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theses

By the end of the eighteenth century, questions of form in Western instrumental music centered largely on what critics would later call “sonata form.” Its middle part, commonly recognized as Durchführung, or “development,” but also usefully described by Leonard Ratner’s maximally inclusive term “X section,” contrasts with the outer sections in tonality and sometimes thematic material. Its manifestations have been examined in at least cursory fashion in all authoritative accounts of sonata form, most recently and extensively by James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy in Elements of Sonata Theory (2006); but little attention has been devoted to the rhetorical or narrative forces in play that inform the relationship between this “and the plot thickens” phase and the logical procession of events by which it is framed (i.e., opening ritornello in a concerto, exposition, recapitulation, coda, etc.) My dissertation seeks to address this lacuna by considering ways in which the three Viennese masters Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven often imbued their X sections with musical signification that advanced or captured the overall character of a work. This character, which I refer to as “ethos,” finds dynamic expression in an X section’s manipulation of exposition material, introduction of new material, and on occasion, interaction with subsequent events. The central questions to be posed herein focus on key aspects of the X section’s function and spirit as witnessed in an array of specific instances. These are drawn mostly from the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and they cover a wide range of genres. Individual chapters consider the X section as it relates to matters of rhetoric, post-recapitulatory space, Mozart’s piano concertos and certain arias and ensembles from his operas, and Enlightenment notions of the sublime.

ETD_8567

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Daniel M. Libin

doi:10.7282/T30C4ZZJ

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.