Profile V: Development II, Monolithic and Continuous Development

Each profile will highlight a specific problem of composition for orchestra. This profile deals with the sequential development of at least two contrasting thematic ideas from earlier sections.

General considerations:

1. Development always involves the creation of new identities from the preexisting material through fragmentation, contrapuntal manipulation, some kind of compression, and often in reordering the pitch material. In monolithic development the procedures of fragmentation are closer in global time to the source music.

2. Another important consideration in monolithic development is the buildup of tension through the continual renewal of the fragmented material.

3. Development will have characteristic timbral and registral oppositions to highlight the breakdown of thematic or contour identities. In the case of monolithic development, this breakdown may be intensely compressed in time.

4. The thematic material which precedes development will often be the most important cohesive element in the monolithic developmental process. As a result two things may occur: the order of material presented in development will be reversed, or these important bits will be allowed to become secondary to a new foreground which appears in development (just as in sequential development)

5. Monolithic development need not occur just in one place (as in a traditional Classical sonata movement), but could consist as a kind of thematic extension (as in the Debussy example), or an extended preparation for a movement's close.

  • 1.Mahler, Symphony No. 5: Rondo-Finale (PP. 188-196, Movement III/5).
    Referring the fugato which had appeared at Reh. 2 (P. 180) and which will be discussed in Profile VI, the development which commences at Reh. 7 combines the countersubject with a truncated and modified version of the heard of the very opening theme (horn, P. 78). Notice how the order of elements is freely changed (compare Violins 1 and 2 at Reh. 7 with the Violin 1 passage at meas. 190).
    The oboe/cl passage at Reh. 7 + 8 meas. represents a new version of the violin material at Reh. 7; the eighth-note countersubject figures freely develop underneath. The bassoon/viola version of the foreground starting at meas. 180 (Reh. 7 + 4 meas.) is a third layer.
    By the time the violins present a still more developed theme, at meas. 190, the entire complex texture begins to fragment in space. Compare this violin theme with its parent from the Adagietto Movement (Movement III/4), P. 176, meas. 73 of that movement.
    Back to Mvt. III/5, new thematic material comes in on P. 182 (Reh. 3) and is set in place by the juxtaposition of the countersubject in the strings.
    The Adagietto theme also serves to cause a slowdon in the tactus from eighth to quarter thru meas. 230.
    Meas. 253 sees a reprise of the substance of the earlier fugato and freely developed thematic variants.

  • 2. Debussy, La Mer:Movement III "Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea," (PP. 81-98 and PP. 126-137).
    Opening of the movement is characterized by a continous development from the second measure, a kind of additive process which assembles what will become the second level of foreground importance.
    Reh. 43 in the oboes gives us the rhythm, if not the contour of the main material (study the harmony here).
    As all these things play out against triplet ostinatos in the strings, those triplets are transformed into tremolos at meas. 30 (P. 85), and the second foreground emerges in the 1st muted trumpet.
    Between PP. 86-91, continuous, separate developments of the layers occur at different rates (e.g. the strings, which at Reh. 45 change the tremolos to repeated notes in upward, mostly scalar passages, finally compressed to short, scalar punctuations at Reh. 46.
    Notice the increasingly longer phrase structure of the melody in the winds and the sustained chordal treatment in the brass.
    Turning to P. 126: Debussy has blown out the string punctuations in a most magnificent way so that even though they are a thematic background and an accompaniment, they produce the most prominent textural identity with a level of energy that carries the piece to its conclusion.
    All the same elements of the earlier passage are here with a few additions, like the timpani triplets and brass counterpoint.

  • 3.Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique: Movement V, The Witches' Sabbath (PP. 100-107 with sequential development of incorporated "Dies Irae" in 4 bassoons and 2 tubas at meas. 127; then PP. 108-116 before Fugato conclusion).
    An abrupt contrast of textures and registral size is the main feature of this development: the idee fixe has been turned into a vulgar dance (meas. 21 in cl), alternating with a gigantic tutti.
    The transformed IF at Reh. 63 takes on a bassoon obbligato (from meas. 47) and a further developed arpeggiation in violas and celos from meas. 52.
    The tutti idea returns with this diminution at meas. 65.
    PP. 106-107 see a complete fragmentation in preparation for the "Dies Irae" at meas. 127, the commencement of sequential textural development.
    With the addition of this last element, which functions like the traditional cantus firmus, the development proceeds (e.g. PP, 108-111 show a clear separation of the ideas of orchestral choirs).
    Reh. 68 restates the "Dies Irae" with a shadow in the lower strings, and the alternating process continues with a greater vengeance to P. 116, which contains another fugato that will be dealt with in Profile VI.

    • Updated May 16, 2004.