Arnold Schoenberg · section 61 of 66

7. On Floating and Suspended Tonality

Before closing this chapter, something more that I promised earlier and wish to fulfill here: on floating and suspended tonality. This cannot readily be demonstrated in short passages, because it presumably requires formal articulation. Anyone wishing to examine it will find many examples in Mahler and others. After all, even the finale of Beethoven's E-minor Quartet, Op. 59 No. 2, is already an example of floating tonality, as are the final movements of Op. 127 and Op. 130, and the finale of Schumann's Piano Quintet. It begins in a sort of C major that continually reaches over toward E minor. Indeed, because C is somewhat distant, it usually reaches beyond that to an almost dominant-like dominant of the dominant, F-sharp–A-sharp–C-sharp. Since good classical models exist, I need not be ashamed to point to similar things of my own. Two particularly striking cases of floating tonality in my compositions are the orchestral song Op. 8 No. 5, “Voll jener Süße,” which fluctuates chiefly between D-flat and B major, and the song Op. 6 No. 7, “Lockung,” which expresses E-flat major without presenting the E-flat-major triad even once in the course of the piece in a way that could be regarded as a pure tonic. The one time it appears, it has at least a pull toward the subdominant. Both were invented, not calculated! Thus they are not something to imitate. But anyone who examines them will know what I mean and how rich one's resources would have to be to work it out.

To show what matters nevertheless, I shall try to say something about it. If the key is to float, it must be anchored somewhere, but not so firmly that it cannot move loosely. Two keys sharing some chords are suitable—for example, the Neapolitan sixth or the augmented six-five chord. C major and D-flat major, or A minor and B-flat major, stand in such a relationship. If one also includes the relative minor keys, allowing C major to fluctuate toward A minor and D-flat major toward B-flat minor, new relationships appear: A minor and D-flat major, C major and B-flat minor; the dominant of B-flat minor is the augmented six-five chord of A minor, and so on. Naturally, vagrant chords will play the chief role here: diminished and augmented seventh chords, the Neapolitan sixth, and the augmented triad. I have repeatedly tried to make examples of this, but cannot accomplish it by a “dry procedure.” I think the pupil may hit upon it more readily. And even if not, at least he need not offer it as a model!

Other evidence can be found in Wagner, for example the Tristan Prelude. Notice that A minor, although audible through every turn, is scarcely actually struck in the whole piece. It is always circumscribed, always avoided by a deceptive cadence.

As for suspended tonality, this undoubtedly depends on the theme. Its turns must provide the occasion for such harmonic freedom. In purely harmonic terms, the material will consist almost exclusively of distinctly vagrant chords. Every major or minor triad might be understood as a key, even if only temporarily. Classical development sections already bear a not-too-distant resemblance: each individual moment unmistakably expresses a key, yet so insecurely that it may be lost at any moment. Examples from the literature are easily found among modern composers, also in passages by Bruckner and Hugo Wolf.