recurring "recurring theme"

[Jerry L Young]

Reply to: recurring "recurring theme" theme

bmeloon and will willis were talking about that recurring "recurring theme"
theme

>: Of course, if you really like recurring themes, and want to see
>: it taken to the extreme, get a copy of Bach's _Art of the Fugue_. There
>: are 14 or so fugues based upon one idea... Most of it is pretty neat,
>: and it's great to study to...
>
> Or Paganini's 24 Caprices, partucularly #24 which is all theme and
>variations. Wicked fun to play on the guitar even if they sound like shit :)

I think there is a difference between something like Art of Fugue and the Pag
Caprice #24 (upon which variations have been based by the likes of Brahms,
Rachmaninoff Lutoslawski, etc), and those many classical pieces where a theme
comes creeping back more or less unannounced (as I am guessing is the case in
Dream Theater, etc). In art of Fugue and any variations (Bach's "Goldberg,"
Beethoven's "Eroica" and "Diabelli", Brahms' "Haydn" and "Handel," Saint
Saens' "Beethoven" ) the possible things the composer can do with a
particular theme are brought to the fore in a series of short, distinct
pieces essentially about the theme itself. But in lots of multiple-mvt
pieces since the 19th century in pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Franck, etc and
on into the 20th century (and in nearly any multi-movement work by Ives), to
a greater or lesser degree the themes are treated more like characters in a
play than as the subject for a series of portraits -- which is really what
you find in variations. When a composer writes variations it's almost as if
you can hear him say "lets see what this melody will sound like in morning
light, dancing, reading a book, wearing a sombrero, in church, running on the
beach, climbing a mountain" Separate portrait studies.

Anyway in these big pieces where the theme comes back from one movement to
the next, the theme sort of takes on an almost dramatic role -- real
explicitly in Berlioz for example (appropriate since the technique is old
news in opera). Let's take the Ives' Concord sonata -- since everybody is
familiar with it ;-) . Ives uses the famous Beethoven fifth theme and throws
it into different contexts relating to four American transcendentalist
writers' philosophies and literary styles. So in the "Alcotts" movement, he
plays with its similarities to a then-familiar hymn (Missionary Chant) and
gives it a sort of quiet, homely, earnest treatement. There is a spot in the
Alcotts where ends a phrase with the four-note figure that we associate with
"Here Comes the Bride" (from Mendelssohn) -- an allusion to the importance of
home and family appropriate for "The Alcotts". A nifty choice because "Here
Comes the Bride" has the same simple melodic profile as the Beethoven Fifth
theme -- only backwards -- Beethoven fifth: high-high-high-low (3-3-3-1)
Bride:low-high-high-high (5-1-1-1) and each theme uses only two notes.
Similar stuff all over theme and variation pieces, but here it all fits into
the larger scale plan of a big sonata. It's a typical Ivesian sort of trick
(hmmm -- I wonder if it says "Sweet Satan, I want a new face").

Anyway the same Beethoven 5th theme (it's simple and so it travels light)
becomes fantastical in "Hawthorne," atmospheric and contemplative in
"Thoreau" and mystically argumentative in "Emerson." It becomes sort of like
the hero of the story thrown into all of these different contexts. But unlike
variations, the different contexts are well-developed, likewise for the other
examples of this recurring theme business (BTW they call it cyclical form).
Other examples (esp. Brahms, Franck, Stravinsky) may not have the same sort
of explicit extramusical connotations, but having themes come back from one
moevement to the next ties the bigger pieces together in a less expected way
than variations -- where you know that the next variation is going to be
based on the same theme. More like a repeated use of the theme rather than a
recurring use of it.

And for "rock" music that uses this recurring theme business in the same way
that its used in lots of classical music, there's lots of Zappa. Check out
"Billy the Mountain" on _Just Another Band From LA_ Billy and Ethyl (the tree
growing off of his shoulder) have their own themes, and you hear them
throughout like Wagner leitmotivs. And he uses other music because for what
it implies (The Tonight Show Theme and a song by Crosby, Stills and Nash I
can't think of set to the words "Right beside...Joni Mitchell's autographed
picture.")

Enough from me.

Jerry