Deformed Beauty?

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-37
Author(s):  
Thomas Grey
Keyword(s):  
Sonata Form ◽  
Musical Narrative ◽  
Formal Procedure ◽  
Formal Design ◽  
Formal Experiment

The last of Felix Mendelssohn’s series of popular and influential concert overtures, the Overture to the Tale of the Fair Melusina of 1835 remains the least familiar of these works. It is also the most unusual with regard to formal design in its purposeful confounding of introduction and sonata-form elements alongside the dialogic relation of clearly gendered thematic materials. Such calculated ‘deformation’ of classic and early Romantic sonata form has been understood as a means of generating a kind of musical-narrative content, though the precise relation of formal experiment to such narrative content has remained elusive. This chapter reconsiders the problematic relation of experimental formal procedure to the narrative dimension and the role this may have played in the composer’s subsequent abandonment of the quasi-programmatic concert overture genre, despite his unparalleled artistic success in the field.

First-Movement Sonata Forms

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-167
Author(s):  
Joel Lester
Keyword(s):  
Sonata Form ◽  
Musical Narrative

Chapter 3 studies in detail the first movements of Brahms’s three violin sonatas. Each first movement is cast in sonata form—the most exalted structure of the Classical Era. But Brahms did not fill a “sonata-form mold” with formulaic music. Just like his great predecessors whose music he so dearly loved and esteemed, Brahms adapted the outer aspects of the form and the contents of each section to express that movement’s unique musical narrative. The discussions of each movement explore the traits they all share as well as their individual Romantic features. The A-major Sonata’s first movement also provides an opportunity to explore musical allusions to other pieces and how that might affect our interpretations—both as performers and analysts.

scholarly journals Johann Nepomuk Hummels Sonate in fis-Moll Op. 81 – Studien zu Entstehungshintergrund, Rezeption und formaler Struktur

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Tiemeyer
Keyword(s):  
Formal Structure ◽  
Technical Development ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Formal Organization ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Dynamic Design ◽  
The Third ◽  
Formal Design

The article examines the significance of one of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s masterpieces. First, it highlights the circumstances of its production and the contemporary critical acclaim in the AmZ. In a second step, Robert Schumann’s involvement with this work is shown. In his journal, the sonata of Hummel is mentioned several times which indicates the engagement of the young piano discipline. In a short article, published in the NZfM in the year 1839, Schumann links this sonata with the compositional “way of Mozart” and thus gives an important hint to the formal design of the piece itself. Aspects of formal organization and structure of this sonata are analyzed and presented in the third part of the essay. In opposition to Beethoven’s motivic development, Hummel pursues another strategy of formal structure by stringing together each of the segments and themes. Thus, the focus shifts from a dynamic design of sonata-form to a more epic layout of the piece. Additionally, technical development and innovations concerning piano techniques and virtuosity are examined.

Dvořák and Subordinate Theme Closure

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-240
Author(s):  
Peter H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Chamber Music ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Positive Theory ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Tonal Structure ◽  
The Face ◽  
Gravitational Pull ◽  
Formal Design

Form theorists have shown increasing interest in applying the methodologies of Caplin and of Hepokoski and Darcy to sonata forms of the nineteenth century. Many of these efforts proceed under the assumption that late eighteenth-century norms continued to influence Romantic sonata form even in the face of nineteenth-century innovations. Vande Moortele contrasts this “negative” approach to an as-yet-unrealized “positive” theory that would derive its concepts directly from nineteenth-century music. A multipart strategy interrogates the positive methodology championed by Vande Moortele and such like-minded theorists as Horton and Wingfield. Examination of Horton’s recent analysis of Brahms’s First Symphony reveals the unacknowledged presence of classical norms casting a “negative” light—although an essential and beneficial one—on his presumably “positive” methodology. A corpus study of subordinate theme closure in Dvořák’s mature chamber music responds both to Horton’s interest in asynchrony between formal design and tonal structure and to his and Vande Moortele’s calls for expanding the range of composers included in these endeavors. Attention to a less studied composer betrays the persistent gravitational pull of classical conventions, in contrast to Horton’s and Vande Moortele’s argument that a Romantic-centered corpus would tend to diminish that pull. Detailed analyses of select Dvořák movements focus on subordinate theme closure but also embrace broader concerns, such as form-functional contrast among P, S, C, and coda; characteristics that signal end-of-the-beginning versus end-of-the-end functions for cadences; the interaction of tonal pairing and formal design; and Dvořák’s recapitulatory reinterpretations of his expositional strategies. The analyses illustrate limitations of corpus study as contrasted with close reading of individual movements. The close readings underscore the need to engage both circumpolar norms and progressive linear developments, even in music written in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

The Quiet Revolution of a B Natural: Prokofiev's ‘New Simplicity’ in the Second Violin Concerto

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBORAH RIFKIN
Keyword(s):  
Compositional Style ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Romeo And Juliet ◽  
Musical Narrative ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
Quiet Revolution ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Soviet People

AbstractThis essay explores changes in Prokofiev's compositional style that occurred in the mid-1930s, around the time that he was making his decision to return to his homeland. In his diary Prokofiev wrote about a desire for a ‘new simplicity’, a style that featured simple melodies and comprehensible form. Compared to the avant-garde aspirations of his earlier works, his ‘new simplicity’ features a self-conscious return to Classical precedents. Prokofiev believed his new lyricism would be a uniquely modern yet accessible music for the Soviet people. Many of his most popular works, including Lieutenant Kijé (1933), Romeo and Juliet (1935–6), and Peter and the Wolf (1936), are written in the style associated with this ‘new simplicity’. The style is distinctive because of its sudden and markedly trangressive chromatic swerves to distant harmonic areas. By invoking and then thwarting tonal conventions, Prokofiev creates a compelling tension between Classicism and modernism. This essay presents the first movement of his Violin Concerto no. 2 (1935) as an exemplar of his ‘new simplicity’. The fractured musical surface is interpreted as a musical narrative, as an ironic satire of sonata form.

Sonata Form in the Orchestral Works of Liszt: The Revolutionary Reconsidered

1984 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Kaplan ◽  
Franz Liszt
Keyword(s):  
Sonata Form ◽  
Orchestral Works

¿Libertad y/o planificacion? Releyendo a Karl Mannheim en su cincuentenario

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Ramón Tirado Rozúa
Keyword(s):  
Fiftieth Anniversary ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Karl Mannheim ◽  
Mass Society ◽  
Formal Procedure ◽  
Point Of Reference

RESUMENEl presente artículo trata de poner de manifiesto con motivo del cincuentenario de la muerte de K. Mannheim la actualdiad de su pensamiento del período anglosajón. Se analiza cómo los procesos históricos fruto del desarrollo desproporcionado de las capacidades humanas -moral e instrumental- han abocado en la sociedad masa. También se trata de poner de manifiesto el nuevo sentido de la libertad y la planificación en las sociedades altamente desarrolladas, así como las nuevas posibilidades de democratización que se abren en su seno, tomando como marco de referencia una "democracia militante" cuyo fundamento es la convicción básica de que el proceso democrático no es un mero procedimiento formal.PALABRAS CLAVEMANNHEIM-LIBERTAD-PLANIFICACIONABSTRACTOn the ocassion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of K. Mannheim, this paper tries to highlight the presnet day validity of his ideas of the last period. i analyze how historic processed caused by disproportionate development of human capacities- both moral and instrumental- have led to a "mass society". I also try to point out the new sense that the concepts of freedom and planning acquire in highly developed societies and also the new posibilities of democratization that emerge in the heart of these, taking as a point of reference a militant democracy" whose foundation is the basic conviction that the democratic process is not a mere formal procedure. KEYWORDSMANNHEIM-FREEDOM-PLANNING

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