Verdi’s six-fours and la parola scenica
Files
Accepted manuscript
Date
2017-04-01
Authors
Burton, D.
Sanguinetti, G.
Version
OA Version
Citation
D Burton, G Sanguinetti. 2017. "Verdi’s Six-Fours and la parola scenica.." . Music Theory and Analysis: International Journal of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory, v. IV, issue 1, pp. 61 - 90 (29).
Abstract
Verdi’s operas display many non-normative six-four chords. The question for the opera analyst, however, is not only what occurs musically, but why it does. Is there a dramatic function being served by this mix of harmonic-intervallic instability? We discuss four types of non-normative six-fours in Verdi: the arrival, wonder, evasion, and dissolving. But, even as we individuate these types, we note that they are all similar in one regard: they are all linked to a crucial dramatic statement that Verdi termed la parola scenica, a textual-musical signal that makes a dramatic situation suddenly evident.