Teleology in César Franck\u27s Prélude, Choral et Fugue

César Franck’s Prélude, Choral et Fugue is a fine example of the composer’s mature style and contribution to musical form and language at the end of the nineteenth century. The use of a Baroque structure, such as the fugue, has a significant impact on the overall unfolding of this Romantic work. A teleological perspective will inform the analysis of the Fugue, which will constitute the core of the study. It will use concepts of design and purpose in order to explain the development of the piece as a whole, and the transformation of the musical language within the Fugue in particular. Romantic fugues reflect a general tendency of works from this era to unfold teleologically, which itself resulted from a transformation of the philosophical discourse and from a new interest in notions such as organicism and symbolism. Typical features of Romantic fugues, such as shifts in texture from polyphony and homophony, romanticization of the harmonic language, and accelerations of tempo, contribute to this Fugue’s forward impetus and departure from the Baroque model. Specific elements of Franck’s musical language also contribute to the teleological aspect of the piece. His strong affinity for German musical works, which derived in part from his studies with Reicha and early training in thoroughbass, and the rich French music culture that surrounded him, both influenced his unique and cosmopolitan style. A defining feature of Franck’s mature language, germinal thematic development, consists of the growth and transformation of initial minimal material which constantly anticipates upcoming major themes. In the Prélude, Choral et Fugue, an initial descending-second cell eventually grows into a three-note motive, which itself serves as the basis for thematic ideas and most importantly the subject. The Fugue therefore informs the goal-driven aspect of the piece in two ways, by the consistent anticipation of its material in the Prelude and Chorale, and through its departure from the Baroque model as it reaches fulfillment within the Romantic idiom. By providing a greater understanding of Franck’s style and of the intricate process through which the work unfolds, this study will be beneficial to performers and teachers alike

Genetic variation of loci potentially under selection confounds species-genetic diversity correlations in a fragmented habitat

Positive species-genetic diversity correlations (SGDCs) are often thought to result from the parallel influence of neutral processes on genetic and species diversity. Yet, confounding effects of non-neutral mechanisms have not been explored. Here, we investigate the impact of non-neutral genetic diversity on SGDCs in high Andean wetlands. We compare correlations between plant species diversity and genetic diversity (GD) calculated with and without loci potentially under selection (outlier loci). The study system includes 2188 specimens from five species (three common aquatic macroinvertebrate and two dominant plant species) that were genotyped for 396 amplified fragment length polymorphism loci. We also appraise the importance of neutral processes on SGDCs by investigating the influence of habitat fragmentation features. Significant positive SGDCs were detected for all five species (mean SGDC=0.52 +/- 0.05). While only a few outlier loci were detected in each species, they resulted in significant decreases in GD and in SGDCs. This supports the hypothesis that neutral processes drive species-genetic diversity relationships in high Andean wetlands. Unexpectedly, the effects on genetic diversity GD of the habitat fragmentation characteristics in this study increased with the presence of outlier loci in two species. Overall, our results reveal pitfalls in using habitat features to infer processes driving SGDCs and show that a few loci potentially under selection are enough to cause a significant downward bias in SGDC. Investigating confounding effects of outlier loci thus represents a useful approach to evidence the contribution of neutral processes on species-genetic diversity relationships

Carex guyana SNP dataset, Andean wetland plant community dataset, and environmental data for species genetic diversity correlation study

This data folder includes the five filtered SNP datasets for the plant species, Carex guyana, a common sedge in high elevation Andes wetlands (final_partitioned_SNPdatasets). Details regading the partitioned neutral and adaptive datasets can be found in the accompanying Ecology and Evolution 2018 paper. The folder also contains the plant community datasets (DatosPlantsCommunity_modified) used to contrast plant species and Carex guyana genetic diversity in the species genetic diversity correlation study, as well as the environmental data (EnvData)