Tonal Pairing and Monotonality in Instrumental Forms of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms

Abstract

Over the course of developing his groundbreaking approach to Wagner’s musical language, Robert Bailey has suggested that innovations of nineteenth-century tonality “often resulted from the attribution of large-scale structural significance to relationships which were already implicit within the system and had served as mere foreground decoration.” The present study tests Bailey’s hypothesis as it applies to his concept of tonal pairing, the tendency for nineteenth-century composers to create decentered interactions among tonal areas, as an alternative to the unitary tonal hierarchy of the eighteenth century. The concept of tonal pairing has most often been associated with “progressive” nineteenth-century repertories, but the focus here will be on monotonal genres par excellence as exemplified by instrumental forms of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. The intent is to trace the influence of tonal pairing in this “conservative” strain of nineteenth-century music, which both predates and runs parallel to Wagnerian developments, and to underscore that tonal pairing may indeed have large-scale structural significance within and across movements in these works.

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