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Back and Forth from Egmont: Beethoven, Mozart, and the Nonresolving Recapitulation

Author(s): James Hepokoski


Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 25, No. 2-3 (Fall/Spring 2001-02), pp. 127-154
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ncm.2001.25.2-3.127
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JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Egmont:
Beethoven,
Mozart

Back and Forth from Egmont:


Beethoven, Mozart, and the
Nonresolving Recapitulation
JAMES HEPOKOSKI

In a world of contending analytical systems, My plan here is less ambitious. I shall merely
several of which have settled into the comforts call attention to some elementary analytical
of orthodoxy, what does it mean to confront points about a few works of Beethoven and of
formal structures adequately? At times it can Mozart and inquire into their rami cations for
be a matter of nding a fresh perspective that a more productive hermeneutics. This article
encourages us to ask questions that might oth- is primarily neither about Beethoven and Mozart
erwise be overlooked, neutralized, or dismissed nor about the analyses themselves. Instead, it
within current paradigms. What would it re- is an exercise in a way of framing questions, of
quire to seek a different perspective, to proceed pursuing implications, of registering the pro-
from a new site of questioning? vocative corollaries that even simple observa-
In what follows I shall glance at a few ideas tions can generate.
that we might use in sonata-form analysisto My point of departurethe initial elemen-
suggest some features of a perhaps unaccus- tary observationis noticing the curiosity, in
tomed mode of thinking about this topic. Along
the way this may entail some unfamiliar con-
cepts, terms, and de nitions, all of which are in more detail each aspect of the terminology and style of
basic to the analytical and interpretational the hermeneutics that underpin this article. Put another
way, my goal here cannot be to derive this system but
method that I call Sonata Theory. Laying out only, within certain limitations, to demonstrate the meth-
the justi cation for each concept would be a odology in action. Thus I hope to suggest some of the
different enterprise altogether, requiring many practical results to which it leads and to refer readers to
the more elaborate discussions of the basic principles that
separate discussions. And in any event, that will soon appear in the Elements of Sonata Theory. I should
aspect of the project is carried out elsewhere.1 perhaps mention two additional points. First, while there
are points of contact between the present article and the
forthcoming book, this article, taking up a central issue
and several examples in more detail, is not an extract from
1
James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata the latter. Second, this essay was conceived as one of a
Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eigh- complementary pair of articles. Its sibling is Beyond the
teenth-Century Sonata (New York: Oxford University Sonata Principle, Journal of the American Musicological
Press, forthcoming). Elements of Sonata Theory takes up Society 55 (2002), 91154.

19th-Century Music, XXV/23, pp. 12754. ISSN: 0148-2076. 2002 by The Regents of the University of 127
California. All rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University
of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center St., Ste. 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223.
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19 TH some sonata-form compositions, of what I call tional generic mission of tonal closure. Rare in
CENTURY
MUSIC the nonresolving recapitulation. The term is the decades around 1800, this phenomenon is
not self-explanatory. From the outset we have easy to identify, but the conceptual and inter-
to think about de nitions. This use of the word pretive problems swirling around it are numer-
recapitulation refers to what I distinguish as ous and challenging.
the rhetorical recapitulation, a stretch of com-
positional space normatively recognizable as The Overture to EGMONT: Nonresolution,
by and large symmetrical in layout to the expo- Deferral, and Post-Sonata Attainment
sition-pattern, its thematic and textural model.
We may begin by reminding ourselves of what
(It is sometimes useful to distinguish this rhe-
is surely the locus classicus of the nonresolving
torical recapitulation, a matter of thematic-
recapitulation: Beethovens Egmont Overture,
modular arrangement, from the completion of
op. 84 (1810). Here the expositions tonal plan
the linear-tonal argumenta tonal resolution
is regular, moving from minori to major III for
which may be understood to concern itself with
the secondary theme (from F minor to A ma-
harmonic matters.) Although a range of
jor). Moreover, the secondary themes generic
recapitulatory deviations from the referential
goal, like that of all secondary themes of this
pattern are possibledeletions, reorderings,
period, is to secure a perfect authentic cadence
telescopings, expansions, recompositions of in-
in the new keyto produce what I call the
dividual sectionswithin customary practice
point of essential expositional closure (the EEC).
expositions and rhetorical recapitulations are
I understand the EEC as the rst satisfactory
usually kept roughly commensurate with each
perfect authentic cadence in the subordinate
other. In a nonresolving recapitulation the com-
key that proceeds onward to differing material.
poser has crafted this rhetorical recapitulatory
(Demonstrating what is meant by satisfactory
revisiting, or new rotation, 2 of previously or-
would lead us astray here. This is a compli-
dered expositional materials to convey the im-
cated and fundamental issue within Sonata
pression that it fails to accomplish its addi-
Theory.) For now, we need only observe that its
corresponding moment in the recapitulation is
the point of essential structural closure, the
2
By a rotational process I mean an ordered arrangement of ESC. This is expected to be a perfect authentic
diverse thematic modules that is subjected to a (usually
varied or altered) recycling, or several recyclings, later on cadence in the tonic, thus completing the es-
in the work. Expositions thus provide an ordered, referen- sential structural trajectory of the musical pro-
tial rotation through a set of materials that is recycled, cess at hand. In other words, the ESC marks
with alterations, in the recapitulatory rotation. In the de-
cades around 1800 developments may also be fully or par- the attainment of a resolving recapitulation,
tially rotational (including the possibility of half-rotations, one with a satisfactory articulation of closure
blocked rotations, and the like), although nonrotational in the tonic. The outlines of this are indicated
developments are also a possibility. The concept is elabo-
rated further in Hepokoski and Darcy, Elements of Sonata in the diagrams in g. 1ab, which provide an
Theory, which also includes a discussion of the utility of overview of the generalized conception of so-
the speci c term, rotation. For considerations of rota- nata form under the paradigm of Sonata Theory.
tions a century later, see Hepokoski, Sibelius: Symphony
No. 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. (P, TR, S, and C stand for primary theme, tran-
2326, 5884; The Essence of Sibelius: Creation Myths sition, secondary theme, and closing theme;
and Rotational Cycles in Luonnotar, in The Sibelius Com- MC stands for the medial caesura [the frequent
panion, ed. Glenda Dawn Goss (Westport: Greenwood,
1996), pp. 12146; and Rotations, Sketches, and [Sibeliuss] midexpositional, cadential break in a two-part
Sixth Symphony, Sibelius Studies, ed. Timothy L. Jack- exposition]; PAC stands for a perfect authentic
son and Veijo Murtomki (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- cadence.)3
sity Press, 2001), pp. 32251. See also Darcy, The Meta-
physics of Annihilation: Wagner, Schopenhauer, and the
Ending of the Ring, Music Theory Spectrum 16 (1994), 1
40; Bruckners Sonata Deformations, in Bruckner Stud- 3
For the MC and two-part exposition, see Hepokoski and
ies, ed. Timothy L. Jackson and Paul Hawkshaw (Cam- Darcy, The Medial Caesura and Its Role in the Eigh-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 25677; and teenth-Century Sonata Exposition, Music Theory Spec-
Rotational Form, Teleological Genesis, and Fantasy-Pro- trum 19 (1997), 11554. For considerations of the addi-
jection in the Slow Movement of Mahlers Sixth Sym- tional concepts, see Hepokoski and Darcy, Elements of
phony, this journal 25 (2001), 4974. Sonata Theory, from which gs. 1ab are taken.

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a. Exposition only JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Essential Expositional Trajectory (to the EEC) Egmont:
Beethoven,
Mozart

MC
, nal
PAC cadence
continuation modules, or: EEC
series of energy-gaining modules
.......
Relaunch: C
TR = energy-gain
S
+ acceptance of P Post-cadential Appendix or set of
accessory ideas. May be
Launch: new key multisectional (C1, C 2, etc.) and of
P usually piano varying lengths. Usually forte or
often lyrical, etc. gaining in rhetorical force.
often forte non-tonic key
proposes the in V
either modulatory (or, if P was in minor, in III or in v)
main idea for or non-modulatory
the sonata

tonic key

Exposition, Part 1 Exposition, Part 2

b. The entire structure


Essential Sonata Trajectory (to the ESC)

interruption
MC
, EEC nal
cadence Development:
often P or PTR dominated
(perhaps rotational)
S C MC ESC
,
nal
V as cadence
chord restart
V or III
Coda
P TR P TR S C
often
recomposed

I I I I
(emph: IV?) (tonal resolution)

Exposition Development Recapitulation


(One central mission: laying out (S, as agent, carries out the central generic
the strategy for the eventual attainment task of the sonatasecuring the ESC:
of the ESC: a structure of promise ) astructure of accomplishment)

Figure 1ab: The Generic Layout of Sonata Form (Exposition and Entire Movement).

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19 TH In the exposition of the F-Minor Egmont Beethoven for answering expositional mediants
CENTURY
MUSIC Overture the EEC is produced unequivocally with recapitulatory submediants (most nota-
with a perfect authentic cadence in III (A ma- bly, in the Piano Sonatas in G, op. 31, no. 1,
jor) in m. 104. (Example 1, only a melodic line, movt. I; and C, op. 53, movt. I).
provides an aide-mmoire.) Following generic To this objection, however familiar or
expectation, one anticipates, even within a commonsensical it might initially seem, one
quasi-programmatic overture of that period, that can propose several interrelated lines of re-
in the recapitulation the secondary theme will sponse, which are perhaps necessary only to
return and resolve in the tonic, producing an touch on here. The rst point to recognize is
ESC in either a victorious F major or a tragic F that the most often-cited Beethovenian prece-
minor that is reinforced by a brief closing zone dents (pre-Egmont) for such fth-relations be-
in the same key. But this does not happen. In tween expositional mediant and recapitulatory
the rst half of the recapitulatory space the submediant occur in major-mode compositions
drive to the medial caesura is derailed onto a (where an expositional choice of iii or III for the
suddenly asserted D major (VI, m. 207: see ex. secondary theme would be unusual), not in
2), soon proceeding to a prolonged dominant minor-mode ones. When such a recapitulatory
chord of the same key, mm. 21724 (with MC submediant balanceif that is in fact what
at m. 224). Consequently, the secondary theme, it isis furnished in these major-mode prece-
merely transposed from the expositionas is dents, the recapitulatory VI, unlike the exposi-
typicalis articulated not in the expected tonic, tional III, is usually ephemeral, incapable of
F major, but rather in the submediant, D ma- sustaining itself at length. Very soon after it
jor. It is in this wrong key that the rhetorical begins, the submediant-in ected secondary-
cadential substitute for the ESC is made to theme area self-corrects to the tonic to resolve
occur (m. 247). This perfect authentic cadence properly (that is, to produce a normative, tonic
in VI is con rmed by a similar D -major clos- ESC). This may involve a backing-up to rebegin
ing zonea transposition of the original twelve the entire, improperly launched S-theme in
measures from the exposition. This closing the tonic (as in op. 31, no. 1, movt. I) or an
theme brings the rhetorical recapitulation to a almost immediate tonal correction en route
cadential and emphatically major-mode end, within the S-theme itself (as in op. 53, movt.
though a tonally displaced one, in m. 259. In I).4 In other words, from an only slightly ad-
sum, the recapitulatory rotation has not pro- justed standpoint the perceived tonal balance
duced a tonal resolution. All of its closures are
in a false VI, D major, not in the true
tonic, F. This produces one type of nonresolving
4
A related situation occurs when the second half of an
exposition, grounded essentially in the proper key, the
recapitulation. dominant in major-mode expositions, contains an interior
So much might seem self-evidentbut even passage that momentarily tonicizes a contrasting key (not
here we might pause to underscore the point necessarily a mediant) only to return to the more standard
key to conclude the passage in question. Normally, toward
and to anticipate one or two possible caution- the end of the movement, the fth-transposition that gov-
ary or critical replies. Within this repertory the erns the shift from the expositional V to the recapitulatory
crucial tonal factor, rendered effectively obliga- I will alsoas a matter of coursecontrol any eeting
interior escape to the contrasting key. The rst move-
tory by decades of precedents, is recapitulatory ment of Beethovens String Quartet in D, op. 18, no. 3, for
resolution in the tonic. To my observation about example, arrives at an A major (V) perfect authentic ca-
the nonresolution in Egmont, though, one might dence in m. 57, but slips ephemerally into C major (locally,
III of A) in mm. 6871shortly thereafter returning to A
imagine a caveat suggesting that since the minor (mm. 7275) and A major (m. 76). In the
expositions A and the recapitulations D are recapitulations fth-transposition the corresponding key
related by fth-transposition, this would suf- that is brie y alluded to, of course, is F major ( III of D),
mm. 199202. (Here I avoid the term secondary theme
ce to produce at least some type of satisfac- because this exposition is better interpreted as a provoca-
tory balance, both because fth-relations with tive instance of the second type of continuous exposition,
the exposition at this point of the composition lacking a proper medial caesura and secondary themea
structural and expressive issue whose explication would
are common within sonata forms and be- require too much space in the present context. See, how-
cause there are a few celebrated precedents in ever, n. 23 below along with its related passage in the text.)

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JAMES
82 S HEPOKOSKI
Egmont:
Beethoven,
dolce dolce
cresc. Mozart
3 3 EEC
3 3
94 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 C
3 3 3

106

Example 1: Beethoven, Overture to Egmont, op. 84, mm. 82116 (single voice line only).

205

214

224 S
MC

dolce

Example 2: Beethoven, Overture to Egmont, op. 84, mm. 20528 (single voice line only).

in these cases might be more accurately con- that Beethoven invariably balances a mediant
strued as a complementary recapitulatory in the exposition with a submediant in the
feintsomething soon amendedthat recalls recapitulation (italics mine).6 This is not the
or acknowledges the non-normative key planted
in the parallel passage of the exposition. It may
be the nonsustain able aspect of the 6Rosen, Schuberts In ections of Classical Form, in The
recapitulatory submediant, not its eeting ap- Cambridge Companion to Schubert, ed. Christopher H.
Gibbs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p.
pearance, that is the main point. 5
87. One presumes that Rosens initial impulse, in this
Moreover, as a general claim or summation context (a discussion of tonal issues in Schuberts Grand
of common wisdom about sonatas, it is not Duo in C, D. 812, movt. I), was to refer primarily to
major-mode sonata-form examples, since the number of
true, as Charles Rosen has recently asserted,
self-evident minor-mode sonata-form contradictions to the
claim is vast (as is mentioned in my subsequent paragraph
below in the text). And yet, following references to op. 31,
5Thus in their incompletenessor when not followed up no. 1, and op. 53, Rosen sought to include a number of
with a more precise description of the situation at hand minor-mode late-style examples of this, some of which,
one might nd blunt statements of the type encountered, as it happens, were inaccurate.
e.g., in Charles Rosen, The Romantic Generation (Cam- Additionally, Rosen suggestedwith slightly more de-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 244, to tail, perhaps, in The Romantic Generation, p. 244, directly
be insuf cient: In the Waldstein Sonata, in C major, the following the statements cited in n. 5 abovethat in the
E major mediant of the exposition is balanced by the E at-Major Quartet, op. 127 [ rst movement], the mediant
submediant A major/minor in the recapitulation. In the G major is balanced later by submediant C major. The
Sonata for Piano in G Major, op. 31, no. 1, the second problematic element nessed in this claim (concealed un-
group in the mediant B major returns in the submediant E der the general word, later) is that the presumed balance
major. Compare n. 6 below. occurs in fundamentally different parts of the rotational

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19 TH case, for instance, with the C-Major Overture, With this in mind, we may return the fth-
CENTURY
MUSIC Leonore 3 (1806), whose expositional S-theme transposition discussion to minor-mode so-
in E major (III) is recapitulated intact, more or nata-form practice, perhaps more immediately
less as a direct transposition (including some relevant to the F-Minor Egmont. And here the
transient internal sequences), down a major central point is this: minor-mode expositions
third, in C. And although the very concept of a with secondary and closing themes in III (that
recapitulation is problematized in its C-major is, most minor-mode expositions) do not nor-
predecessor, Leonore 2 (1805), we may at least mally provide such a balancing submediant
observe that no submediant balance for the at the corresponding points in the recapitula-
expositions secondary-theme mediant is pro- tion. Instead, the recapitulatory S and C almost
vided in the nal third of the composition (say, always appear only in the tonicthat is, down
mm. 348 [C minor]530): the closest approxi- a third from the exposition. As a result, minor-
mation comes with the E trumpet-calls (unre- mode sonatas moving to the mediant in their
lated to the secondary theme), mm. 392441, a expositions are not primarily under the sway of
at-mediant breakthrough parenthesis within the fth-transposition guideline more properly
the form. In short, even in major-mode sonata encountered as normative practice in those
forms of this period not all expositional major-mode works (or minor-mode works) that
mediants call forth recapitulatory submediants move to the dominant in their expositions. To
in the complementary passages. And when they be sure, any nontonic fth-transposition that
do not, we do not criticize these works as awed does occur in a minor-mode sonata form (such
or unbalanced.7 as the A D relation in Egmont) provides a
symmetrical tonal logic that is instantly com-
prehensible as a musical procedure. When such
layout. The expositions secondary theme, in the mediant symmetries do occur (and again, they need not
(m. 41), returns intact in the tonic in the recapitulation do so), they may also be interpreted as alluding
(m. 207), a situation unlike that in op. 31, no. 1, movt. I
and op. 53, movt. I. The cited C-major element surfaces to the tonal satisfactions normatively obtained
(and is nonsustainable) only considerably earlier and with through the usual fth-conventions of major-
reference to another theme altogether, at m. 135, Maestoso mode practice. But there is no reason to sup-
(the onset of the third rotation of basic materials). Among
the obvious questions to be raised are: how can tonal bal- pose that the situation must be interpreted that
ances occur in radically different parts of a rotational way, nor that the resulting structure is some-
layout?; how can recapitulatory, pre-medial-caesura tonal how rendered satisfactory solely on the basis of
moves balance expositional, post-medial-caesura keys?;
why are the speci c thematic or textural statements that this hypothetical allusion. In other words, a
underpin these balancesand their assigned positions musical con guration may be in some respects
within the general layoututterly irrelevant to these tonal rhetorically balanced while still falling short of
generalizations?
7
Also instructive is the perhaps related procedure found in basic expectations in other generic areas. And
the rst movement of the String Quintet in C, op. 29. that falling short might be the larger, more
Here the exposition (mm. 193), non-normatively, moves troubling point of the composition. Here and
from an initial I (C major) to the submediant, VI and vi (A
major, A minor). (At this point one might recall Rosens elsewhere, the problem-ridden fth-relation ar-
assertion in The Romantic Generation, p. 240: One gument alone does not provide an adequate
should, I suppose, make basic distinctions among these explanation for what happens in Egmont. In-
third relationships: major and minor mediant, atted
mediant, submediant, and atted submediant. . . . But deed, invoking it only leads to more conceptual
Beethoven employs all of these in similar fashion.) The uncertainties. In this piece the rhetorical reca-
recapitulation of op. 29, movt. I, presents the correspond-
ing SC portion (which, like the exposition, includes a
eetingly local tonal escape to a related at-key shortly
into the passage) up a third, in C major-minor-major certain recapitulations were optional features. In other
throughout, albeit with expansions and other rhetorical words, when they do appear, they are surely important
complications at its end, none of which are directly re- and worthy of our hermeneutic attention, but they seem
lated to tonal choice. Thus in this recapitulation, as would not to have responded to what we might imagine to be
be the case in Leonore 3, Beethoven provides not the slight- Beethovens keen sense in general about the acute need
est hint of any lower- (or upper-) fth-based balance or to provide such a recapitulatory balance. (Compare also
compensation for the unusual S-and-C key in the exposi- the recapitulatory tonic-treatment of the originally
tion. One may conclude that within this repertory what submediant secondary theme in the rst movement of the
we might regard today as compensatory fth-balances in Archduke Piano Trio in B , op. 97.)

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pitulation, however balanced, is most pro t- in the century). Nevertheless, once again, given JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
ably regarded as nonresolving. the early-nineteenth-century context it would Egmont:
Nor is this the place to enter at length into a surely be preferable to suppose that Beethoven Beethoven,
Mozart
quite differing discussion, perhaps occurring to was working most fundamentally within so-
current neo-Riemannian or transformation theo- nata-generic guidelines rmly established by
rists, concerning the degree to which the precedent and resolutely diatonic (and thereby
recapitulations D within S and C may be seen invoking the tonic/nontonic binary) in their
as something of a workable substitute or proxy expected practice.
for the more normative F-minor tonic (and in- Taking the more obvious interpretive course,
deed, as a sonority prepared by earlier appear- by regarding the overture as purposefully dis-
ances of D major within the overture, as in playing a generically transgressive tonal path,
mm. 1517 of the introduction). In ecting the one of nonresolution, also leads to more re-
pitch C of an F-minor triad up a half step to warding hermeneutic observations. The theat-
D one type of 56 shift that is sometimes rical implicationsonata-process as meta-
now referred to as the L relation for Leitton- phorcould not be clearer. Just as in Goethes
wechselwould produce a D triad, which could play, the hero and political martyr, the Flemish
be stabilized by being recon gured into root Count Egmont, fell short of the immediate ideal
position. In Richard Cohns terms, F minor and of liberating the Netherlands from Spain, so
D major are thereby hexatonically (and too the sonata-space of Beethovens overture
smoothly) related as adjacent harmonies replicated that lack of success in the purely
on a cycle of triads based on voice-leading ef - musical terms of a nonresolving recapitulation.
ciency. One could thus envision an argument Similarly, just as Count Egmonts impending
suggesting that the Overture to Egmont might execution at the end of the playthe sign of
be more preoccupied with laying out equiva- his apparent failure within his own sphere of
lences within hexatonic elds or cycles rather time and actionwas in the long run to be the
than relying on a perhaps overly restrictive tonic igniter of utopian consequences (as we learn
resolution per se.8 Such a proposition can hardly from his famous last-moment prison-speech
be regarded as irrelevant (even though such foretelling the uprising of the people), so too,
claims are typically more fruitful when applied the sonata-failure in the overtures reca-
to a more chromatically saturated music later pitulatory space functions as the musical pre-
condition for the works tonal resolution out-
side of sonata-space, namely, in the coda.9
8
See, e.g., Richard L. Cohn, Maximally Smooth Cycles, And what happens, of course, is well known.
Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late-Romantic Following the rhetorical recapitulation, a short,
Triadic Progressions, Music Analysis 15 (1996), 940;
Cohn, As Wonderful as Star Clusters: Instruments for S-based in-tempo link (mm. 25986) begins a
Gazing at Tonality in Schubert, this journal 22 (1999), dnouement-appendix interpretable as includ-
21332; and the entire issue of Journal of Music Theory 42 ing a reference to Egmonts execution (m. 278).10
(1998), devoted to Neo-Riemannian theory. The transfor-
mation-labels L (Leittonwechsel, or leading-tone ex-
change), P (parallel), and R (relative), a development
of earlier work by David Lewin, were proposed by Brian 9
Compare the similar remarks in Martha Calhoun, Mu-
Hyer, Tonal Intuitions in Tristan und Isolde (Ph.D. Diss., sic as Subversive Text: Beethoven, Goethe and the Over-
Yale University, 1989); and presented in a formal publica- ture to Egmont, Mosaic 20 (1987), 4356 (esp. pp. 5051).
tion in Hyer, Reimag(in)ing Riemann, Journal of Music 10Calhoun, Music as Subversive Text, pp. 5051, lays

Theory 39 (1995), 10138. The suggestion of potential tonal out the allusive options: The break [the rst fermata, m.
substitutions and tonal representations by proxy (p. 228) 278] could represent Klrchens death, the quasi-chorale
is most clearly anticipated in Cohn, As Wonderful as Star [mm. 27986, leading to the second fermata on V], the
Clusters, e.g., p. 231: My thesis [concerning the rst apparition to Egmont of Freedom in the form of Klrchen,
movement of Schuberts B Piano Sonata, D. 960] . . . is and the Symphony of Victory [mm. 287ff.], Egmont bravely
that ef cient voice leading, emphasizing semitonal dis- mounting the scaffold to die as an example. Or, the [ rst]
placement, furnishes a context in which to understand break could represent Egmont losing his head; the reli-
nineteenth-century triadic progressions that are not ad- gious music intones a eulogy or apotheosis, while the coda
equately reconcilable to diatonic tonality. . . . Diatonic celebrates the eventual victory of the Netherlands. While
tonality and voice-leading proximity are equivalently sys- the rst interpretation seems more in line with Goethes
tematic ways of interpreting harmonic relations. Com- Egmont, the second agrees more closely with what we
pare n. 17 below. know of Beethovens vision of the play. Still, both play out

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19 TH This link shows us that the recapitulations con- fortuitous stand-in for an insuf ciency of prior
CENTURY
MUSIC cluding D major was, in the long run, a mere sonata-action. In this historical period such a
upper neighbor to V of F (fully secured in mm. situation is never problem free. From an only
28586, under an expectant fermata), the domi- slightly shifted hermeneutic perspective one
nant precondition for real tonal resolution. And might wonder whether a closure-providing coda
on that V of F is ushered in the utopian coda does not so much resolve the deferred tonal
proper, the Siegessymphonie (Victory Sym- argument as re ect on the absence of closure in
phony) in F major (mm. 287ff., Allegro con the recapitulatory space. Restated: In resolving
brio)probably triggering a dramatic shift from what was not resolved earlier, such a coda might
the local struggles of present time to an ideally serve principally to show us what the preceding
projected futurewith a rapidly gathering rush sonata form did not accomplish, thus under-
from pianissimo to fortissimo. Only here is the scoring the primacy of the more essential
overtures initial F minor both resolved and over- recapitulatory nonresolution. Alternatively, a
turned in jubilant F-major cadences. rhetorically reinforced resolution within a cli-
Thus the self-evident analytical observation: mactic utopian or apotheosis-coda (as in Egmont
a nonresolving recapitulation defers closure be- and, in later decades, in the nales of many of
yond rhetorical sonata-space into a function- Bruckners symphonies) suggests the possibil-
ally enhanced coda. Rhetorical structures and ity of a different understanding. Here the reve-
tonal structures do not coincide. But this obser- latory claims of such an apotheosis collapse the
vation opens the door onto a thicket of related preceding, nonclosed sonata into a mere matrix
re ections. Confronting the historical state of or disposable delivery system that exists only
the genre sonata form, for instancehow its to make possible that which is conceptually
component spaces emerged historicallymeans superior, the Klang-telos attained in the coda.
confronting the distinction between closure ac- However we interpret it, it is the drastic nature
complished inside the rhetorical recapitulation of the rhetorical recapitulation proper that must
(always a generically obligatory space within a be confronted as the central issue.
sonata, one whose express task was to deliver But in re ecting on the Egmont Overture
that closure) and closure deferred to a rhetori- from this point of view, we might ask another
cal coda (an optional, not-sonata accretion that question: to what extent is this a sonata move-
had arisen to serve a variety of grounding func- ment at all? Everything depends on de nitions.
tions, though not this one of functional resolu- This is an especially relevant concern if our
tion). In terms of its generic history a coda understanding of the form hinges on the sup-
existed to interact on its own terms with the posed requirements of tonal practice (while
completed essential action of the preceding so- minimizing, say, the norms of thematic pat-
nata formextending, con rming, celebrating, terning). On the face of it, Beethovens Egmont
reacting, and so on. Although codas were in- falls short of the most basic harmonic feature
creasingly placed in provocative juxtapositions of a sonata at that time: a suf cient sense of
with the sonata, as rhetorically extra spaces tonal resolution within the recapitulatory space.
they were parageneric surpluses not to be mis- Looming in the background of this discussion
taken for the essential action itself. are two disputable postulates. The rst is the
Such a realization raises the question of mid-twentieth-century insistence that a so-
whether a parageneric zone not historically fash- nata formqua genreis de nable over-
ioned to produce essential closurethe coda whelmingly by harmonic criteria, in the ser-
can in fact do the job non-problematically, as a vice of which thematic elements, inappropri-
ately emphasized in nineteenth-century discus-
sions of the form, were at best secondary.11 The
death, apotheosis and victory. It is perhaps not possible to
argue de nitively for one interpretation over another. What
is most striking is that at this point in the piece the music
does generate extra-musical meanings (even if they cannot See, e.g., the in uential article, Leonard G. Ratner, Har-
11

be proven to represent speci c dramatic events) and it is monic Aspects of Classic Form, Journal of the American
this process which invites further re ection. Musicological Society 2 (1949), 15968; and cf. the useful

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second is the complementary construction of face of Egmont. Within sonata-space a norma- JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
the so-called sonata principle, identifying the tive sonata remained unrealized in actual Egmont:
one essential tonal thing that, supposedly (by sound and material architecture. On the other Beethoven,
Mozart
modern de nition), all sonatas are normally hand, it also seems clear that Beethoven was
expected to do (tonal resolution of nontonic inviting his listeners to understand what they
expositional materials).12 did hear by ltering it through the expectations
Both the harmonic view of sonata form and that they had of sonatas, then observing the
the sonata principle provide conveniently adapt- veering away of this recapitulation from those
able principles that can smoothly legitimize expectations. Thus within its rhetorical sonata-
recapitulatory freedom and seeming coda-reso- space the piece is both a sonata and not a so-
lutions of tonally recalcitrant elements. (They nata: it is not a sonata in its literal, material
could permit one to assert, for instance, that presentation, and yet Beethovens audience
the key problem in Egmont is no problem at real, implicit, or idealwas to understand it as
allnothing much to be concerned withsince a sonata insofar as the composer had appar-
the piece is eventually brought to tonal closure ently asked them to set it into a dialogue with
in the coda.) As I hope to have shown else- a conceptual model not explicitly attained in
where, however, when invoked for unusual the sounding music.
compositions, the often-heard sonata-prin- This may seem obvious, but its implications
ciple claims are at best questionable, and they are vast. It suggests, among other things, that
are certainly inadequate unless they make in- the category of understanding needed to come
terpretive distinctionsas its proponents usu- to terms with a piece of musicfor example,
ally do notbetween closure inside or outside the conceptual category, sonatais different
of sonata-space.13 Regardless of the analytical from what one literally hears as the piece un-
system favored, the larger point is this: any folds in real time. More broadly, it suggests
analysis of such a work as Beethovens Egmont that the concept of form is not primarily a
Overture that does not problematize such non- property of the printed page or sounding sur-
normativity as a prominent feature of its face. Instead, form resides more properly in
method, as opposed to normalizing it or ex- the composer- and listener-activated process of
plaining it away as merely another neutral op- measuring what one hears against what one is
tion within a eld of overgenerous exibility, invited to expect.
would pass too frictionlessly over its central If so, then the real form of any such piece
structural point, its failed recapitulation. and indeed, the real piece itselfshould not
The most ef cient appoach to this matter be restricted to the shape of its literally presen-
lies in recon guring our conception of what a tational succession of sound-events. Instead,
sonata form is. Any consideration of histori- the real form exists in that conceptual dialogue
cal sonata exemplars and their harmonic norms with implicit generic norms, which exist out-
will tell us that a generic sonata was not prop- side of the material surface of the printed page
erly articulated on the pre-coda acoustic sur- and its acoustic realization. This means that
the construct that we call sonata form is
more a set of tools for understanding (a set of
discussion of this issue in Mark Evan Bonds, The Para- enabling and constraining rules for interpreta-
dox of Musical Form, chap. 1 of Wordless Rhetoric: Mu- tion) than it is a bottom-line practice that must
sical Form and the Metaphor of the Oration (Cambridge, be minimally satis ed in the workings of any
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 1352. Also
relevant, of course, is Heinrich Schenker, Der Freie Satz given piece before we grant that piece, for what-
[1935], trans. Ernst Oster as Free Composition (New York, ever purpose, the label of sonata. Judgments
Longman, 1979), I, 133. The issue is also explored histori- concerning form, therefore, are incomplete if
cally in my Beyond the Sonata Principle (n. 1 above).
12
Here the standard citation is Edward T. Cone, Musical they are con ned only to a description of the
Form and Musical Performance (New York: W. W. Norton, music itself. Rather, such judgments must ex-
1968), pp. 7677. The sonata principle has been recast in a tend to the musics dialogical embeddedness in
number of differing formulations. See Hepokoski, Beyond
the Sonata Principle. a web of cultural and generic expectations.
13Hepokoski, Beyond the Sonata Principle. The practical challenge for the analyst is

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19 TH twofold: rst, to recognize in which situations problematic, sonata-related structure in E ma-
CENTURY
MUSIC it is reasonable to suppose that we are being jor (major VI of the trios G major). Before deal-
invited by the composer to use the sonata ing with its recapitulation we will have to look
perspective to process what we do hear in the at its exposition.
presentational succession; and second, to have The primary theme (P) sets out as a norma-
grasped as fully as possible what the enormously tive, if slightly expanded, sentence in E major
manifold generic options of the processing-con- and projects something of a leisurely, major-
cept, sonata form, actually were in, say, mode dream-idyll (ex. 3).16 In m. 9 the repeti-
Beethovens Vienna in the decades around tion of the rst theme initiates a transition of
1800they should not be articulated too re- the dissolving-restatement type (one of
strictively. In part to acknowledge these issues, around a dozen standard strategies) and pro-
I refer to the Egmont Overture not as a so- ceeds through a generically typical series of
nata but as a sonata deformationthat is, a events: a modulation to Vthough anticipated
work whose succession of events contravenes here in a premonitory B minor (not B major)
certain essential generic markers of sonata form the securing in m. 18 of the new structural-
(recapitulatory tonal resolution is one) but dominant lock (V of B minor), and the move to
which nonetheless asks us to use sonata norms a more or less conventional medial caesura in
to interpret what actually does happen in that m. 23 (ex. 4), completing a much-extended half-
individual utterance.14 cadence in the dominant minor, stretched out
and bridged over with two measures of major-
A Beethovenian Precedent? mode caesura- ll, mm. 2425. The secondary
Op. 1, No. 2, Movt. II. theme begins in m. 26normatively, in B ma-
jor (V), though over an ominously pulsating
We might wish to know whether Egmont was dominant, F , as if unable to shake loose the
the earliest example of the nonresolving reca- dominant-lock of the preceding measures. We
pitulationfor at this time anything even re- recall that a secondary themes generic goal is
motely like this sort of tonal pattern was a to secure a perfect authentic cadence in the key
most exceptional procedure. So far as I have of the dominantto produce the point of es-
been able to locate, there are one or two curi- sential expositional closure (the EEC), the rst
ous antecedents to it in Beethovens earlier satisfactory perfect authentic cadence in the
work, and even an example or two in Mozarts subordinate key (in major-mode works before
work, although each earlier case presents us 1800, almost invariably V). But what happens
with further complications and more challeng- here on the way to this generically obligatory
ing subtypes of the genre. One early instance of B-major perfect authentic cadence is extremely
what might be regarded as a forerunner of such unusualalmost unprecedentedin histori-
a failed recapitulationthough there are cer- cally signi cant compositions prior to this one.
tain ambiguities within itoccurs in the slow The surprising aspect of this secondary theme
movement of Beethovens Piano Trio in G, op. is that it ends not with a cadence in B major,
1, no. 2, composed in 179394 and published in the dominant, as promised, but with a cadence
1795. 15 The slow movement unfolds as a deeply

gio of the Piano Sonata in C, op. 2, no. 3 (whose


deformational exposition also moves to G major) and
14I have discussed the principle and implications of sonata the E-major Largo of the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Mi-
deformations at greater length in Sibelius: Symphony No. nor, op. 37.
5, and especially in Beethoven Reception: The Symphonic 16Measures 19 of op. 1, no. 2, movt. II, were used as a

Tradition, chap. 15 of The Cambridge History of Nine- paradigm of a sentence with expanded cadential function
teenth-Century Music, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cam- by William E. Caplin, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal
bridge University Press, 2002), pp. 42459. See also Darcy, Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart,
Bruckners Sonata Deformations (n. 2 above). and Beethoven (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998),
15
Related movementsall three are most pro tably con- pp. 46 [ex. 3.16a], 47: The extra measure of this nine-
sidered together, as differing realizations of somewhat simi- measure theme is created by a small expansion of the
larly posed problems (although not uniformly with cadential progression [mm. 89 with upbeat]. (Schoenberg
nonresolving recapitulations)include the E-major Ada- speaks of similar situations as a written-out ritardando.)

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1 Largo con espressione JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Egmont:
Beethoven,
Mozart

Largo con espressione

Example 3: Beethoven, Piano Trio in G Major, op. 1, no. 2, movt. II, mm. 110.

in a strange, almost false place, G major ( III, nant has been lost forever. (In fact, that B major
mm. 39, 40). The secondary themes anteced- never existed as a concretized reality, only
ent phrase, mm. 2631, with its uncannily over its dominantas a promise.) Instead, in
levitational opening, prolongs V of B major (sus- m. 34, using f and d as common tones for a
taining the dominant of the preceding medial new dominant-seventh chord, one nds a will-
caesura, holding it open). One expects the par- ful, fortissimo push and diminuendo into G
allel consequent to bring this situation to B- major ( III of E, VI of B minor). As if pretending
major closure. In m. 32 the consequent sets out that this is not a place where one doesnt
to do so, still over the persistent dominant, but belong, the dynamics are reduced to the com-
in the next measure, m. 33, B major decays placent piano in m. 35. Thus a false security
unexpectedly to B minor (the 46 position over is restored in III. 17 Surely not coincidentally
the dominant, recalling the B minor of the pre-
ceding transition). This sets off an expressive
and structural alarm: the threat of the loss of 17
As before (n. 8 and the discussion in the text to which it
the major mode at the point of essential exposi- refers), one can envision a neo-Riemannian response to a
tional closure, the EEC, and with it, the dis- situation in which an ongoing B major that ought to be
stable successively shifts two chromatic semitones (D be-
solving of the seemingly secure, major-mode comes D ; F becomes G) to become transformed into G
dream-idyll announced at the movements out- majorone species of chromatic 5 6 shift in which the
set. (An EEC in a nongeneric minor v would second element, G major, is locally prepared by its own
V 65. Here the speculative question is whether in the mid-
signify a strong reversal of expectations.) 1790s such a shift between what Cohn has recently called
The expressive point of what follows is clear. modally matched harmonies [or next-adjacencies]. . .
The intrusive B minor (minor v), the sign of [involving] dual semitonal displacements in contrary mo-
tion (in this case, within what he identi ed as the West-
modal collapse, threatens something profoundly ern hexatonic cycle, which includes the B and G triads
disturbing. In m. 34 the narrative subject As Wonderful as Star Clusters, pp. 217, 216) is to be
counters defensively by wresting back the ma- interpreted as establishing a relatedness between the two
sonorities to the point where one may act as an effective
jor mode. But not B major: once decayed away, proxy for the other. As I have suggested above, one may
the generic assurance of the normative domi- certainly consider such questions to be both germane to

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19 TH 22
CENTURY
MUSIC

26

espress.

30

34

Example 4: Beethoven, Piano Trio in G Major, op. 1, no. 2, movt. II, mm. 2248.

the situation at hand and provocative in their implications the more central concept of a tonally non-normative expo-
(e.g., what might the nature and expressive function of sition, which will eventually result in the nonresolving
such a representation by proxy be?) without abandoning recapitulation to come.

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37 JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Egmont:
Beethoven,
Mozart

41

45

Example 4 (continued)

this would seem simultaneously to suggest an Is this the end of the exposition? This turns
in extremis appeal to the G-major governing out to be a crucial question, and the answer is
tonic of the outer movements and the trio as a anything but clear. Notice that the recapitula-
whole. However we might choose to under- tion begins only seven measures later, in m. 47.
stand it, the rhetorical module is brought to an From one perspective, in m. 40 one might wish
expanded cadential progression that in m. 40 to regard the elided recalling of the primary
closes non-normatively in G major. (Measure theme in the cello as the beginning of an expo-
40 is the rhetorical equivalent of the point of sitional closing zone: closing themes that in-
essential expositional closure, the EEC, mo- voke primary themes are anything but rare. But
mentarily ignoring the crisis of the wrong if so, the allusion is eeting. Within a measure
key.) the thematic continuity decays into a waste-

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19 TH land of successive diminished sevenths that, at E-major closure (essential structural closure,
CENTURY
MUSIC best, suggest the almost immediate inability of the ESC). Analogously with the exposition, in
these measures to function as a normative clos- m. 74 we nd a disintegration of mode into E
ing zone. Two interpretive possibilities remain minor. Within the slow movement as a whole,
open here, and either conclusion may be justi- this inability to sustain the tonic major in the
ed. The rst is that mm. 4047, at least in now all-important pre-ESC region confronts us
retrospect, may be considered entirely as a with an image of the unfaceablethe negative
retransitional link, registering the misfortune inverse of the idyllic E-major tonic, the perhaps
of the exposition and pushing fatalistically for- permanent loss of the E-major wholeness pos-
ward, with thematic anticipation, to the head- ited (or hoped for?) at the movements opening.
motive of Rotation 2, the recapitulation, in m. At least for the next measure or two the trans-
47. (On this understanding, the exposition positional parallels with the exposition con-
would end with the secondary themes cadence tinue, and we nd the corresponding quick-
in m. 40, which is then immediately elided escape, the fortissimo and diminuendo com-
with the retransition.) The second interpreta- mon-tone push onto C major in mm. 7576.
tion is that m. 40 starts out as something seek- Were the secondary theme deployed in a man-
ing to be a closing zone butdoubtless in reac- ner fully parallel with that of the exposition, it
tion to the expositional eventsdissolves al- would now conclude in this false-major, C
most instantly into retransition. This leaves major ( VI of E). This would grasp at the recapitu-
the exact nal point of exposition open. Per- latory straws of a sham or self-deceptive
haps that sense of futility and indecision is part nontonic major mode, but one that at least
of its expressive point. For our purposes the ful lls a recognizably generic role of a balanced
central thing is that the last cadence of the fth-relation to the G major at the end of the
exposition, the EEC-substitute in m. 40, oc- expositions secondary theme, although in a
curred in III, G major, the wrong key. The larger, more trenchant sense remaining non-
exposition has veered off-course. How will all resolving with regard to the governing tonic of
this be revisited in the recapitulation? this Largo con espressione as a whole. But in
As a rule, a recapitulations generic task is to perhaps the most telling gesture of the move-
secure the point of essential structural closure ment, Beethoven proceeds to demonstrate the
(the ESC), the secondary themes attainment of non-sustainability of this false-hope Cmajor
a perfect authentic cadence in the tonic and, in by falling away from the pattern of direct trans-
Schenkerian terms, the rst successful comple- position from the exposition. Unexpectedly, C
tion of the recapitulations linear descent that major itself decays by slumping to its sub-
^ ^ ^
may coincide with the long-range 3 21 Urlinie mediant, A minor, in mm. 7879, in which
motion in the upper voice of the Ursatz. Will key, in m. 82, the secondary theme is brought
the harmonic twist in the secondary theme be to its close in ashen dissolution: A minor (mi-
straightened out? If so, how? We now need to nor iv of the original E major!).
consider the recapitulation at the crucial mo- We have reached a crucial point in the piece.
ment, the beginning of the secondary theme, If we had concluded earlier that the parallel
m. 67, which begins hopefully, in the tonic, E moment in the exposition was in fact the end
major, though, as had been the case in the of the exposition, then we havefollowing the
exposition, over a pulsating dominant (ex. 5). norm of symmetrically rotational recapitula-
Predicated on sonata norms, the musical ex- tionsreached the end of the rhetorical reca-
perience unfolded here is that of once-shining pitulation. In short, we would be confronted
hopes collapsing into ruins. Seeking stability with a nonresolving recapitulation, ending in
and closure in E major, the secondary theme the extraordinary, lost place of the minor
fails in its generic missioneven more dras- subdominant. Is what follows, mm. 8290 and
tically than had been foretold in the exposi- its varied restatement in 90100, both of which
tion, because the modulatory scheme now nally reinstate Emajor with a perfect authen-
sprouts a nal, negative element. In m. 73 this tic cadence, a newly expanded or billowed
themes parallel consequent sets outseeking out part of the recapitulation? In musical terms,

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65 JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Egmont:
Beethoven,
Mozart

espressivo

69

73

76

Example 5: Beethoven, Piano Trio in G Major, op. 1, no. 2, movt. II, mm. 6590.

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19 TH 80
CENTURY
MUSIC

85

smorz.

90

Example 5 (continued)

it begins by ruminating bleakly on the nontonic, space? Or is this the onset of a corrective coda,
minor-mode void (mm. 8285)on the shatter- la Egmont?18 This is a dif cult question, and
ing of the dream-idyllbut eventually ends by
restoring E major (or pretending to restore it,
^ ^ ^ 18Some readers might initially consider also, however
m. 89) and nally closing the requisite 3 21 brie y, the merits of a third interpretation, namely whether
linear descent completing the Urlinie. this movement might be grasped under the paradigm of
But, again, are mm. 8290 and then the var- the sonata-rondo. The relevant model here would be the
pattern sometimes described as ABABA + coda, although
ied restatement in 90100 to be understood as in such manifestly sonata-oriented cases as these it is more
existing within rhetorical recapitulatory space? accurately laid out as: expositionrecapitulationreturn
Do they constitute a recapitulatory extension of primary theme (P)coda. As always, everything depends
on the range and clarity of ones de nitions, but in the
of that which had been smothered off, not al- present situation the sonata-rondo reading seems the least
lowed to ourish, in the expositions closing- desirable of the available interpretive options. The sonata-

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substantial cases may be made both for and regrasping of the texture at m. 40: this would JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
against either view. It is true, for example, that argue that m. 82 initiates the onset of a new Egmont:
the secondary-theme cadence at m. 82 is elided referential rotation, an unusually large coda- Beethoven,
Mozart
with an A-minor invocation of the primary rotation (in this case, what I call an example of
themes head motive, one, moreover, that pro- a discursive coda) whose task, in part, is to
ceeds at once to exploit diminished-seventh ruminate on what did not happen in sonata-
sonoritiesevents that had also occurred at the space by correcting and setting to rights (out-
parallel point after the EEC-substitute in m. 40. side of the essential action) what the sonata
On the other hand, the texture at m. 82 (piano itself had failed to accomplish. Still, there is no
alone) is more suggestive of a recapturing of the denying its equally telling relationships with
opening measures of the piece rather than a ideas planted in mm. 4047, which may suggest
that mm. 82100 could be understood, albeit
with a degree of conceptual overextension, as in
rondo subtype in question represents an intermixture be- part accomplishing some kind of deformational,
tween the rondo principle and the so-called sonatina (or corrective recapitulatory function.
sonata-without-developmentwhich we call the Type 1 Readers might want to consider this ambi-
Sonata in the Elements of Sonata Theory). (In our view,
an example of such a mixture is found in the second move- guity in more detail on their own, but the main
ment of Mozarts Symphony No. 39 in E , K. 543.) It is point is this: at the very least, we have a
clear, however, that this kind of sonata-rondo mixture is nonresolving secondary theme, substantially
similar to another formal possibility: the sonatina (Type 1
Sonata) with extended, P-based coda. In the Elements of alienated from tonal resolution in the recapitu-
Sonata Theory, these nearly identical formats are distin- lationthus foreshadowing what would hap-
guished by such factors as: (1) the presence in the sonata- pen in Egmontand if we choose to regard the
rondo of a clear, separate retransition-link (RT) between
the end of the recapitulation and the restatement of the symmetrical m. 82 as the close of at least the
rondo refrain that follows (as opposed, for instance, to a rhetorical recapitulation (measuring its expanse
simple elision of the one into the other); (2) the seeming against that of expositional space), then we
rondo-character, or lack of it, of the P-theme; and (3) the
degree to which the thematic integrity of the (tonic- would also have an unequivocal nonresolving
grounded) P is maintained in the nal statement of it after recapitulation. However one might choose to
the recapitulation (more deviations from the original model understand it, this is a tonally anguished struc-
suggest a coda, not a rondo refrain).
Instructive along these linesand clarifying with re- ture. My own suspicion is that its expressive
gard to the present op. 1, no. 2, movt. II situationis the point is not to ask us for a quick-and-easy ana-
A -major second movement (Adagio molto) of Beethovens lytical solution but to invite us to experience
Piano Sonata in C Minor, op. 10, no. 2, which presents
some of the same issues without the nonresolving com- the dif culty of decision, the strain of the pro-
plications of the Trio movement. Lacking an RT between cess of structural deformation and secondary-
the end of the recapitulation and the onset of P (m. 91) theme failure.
and presenting that P in an incomplete, decaying, and
much-varied form (mm. 91102)this movement is best Beyond all this, there are still larger
considered a Type 1 Sonata (sonatina) with discursive coda hermeneutic questions to ponder. Broadly
(mm. 91112), not a sonata-rondo. (Within this paradigm, speaking, one might wish to regard the eigh-
discursive codasor lengthy, multisectional codas,
which can appear in conjunction with any sonata type and teenth-century sonata as the abstract, meta-
often begin with P-based materialoften also feature a phorical representation of a successfully car-
coda-to-the-coda effect at the end.) The fuller rationale ried-out, symmetrically disposed human action
and argumentation behind these assessments (along with
a few more nuances) are provided in Elements of Sonata (albeit one whose sp eci c details are
Theory. In any event, within the second movement of the underdetermined). Within the metaphor, that
Trio, op. 1, no. 2, the potential candidate for any supposed action includes such central components as the
nal, post-recapitulation rondo-statement, m. 82, is begun
off-tonic (A minor), is unprepared by any retransition (it is essential sonata trajectory, the long-range, suc-
elided directly with the nal chord of the recapitulation), cessful bringing-into-being of full tonic pres-
and is subject to extreme decay and variation from the ence within sonata-spaceperhaps a represen-
original P-idea. For these reasons it is not helpful to regard
mm. 82107 as participating principally in a broader so- tation of a now-enhanced self-identityby
nata-rondo structure. (In other words, there is a simpler means of authentic-cadential resolution at the
explanation of the form to be found other than that result- recapitulatory point of the ESC (linear and
ing from a primary appeal to the sonata-rondo concept
which in any case does not affect the central nonresolving cadential tonic resolution at the end of the
argument presented above.) secondary theme). Only at this point, norma-

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19 TH tively, is the tonic marked as lastingly stabi- that one might momentarily question whether
CENTURY
MUSIC lized, made permanent, brought into a full on- it is best regarded as a sonata movement, and
tological presence.19 Within this conception of yet its rst-movement position, along with its
the genre, any nonresolving recapitulation con- unmistakable repeat-scheme, declares un-
veys the unfolding of an unusually disruptive equivocally that we are to understand the events
expressive situation. of this piece through the expectations that we
The result suggests a number of interpreta- have of more normal rst movements. As
tions. The most conventional line of under- always, before thinking about the recapitula-
standing would probably center on the private, tion, we need to look at its exposition, which is
emotional turbulence of the individual experi- shot through with unmistakable topoi of mi-
ence being represented, its subjectivity and im- nor-mode sorrow (ex. 6).
pression of Innerlichkeit. But if one prefers, A quick inventory of potential precedents
one may extend the metaphor. It would be an con rms the obviousthat this was a purpose-
easy move, for example, to suggest (in classic fully deviant movement. Prior to K. 173 Mozart
Adornian fashion) that elements of social cri- had written around a dozen and a half minor-
tique are inscribed within the processes of such mode sonata (or instrumental binary) move-
music. If the generic aspect of form is its social ments. Of the seventeen that I consulted (al-
aspect, as Adorno arguedor alternatively, as beit with no claims to completeness), includ-
New Historicists and others would claim, if ing a few from roughly the same time as K.
that generic aspect is construed as a telling 173, all divided their expositions into two tonal
mode of cultural, even ideological representa- planes, and all of the expositions were tonally
tionthen the staging of a demonstration of normative. (Fourteen of them move to what I
the insuf ciency of that socially grounded form call the rst-level-default, the major mediant,
could underscore the arbitrariness and histori- for the second key, three to the second-level-
cal contingency of this cultural practice, rather default, the minor dominant.20) But in this D-
than its timeless perfection.

Mozarts K. 173, Movt. I:


20
First-level default, in this context, connotes the most
standard thing to do in such a minor-mode piecethe
A Representation of Extreme Distraction? most common, almost pre-assumed compositional op-
tion that would have to be consciously overridden in
Before proceeding further with the model and order to proceed to the next to most common available
option, the second-level default. (The terminology is ex-
its subtypes, we might ask whether Beethoven plored further in Elements of Sonata Theory.) In the present
was the rst to articulate it. Apparently not, discussion the central point, of coursewhich is hardly a
although it seems to have been rare, virtually surpriseis that the young Mozart had produced numer-
ous fully normal minor-mode sonata movements prior
nonexistent, prior to Beethovens Piano Trio of to or around the time of K. 173, movt. I. Setting aside the
179394. One curious predecessor is the rst four minor-mode binary (nearly sonata) movements
movement of Mozarts String Quartet in D Mi- from the London Sketchbook collection of 1764all four
of which, in any case, make the standard move from i to
nor, K. 173, written in Vienna in September III in their rst halves (K. 15p, 15r, 15u, 15z)we may
1773. (It is conceivable that young Beethoven note that at least ve fast movements proceeded from an
could have known it: Artaria published the rst initial i to III in their expositions: the two outer move-
ments of the Overture to Betulia liberata, K. 118 (74c); the
two movements, rounded off with a nale from G-minor second movement (Allegro) of the Quartet in B ,
an earlier work, in 1792, a year after Mozarts K. 159; and the two outer movements of the Symphony
death. In other words, Artaria published the No. 25 in G Minor, K. 183. At least nine slow movements
also moved from i to III, and they are from: the Violin
early Mozart quartet three years before it pub- [Flute] and Cello Sonata (also printed as a Violin Sonata) in
lished the Beethoven Trio.) This quartet move- F, K. 13; the Symphony No. 1 in E , K. 16; the Symphony
ment from K. 173 could hardly be more strange. No. 5 in B , K. 22; the Violin Sonata in E , K. 26; the
Cassation in B , K. 99 (63a); the Symphony in C, K. 96
Indeed, its tonal oddity is so non-normative (111b); the Quartet in G, K. 156; the Quartet in C, K. 157;
and the Symphony No. 26 in E , K. 184 (166a). The sec-
ond-level-default expositional shift from i to the more
negative v was less common. It occurs in three slow
This proposition about tonic presence is elaborated in
19
movements, from: the Piano Concerto in G, K. 41; the
chap. 11 of the Elements of Sonata Theory. Quartet in F, K. 168; and the Quartet in E , K. 171.

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1 Allegro ma molto moderato JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Egmont:
Beethoven,
Mozart

14

19

Example 6: Mozart, String Quartet in D Minor, K. 173, movt. I (exposition), mm. 145.

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19 TH 24
CENTURY
MUSIC

29

34

41

Example 6 (continued)

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minor quartet movement things are different. the unusual rst movement of Haydns Quar- JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Here the central points of cadential arrival are tet in G Minor, op. 20, no. 3, as an obvious Egmont:
split among three nontonic keys: mm. 18, 22, tonal model for K. 173, movt. I, the formers Beethoven,
Mozart
and 24, A minor, minor v (an acceptable, if less erratic character, overstuffed with non sequi-
frequent expositional option in the 1770s); m. turs and wrong tonal moves, may have pro-
33, E minor, minor ii (now losing sight of any vided something by way of a general sugges-
norm); and m. 42, G minor, the virtually im- tion.22)
possible minor iv (completing the expositional Coming to terms with the exposition of K.
rhetorical layout proper before initiating a 173, movt. I, requires a knowledge of the nu-
retransition, mm. 4345). In sum, the custom- merous differing exposition types of the eigh-
ary division of the exposition into two tonal teenth century and the manner in which they
zones has been multiplied into four (i, v, ii, and might be subjected to internal deformations.
ivall minor keys, note), the last two of which Here Mozart seems to have produced music in
are counter-generic. dialogue with what I have elsewhere called the
What are we to make of this amboyant second type of continuous exposition. (Less
deformation of expositional norms from the common than the two-part exposition, a
young composer? Assuming that it was intended continuous exposition lacks a properly ar-
to make sense at allas opposed to being merely ticulated medial caesura and hence lacks a sec-
a carnivalesque display of cheeky nonconfor- ondary theme proper, even though a closing
mity or, perhaps, a heavy-handed structural theme might be provided.) Very brie yand
ironizing of a stereotypical expression of mel- passing over the oddly asymmetrical, four- +
ancholywe might propose that at the very ve-measure opening modules, which are
least the musical tale told is that of an ex- doubtless relevantone could take m. 18, ef-
pected structural course losing its directional fectively standing for a premature perfect au-
sense and straying into lost tonal territory. thentic cadence in minor v, as a somewhat
As listeners, we become witnesses to its ge- reckless veering into the closure of a potential
neric trajectory undermined through lament- EEC too soon (and possibly too negatively)
ing circle-of- fth descents and an unpleasantly in the composition. (Metaphorically, this is the
peremptory, quasi-mechanical cadential for- driving of the music into a cadential ditch.)
mula ratifying the wrong keys at the wrong Such a procedure is characteristic of the second
places. The affective image associated with such type of continuous exposition, and the normal
musical behaviorespecially in a minor-key strategy associated with it is immediately and
workwould be that of a lamenting grief or repeatedly to undo the EEC- (closure-) effect of
looming threat so uncontrollably powerful that the early cadence by backing up to provide
it over ows or shatters the very Enlightenment multiple, varied reiterations of the cadential
vessel that had been devised to contain and module, as if again and again to defer the clo-
direct it in socially acceptable waysthe tradi- sure-effect of the cadence until one has arrived
tional pattern of expositional norms. We may
even be confronting a representation of extreme
distraction or a self-consuming melancholy tip-
ping into madness.21 (While one cannot claim
rounding melancholia. Frequently associated with this sad-
ness of temperament were such features as a studious frame
of mind, extreme mental acuity and memory, a high de-
For this suggestion I am indebted to the more general
21
gree of self-absorption (though occasionally leading to ap-
discussion of eighteenth-century conceptions of melancholy parent surface disorder), and occasionally a labyrinthine
provided by Elaine Sisman in C. P. E. Bach, Beethoven, convolution of thought process. Many eighteenth-century
and the Labyrinth of Melancholy, delivered at the Ameri- writers took pains to distinguish it from the extreme of
can Musicological Society, Toronto, 2 November 2000; an genuine madness (typically understood as more raving or
expanded version was presented at Yale University, 29 violent), but from time to time, as Sisman mentions, room
November 2000. (I am grateful to Professor Sisman for was permitted for melancholy to slide into such states as
providing me with a copy of this paper.) Sisman related a melancholy madness.
number of minor-mode works or sections thereofnor- 22
I have provided a discussion of op. 20, no. 3, movt. I, in
mally in slow tempoto the contemporary discourse sur- Beyond the Sonata Principle.

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19 TH at a properly proportional spot within the expo- reading, the deformation of closing-theme space,
CENTURY
MUSIC sition. 23 mm. 3342, ends through yet another reactiva-
This line of argument understands m. 19 as tion of the hammer-cadence gure, now clos-
a dgety, reactive reopening of the seeming ing in m. 42 on the impossible G minor,
closure of the A-minor cadence. It initiates an minor iv. Another reading might propose,
implied question-and-answer dialogue between though, that the return to the unshakable
individual modules, perhaps something like, cadential motive in mm. 4142 undoes the pos-
Surely you didnt intend to close down this sible earlier EEC-effect at m. 33. Such a view
quickly in minor v?, followed by the emphatic would entail the postponing of what is per-
Indeed I did! of the forte recon rmation in ceived to be deformational closure to m. 42
mm. 2324. It may be that the similarly appre- (which would also cancel out the only appar-
hensive, questioning reactions in m. 25 (the ently closing character of mm. 33ff). More
anxious uttering-about, piano, through the important than making any unequivocal ana-
descending circle of fths) keep the cadential lytical decision here, though, is the perception
space open by refusing to leave the main idea of the strain and deformational ambiguity to
at hand. But this time, mm. 2531, the passage which Mozart has submitted his materials.
destabilizes tonally and veers toward E minor, Obviously, the presence of such a failed
which is con rmed with another declarative exposition does not augur well for a tonally
statement of the resolute hammer-cadence at successful recapitulationwhich begins in m.
m. 33: we have now lost our way. 65. The recapitulation starts to differ from the
Now abandoning the utter-reactions of mm. exposition two beats before m. 77 (the norma-
19 and 25, m. 33 returns to the original pri- tive pre-crux recomposition), and at m. 80 we
mary-theme incipit (carried out in canon with arrive at the crux, the point at which the reca-
the cello). Even though this music reinvokes pitulation becomes by and large a transposition
segments of the descending circle of fths, this of the exposition, down a fth.25 Thus, while
return to a variant of the rst theme is a famil- noting the occasional variant here or there (es-
iar strategy of Mozartean closing-theme space, pecially in the rst few measures), we may
and it is probably best understood as a last- regard mm. 80112 as revisiting mm. 1042 a
minute effort to normalize at least some as- fth lower (our familiar fth-transposition, dis-
pect of this eccentric exposition. 24 (Should we cussed earlier). As a result we need not provide
interpret m. 33 as a closing theme, we would its music in a separate example. The D-minor
be obliged to claim that the effective EECthe perfect authentic cadence at m. 88 replicates
sine qua non before closing-space may be con- down a fth the parallel, A-minor moment of
sidered as having begunhad been sounded in the exposition (m. 18), but since this is a tonic
E minor, ii, at m. 33. But by now the tonal cadence it also threatens the possibility of an
course of the music has come totally unhitched unacceptably early essential structural closure
from normative practice. This accounts, one (ESC), a threat reiterated in mm. 92 (cf. m. 22)
supposes, for the representation of multiplying and 94 (cf. m. 24). As if to ee that premature
laments through canonic treatment.) On this closure, the phrase beginning in m. 95 (cf. m.
25) moves the recapitulation from the existing
tonic, D minor, to a new tonic a fourth lower,
23This type is dealt with in much more detailwith ex- A minor, in m. 103 (cf. the E minor m. 33): here
amplesin Hepokoski and Darcy, Elements of Sonata the recapitulation detaches from its tonic-key
Theory, chap. 4. (It is also mentioned in Hepokoski and
Darcy, The Medial Caesura and Its Role, p. 119.) I might moorings. The deformational conclusion, start-
only mention that two more normative examples may be ing in m. 103, brings the A minor up a third to
found in the rst movement of Mozarts Quartet in B , K. C minor (m. 112; cf. the G minor m. 42), clos-
458 (Hunt, with multiple stuttering cadencesand
hence no secondary theme properin mm. 54, 60, 66, and
69, along with an effective EEC at m. 77, and a closing
theme beginning at m. 78), and Haydns Symphony No. 88
in G. Compare n. 4 above. The term crux is taken from Ralph Kirkpatrick,
25
24
Characteristic C-types and their implications are dis- Domenico Scarlatti (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
cussed in the Elements of Sonata Theory, chap. 9. 1953), pp. 25361.

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ing the rhetorical recapitulation on the im- errant exposition led inexorably, though the JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
possible, lost key of vii. The recapitulatory mechanisms of normative transposition, to a Egmont:
space thus touches on three tonal planes, mi- faile d recapitulation (although in the Beethoven,
Mozart
nor i, v, and vii. A retransition follows (m. Beethoven movement an extra, non-transposi-
113)along with a repetition of the whole de- tional twist was added at the end). In both
velopment and rhetorical recapitulationand movements a counter-generic exposition was
the negative tonic is attained and stabilized predictive of a nonresolving recapitulation.
only in the coda (see ex. 7). This is not always the case: sometimes a ton-
One might initially be tempted to hear the ally problematic exposition can be rehabilitated
foregrounded cadence effect at m. 119 as a mo- by corrective action taken within the recapitu-
ment of D-minor closure. But it is preferable, lation. In the Andantino slow movement of
in my view, to understand the preceding Mozarts Piano Concerto in E , K. 449 (No. 14,
retransition (mm. 11317) as ending with a half from 1784), the unusual exposition proceeds in
cadence in D minor (m. 117) followed by two a manner that somewhat foreshadows the
measures of caesura- ll, albeit on the frustrat- Beethoven Trio.26 In this B -Major Sonata move-
ing cadential gure. In the two measures pre- ment the expositions second theme begins in
ceding m. 119 the cadential module is stripped the proper key, F major (V, m. 41), but through a
back to a single instrument (it is not sounded series of harmonic upheavals fails to cadence in
in its usual allunisono version in either three the normative F major and pushes instead to a
or all four parts), it is sounded piano, not forte, perfect authentic cadence in the key of A ma-
and the strength of its cadence effect is in part jor (locally, III; reckoned from the governing
undercut by elision with the relaunch of the tonic, VII of B ) to conclude the exposition.
rst-theme incipit. In context this cadence ef- (Thus: major Icollapsing Vand close in
fect, far from closing what has just occurred, major VII.27) In the recapitulation, however (be-
launches something new. The corrective coda ginning in m. 80), Mozart interpolates a correc-
(mm. 11936), an appendix existing outside of tive circle-of- fths passage within the second
sonata-space, nally brings about (or re ects themesomething of a magic passage (mm.
on) the resolution that the sonata proper was 10306)that deliciously subverts the mechani-
not permitted to accomplish. Satisfactory per- cal transposition and makes possible the per-
fect-authentic-cadence closure in the tonic is fect authentic cadencethe ESCin the proper
produced only in m. 132, pianissimo. It is sub- tonic, B major (m. 116). Here the generic prin-
sequently con rmed with two more grim, forte ciple of formal containment trumps the pre-
reiterations, allunisono, of the nightmarish dicted threat of a nonresolving recapitulation.
cadential module that had so seized the whole But the reverse can also occur. Although in-
piece (mm. 13334, 13536). At the end an omi- stances of these things are scarce in the de-
nous fermata prolongs the silencethe void cades around 1800, it was possible for a tonally
into which this movement has nally been normative exposition to become tonally derailed
thrown. in the recapitulation. In such cases, a non-prob-
When confronting such a work by the young lematic exposition nds its negative re ection
Mozart from 1773, one should surely be cau-
tious about advancing any grand hermeneutic
claims. In this rudimentary instance it is any- 26Compare also the analysis of K. 449, movt. II, in Carl
thing but clear whether the seventeen-year-old Schachter, Idiosyncratic Features of Three Mozart Slow
Movements: The Piano Concertos K. 449, K. 453, and K.
was merely toying with received ideasma- 467, in Mozarts Piano Concertos: Text, Context, Inter-
nipulating short-winded, formulaic gestures in pretation, ed. Neal Zaslaw (Ann Arbor: University of Michi-
ways that are momentarily curiousor whether gan Press, 1996), pp. 31533.
27As before, of course, the issue of one key substituting for
he genuinely meant something more disturb- another (that has proven unable to sustain itself for one
ing. The slow movement of the Beethoven Trio reason or another) invites speculation about theoretical
from 179394, on the other hand, may strike us matters of chordal and tonal transformationalthough in
this case the matters are not directly related to the con-
as more trenchant, more expressively engaged cept of closed groups of hexatonic cycles based on voice-
in troubling ways. In both of these cases, an leading ef ciency. Compare nn. 8 and 17 above.

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19 TH 106
CENTURY
MUSIC

113

119

126

Example 7: Mozart, String Quartet in D Minor, K. 173, movt. I (conclusion), mm. 10636.

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132 JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
Egmont:
Beethoven,
Mozart

Example 7 (continued)

in an unforeseen, nonresolving recapitulation the major mediant in their expositionsor later,


the tonal crisis intervenes late in the sonata, with Beethoven and others, to the major
not in its exposition. The locus classicus, and submediant or other major-mode key. In other
the model that doubtless rati ed once and for words, these are sonatas marked by a minor-
all the category of failed recapitulation in major contrast between the two planes of their
the minds of later composers, was Beethovens expositions: the dark or negative minor-mode
Egmont Overture. opening brightens into a more positive
nontonic major in the second half. One point of
What Counts as a Nonresolution? the expositional nontonic major (normally sup-
Differing Strengths of porting S and C) is to carry the possibility,
Failed Recapitulations though not the necessity, of being recapitu-
lated in the tonic major. In this case the sonata
By way of a conclusion I might point toward form as a whole will have proceeded from a
some nuances within the larger concept at hand, minor-mode opening to a major-mode close.28
since we have been dealing only with the most (Such a possibility is more remote, although
extreme examples of it, those whose rhetorical not unthinkable, within sonata forms whose
recapitulations end in the wrong key. In fact, expositions move to the minor dominant, the
obviously parallel structural procedures can be second-level default key-choice for S and C.)
encountered in less tonally extravagant strains. In the category of failure under consideration,
It might help to round out the discussion by this expositional contrastdark to lightis
acknowledging, in very general terms, three undone by the minor-minor uniformity of the
broad, related categories of sonatas that fall recapitulation. Here the originally major-mode
short of ful lling their generic missions in S and C return in minor-mode transformations.
one way or another and whose deformational All that was modally promised in the second
aspects range from mildeven non-defor- half of the exposition (or at least all that ex-
mationalto extreme. Only the last two of isted as generic potential, or perhaps even
these three categories have recapitulations that hope) is extinguished, measure by measure,
are properly described as nonresolving.

Category One: Minor-Mode Sonatas That Are 28The structural and expressive usages of major and minor
Not Liberated into the Major Mode in the Re- within sonatasusages that can be highly variableare
inventoried and discussed in chap. 14 of the Elements of
capitulation. This category concerns primarily Sonata Theory, which lays out the hermeneutic implica-
those minor-mode sonata forms that move to tions that undergird the present discussion.

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19 TH in the parallel zone in the recapitulation: nega- this minor-mode category are tonally closed.
CENTURY
MUSIC tive-positive is replaced by negative-negative. They do ful ll the tonal generic requirements
From this perspective, we may speak legiti- expected of sonatas. As such they have emphati-
mately of sonata failure. In these cases that cally resolving recapitulations. Nevertheless,
which a sonata can do, turn minor into major, the patetico cast of their unrelentingly minor-
is not done. mode recapitulations shows a sign of pervasive
As it happens, this is Mozarts virtually in- negativity or failure precisely at the moment
variable practice, from his rst minor-mode when the musical action is coming to its own
sonatas onward. Under no circumstances should sense of successful tonal closure in the area
we regard the procedure as in the slightest surrounding the ESC. This working at expres-
deformational or non-normative. Such a proce- sive cross-purposes could be explored further,
dure was always available from the start among but of course it is by no means a nonresolution.
the generic options for minor-mode sonatas. Rather, it is more a portrayal of an all-consum-
Still, this minorizing of previously major-mode ing, inescapably negative presence. For this rst
secondary- and closing-space can suggest an broad category, then, we must distinguish be-
expressive failure or negativity on the grand- tween these two characterizations, nonresolv-
est scale, as in the outer movements of the two ing recapitulation and sonata failure. And
G-Minor Symphonies, K. 183 and K. 550, the again, because of such considerations, this is
rst movements of the D-Minor Quartet, K. clearly the mildest of the three categories.
421, the A-Minor Piano Sonata, K. 310, the G- Within the periods norms of sonata-construc-
Minor Piano Quartet, K. 478, the G-Minor tion it is not deformational at all.
String Quintet, K. 516, and so on. Beethoven
was also often attracted to this negative ge- Category Two: Suppression of a Perfect Au-
neric option, although his practice is more vari- thentic Cadence within Secondary-Theme
able than is Mozarts. (When he did select this Space (or Its Equivalent) at the End of the Expo-
optionas opposed to producing the recapitu- sition and Recapitulation.30 Stronger than the
latory S and C principally in the major-mode rstand now moving into the area of struc-
throughouthe sometimes began the recapitu- tural deformationthis category encompasses
latory secondary-theme zone in the major only sonata forms in which both the exposition and
to extinguish it, permanently, into the minor- the recapitulation are brought to their respec-
mode a few phrases later.) Instances of the gen- tive proper keys in the secondary thematic zone,
eral effect, thoughclosing the recapitulation but fail to close in that key with a perfect
in the fatalistic, opposite mode from that which authentic cadence, or, in most cases, to close
had concluded the expositionmay be found even with an imperfect substitute. In other
with some frequency in Beethoven. It turns up words, these are instances in which secondary-
not only in his earlier worksfor example, in theme space is kept from cadential closure.
the rst movements of his Piano Sonatas in F The exposition fails to produce an EEC, and,
Minor, op. 2, no. 1, and in C Minor, op. 10, complementarily, the recapitulation, even
no.1but also in such later works as the open- though it unfolds wholly in the proper key, is
ing movement of the Symphony No. 9 in D kept from producing the tonic closure of the
Minor, op. 125.29 ESC, the principal goal of any sonata form.
The immediately required nuance is to in- Although a few earlier instances may be
sist on a distinction between tonal closure and found, for instance, in Haydn (such as the rst
modal emancipation within conventional so- movement of his Quartet in G Minor, op. 20,
nata practice. To be sure, all of the sonatas in no. 3),31 the most familiar example is provided

29A convenient inventory of such movements and other 30The phrase about its equivalent is provided to cover
minor-mode patterns in Beethoven has been made by Jo- continuous recapitulations, which lack a medial caesura
seph Kerman, Beethovens Minority, in Write All These and, consequently, lack a secondary theme proper. See n.
Down: Essays on Music (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Uni- 23 above.
versity of California Press, 1994), pp. 21737. 31See n. 22 above.

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by the nale of Beethovens Symphony No. 5 collapsing to D minor, major VI followed by JAMES
HEPOKOSKI
in C Minor, op. 67. Here the C-major exposi- minor vi, it is surely relevant to recognize its Egmont:
tion moves to the dominant and launches a major-mode variant of the Egmont tonal pat- Beethoven,
Mozart
secondary theme in G major (m. 45). In fact, tern and to recall the other predecessors of such
what is produced is a succession of themes, but nonresolving structures in the years around
each nds itself barred from cadential closure. 1800 and thereafter.32 The recollection resur-
Beethoven here stages an exposition that seems faces when we observe that in the rst move-
desperately unable to produce an EEC, the ment of Mahlers Symphony No. 6 in A Minor
perfect-authentic-cadential knot that would tie the so-called Alma Theme (S) returns in the
up the expositional layout as a whole. This recapitulatory space not in the planned-for, lib-
cadential frustration must surely be the central erating A major, but rather in the false D
point not only of this exposition but also of the major, the subdominant major. The same type
recapitulation, in which the secondary-theme of nonresolving tonal situation occurs in
zones inability plays out in the crucial C- Glinkas Russlan and Ludmilla Overture; in
major tonic. The whole symphony has been Tchaikovskys Romeo and Juliet; in the rst
striving to groundor better, to bring into be- movement of Saint-Sanss Symphony No. 3 in
inga secure, con rmed C major as a sign of C Minor, op. 78; in the nale of Rachmaninovs
liberation. Here we learn, even in the nale, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, op. 18; in the
that C major is not going to be stabilized within second movement of Mahlers Symphony No.
the con nes of sonata-space. Thus the multi- 5; and in several other movements.
modular secondary-theme zone of this reca- Much more could be added by way of nu-
pitulation is quite literally nonresolving. It does ance, by way of quali cation, by way of the
occupy the proper key, but it is handled in a sharpening and deepening of the central topic
way to suggest that it is incapable of bringing here. I could invoke transitional categories of
about cadential resolution. Closure is conse- nonresolution or adduce special cases that fall
quently deferred to the mighty coda, which, it outside of the three main categories. But per-
turns out, has its own cadential stories to tell. haps the larger point has been made: Once we
Parallel examples may be found in the nales recognize the persistence of any deformation-
of Beethovens Second and Eighth Symphonies, family within any existing genre systemthe
ops. 36 and 93, in the nale of the C-Major nonresolving recapitulation is only one among
Quartet, op. 59, no. 3, and in numerous post- many within the exible genre system that we
Beethovenian works, including several outer call the sonataonce we attend to the gen-
movements in Bruckner. esis and history of that deformation, once we
ponder what its generic and structural implica-
Category Three: Recapitulations Ending in a
Nontonic Key. This is the most extreme of the
categories, that in which the recapitulations
second part nds itself stranded in the wrong
key, with or without cadential closure in that
key. I need not discuss this possibility further, 32The tonal pattern found in the rst movement of Brahmss
for that is where we began, with Egmont, with Third Symphony may also be understood in relation to
the earlier Beethoven Trio (at least according to such major-mode sonata forms with expositional closes in
one interpretation of the two offered), and with the mediant as Beethovens Piano Sonatas op. 31, no. 1,
movt. I, and op. 53, movt. I. While in this part of his career
Mozarts Quartet, K. 173, movt. I. Still, when Beethoven had normally corrected the recapitulations
we seek an understanding of the structure of fth-related submediant (when it occurred) in such a way
such a piece, say, as the rst movement of as to produce the point of essential structural closure (ESC)
in the tonic (see n. 5 above along with the related discus-
Brahmss Symphony No. 3 in F, op. 90whose sion in the text), this does not occur in the Brahms move-
exposition moves from I to III, F major to A ment. From this perspective, the Brahms piece may be
major, then A minorand when we notice that regarded as an instance of an uncorrected recapitula-
tionsomething on the order of the major-mode op. 53,
the second half of the recapitulatory space re- movt. I, pattern additionally informed by the more non-
turns not in the tonic F major but in D major, normative, minor-mode Egmont prototype.

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19 TH tions might be, the deformation-concept can ened into meaningful utterances when we at-
CENTURY
MUSIC serve as a centering principle not only of sonata tempt to reconstitute their apparent dialogues
analysis but also of the larger task of sonata with pre-existing memory, with complex, pre-
hermeneutics. For individual pieces do not ex- existing generic models within constellations
ist in themselves alone. They cannot speak of competing, ever-transforming
entirely for themselves. But they may be awak- systems.

IN OUR NEXT ISSUE (SUMMER 2002)

ARTICLES Benjamin Walton: Quelque peu thtral:


Operatic Coronation of Charles X

Paul A. Bertagnolli: Amanuensis or Author?


The Liszt-Raff Collaboration Revisited

Alexander Rehding: Liszts Musical Monuments

Kevin C. Karnes: Another Look at Critical Partisanship


in the Viennese n de sicle: Schenkers Reviews of
Brahmss Vocal Music, 189192

REVIEWS By John Daverio and William Drabkin

154

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