The Dramatization of Hypermetric Conflicts in the Scherzo of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

Abstract

Dramatic qualities are frequently attributed to Beethoven's instrumental music, yet there seems to be little consensus about the identity of the protagonists and what issues they are playing out. Some writers, such as Charles Rosen and Leo Treitler, have located drama in such pitch-based polarities as tonic and dominant, flat-side and sharp-side, or major and minor.' Others, including Robert Hatten and V. Kofi Agawu, have suggested that dramatic situations are created through the interaction of competing genres, styles, topics, gestures, or formal prototypes.2 More abstractly, drama might be discovered in the relation between structure and design, or clarity and unclarity.3 Rhythm and meter play supporting roles in these dramatic schemes, insofar as they shape the interpretations of tonal event, gesture, or topic, but rarely are they claimed as principal players. Until relatively recently, the study of rhythm and meter has been concerned primarily with taxonomic questions, such as the proper assignment of verse foot, topic, the position of the accent in the group, or (at higher levels) formal archetype. Although taxonomies can lead to identification of binary oppositions, they do not necessarily establish the nuanced dynamic relations of which successful dramatic narratives are woven. 19th-Century Music XV/3 (Spring 1992). ? by The Regents of the University of California.