This study examines the Piano Concerto in C sharp, Op.17 (1923), by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), in light of developing variation, techniques that transform motivic ideas and create musical continuity in this work. The troublesome reception history of Korngold’s piano concerto derives from its complex musical features, which have created difficulties in understanding and evaluating this piece. Consequently, critics and scholars often label the highly sophisticated yet tonal musical language in this piece a residue of Romanticism from the nineteenth century. In this document, in contrast, examination of motivic development and connections in Korngold’s piano concerto reveals thematic and structural coherence in light of Korngold’s idea of modernity. This study provides a historical and technical survey of developing variation and discusses Korngold’s implementation of these techniques in his early compositions and the piano concerto. By doing so, this study recognizes the progressive aspect in Korngold’s music.

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In accordance with the notion of the so-called “new musicology” that musicological studies should steer away from the canon of masterpieces, this study concentrates on Robert Fuchs as an example of a Kleinmeister. His Piano Trio in C major, Op. 22, is a demonstration of developing variation, a term coined by Arnold Schoenberg to refer to the technique of motivic development within a musical composition as a whole. According to Schoenberg, the music of Johannes Brahms illustrates the most advanced manifestation of developing variation in that he often starts to develop his motives from the very opening of a piece. The technique of developing variation became one solution to the key problem composers faced in the later nineteenth century, namely how to create large forms from very concise thematic material. The purpose of this study is, firstly, to describe the concept of developing variation, providing** a historical perspective with specific reference to Brahms, and, secondly, to trace the manifestation of developing variation in Robert Fuchs‟s Piano Trio in C major, Op. 22, a work which Fuchs dedicated to Brahms. The empirical section of this study shows that the characteristic feature of the germ cell (G-A-G) that appears at the beginning of this composition, namely a movement away from and a return to the point of departure, manifests on micro- (motivic), meso- (thematic), and macro- (structural) level. On micro-level the germ cell grows teleologically by means of metric displacement, rhythmic changes, augmentation, diminution, intervallic expansion, inversion, retrograde, retrograde inversion, extension, sequential treatment, liquidation and further derivatives of the germ cell until a large form is created: a four-movement work for three instruments. This study also demonstrates how the shape of the germ cell can be found in larger structures as themes and the overall structure of each of the four movements. / PhD (Music Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

In accordance with the notion of the so-called “new musicology” that musicological studies should steer away from the canon of masterpieces, this study concentrates on Robert Fuchs as an example of a Kleinmeister. His Piano Trio in C major, Op. 22, is a demonstration of developing variation, a term coined by Arnold Schoenberg to refer to the technique of motivic development within a musical composition as a whole. According to Schoenberg, the music of Johannes Brahms illustrates the most advanced manifestation of developing variation in that he often starts to develop his motives from the very opening of a piece. The technique of developing variation became one solution to the key problem composers faced in the later nineteenth century, namely how to create large forms from very concise thematic material. The purpose of this study is, firstly, to describe the concept of developing variation, providing** a historical perspective with specific reference to Brahms, and, secondly, to trace the manifestation of developing variation in Robert Fuchs‟s Piano Trio in C major, Op. 22, a work which Fuchs dedicated to Brahms. The empirical section of this study shows that the characteristic feature of the germ cell (G-A-G) that appears at the beginning of this composition, namely a movement away from and a return to the point of departure, manifests on micro- (motivic), meso- (thematic), and macro- (structural) level. On micro-level the germ cell grows teleologically by means of metric displacement, rhythmic changes, augmentation, diminution, intervallic expansion, inversion, retrograde, retrograde inversion, extension, sequential treatment, liquidation and further derivatives of the germ cell until a large form is created: a four-movement work for three instruments. This study also demonstrates how the shape of the germ cell can be found in larger structures as themes and the overall structure of each of the four movements. / PhD (Music Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Thematic unity in music occurs when elements from a musical idea appear frequently, in significant places and their presence is recognized or experienced on or beneath the surface. In fugal compositions, thematic unity is evident in the opening statement of the subject and it permeates each layer of its texture. Three analytical perspectives are used to investigate the degree to which local thematic material anticipates later structural features in Johan Sebastian Bach's Fugue in G minor WTC II, and Georg Frederic Handel's Fuga II in G Major. The analytical perspectives identify: (1) cohesive relationships between motivic fragments, (2) underlying motives and their relationships to keys and harmonic progressions, and (3) voice leading reductions relative to linear and tonal prolongation. Arnold Schoenberg, Hans Keller, and Rudolph Reti provide valuable insights concerning the organic nature of thematic material. The voice leading reductions of Heinrich Schenker and William Renwick offer procedures that reveal underlying thematic relationships. The cohesive elements of the selected fugues will be explained with reference to immediate and long-range relationships.

Composition for Arnold Schoenberg is a comprehensible presentation of a musical idea (musikalische Gedanke); the totality of a piece represents the idea. For tonal works, he defines Gedanke as a process of resolving the "tonal relation" or "tonal problem." Contrary to the numerous tonal examples illustrating the notion of Gedanke, Schoenberg hardly expounds on the Gedanke principle for his atonal and twelve-tone repertoires. This study reevaluates Schoenberg's compositional philosophy and aesthetics including Gedanke, comprehensibility, Grundgestalt, and developing variation in light of his compositional practices in Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene, Op. 34. Although Schoenberg denies the existence of a tonal problem and hierarchy among pitches in twelve-tone compositions, the registral placement found in Op. 34 indicates certain functionality assigned to each pitch-class, producing a sense of "departure and return." The approach here elucidates the "idea" of Op. 34, in which the large-scale formal organization unfolds through contextually emphasized tonal relations. This study also explores Schoenberg's concept of the multi-dimensional presentation of a musical idea. Even though Schoenberg's discussion of musical coherence is usually limited to the immediate musical surface, I believe that he was also aware of an extended realization of foreground motives in the sense of Heinrich Schenker's "concealed motivic repetition." This analysis of Op. 34 demonstrates how the enlargement of a surface motive facilitates an understanding of the relation between the parts and the whole, which is perceived as the totality of Gedanke.

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