The Expanded Caesura-Fill and Transcendental States in Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 382-413
Author(s):  
Andrew Aziz
Keyword(s):  
Sonata Form ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
Late Style ◽  
Development Section ◽  
Middle Period ◽  
Transcendental State

Anticipating Beethoven's late style, his Piano Sonata Op. 106, "Hammerklavier," contains distinct passages that serve to suspend formal time (noted by numerous scholars, including Adorno, Dahlhaus, Greene, Kinderman, et al.) and disrupt the forward progress of thematic zones within a sonata form. In this essay, I tie this suspension of time to a specific formal space introduced by Hepokoski and Darcy (2006)—the "caesura-fill"—which serves as a venue for compositional exploration throughout Beethoven's sonata oeuvre. Because caesura-fill music occurs between two thematic zones (transition and secondary themes), it has the potential not only for expansion but also for establishing a state of transcendence. In part 1, I investigate the presence of expanded caesura-fill in the exposition of the "Hammerklavier", which enters a transcendental state and postpones the secondary theme zone; harmonic and textural effects in the music underscore this aesthetic. In part 2, I draw comparisons to early- and middle-period works, most significantly the Eroica Symphony, Op. 55, and the "Archduke" Piano Trio, Op. 97. Finally, in part 3, I illustrate how the exposition of the "Hammerklavier" provides a script for the development section to again enter a zone of transcendence, using sharp-side keys to postpone and ultimately undermine the recapitulation.

The Middle Style/Late Style Dialectic

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Swinkin
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Organic Unity ◽  
Late Style ◽  
Thematic Unity ◽  
Late Works

In this essay, I aim both to elucidate and to problematize Adorno’s reading of Beethoven’s middle and late styles as essentially dichotomous. Specifically, Adorno holds that the middle-style works express the utter interdependency of the subjective and objective spheres in their emphasis upon organic wholeness and totality. By contrast, the late-style works express the alienation of subject from object in isolating and laying bare musical conventions. Yet middle Beethoven, as Adorno himself intimates, often calls organic unity into question, especially with respect to the recapitulation and coda in a sonata-form piece. Moreover, although Adorno does not seem to acknowledge it, the middle style exhibits fragmentation both in partitioning the sonata principle into subprinciples and, more concretely, in partitioning a theme into various subcomponents. Conversely, using Schenkerian techniques, one can expose sub-thematic unity underlying foreground fragmentation in the late works (as demonstrated by Daniel Chua and Kevin Korsyn). Drawing on Schenker’s reading, I use Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in A, op. 101 as a case study. In the second half of the essay I confront the political connotations of Adorno’s argument, again problematizing particular stylistic binarisms with respect to issues of freedom, solidarity, and hope.

scholarly journals Two-Part Transition or Two-Part Subordinate Theme?

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65
Author(s):  
Carl Wiens
Keyword(s):  
Functional Role ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Classical Form ◽  
Clear Cut

In William Caplin’s Classical Form (1998), the ending of a sonata-form exposition’s two-part transition and a two-part subordinate theme’s internal cadence share the same harmonic goal: the new key’s dominant. In this article, the author contends that the choice between the two is not as clear-cut as Caplin suggests, arguing that the functional role of these passages should be read within the context of the entire sonata movement, rather than on more localized analytical interpretations of the sonata’s sections taken in isolation. Two works are discussed: the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata op. 2, no. 3, and the first movement of the Piano Sonata op. 10, no. 2.

Does a ‘monothematic’ expositional design have tautological implications for the recapitulation? An alternative approach to ‘altered recapitulations’ in Haydn

2010 ◽  
Vol 51 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 369-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Neuwirth
Keyword(s):  
Formal Structure ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Analytical Studies ◽  
Development Section ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Structural Aspects

‘Altered recapitulations,’ commonly regarded as a distinguishing feature of Joseph Haydn’s sonata form movements, are usually explained in terms of the ‘monothematic’ design of the exposition. According to the logic used in such analytical studies, recomposing the recapitulation would have been aimed at restoring the proportional balance between exposition and recapitulation, a need that resulted from the omission of the seemingly redundant, retransposed secondary theme along with the preceding transition. Though such an explanation has long been considered indisputable, this article casts doubt on the validity of the redundancy principle by showing that Haydn often did retain the monothematic section in the recapitulation. Rather, the recomposition of the recapitulation results from two important structural aspects thus far largely neglected in the literature: (1) the repetitive formal structure of the main theme, which is often considerably reworked in the recapitulation; and (2) the insertion of a separate newly composed dominant zone in the recapitulation that serves to compensate for the lack of a structural dominant at the end of the development section. Finally, it is argued here that Haydn, who was deeply rooted in the late Baroque tradition, by no means regarded multiple ‘double returns’ as either problematic or redundant, for he may have been thinking more in terms of an overriding ritornello structure.

scholarly journals Sonata-Formal Functions and Transformational Processes in the First Movement of Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 6

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Bor
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Transformational Theory ◽  
The Third ◽  
Development Section ◽  
Musical Structures ◽  
Event Series ◽  
Set Up

To the extent that it represents the actual temporal event-series of a composition, transformational theory can reveal some interesting correlations between the formal functions of sections and the transformations that characterize them. For example, the changes in characteristic transformations in the first movement of George Rochberg’s sixth string quartet articulate specific functions familiar in sonata form. The differing types of transformations (transposition versus inversion) in the first two sections set up a contrast analogous to that of the first and second themes. The third section functions as a development section, blending both types of transformations found in the exposition. Reprises of these types, and their contrast, define the function of the last two sections as a recapitulation, in which the second-theme group is metaphorically transposed. Rochberg has been criticized for mimicking conventional musical structures, but this analysis demonstrates how he successfully reinvents a tonal form with non-tonal transformations.

Musically puzzling I: Sensitivity to overall structure in the sonata form?

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roni Y. Granot ◽  
Nori Jacoby
Keyword(s):  
Musical Training ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Musical Form ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Tonal Structure ◽  
Distance Score ◽  
New Type ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Puzzle Task

Previous studies have suggested that listeners are not sensitive to the overall tonal structure of musical pieces. This assumption is reexamined in the current study in an active musical puzzle task, with no time constraints, focusing on the presumably most directional musical form – the sonata form. In our first study (reported here, and referred to as “the Mozart study”), participants with varying levels of musical training were presented with disordered sections of Mozart’s piano sonata K. 570/I in B flat major and asked to rearrange the ten sections into a musically logical coherent whole. A second study (to be reported in Musicae Scientiae issue 16[1]) replicated the task in a different group of participants who listened to Haydn’s piano sonata, Hob: XVI-34/I in E minor. In contrast with previous studies, we do not focus on listeners’ ability to recover the original sonatas. Rather, we explore emergent patterns in their responses using new types of analysis. Our results indicate that listeners show: (1) Some sensitivity to the overall structure of A-B-A’ around the non-stable B section; (2) Non- trivial sensitivity to overall “directionality” through a new type of analysis (“distance score”); (3) Correct grouping and placement of developmental sections possibly related to listener’s sensitivity to musical tension; (4) Sensitivity to opening and closing gestures, thematic similarity and surface cues and; (5) No sensitivity to global harmonic structure.

Higher Echoes of the Past in the Finale of Schumann's 1842 Piano Quartet

2004 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Hedges Brown
Keyword(s):  
Piano Music ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Piano Sonatas ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
The Past ◽  
Piano Quartet ◽  
Parallel Forms ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
Formal Strategy

Critics have long emphasized the stylistic distanced between Robert Schumann's early piano music and the more traditional works of the early 1840s. This essay clarifies-precisely by questioning-this seeming divide, showing how the finale of the 1842 Piano Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 47, interacts with Schumann's compositional and personal histories in multifarious and previously unexplored ways: (1) by reworking the effect of a lyrical arabesque within a sonata-form movement to a more "redemptive" end (thus deflecting a formal strategy for the first movement of the 1836 Fantasie, Op. 17); (2) by readopting the "parallel forms" of his earlier piano sonatas; and (3) by alluding to the fifth piece of Schumann's 1838 Novelletten, Op. 21, an idea that introduces within both works a play between private and public moments that echoes aspects of Robert and Clara's life as it evolved from their early betrothal to married life in 1842. The article also demonstrates links to the works of two significant predecessors: Schubert's F-Minor Impromptu, Op. 142, and Bb-Major Piano Trio, Op. 99, and Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Op. 106, works evoked by the finale in ways that gauge Schumann's affinity for, yet also distance from, his precursors.

Schubert's Homecoming

2000 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Marston
Keyword(s):  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Critical Moment ◽  
Middle Period

This article explores the metaphorical identification of the tonic key as ‘home’ in relation to the first movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in B♭, D.960. Rejecting conventional readings whereby a ‘foreign’ or ‘alien’ element is ultimately assimilated into the ‘home’ sphere, it argues that in this movement Schubert succeeds in doing the reverse, rendering the tonic ‘unhomely’ (unheimlich; ‘uncanny’) at a critical moment in the recapitulation. Schubert's practice in this instance is contrasted with that of Beethoven in selected middle-period works; and Schubert's own fragmentary continuity draft for the movement, as well as songs from Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang, are brought to bear on the investigation of ‘home’ and ‘das Unheimliche’.

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