Modal Prolongational Structure in Selected Sacred Choral Compositions by Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams

摘要

While some composers at the beginning of the twentieth century drifted awayfrom tonal hierarchical structures, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams soughtways of integrating tonal ideas with new materials. By analyzing the music of Holstand Vaughan Williams using a technique expressly designed for the analysis of tonalmusical structure—Schenkerian Analysis—this study looks at ways in which thecomposers combined old and new techniques and what that means with regards to ourunderstanding of their music. To do this, the current study focuses on the sacred choralrepertory because it can form a stylistic bridge between nineteenth-century tonality andthe composers’ more experimental works. This repertory also provides an opportunityfor interpreting text-music connections that help us understand the music at a deeperlevel.In order to establish groundwork for the analytical methodology, I begin thestudy with background information on the composers and previous research done ontheir music, after which I summarize their most pertinent stylistic features (includingtheir use of diatonic modes and other pitch collections, their harmonic, melodic, andcontrapuntal techniques, and their formal structures). I then discuss how an analyst can determine prolongational structure in Holst’s and Vaughan Williams’s music byestablishing the tonic or pitch-class center, establishing the context for harmonic andmelodic stability, and following predictable formal patterns. Finally, I apply theanalytical methodology in detail to Vaughan Williams’s Benedicite and Holst’s TheHymn of Jesus, two substantial single-movement choral works that represent both theconservative (Benedicite) and experimental (The Hymn of Jesus) sides of the composers’style. I also compare the analyses with the texts and show how the composersportrayed religious ideas, even at deeper levels of the prolongational structure.The modified Schenkerian analytical techniques used in these analyses show thateven though Holst and Vaughan Williams used a number of twentieth-centurycompositional techniques, their prolongational structures still follow expected patternsand closely resemble traditional structures.