Formal Jests: the Sonata‐Form Scherzo in Mendelssohn's Mature Chamber Music

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
BENEDICT TAYLOR
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
Sonata Form

Study, Copy, and Conquer

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Hedges Brown
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Expressive Power ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Piano Works ◽  
Piano Quartet ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Critical Writings

Schumann's 1842 chamber music exemplifies a common theme in his critical writings, that to sustain a notable inherited tradition composers must not merely imitate the past but reinvent it anew. Yet Schumann's innovative practices have not been sufficiently acknowledged, partly because his instrumental repertory seemed conservative to critics of Schumann's day and beyond, especially when compared to his earlier experimental piano works and songs. This essay offers a revisionist perspective by exploring three chamber movements that recast sonata procedure in one of two complementary ways: either the tonic key monopolizes the exposition (as in the first movement of the Piano Quartet in E♭ major, op. 47), or a modulating main theme undercuts a definitive presence of the tonic key at the outset (as in the first movement of the String Quartet in A major, op. 41, no. 3, and the finale of the String Quartet in A minor, op. 41, no. 1). Viewed against conventional sonata practice, these chamber movements appear puzzling, perhaps even incoherent or awkward, since they thwart the tonal contrast of keys so characteristic of the form. Yet these unusual openings, and the compelling if surprising ramifications that they prompt, signal not compositional weakness but rather an effort to reinterpret the form as a way of strengthening its expressive power. My analyses also draw on other perspectives to illuminate these sonata forms. All three movements adopt a striking thematic idea or formal ploy that evokes a specific Beethovenian precedent; yet each movement also highlights Schumann’s creative distance from his predecessor by departing in notable ways from the conjured model. Aspects of Schumann’s sketches, especially those concerning changes made during the compositional process, also illuminate relevant analytical points. Finally, in the analysis of the finale of the A-minor quartet, I consider how Schumann’s evocation of Hungarian Gypsy music may be not merely incidental to but supportive of his reimagined sonata form. Ultimately, the perspectives offered here easily accommodate—even celebrate—Schumann’s idiosyncratic approach to sonata form. They also demonstrate that Schumann’s earlier experimental tendencies did not contradict his efforts in the early 1840s to further advance his inherited classical past.

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.

scholarly journals Johannes Brahms’s Horn Trio and Its Unique Place in the Chamber Music Repertoire

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Chloë Sodonis
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
Folk Song ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Chamber Works ◽  
Developing Variation ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Measure Phrases ◽  
Attention To Detail

The purpose of this research is to explore the elements in Brahms’s Trio for Piano, Violin, and Horn in E-flat Major, op. 40, that contribute to its unique position in the vast and revered library of chamber music. These include Brahms's use of folksong, five-measure phrases, a variation on sonata form, developing variation, emotional elements, and unique instrumentation. The German folk song, Es soll sich ja keiner mit der Liebe abgeben is almost identical to the opening fourth movement theme of the horn trio. Brahms incorporates portions of this melody throughout all four movements of his horn trio which demonstrates an internal unity and cohesive use of folksong that contribute to his work’s individuality. This is one of many examples of Brahms’s attention to detail and use of surprising elements that allow his horn trio to stand out among thousands of other works. Through studying portions of Brahms’s Trio for Piano, Violin, and Horn in E-flat Major, op. 40., analyzing distinctive qualities of this work, and comparing these elements to those of other chamber works of the time, one can conclude that this piece has a unique place in the chamber music repertoire.

Pablo Neruda's Transnational Modernist Networks: Colombo-Madrid-London-Buenos Aires (1927–1933)

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-225
Author(s):  
Patricia Novillo-Corvalán
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Complex Composition ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The One ◽  
Composition Process ◽  
In Transit ◽  
Standing Question

This article positions Pablo Neruda's poetry collection Residence on Earth I (written between 1925–1931 and published in 1933) as a ‘text in transit’ that allows us to trace the development of transnational modernist networks through the text's protracted physical journey from British colonial Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to Madrid, and from José Ortega y Gasset's Revista de Occidente (The Western Review) to T. S. Eliot's The Criterion. By mapping the text's diasporic movement, I seek to reinterpret its complex composition process as part of an anti-imperialist commitment that proposes a form of aesthetic solidarity with artistic modernism in Ceylon, on the one hand, and as a vehicle through which to interrogate the reception and categorisation of Latin American writers and their cultural institutions in a British periodical such as The Criterion, on the other. I conclude with an examination of Neruda's idiosyncratic Spanish translation of Joyce's Chamber Music, which was published in the Buenos Aires little magazine Poesía in 1933, positing that this translation exercise takes to further lengths his decolonising views by giving new momentum to the long-standing question of Hiberno-Latin American relations.

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

Korngold and His World

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
American Film ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Film Scores ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Erich Wolfgang Korngold ◽  
American Popular Song

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) was the last compositional prodigy to emerge from the Austro-German tradition of Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was lauded in his youth by everyone from Mahler to Puccini and his auspicious career in the early 1900s spanned chamber music, opera, and musical theater. Today, he is best known for his Hollywood film scores, composed between 1935 and 1947. From his prewar operas in Vienna to his pathbreaking contributions to American film, this book provides a substantial reassessment of Korngold's life and accomplishments. Korngold struggled to reconcile the musical language of his Viennese upbringing with American popular song and cinema, and was forced to adapt to a new life after wartime emigration to Hollywood. The book examines Korngold's operas and film scores, the critical reception of his music, and his place in the milieus of both the Old and New Worlds. It also features numerous historical documents—many previously unpublished and in first-ever English translations—including essays by the composer as well as memoirs by his wife, Luzi Korngold, and his father, the renowned music critic Julius Korngold.

36. Practicing medicine and music II: Ophthalmology and music

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
L. P. Hwi ◽  
J. W. Ting
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Johann Sebastian Bach ◽  
Active Member ◽  
Active Researcher ◽  
Silver Medal ◽  
Medical Career ◽  
The One ◽  
The University ◽  
Over 40 Years

Cecil Cameron Ewing (1925-2006) was a lecturer and head of ophthalmology at the University of Saskatchewan. Throughout his Canadian career, he was an active researcher who published several articles on retinoschisis and was the editor of the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. For his contributions to Canadian ophthalmology, the Canadian Ophthalmological Society awarded Ewing a silver medal. Throughout his celebrated medical career, Ewing maintained his passion for music. His love for music led him to be an active member in choir, orchestra, opera and chamber music in which he sang and played the piano, violin and viola. He was also the director of the American Liszt Society and a member for over 40 years. The connection between music and ophthalmology exists as early as the 18th Century. John Taylor (1703-1772) was an English surgeon who specialized in eye diseases. On the one hand, Taylor was a scientist who contributed to ophthalmology by publishing books on ocular physiology and diseases, and by advancing theories of strabismus. On the other hand, Taylor was a charlatan who traveled throughout Europe and blinded many patients with his surgeries. Taylor’s connection to music was through his surgeries on two of the most famous Baroque composers: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and George Frederick Handel (1685-1759). Bach had a painful eye disorder and after two surgeries by Taylor, Bach was blind. Handel had poor or absent vision prior to Taylor’s surgery, and his vision did not improve after surgery. The connection between ophthalmology and music spans over three centuries from the surgeries of Taylor to the musical passion of Ewing. Ewing E. Cecil Cameron Ewing. BMJ 2006; 332(7552):1278. Jackson DM. Bach, Handel, and the Chevalier Taylor. Med Hist 1968; 12(4):385-93. Zegers RH. The Eyes of Johann Sebastian Bach. Arch Ophthalmol 2005; 123(10):1427-30.

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