Abstract
Author: Miona Dimitrijevic
Journal: EUNOMIOS
Title: "Tonal confirmation in Max Reger's orchestral works"
Max Reger was a prolific composer whose vast oeuvre represents a true analytical challenge. He combines complex harmonic structures with a dense contrapuntal background, and the elements inherited from classical-romantic tradition with compositional innovations. This analysis is focused on specific compositional method, employed in his works, that undermines a fundamental rest-motion-rest principle (Ruhe-Bewegung-Ruhe). Precisely, in Reger's ternary, rounded binary and sonata form, analyzed in this paper, a development or, generally, the interior section, is deprived of a genuine instability and does not create a presumed sense of great tension because tonal centre is actually confirmed in it, equally or more firmly than in the exterior parts. The same holds for the role of primary-theme zone (P) and secondary-theme zone (S) in a sonata form, which are often equalised, both based on tonic region, in Schoenbergian terms. Consequently, the principle of "tonally directed motion" is suppressed. The goal of this analysis is to demonstrate how a tonal confirmation in traditional symphonic forms can be achieved in a way that considerably differs from the common-practice manner.
Keywords: Rest-motion-rest principle, tonal region, tonal centre, sonata form, development