Submerged Urlinien, Shadow Urlinien, and Urlinie Play in the Left-Hand Melody Piece

Abstract

Abstract Piano pieces with the principal melody in the left hand pose interesting challenges for Schenkerian analysis, which generally favors outer voices for the components of the Ursatz. In the left-hand melody piece, the accompaniment is positioned above the melody, and bass lines may not be literally present. Middleground sketches of such pieces often featured a submerged Urlinie, which is a fundamental line that is positioned in an inner voice of the work’s texture (after Schachter 1994). These pieces also quite frequently involve “shadow Urlinien,” which are potentially viable fundamental lines in an upper voice that are perceptually weaker than Urlinien positioned in the principal melodic register. “Urlinie play” describes the analytical and phenomenological interplay between two potential fundamental lines, such as a submerged Urlinie and a shadow Urlinie. The analyses in this article examine aspects of Urlinie play in left-hand melody pieces by Schumann, Massenet, Beethoven, and Chopin, and describe that play in terms of four narrative categories: shadowing, role reversion, denial, and competition.