Robert Gjerdingen (2007, 60) traces the emergence and dissemination of the Prinner—one of the most important of Galant schemata—to the central figure of Arcangelo Corelli, and specifically to the Violin Sonatas, Op. 5. Less attention has been paid from this perspective to the composer’s Trio Sonatas, Opp. 1–4, a larger collection also rich with the patterns that informed the Galant style, though the elaborations featured in the earlier three-part, imitative texture were often simplified in the slightly less contrapuntal textures of the later style. More specifically, Corelli’s signature use of upper-voice 2-3 suspension chains in the Trio Sonatas reveals interesting connections to several standard Galant schemata, especially a contrapuntal variant of the Prinner in which each of its four stages is embellished with suspensions whose resolutions feature clever contrapuntal mechanics and harmonic interpolations (e.g., ii-V). Corelli’s remarkably consistent use of this contrapuntal Prinner (and other related schemata) in this collection indicates a deliberate and established practice by a composer with widespread influence on subsequent eighteenth-century music. This research thus broadens our understanding of an important precursor to the Galant style—a fertile ground in which a group of similar scale-degree patterns and intervallic progressions arose out of the possible harmonizations of suspension chains (Harrison 2003). It further points to underlying structural similarities between the Prinner and other contrapuntal schemata that also accommodate a 2-3 upper-voice suspension chain: the Romanesca, Tonicized Descending Thirds, and the Down3-Up2 pattern. Like the standard Galant schemata, these three-voice patterns appear in a variety of formal positions but differ from the former in their added rhythmic complexity (two metric events within each schema stage and quicker complementary diminution). Though Corelli’s Prinner may not have continued directly into the works of subsequent composers, its basic contrapuntal mechanics offered a crucial model for the embedding of dissonance in contrapuntal harmonizations favored by Bach, Handel, and Mozart (Holtmeier 2007 and 2011, Sanguinetti 2012, Byros 2017, IJzerman 2018, Menke 2020, Braunschweig 2023, Martin 2023). It also suggests a more complex model of how schemata interrelate and share certain characteristic features.

A variant of Gjerdingen’s Prinner schema (2007), the “modulating Prinner” (hereafter “MP”), can serve as a generator of musical form when it is used in or as a sonata-form transition. Byros (2012) cites examples of this in instrumental works by Mozart, while Martin (2016) extends the discussion to operatic sonata-forms. The paradigmatic model descends stepwise from ^4 in the subordinate key (re-interpreted from the home-key ^1) to scale degree ^1, often with the leading tone (#^7) introduced en route in an upper voice in order to highlight the modulation Based on a corpus study of arias by Haydn and Mozart, this study examines a wide variety of MP’s that initiate (or participate in) a sonata-form transition section, as well as some of the harmonic nuances that arise, particularly in some of the variants.

At one extreme of an MP is a brief, one-bar link that follows the main theme’s concluding PAC and leads directly to the subordinate theme. This unit, too small to be a “transition,” takes on de facto transition function in the absence of any other similar candidates. At the other extreme lies a full MP transition (MPT), lasting between two and four bars and initiating the Transition section proper; the continuation phrase that follows concludes with a converging half cadence (Martin and Pednault-Deslauriers 2015). Variants of this full version add an extra stage – inserting #^7 between the bass ^2 and ^1 or leaping down from ^2 to ^5 before moving to ^1.

This study will also explore variants of the MP transition between these two extremes—they omit, insert and/or replace some of the four stages of the standard MP. Most often, ^#7 replaces ^2 in the bass of the third stage, creating an inverted Fenaroli schema. There are also rarer examples that add, replace, and/or omit one or more of the stages, for example replacing the second stage with #^1 (tonicizing ^2/ii). Finally, there are a handful of “abandoned” MP’s, where the bass takes a “U-turn” after moving from ^4 to ^3 and instead moves back up by step to ^5 for the V:HC.

In 1989, Peter van der Merwe suggested that what later came to be called the “melodic-harmonic divorce” originated in late 19th-century “light” classical (i.e. bourgeois vernacular) music, such as that of Johann Strauss II and John Philip Sousa. In his influential 2007 article on the melodic-harmonic divorce, David Temperley explicitly rejects this hypothesis, saying that the case for divorces in this repertoire is “doubtful, or at least not yet proven.” He explains away any seeming divorces as actually the result of an expansion in harmonic vocabulary, allowing for tonic add-six chords and dominant ninth chords. In this paper, I renew and expand van der Merwe's case, demonstrating that the varieties of unresolved non-chord tones in the late 19th-century Viennese waltz and march repertoire are much more diverse than the literature suggests—including free use of ^1 over V7, ^2 and ^4 over I, and ^7 over ii6—and are best explained in terms of melodic independence rather than harmonic extension.

In this paper, I identify four melodic features that give rise to divorces in this repertoire:

(1) Melodies harmonized in parallel thirds, even in cases where the resulting underthirds are non-chordal notes.

(2) Incomplete and delayed descents that end on ^7, ^6, ^4, or ^2 over tonic.

(3) The permissibility of writing any diatonic stepwise-descending melodic sequence over a ii6 - cadential 6/4 - V7 - I progression.

(4) Repeating an idea over changing chords, with only one of the chords fitting the notes of the melody

I conclude by affirming the value of a two-way exchange: in which concepts from 20th-century popular music analysis are fruitfully applied to 19th-century vernacular classical music, and close analysis of 19th-century vernacular classical music is used to inform our understanding of the origins and bedrock principles of 20th-century popular music.