Intertextuality, Narrativity and Tradition: 8 Brazilian Piano Sonatas

Abstract

Based on theories of intertextuality and narrativity as well as historical and social contextualization, the present paper discusses how eight piano sonatas written between 1950 and 1967 by César Guerra-Peixe (1914-1993), Eunice Catunda (1915-1990), Claudio Santoro (1919-1989), Esther Scliar (1926-1978) and Edino Krieger (1928) respectively, formed a new corpus of Brazilian concert music thoroughly grounded on neoclassical formal principles. Permeated with the highest level of pianistic virtuosity these eight works paved the way for a host of future works written by composers older and younger. The main argument is developed through the approximation between shared characteristics such as the prominence given to passages in unison found within the sonatas initial thematic statements and the utterances delivered by dramatic types, be they heroic or comic characters.