The Multidimensionality of the Harmony in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Compositions Written in Large-Scale Forms: The Experience of Analysis of the Third Piano Concerto

Abstract

The piano concerto was one of the genres that accumulated important stylistic traits in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s music. The significant compositional scale, the breadth and the multidimensionality of the musical content make it possible to observe within its limits the diverse phenomena of the harmonic language. The author of the article examines the peculiarities of the composer’s thinking by the example of the Third Piano Concerto, laying emphasis on the specificity of the organization of the tonal plan, the harmonic functionality, the chordal structure, etc. The innovative features of the composer’s harmonies discussed in the article are connected with the processes of differentiation within the large-scale sound model. Extended tonality appears through a multitude of local tonal states (a term coined by Yuri Kholopov) that make it possible to determine its inner dynamics. Along with the extended functional tonality of the majorminor mode, the other types of states of tonality marked out are the multivalent, the wavering, the dismounted, and a few additional types of states of tonality. These most important particular features make it possible to look anew at the style of Rachmaninoff’s large-scale compositions.