scholarly journals Hypermetrical Irregularity in Sonata Form: A Corpus Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Jonathan De Souza ◽  
David Lokan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Structural Instability ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Form Development

In sonata form, development sections are characterized by tonal, textural, and phrase-structural instability. But are these instabilities counterbalanced by regularity in other musical domains? Are any syntactic layers more consistent in developments, relative to expositions or recapitulations? This corpus study examined hypermeter in expositions and developments from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century symphonic sonata movements. It analyzed both hypermetrical shifts (where a hypermeasure's duration differs from that of the preceding group) and hypermetrical deviations (where a hypermeasure departs from the four-measure norm). Developments had significantly less hypermetrical irregularity than expositions. This difference between formal sections was observed with all composers in the corpus, though they used varied amounts of hypermetrical regularity overall. These results, which are likely related to sequence blocks in the developmental core, suggest that hypermetrical grouping might serve a stabilizing function in sonata developments.

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.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
L. Poundie Burstein
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Musical Form

Musical form is often discussed by appealing to metaphors that compare formal sections either to types of containers or to segments of journeys. Although both metaphors are usually combined and used interchangeably by most music analysts, since the nineteenth century container metaphors for form have tended to dominate. This contrasts with what was witnessed during the eighteenth century, where journey metaphors for musical form were more prevalent. The introductory chapter broadly compares container metaphors and journal metaphors for form, especially as they apply to sonata-form expositions in works composed during the Galant era. This chapter also introduces some of the features that tend to distinguish eighteenth-century formal discussions from modern ones, and it concludes with a preview of some of the strategies to be explored in subsequent chapters.

Journeys Through Galant Expositions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Poundie Burstein
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Musical Form ◽  
Standard Series ◽  
And Performance

Through much of the eighteenth century, commentators often described musical form in relation to a type of journey leading toward a set of specific tonal/harmonic/melodic/rhythmic goals, punctuated along the path by a standard series of resting points. Partly in reaction to developments witnessed in music composed during the high Classical era onward, since around the nineteenth century descriptions of musical form have tended to combine or even replace these “journey” metaphors with those that rely more heavily on architectonic analogies. When dealing with works composed around the middle of the 1700s, however, there are advantages for viewing musical form as it unfolds, much in the manner described by those who composed, improvised, listened to, and performed at the time. Taking as its focus the part of the movement now known as the exposition, this study analyzes the form of sonata-form works from Galant era by applying concepts and methodologies that stem from the eighteenth century, particularly those proposed by Heinrich Christoph Koch. It argues that analyzing this music through such a vantage point provides a valuable opportunity for understanding its form in a down-to-earth manner that can directly inform practical aspects of listening and performance.

Music and Narrative Revisited: Degrees of Narrativity in Beethoven and Mahler

2001 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Micznik
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Ninth Symphony ◽  
Musical Syntax ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Classical Style

This study presents an attempt to pin down the potential narrative qualities of instrumental, wordless music. Comparing as case-studies two pieces in sonata form–the first movements of Beethoven's ‘Pastoral’ Symphony (as representative of Classical narrative possibilities) and of Mahler's Ninth Symphony (as representative of its composer's idiosyncratic treatment of those in the late nineteenth century) –I propose a ‘narrative’ analysis of their musical features, applying the notions of ‘story’, ‘discourse’ and other concepts from the literary theory of, for example, Genette, Prince and Barthes. An analysis at three semiotic levels (morphological, syntactic and semantic), corresponding to denotative/connotative levels of meaning, shows that Mahler's materials qualify better as narrative ‘events’ on account of their greater number, their individuality and their rich semantic connotations. Through analysis of the ‘discursive techniques’ of the two pieces I show that a weaker degree of narrativity corresponds to music in which the developmental procedures are mostly based on tonal musical syntax (as in the Classical style), whereas a higher degree of narrativity corresponds to music in which, in addition to semantic transformations of the materials, discourse itself relies more on gestural semantic connotations (as in Mahler).

scholarly journals Sonata Form in the Nineteenth-Century Symphony

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Steven Craig Cannon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sonata Form

This paper presents an analytical survey of 283 symphonies dating from 1800-1899. Features of full symphonies include the rate of compositional output over the course of the century, the number, order, and keys of movements, and the prevalence of sonata form. Individual movements that use sonata form receive greater attention, including analysis of the general proportions of internal sections (that is, relative lengths of slow introductions, expositions, developments, and recapitulations plus codas), as well as overall tonal plans.

scholarly journals Commentary on "Sonata Form in the Nineteenth-Century Symphony"

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 225
Author(s):  
Ben Duane
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Analytical Methods ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Sonata Form

This commentary compares observational corpus analysis and hypothesis-driven analytical methods, and discusses the methods used in Cannon's "Sonata Form in the Nineteenth-Century Symphony" article.

scholarly journals Early Discoverers XXXVI: W.J. McGee On Glacial Erosion Laws and the Development of Glacial Valleys

1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (121) ◽  
pp. 419-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Harbor
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Glacial Geomorphology ◽  
Glacial Erosion ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Land Form ◽  
Erosion Processes ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Form Development ◽  
First Time

AbstractIn work presented in 1883 and published in full in 1894, W.J. McGee made one of the first clear attempts to outline the main morphologic differences between glaciated valleys and valleys developed by processes dominant in more temperate areas. Moreover, with an unprecedented analysis of glacial erosion, he attempted for the first time to explain the evolution of glacial land forms in terms of theoretical predictions of patterns of erosion under valley glaciers. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, there was fierce debate over whether glaciers were even capable of significant erosion, so it is perhaps not surprising that McGee’s analysis of glacial erosion processes and land-form development received little attention in his own time. Despite this, McGee’s work provided some of the first really convincing glacial explanations for the development of land forms such as hanging valleys and U-shaped valleys, and these were developed more fully in later work by Davis (1900) and Gilbert (1903). In modern research, the use of theoretical erosion laws and a knowledge of ice dynamics to develop models of land-form development is emerging as a major theme in glacial geomorphology, marking a return to the methodology pioneered by W.J. McGee.

scholarly journals Bruckner’s Symphonies and Sonata Deformation Theory

2005 ◽  
pp. 5-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Horton
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Deformation Theory ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
General Development ◽  
Recent Contribution ◽  
Normative Model ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Sonata deformation theory constitutes possibly the most substantial recent contribution to the analytical literature dealing with the sonata-type repertoire of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This notion, developed by James Hepokoski in relation to the music of Sibelius and Strauss and subsequently elaborated both collaboratively and separately by Warren Darcy and Hepokoski, posits nineteenth-century practice as a critical response to a theorized, normative model of sonata form. The widespread formal experimentation evident in the instrumental and symphonic repertoire from Chopin to Schoenberg arises, by these terms, from a more-or-less conscious distortion of the normative pattern proposed seminally by Anton Reicha, and consolidated in the Formenlehre abstractions of A. B. Marx and Carl Czerny, which in turn evolved as part of the pedagogical reception of Beethoven. This essay offers a critical appraisal of the extent to which deformation theory affords a satisfactory basis for understanding novel sonata procedures in Bruckner’s symphonies. The formal strategies of these works have proved habitually resistant to unproblematic sonata readings. Persistent accusations of formlessness have often been challenged by the detection of forming processes that cut across the perceived requirements of classical formal archetypes. Yet, pace Darcy’s study of deformational procedures in Bruckner (1997), I contend that this concept gives an inadequate rendition of the symphonies’ sonata forms, misrepresenting the nature of the composer’s didactic experience, the relationship of norm and deviation in the music, and the place the symphonies occupy in the general development of the genre after Beethoven.

scholarly journals Commentary on De Souza and Lokan (2019)

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Jan Miyake
Keyword(s):  
Published Data ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Data Support

This contribution is a brief commentary on the paper "Hypermetrical Irregularity in Sonata Form: A Corpus Study" by Jonathan De Souza and David Lokan. The original paper explores the hypothesis that in a sonata form, the development is more hypermetrically stable than the exposition. The published data support the hypothesis. The commentary suggests other paths for discussion and further tweaks to the study that may better show how data support or contradict De Souza and Lokan's intuitions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document