In Search of Liberated Time, or Schubert's Quartet in G Major, D. 887: Once More Between Sonata and Variation

This article investigates questions of form in the Finale of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, paying special attention to the reversed recapitulation as a problematic category in contemporary Formenlehre. Counterpointing Timothy Jackson's reading of the movement as a ‘tragic’ reversed sonata against James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy's critique of the concept of reversal, it seeks ways of accounting for the movement's novel form‐functional characteristics, which integrate concepts of thematic syntax with a model of chromatic tonality, drawing simultaneously on Schenkerian and neo‐Riemannian theories and the notion of the double‐tonic complex first proposed by Robert Bailey. The argument is contextualised in relation to critical debates about Bruckner's forms that originated during the composer's lifetime, especially claims of material discontinuity and harmonic illogicality, which were common in the symphonies’ pro‐Brahmsian reception and which linger in the discourse up to the present. The article's central claim is that a substantial understanding of both the Finale's form and its critical reception is attendant upon a theory of formal function, which takes seriously the difficulties of harmonic analysis that Bruckner's post‐Wagnerian idiom engenders.

Section: The Reversed Recapitulation Revisited: Functional Transformamentioning

confidence: 99%

Form and Orbital Tonality in the Finale of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony

Horton¹

2018

“…2424The use of this labelling with A, B and C (over Caplin's system with MT and ST), which is also instantiated by Horton (2016 and 2018b) and Hyland (2016), is motivated by my intention to accommodate more conveniently Bruckner's obvious tendency of using three distinctive theme groups. The sonata‐theoretical labelling convention with the primary theme (P), secondary theme (S) and closing theme (C), despite its application in some Bruckner studies (most notably Darcy 1997), also risks some confusion, since, in many cases, Bruckner's third theme does not begin with an authentic cadence, which is the fundamental requirement that defines Hepokoski and Darcy's concept of a ‘closing zone’ as a post‐EEC zone.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…3838The use of variations in sonata form can also be found in much of Schubert's instrumental music, most notably in the first movement of the String Quartet in G, D. 884. Hyland's (2016) analysis of that piece thoroughly addresses this issue, focusing on the juxtaposition of two competing temporalities – teleological time expressed by the first theme and variational time by the second theme – which resonates strongly with Bruckner's case.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sonata Form as Temporal Process: the First Movement of Bruckner's Sixth symphony

KIM

2024

The timeworn view that Bruckner's sonata form is a motionless architecture devoid of dynamic processes has long contributed his isolation from the mainstream post‐Beethovenian tradition. Taking inspiration from August Halm's (1914) and Ernst Kurth's (1925) approaches, which were aimed at overcoming this view, this article seeks to elucidate the processual aspects of Bruckner's symphonic form in light of recent theoretical developments in musical form. Specifically, it combines William Caplin's form‐functional theory (1998), especially its beginning–middle–end paradigm, with Matthew Arndt's (2018) reconception of formal functionality to construct a new framework for the analysis of Bruckner's symphonic forms.By way of an analytical case study of the first movement of Bruckner's Sixth Symphony, the article reveals that the expression of continuous motion occurring across discrete formal entities, often further dramatised by ‘wave dynamics’ (Kurth 1925), is fundamental to Bruckner's reinvigoration of sonata form's inherent temporal process in a post‐Romantic context. In the exposition, the inter‐thematic beginning, middle and end paradigms are redistributed to the three thematic groups, which express their unique temporal domain while delineating a continuous tonal journey from the home key to the subordinate key. The remainder of the movement articulates a gradual journey of homecoming, with each subsequent large‐scale part addressing previously suggested tonal implications. Ultimately, the modified form‐functional approach adopted in this study sheds light on Bruckner's exceptional care for formal syntax on various levels of structure, and its close association with an overarching, though unconventional, tonal plot.

“…4949Many theorists occupy a middle ground between a purely negative approach to Romantic form and an idealised positive one, for example, Hepokoski (1992), Jackson (1996), Hyland (2016), Caplin (2018) and Smith (2020). I too have taken this stance, for the inventiveness of much nineteenth‐century music relies on deformations of eighteenth‐century norms.…”

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confidence: 99%

Brahms's ‘Musical Prose’ Reconsidered

LIU¹

2022

In the history of Brahms reception, developing variation has emerged as a central concept. Another suggestive term, musical prose, often accompanies discussions of developing variation. Schoenberg defines musical prose as ‘the direct and straightforward presentation of ideas, without any patchwork, without mere padding and empty repetitions’ ([1947] 1975, p. 414). Current scholarship supposes that developing variation ‘provides the grammar by which musical prose is created’ (Frisch 1984, p. 9). This article restructures the relationship between developing variation and musical prose because a few prose‐like pieces by Brahms exhibit almost no developing variation. These works are representative of the hitherto unacknowledged category of ‘modular discourse’. Modular discourse presents incises that are not related by a common denominator, and many of them in quick succession. In other words, modular discourse does not rely on traditional motivic/thematic workings‐out to generate new content, unlike developing variation. To demonstrate modular procedures at intra‐rotational and inter‐rotational formal levels, I analyse the Andante sostenuto of Symphony No. 1 and the Scherzo of Symphony No. 4. Both movements are cast in multiple rotations within established forms, either sonata or ternary. In addition to discussing the logic of succession from one module to the next, I trace the formal‐functional recontextualisation of modules in later rotations to explain a perceived paradox: given the lack of development – modules often return verbatim or simply transposed – what factors are responsible for the changes in expressive meaning of later rotations?