The first 8 measures of the second half of the final verse of Hensel's "Neue Liebe, neues Leben" start out similarly as the beginning of the piece. The first four measures contain a falling third sequence and end in a half cadence, while the next four measures also have a falling third sequence, with the addition of chromatic passing tones, and end surprisingly on a four chord in measure 64. This might be a little far fetched, but I like to think of this surprise as breaking free from the "stereotypical" phrase endings, just as the text is talking about breaking free from love.
For measures 64b-73, I would definitely split the excerpt into two phrase units, one from 64b to 68a, and the second from 68b to 73. The main difference between the two units is that the first follows a nice (PD)-D-T harmony with a secondary dominant(vii dim 7/ ii) at the end of measure 66, and the second unit is filled with modal mixture- specifically VI65, ii, VII6, bIII, I6, I+6, IV, bIII/ii, ii6, biv dim, I64, V, I.
Hensel uses a lot of dissonance in building up the tension from measure 64b thru the end of measure 71. For instance, there is a vii dim7/ii on beat four of measure 66, which suspends into measure 67. While the bass note changes to Eb on beat one, the rest of the chord does not resolve to ii until the second half of the beat, and then goes on to pass thru more dissonance on beat two into the second half of that beat. Also, beat one of measure 68 contains an A. Eb and C#, which are passing tones forming a suspension into beat two. Finally, on the last beat of measure 70, there is an odd augmented I chord, and on beat four of measure 71, what appears to be a flat iv dim chord. This leads into measure 72, where we finally are back to a nice I chord followed by an even nicer V-I PAC, where we hear the singer come to terms with being free from love. In performance, I would definitely emphasize beat one's suspension in 67, as it is there where the tension temporarily resolves. I would also emphasize the augmented chord in measure 70, as that is the final building block into the climactic G in measure 71, which will soon bring resolution.
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1 comment:
See my comment in Kelly's post about m. 64 as an avoidance of the cadence, extending the phrase.
Good point about the suspensions. THe odd chord in m. 70 is a V7+/IV, we will be talking about these altered dominants later in the semester. The odd chord in measure 71 is viio7/V, which resolves to the cadential 64 in 72.
Good interpretation and nice performance ideas.
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