonishment before in my face / no stirring desire in mebefore I saw you). Now there is desire, and syncopations in the setting of thethird line lead up to the first properly achieved climax in the cycle (bar 7). Toachieve this climax, the piano must overcome its stalled DEw progression; Dmoves to Ew and remains there in the right hand on beats three and four of bars1, 2 and 3. The piano then succeeds in raising Ew (as DC) to E in bar 4, againin bar 5, climaxing with the E, EC and G of bars 67. The overall progressionfrom D to G fills in and energises the questioning DG ascent from the endof song two. The youth would escape, ashamed, in the fourth song, but he findshis gaze returned. A glance (der Blick) from the other seems to seek him out,to question him, to afford him a sign of hope. The song lacks a notated timesignature, although it includes an extended section in 5/8 beginning in bar 11which leads into the climax at vor dem ich ohne Lass gekniet. Withinthis section, the left hands agogic accents on the notated downbeats soundagainst the right hand and vocal lines agogic accents on the fourth quaver ofeach bar. In other words, the passage is driven up towards its climax by a Ddissonance.

Approaching Schoenbergs cycle in terms of this link between syncopationand desire affords a fresh perspective on David Lewins celebrated analyses ofsongs 5 and 7.73 The affective disorder which Lewin discovers in the seventhsong arguably originates in tempestuous longing (ungestmes Sehnen). AsLewin puts it, the song works itself out dynamically into total exhaustion,reflecting the words of Georges text, which trail off in sighing. In this respect,longing is no longer capable of reaching outwards; it collapses into an Angstund Hoffen (anguish and hope) which the poet must suffer in solitude.

Schoenberg employs, in an extreme form, a principle known to song composerssince Schubert. This article has shown how displacement dissonances havebeen variously used in the nineteenth-century Lied tradition as an expressivevehicle of Sehnsucht. Whether Unterm Schutz marks the end of that tradition,or merely its continuation, is a matter for future research. It would be interestingto explore the association of displacement dissonance and Sehnsucht in latermusic, as well as in instrumental genres, where it arguably features even morewidely. We have seen that metrical effects can mediate between the technicaland aesthetic aspects of musical material. Indeed, metric displacement dis-sonances perform the longing of the musical and poetic subjects, as they reachoutward to the infinite and the beyond.

53

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NOTES

The author would like to thank Richard Cohn, Berthold Hoeckner and HaraldKrebs for their comments on earlier versions of this article. Examples 1 and 9are reprinted with permission from the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (Brenreiter) andArnold Schnberg: Smtliche Werke ( 1914 by Universal Edition A.G., Wien/UE5338), respectively.

1. The term dissonance applies to metre by analogy with pitch. Metric dissonancesare essentially forms of metric conflict. For discussions of the consonance/dissonance metaphor and other analogies between pitch and rhythm, see RichardCohn, Metric and Hypermetric Dissonance in the Menuetto of Mozarts Symphonyin G Minor, K. 550, Intgral, 6 (1992), pp. 133, and Complex Hemiolas, Ski-HillGraphs and Metric Spaces, Music Analysis, 20/iii (2001), pp. 295326; HaraldKrebs, Some Extensions of the Concept of Metrical Consonance and Dissonance,Journal of Music Theory, 31/i (1987), pp. 99120, and Fantasy Pieces: MetricalDissonance in the Music of Robert Schumann (New York: Oxford University Press,1999); and David Lewin, On Harmony and Meter in Brahmss Opus 76 #8,19th-Century Music, 4/iii (1981), pp. 2615.

2. The field is broad. Studies include: Richard Cohn, The Dramatization of Hyper-metric Conflicts in the Scherzo of Beethovens Ninth Symphony, 19th-CenturyMusic, 15/iii (1992), pp. 188206, Metric and Hypermetric Dissonance, andComplex Hemiolas; Walter Frisch, The Shifting Bar Line: Metrical Displacementin Brahms, in George S. Bozarth (ed.), Brahms Studies: Analytical and HistoricalPerspectives (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), pp. 13964; Harald Krebs, Some Exten-sions, and Fantasy Pieces; David Lewin, On Harmony and Meter, and VocalMeter in Schoenbergs Atonal Music, with a Note on Serial Hauptstimme, inStudies in Music with Text (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 34566; John Roeder, Interacting Pulse Streams in Schoenbergs Atonal Polyphony,Music Theory Spectrum, 16/ii (1994), pp. 23149; Carl Schachter, Aspects of Meter,in Unfoldings: Essays in Schenkerian Theory and Analysis, ed. Joseph N. Straus(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 79117; and Keith Waters,Blurring the Barline: Metric Displacement in the Piano Solos of Herbie Hancock,Annual Review of Jazz Studies, 8 (1996), pp. 1937.

3. Notable studies that have explored the hermeneutics of metric dissonance includean analysis of Brahmss Von ewiger Liebe in Cohn, Complex Hemiolas; AmeliaS. Kaplan, Two vs. Three: A Numerical Dialectic in Wagnerian Rhythmic andHarmonic Discourse (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1998); Harald Krebs,Fantasy Pieces, in particular pp. 15673, and Dramatic Functions of MetricalConsonance and Dissonance in Das Rheingold, In Theory Only, 10/v (1988),pp. 521; Richard Kurth, On the Subject of Schuberts Unfinished Symphony:was bedeutet die Bewegung, 19th-Century Music, 23/i (1999), pp. 332; and DeborahAdams Rohr, Brahmss Metrical Dramas: Rhythm, Text Expression, and Form inthe Solo Lieder (PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1997).

4. Metric displacement or syncopation-type dissonances are defined as interactionsof two or more pulses that have the same periodicity but which are not aligned.Grouping or hemiola-type dissonances, which I shall not explore here, involvetwo or more pulses with different periodicities, for example 3 against 2. The

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terms displacement and grouping dissonance are defined and used extensivelyin Krebs, Fantasy Pieces; they originate in Peter M. Kaminsky, Aspects of Harmony,Rhythm, and Form in Schumanns Papillons, Carnaval and Davidsbndlertnze(PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1989), p. 27. Krebs uses type A and typeB for grouping and displacement dissonances respectively in his earlier paper,Some Extensions. Richard Cohn uses the terms syncopation-type and hemiola-type for these same categories (see Richard Cohn, Introduction to Meter andMetric Dissonance, unpublished paper, 1999). There exists a potential for con-fusion between Krebss metrical displacement dissonance, referring to all situa-tions in which metric layers of the same periodicity conflict, and Walter Frischs(actual) metrical displacement, referring to the specific situation in which weperceive the primary metre (temporarily) as something other than the writtenmetre. Krebs uses the term subliminal dissonance to refer to situations of actualmetrical displacement (see Krebs, Fantasy Pieces, especially pp. 4652).

5. The period of this study extends from 1780, the year in which Goethe is said tohave written Wandrers Nachtlied II, to 1908/09, the years in which Schoenbergwrote the George Lieder, Op. 15. This roughly parallels the long nineteenthcentury of European history as outlined by David Blackbourn: the periodbetween the double revolution of the late eighteenth century (the French Revolutionof 1789, the Industrial Revolution in Britain) and the First World War. See hisThe Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 17801918 (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1998), p. xiii.

6. Victor Zuckerkandl, Sound and Symbol (New York: Pantheon Books, 1956), pp. 1678. Zuckerkandl goes on to specify that since in time there can be no real goingback . . . the process can be better understood and visualised as a wave (p. 168).

7. Frank Samarotto has written: One meaning of metrical dissonance . . . is inherentin the idea of displacement itself that of spatial separation. See his The BodyThat Beats: Review of Harald Krebs, Fantasy Pieces: Metrical Dissonance in theMusic of Robert Schumann, Music Theory Online, 6/iv (2000), n. 6. Samarotto citesthe Stimme aus der Ferne in Schumanns Noveletten, Op. 21 No. 7, and theIntermezzo from his Liederkreis cycle. I discuss the latter in the second sectionof this article.

8. This conflict is discussed in Arnold Feil, Two Analyses, in Walter Frisch (ed.),Schubert: Critical and Analytical Studies (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press,1986), pp. 10425.

9. As both David Ferris and Harald Krebs have observed, the poem was spoken bya female character in Eichendorffs novella Viel Lrmen um nichts. Krebs alsodiscusses the weak-beat accents, and their resolution with the phrase da ruhe ichauch. See Krebs, Fantasy Pieces, p. 163 and David Ferris, Schumanns EichendorffLiederkreis and the Genre of the Romantic Cycle (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 2000), p. 244, n. 9.

10. Krebs, Fantasy Pieces, pp. 15673.

11. Critics have differed on whether balde ruhest du auch expresses a longing fordeath; biographical issues relating to Goethes composition of the poem, and hisreturn to it many years later are implicated in this debate. See L.P. Johnson, Wandrers Nachtlied , German Life and Letters, 36/iii (19823), p. 45, and

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Wulf Segebrecht, Johann Wolfgang Goethes Gedicht ber allen Gipfeln ist Ruh undseine Folgen. Zum Gebrauchswert klassischer Lyrik: Text, Materialien, Kommentar(Munich and Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1978), pp. 6672.

12. See Johnson, Wandrers Nachtlied , p. 35.

13. The translation is adapted from Harry Seelig, The Literary Context: Goethe asSource and Catalyst, in Rufus Hallmark (ed.), German Lieder in the NineteenthCentury (New York: Schirmer Books, 1996), p. 10.

14. Johnson (p. 40) observes that Whereas opening adverbial phrases such as berallen Gipfeln and In allen Wipfeln demand that one should go on and com-plete the sense, they exercise nothing like the syntactical and semantic tug whichexists between a transitive verb and its direct object: In allen Wipfeln/Sprest du Kaum einen Hauch .

15. Despite the texts dactylic rhythms, the word du receives an accent for two mainreasons: firstly because it falls at the end of a line; and secondly because of itsparallelism with Ruh. This accent marks the entrance of the subject into thepoetic discourse.

16. Johnson, Wandrers Nachtlied, p. 48, n. 8.

17. I retain the e in Vgelein following the Ausgabe letzter Hand, and, as Johnsonnotes (p. 35), all subsequent editions which possess any degree of authenticity.Schubert, however, set the word as Vglein, and I shall follow his practice in mydiscussion of the song.

18. Johnson, Wandrers Nachtlied, pp. 423.

19. See Carl Schachter, Aspects of Meter (in particular pp. 8992), for a valuableanalysis of the interaction between irregular groupings and the metre of thenotated 4/4 bar lines in Wandrers Nachtlied II.

20. Schachter, Aspects of Meter.

21. See Schachter, Aspects of Meter, pp. 901, and David Gagn and Allen Cadwal-lader, Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1998), pp. 20714.

22. Susan Youens, Retracing a Winters Journey: Schuberts Winterreise (Ithaca, NY:Cornell University Press, 1991).

23. William Rothstein, Beethoven with and without Kunstgeprng: Metrical AmbiguityReconsidered, in Christopher Reynolds, Lewis Lockwood and James Webster (eds.),Beethoven Forum, 4 (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 16593 (especially p. 106). See also Joseph Kerman, An die ferne Geliebte, in AlanTyson (ed.), Beethoven Studies, 1 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1973), pp. 12357.

24. Joseph Kerman suggests that the last stanza of the first song was Beethovens ownaddition. See his An die ferne Geliebte, pp. 1267.

25. Robert Schumann, Gesammelte Schriften ber Musik und Musiker, 2 vols. (Leipzig:Breitkopf & Hrtel, 1891), II, p. 447; and On Music and Musicians, ed. ConradWolff, trans. Paul Rosenfeld (New York: Pantheon Books, 1946), pp. 2412. Seealso the commentary in Reinhold Brinkmann, Schumann und Eichendorff: Studienzum Liederkreis Opus 39 (Munich: Edition Text + Kritik, 1997), pp. 59.

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26. The translation is adapted from David Ferris, Schumanns Eichendorff Liederkreis,p. 131.

27. Line 123; cited in David E. Wellbery, The Specular Moment: Goethes Early Lyricand the Beginnings of Romanticism (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,1996), p. 207.

28. Wellbery, The Specular Moment, p. 70.

29. Theodor W. Adorno, In Memory of Eichendorff, in Notes to Literature, ed. RolfTiedemann, trans. Shierry Weber Nicholsen (New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 1991), p. 72.

30. Frank Samarotto briefly describes the role of metric displacements in SchumannsIntermezzo: Schumanns setting, an essay in displacement on many levels,features an offbeat accompaniment that portrays both a beating heart and thedistance it longs to bridge. See Samarotto, The Body That Beats , n. 6.

31. The phrase is borrowed from Sybille A.M. Reichert, Unendliche Sehnsucht: TheConcept of Longing in German Romantic Narrative and Song (PhD diss., YaleUniversity, 1994), p. 268.

32. This analysis draws on William Jamess notion of the psychological present asdescribed by Candace Brower: As William James first noted in 1890, we do notexperience the present as a point, but as a span of time, made up of those eventsof the past that are still part of our conscious awareness . . . . The psychologicalpresent is not of fixed duration, like a sliding window through which we viewpassing events. Instead, a continuous stream of information is broken up intoa series of psychological presents. See her Memory and the Perception ofRhythm, Music Theory Spectrum, 15/i (1993), p. 22.

33. Adorno, In Memory of Eichendorff, p. 65.

34. One imagines that Adornos interest in this aspect of Eichendorff may in fact havebeen inspired by Schumanns settings. Adorno also observes that The line Undich mag mich nicht bewahren [And I dont care to preserve myself], whichappears in one of the poems he placed at the head of his collected poems, is infact a prelude to his whole oeuvre. Here he is most intimately akin to Schumann(p. 64, my emphasis added). Adornos essay concludes with a discussion ofSchumanns Eichendorff Liederkreis; Reinhold Brinkmann has noted that bothAdorno and Thomas Mann quote Eichendorff poems using words that Schumannchanged. See Brinkmann, Schumann und Eichendorff, p. 9.

35. It is significant that FC minor is also the key of the cycles immediately precedingsong, In der Fremde, whose protagonist dwells on his or her absolute isolationboth in life and in death. In a sense, the protagonist of Intermezzo attempts tobridge a distance that, in the previous song, appears unbridgeable.

36. Ferris discusses aspects of voice-leading, harmony and rhythm that give thiscadence a feeling of conclusiveness. See his Schumanns Eichendorff Liederkreis,pp. 1389.

37. Krebs uses the expression Dx+y (unit = z), with D representing displacement,to refer to the interaction of two layers (see Krebs, Fantasy Pieces, p. 35). I often findit useful to refer to individual displaced layers. I therefore use x+y to refer to the

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individual layer, and Dx+y to refer the interaction of two layers; x+y will referto a displacement vis--vis the primary metre unless specified otherwise.

38. I identify hierarchically aligned displacements in response to a critique of Krebsstheory by Robert Hatten. Hatten asks whether consistently grouped rhythmiclayers that do not coincide with the notated or primary functioning metre alwaysamount to metrical dissonance. The question is, Hatten writes, whether thedisplaced antimetrical layers . . . possess an internal hierarchy independent of theprevailing metric layer. See Robert S. Hatten, review of Harald Krebs, FantasyPieces, Music Theory Spectrum, 24/ii (2002), pp. 274 and 276. In SchumannsIntermezzo, we find that the syncopated chords do possess precisely such aninternal hierarchy, independent of the prevailing metre.

39. The distinction made between rhythmically complementary and hierarchicallyaligned superpositions parallels Krebss own distinction between dissonances thatare related to each other through augmentation or diminution (for example,D2+1 and D4+2), and layers which have the same displacement index but a differentcardinality (for example, D2+1 and D4+1). See Krebs, Fantasy Pieces, pp. 99100and 1045.

40. See also Ferris, Schumanns Eichendorff Lieder

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