Abstract
This dissertation investigates the role of the turn figure as a musical allusion to the turn figures of Wagner’s music dramas, focusing on the finale of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony and Wagner’s Parsifal. In doing so, it acts as a key contribution to the field by unearthing the turn figure as a new and previously unconsidered Wagnerian allusion in Mahler’s works. Additionally, it offers a fundamental rethinking of the turn not as a musical ornament but as a highly expressive and motivic device in the music of the nineteenth century. By examining the turn through the lens of topic theory, this thesis provides an analytical framework for evaluating the expressive nature of the figure and argues that the remit of topic theory should be expanded to include it. Consequently, it provides a re-evaluation of the topical lexicon and the terminology that is used for identifying and categorising new and emerging musical topics.
The first chapter provides an introduction to the turn figure, reviewing its emergence and development as a musical ornament and its transition to obtaining a unique motivic status in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Chapter two provides a case study examination of the five ‘turn motifs’ of Wagner’s Parsifal, exploring the purpose of the figure in each motif and considering the extra-musical associations the figure develops throughout the drama. The third chapter identifies and examines the wealth of Wagnerian-style turn figures that appear across Mahler’s oeuvre and simultaneously uses Mahler’s works to demonstrate the turn’s topical status. The final chapter pulls together the many threads of this thesis and shows the value of analytically investigating a work from the perspective of the turn figure, providing a detailed study of the role of the turn in the finale of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.