(Ger. durchkomponiert).
A term describing a composition with a relatively uninterrupted continuity of musical thought and invention. It is applied in particular in contexts where a more sectionalized structure might be expected, as with a Strophic song text, an opera divided into numbers or an instrumental piece divided into movements.
In the context of art song, ‘through-composed’ describes settings in which a repeating verse structure is contradicted by the use of substantially different music for each stanza, unlike most hymns and folksongs, where strophic texts are reinforced by an equivalent repeating musical structure. Das Wandern, the opening song of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, for example, is strophic, with the same music repeated for each text stanza, while Halt! (the third song of the cycle) is through-composed, with new music for each stanza. Furthermore, a song cycle as a whole, with its potential for the complex organization of constituent songs, may, unlike a collection of independent songs, be thought of as a larger-scale example of through-composition.
The term ‘through-composed’ is also applied to other repertories. Both the verse and the music of most medieval and Renaissance courtly songs, for example, use conventional repeating patterns such as those of the formes fixes, but the unusual continuous structure of O rosa bella (attributed to Dunstaple) stands out from this tradition as an example of through-composition. The polyphonic mass cycle may also arguably be seen as a large-scale form dependent on the principle of through-composition.
The term is sometimes also applied to instrumental music. Haydn's Symphony no.45 (‘Farewell’), for example, can be considered through-composed because cross-connections between the movements foster a sense of continuity throughout the work. The symphonic poem of the 19th and 20th centuries, however, in which a number of themes may be developed or ‘transformed’ throughout the work, presents more obvious opportunities for through-composition than the multi-movement symphony.
Operas whose librettos are set to music throughout may be seen as more through-composed than those, such as German Singspiele or French tragédies lyriques, that contain spoken dialogue or dance. Wagner's music dramas, with their large-scale continuous structures and leitmotivic cross-references, may be seen as archetypal examples of through-composition in opera.
IAN RUMBOLD