for a heroic passage in the text. The four-note
figure that pervades the last four string quartets can be seen subtly
transformed, above all in the Grosse Fuge op.133, where it provides a
wide variety of fugal textures, starkly contrasted. A term used to define the process of modifying a theme so that in a new context it is different but yet manifestly made of the same elements; a variant term is ‘thematic metamorphosis’. With Cyclic form and the desire for continuity between movements, the process became a favourite method in 19th-century music of giving greater cohesion both between and within separate movements of multi-movement works. It was also widely used in opera. Great ingenuity was devoted to changing the rhythm, melodic detail, orchestration or dynamic character of a theme to adapt it to a different purpose, often for programmatic reasons. Thematic transformation is no more than a special application of the principle of variation; yet although the technique is similar the effect is usually different, since the transformed theme has a life and independence of its own and is no longer a sibling of the original theme.
Dance pairs of the early 17th century provide notable cases of thematic transformation at a time when variation form was also coming into favour for larger musical structures. In his keyboard dances, Bull frequently derived the melody of the galliard from that of the pavan, with free modifications, so that neither is strictly a variation of the other, but they might be said to be obverse to one another. In the later Baroque period, thematic treatment of this kind was channelled into either fugue, by means of such techniques as augmentation and diminution, or variations, rather than into the balancing of varied couples on the basis of a single thematic idea. Bach at least showed no enthusiasm for building preludes and fugues out of shared material. Mozart used thematic transformation for occasional dramatic effect, as in the quartet in Act 2 of Così fan tutte, where the music is hurried out of a grazioso 6/8 into a presto 4/4. In his Symphony no.103 (the ‘Drumroll’) Haydn transformed the Adagio introduction at the end of the Allegro.
Thematic
transformation belongs above all to the 19th century, when composers exploited
through it the possibilities that arose from giving themes dramatic or human
significance in instrumental or vocal music. At the opening of Beethoven’s
‘Pathétique’ Sonata op.13, a process of transformation turns the taut dramatic
figure of the first bar into the sweeter version in the relative major which
appears at the fourth bar; dynamics, accompaniment and harmonic simplification
all contribute to the growth of the initial idea (exx.1a and b). In the finale of his Ninth
Symphony, a large variation scheme provides a prototype of many 19th-century
thematic transformations, when the ‘Joy’ theme is transformed from its normal
4/4 metre in D into a 6/8 Alla marcia in B for a heroic passage in the text. The four-note
figure that pervades the last four string quartets can be seen subtly
transformed, above all in the Grosse Fuge op.133, where it provides a
wide variety of fugal textures, starkly contrasted.
There are other examples in Beethoven in which transformation is used as a formal symphonic technique. With the addition of programmatic significance it featured prominently in unifying large-scale Romantic works. Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (1830) led the way in demonstrating the dramatic strength of a theme that recurs in all movements (the Idée fixe) and is transformed in each movement according to its context. The same theme could thus represent the flux of passion, the elegance of a ball and the grotesque dance of a witches’ sabbath while at the same time transferring a fixed image from the mind of the composer to that of the listener. Berlioz was later to use other thematic transformations with great subtlety, particularly in La damnation de Faust (1845–6).
The practice of thematic transformation is particularly associated with Liszt, who applied it as a thoroughgoing source of musical development. In Eine Faust-Symphonie (1854–7) the Mephistopheles movement is built out of transformations, symbolizing negations, of the themes of Faust and Gretchen presented in the first two movements. Les préludes (1848) shows the glorification in full orchestral dress of the somewhat hesitant theme of the opening. In the Piano Sonata in B minor (1852–3) Liszt achieved one of his most miraculous metamorphoses of musical character when a diabolic figure that appears in the bass near the beginning becomes a theme of infinite sweetness and longing (exx.2a and b).
Such processes became a regular part of later 19th-century music, especially in the hands of Liszt's followers. The Russians made particular use of them: there are good examples in Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Swan Lake, in both of which a minor theme is transformed into a triumphant major theme at the close. Perhaps the most far-reaching application of thematic transformation occurred in Wagner’s treatment of the Leitmotif, for the motifs, especially in the Ring, are combined, adapted, extended and altered in shape, rhythm and colour to reflect the dramatic action at all points; examples include the majestic version of Siegfried’s horn call that rings out in his funeral music in Götterdämmerung, and the apprentices’ spiky version of their masters’ noble theme in the prelude to Die Meistersinger. In addition, many of Wagner's motifs stand in relationships to each other that gradually become clear during the course of a work and in which transformation merges with symphonic development.
Not even Brahms escaped the general acceptance of thematic transformation as a standard technique in the late 19th century, although he showed much less interest in it than his contemporaries. His clearest use of it is in the Intermezzo in E minor op.119 no.2, a case which makes plain the distinction between variation technique, so common in Brahms, and a single transformation, which is comparatively rare.
While the naive type of transformation (turning a joyful melody into a sad one by putting it into the minor, for example) lost favour in the 20th century, more sophisticated types, combined with more general thematic development, are to be found in music of all kinds, particularly that which accepts wholeheartedly the symphonic heritage of the past.
L. Somfai: ‘Die musikalischen Gestaltwandlungen der Faust-Symphonie von Liszt’, SMH, ii (1962), 87–137
P. Reale: The Process of Multivalent Thematic Transformation (diss., U. of Pennsylvania, 1970)
HUGH MACDONALD