A Striking Effect: Chromatic Techniques in Baroque Variation Sets and Their Relationship to Late Madrigals

Abstract

One of the most widely used approaches in tonal music, variation technique has informed centuries of composition. Beginning with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the Baroque keyboard variation set was a prominent form; one particular multimovement variation set, commonly called the “partita,” included various treatments of a given theme, sacred or secular, in a display of compositional variety. One treatment occurs with some regularity and involves a harmonization of a chorale tune in which chromaticism is pervasive, having a non-diatonic note on every beat or including key areas that are more distant than was customary. This dissertation explores the chromatic variation with one broad question: how is this chromaticism generated? Are there particular aspects of a chorale melody that give rise to this treatment? What are the main compositional techniques that constitute a chromatic movement? Using detailed analyses of four pieces—Johann Sebastian Bach, O Gott du frommer Gott, BWV 767/7; Johann Pachelbel, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, variation 4; Pachelbel, Alle Menschen müßen sterben, var. 7; and Samuel Scheidt, Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund, verse 6—I find six unifying principles that contribute to the chromatic nature of these movements. Then, using Pachelbel’s two movements as models, I compose chromatic variations on two chorale tunes, Freu’ dich sehr, o meine Seele and Jesu, meine Freude, which did not previously receive such treatment; the six principles are used to inform my own composition, and this exercise is a way to test the efficacy of those principles. Finally, a precedent for this high level of chromaticism is sought in the late-sixteenth-century madrigal, using several Italian and English pieces to draw a connection to the Baroque music that followed in the next century and a half.