Le 29 juin 2017
de 14h30 à 15h00
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 4
Séance précomposée - Quel futur pour la Formenlehre? Challenging Recapitulatory Paradigms
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Anne Hyland
The string quartets Schubert composed before the end of 1815 display remarkable consistency in their articulation of the moment of recapitulation. Of the nine quartets attributed to this period, six first-movement sonatas can be described as being either off tonic or engaging with Sonata Theory’s Type 2 strategies. In these movements, Schubert’s deferral of the tonic until later in the recapitulation is a relatively stable feature, and raises questions as to the role of tonal resolution, and our ability to perceive this via the lens of existing Formenlehre.
Employing Caplin’s theory of formal functions, this paper analyzes the first movement of Schubert’s Quartet in D major, D. 94, a movement which J.A. Westrup dismissed as being ‘so diffuse that it is no longer possible to discern any form’. Like the first movements of the Quartets D. 18 in G minor and D. 46 in C, this movement’s exposition ends in the tonic, and the recapitulation commences in a key other than the tonic, in this case, bVII. Thus, in these three movements, Schubert reverses the usual tonal principle of the sonata such that a tonally static exposition is answered by a tonally mobile recapitulation: the tonic requires a tonal counterbalance or resolution in the recapitulation.
This paper realizes the structural implications of this strategy. In particular, it focuses on small-scale phrase structures and localized syntax via an analysis of the inter- and intrathematic elements of the form. Ultimately, it demonstrates the ways in which Schubert’s generative response to a tonic-orientated exposition represents a decidedly processual approach to form, resonating with Janet Schmalfeldt’s philosophical theory of early-nineteenth-century form.
