This shift in perspective realigns how different musical parameters collaborate to produce meaning. Observations from disparate domains coalesce into an interpretation of the aria. In an essay on “The Unexpected in Mozart,” Arthur Hutchings ( 1939, 25–26) invites us to linger over one of Mozart’s famous melodies: The central analytical questions are what genre “Deh vieni” belongs to and how its features serve the functions of that genre.Ĭopyright © 2018 Society for Music Theory The analysis engages with musical details by starting from hypotheses about what the piece is (serenade or psychologizing aria), what it does (deliver text or embody expressive action), and how its musical features afford those identities. How trivial ‘Deh vieni’ (the ‘Figaro’ one) looks on paper-a mere aria di portamento employing few other intervals than those of the common chord and no harmonies outside the primary triads. Excerpt of Elisabeth Schumann’s ( 2011) performance of “Deh vieni” A friend of mine who has a notable hiatus in his musical education heard Elisabeth Schumann’s record of ‘Deh vieni’ he told me that “Verdi did write some fascinating tunes after all”! I recommend ‘Deh vieni’ to the analyst for a tough evening.Īudio Example 1.

This article accepts his invitation by fashioning a motley analysis of Susanna’s aria “Deh vieni non tardar” from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. (1) Hutchings suggests that Susanna’s “Deh vieni” resists analysis because it is so simple, offering no snarls of complexity to be unraveled by an evening with paper and pencil. On the contrary, the challenge of analyzing “Deh vieni” lies in its surfeit of musical riches.

Its harmonic language, though indeed mostly diatonic, encompasses some moments of perplexing haziness, enough to intrigue the tonal analyst.

Deh vieni non tardar pdf