This dissertation is an analysis of two of the six sonatas for organ using rhetorical-musical prescriptions from seventeenth and eighteenth-century German theorists. It undertakes to examine the way in which lines are built by application of figurae, to observe the design of each of the six movements, and to draw conclusions concerning implications for performance based upon the use of figurae in specific contexts. The period source on melodic design and the ordering of an entire movement based upon principles of rhetoric is Johann Mattheson's Per volkommene Capelmeister (1739). Guidelines for categorization of figures derive from the twentieth-century writers Timothy Albrecht, George Buelow, Lena Jacobson, and Peter Williams. Chapter I provides justification for the rhetorical approach through a brief description of the rise of the process as applied to composition during the Baroque period by relating Bach's own familiarity with the terminology and processes of rhetorical prescription, and by describing the implications for performance in observing the sonatas from the rhetorical viewpoint. Chapter II deals with the process of composition by rhetorical prescription in (1) the invention of the subject and its figural decoration and (2) the elaboration of the subject through the sixpart discourse of an entire movement. Specific figures of decoration are defined through examples of their use within the context of the sonatas. Chapter III constitutes the analysis of the six sonata movements. Chapter IV reinforces the justification of this type of analysis. The figures, as aids for inflection and punctuation, affect decisions concerning articulation of events and assist in effecting convincing performance.

This study is a translation of and commentary on an eighteenth-century treatise written by Juan Miguel Urtasun de Yrarraga. Its purpose is to contribute to the field of knowledge of eighteenth-century Spanish materials, making an original work of that era accessible to the reader unfamiliar with the Spanish language.

The tonal organization of the first-movement development sections of ten Haydn symphonies (nos. 1, 4, 6, 10, 13, 15, 19, 24, 31 and 72), all in D major composed between 1758 and 1765, is directly linked to eighteenth-century theories of modulation. The recent theoretical or musicological literature, with the exception of H. C. Robbins Landon's Haydn: Chronical and Works (1976--1980), has concentrated on Haydn's later high classical style generally ignoring these earlier works composed during his largely self-didactic, most formative years. After evaluating the analytical procedures established by Webster (1991), Wheelock (1992), Sisman (1993) and Haimo (1995) in chapter one, chapter two reviews tonal theories of some eighteenth-century writers. Chapter three presents analytical observations on the Morzin Symphonies (nos. 1, 15, 4, 10). Chapter four extends the discussion of chapter two and focuses on theoretical concepts that determine rank ordering of scale-steps in relation to the tonic. Chapter five focuses on tonal procedures employed in the developments of early Esterhazy symphonies (nos. 6, 13, 72, 24, 31) all of which feature cadentially-confirmed tonicizations of scale-step vi paired with recapitulatory from the main theme. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The British Museum, Additional Manuscript 4918, provides an interesting insight into the sociology as well as the music of the Baroque period. This treatise was written by an unknown "music-lover," who was not a musician by profession. All that is definitely known about his identity are the initials A.D.V. that appear on the title page. The manuscript is dated 1702. In method and design this work represents the transitional character of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because the author was not a professional musician, it is important to consider the sociological aspects which influenced the writing of a treatise of this sort. A study of the development of Baroque musical treatises indicates a direct parallel with the social and political temperament of the time.

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Bibliography: leaves 206-220.

The purpose of the study is the investigation of the topics of transposition and the transposed major and minor modes as discussed principally by selected French authors of the final twenty years of the seventeenth century and the first three decades of the eighteenth. The sources are relatively varied and include manuals for singers and instrumentalists, dictionaries, independent essays, and tracts which were published in scholarly journals; special emphasis is placed on the observation and attempted explanation of both irregular signatures and the signatures of the minor modes. The paper concerns the following areas: definitions and related concepts, methods for singers and Instrumentalists, and signatures for the tones which were identified by the authors. The topics are interdependent, for the signatures both effected transposition and indicated written-out transpositions. The late Baroque was characterized by much diversity with regard to definitions of the natural and transposed modes. At the close of the seventeenth century, two concurrent and yet diverse notions were in evidence: the most widespread associated "natural" with inclusion within the gamme; that is, the criterion for naturalness was total diatonic pitch content, as specified by the signature. When the scale was reduced from two columns to a single one, its total pitch content was diminished, and consequently the number of the natural modes found within the gamme was reduced. An apparently less popular view narrowed the focus of "natural tone" to a single diatonic pitch, the final of the tone or mode. A number of factors contributed to the disappearance of the long-held distinction between natural and transposed tones: the linking of the notion of "transposed" with the temperament, the establishment of two types of signatures for the minor tones (for tones with sharps and flats, respectively), the transition from a two-column scale to a single-column one, and the recognition of a unified system of major and minor keys.