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An die Musik is a song by Franz Schubert in D major set to a lyric poem by Franz von
Schober. It is a strophic song consisting of two verses with the same melody and
piano accompaniment. In this analysis I will examine the underlying harmonies, the
vocal melody, the relationship between the vocal melody and the piano
accompaniment and the relationship between the lyrics and the vocal melody.
The harmony of An Die Musik consists mostly of expansions of the tonic and
dominant chords. The texture consists of repeated chords in the right hand, and
while a bar may contain up to four chords most of the chords are played at least
twice in the right hand. In the intro, which lasts two measures, there is a long
expansion of the tonic along with a leaping bass. The intro ends with a V 7 chord in
(viio7/V) which lead into a V 64 chord. The phrase ends with a tonic chord expanded
with a leaping bass. The next phrase, which lasts from measures 7 to 10 starts off
followed by a dominant seventh, then a chromatic passing tone in the lowest voice
which in turn leads back to the dominant seventh. This is followed by the tonic and
the phrase ends on the dominant, which changes to a dominant seventh through a
descending chromatic passing tone in the bass. The next phrase lasts from measures
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Christopher Mejias Music Theory I
11 to 14. The first few bars alternate between I, V and 𝑉 7 and in measure 12 a
seventh as in the previous phase. In measure 14, an applied dominant (V56 /IV) leads
to IV in the next measure. The final phrase for the verse lasts from measures 14 to
17, this leads to a 𝑉46 chord in measure 18. In measure 15 however, the expectation
of a V chord is denied and in measure 16 there is instead a tonic chord 𝐼46 . Measure
measure. Measures 19 to 22 are a break between the verses. They start off with a
tonic followed by a seventh chord (𝑣𝑖𝑖 𝑜7 ) and then a I chord which becomes a re-
the measure followed by a I chord in the next measure which is expanded with an
𝑉46 chord but with scale degree 3 as a pedal tone. The I chord suspends the ii chord
in the next measure and a 𝑉 7 chord end the segment between the verses. The
remainder of the piece is almost an exact copy of the first half however it ends
slightly differently with the I chord in the final bar delayed by a re-struck
The vocal melody displays a variety of leaps and contours. The first three phrases
(measures 3-6; 7-10 and 11-14) begin with and ascent followed by an immediate
leap downward. The first phrase ends with a flourish, essentially a slow turn
consisting of scale degrees 1, 2 and 3 which is echoed in the second phrase but
shifted back half a bar creating a parallel melodic structure. The second phrase ends
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Christopher Mejias Music Theory I
on scale degree 3 creating less of a sense of closure than the first phrase, which ends
on scale degree 1. The next phrase has a different contour gradually rising after the
initial ascent and descent almost an octave up to scale degree 3 then descending
through an arpeggio of the dominant 𝑉 7 down to scale degree 2. The final phrase
breaks the pattern by slowly ascending to scale degree 3, which is the climax of the
verse. During this ascent, there is dissonance in the bass provided by applied
dominants and sevenths as well as an unresolved applied seventh in bar 15. The
indirect descent in the melody down to scale degree 1. A repeated theme throughout
the song is a slow ascent followed by a sudden drop of more than a fifth. This occurs
in every phrase usually near the beginning but towards the end in the 4th phrase.
The fourth phrase is the only phrase in which the melody ends on a strong beat
which provides a greater sense of closure. The fourth phrase also ends on a perfect
authentic cadence with a movement from the leading tone to the tonic in the
melody. The constantly repeated chords in the piano accompaniment fill in the gaps
in the melody that occur mostly in between phrases. The constant repetition also
provides a sense of momentum since most of the notes of the melody are quarter
notes and the notes in the right hand of the accompaniment are eight notes.
As for the lyrics, Schubert chose to use a strophic (two verse form) since the poem
consists of two verses with a fairly regular structure. Each verse consists of four
lines of equal length and each line was set to a musical phrase. The final line of each
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Christopher Mejias Music Theory I
verse was repeated in the song with the focal point of the lines “better world!” and
“thank thee!” repeated once on at the climactic point of the song and again at the
cadence. The song was set in a major key to capture the exuberance and joy that the
poem portrays. In each line, the last word or words consist of the object of the
preceding preposition. Without the object, the phrase is incomplete. The music
parallels this structure by pairing the preposition with a dominant and the object of
the preposition with the tonic. For example in measure 18 the words “enraptured
me to” are harmonized with a dominant and “a better world” is harmonized with the
tonic.