Description
TitleTragedies of the romantic female
Date Created2016
Other Date2016-05 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (xi, 222 p. : ill.)
DescriptionThe first movements of Schubert’s string quartets in A minor (D. 804, 1824), D minor (D. 810, 1824), and G major (D. 887, 1826), his last three in the genre, are marked by dramatic intensity. Themes in their sonata structures are constructed with musical topics that reference vocal or theatrical genres, including the recitative-like, the song-like, and various textures that imitate operatic ensembles. These topical references are often the result of Schubert’s allusions to his earlier vocal and theatrical works. In addition to the well-known quotations in the inner movements of the two quartets from 1824, I demonstrate that textures and compositional procedures in the first movements of all three quartets also connect them to Schubert’s songs “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (D. 118, 1814) and “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (D. 531, 1817), and his opera Fierrabras (D. 796, 1823). In this dissertation, I situate these quartets after Schubert’s years of opera (1821-23) in order to examine their first movements’ fusion of genres. I show how expressive features interact with musical structures to suggest narrative interpretations. The topical and textural allusions are taken as generic referents to vocal and theatrical genres that help determine a mode of presentation for each movement (a monologue, a dramatic dialogue, and an opera respectively), and the dramaturgy of the works to which the quartets allude helps narrow the range of narrative possibilities in addressing issues such as musical agency (including narrator and theme actors) and temporality. Sonata form is taken as a generic marker of the host genre, the string quartet, which offers a prescribed thematic and harmonic trajectory for the plot. Consulting historical, biographical, intertextual and musical contexts of the expressive features in question, I argue that each of the first movements of Schubert’s last quartets embodies a tragedy involving a Romantic female: a lamenting single woman, a dying young maiden, and a noble prima donna. Their expressions of desolation, fear, and courage are highlighted in moments that are drawn from the dramatic high points in Schubert’s vocal and theatrical works.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Chia-Yi Wu
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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