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The Deformed Sonata Form

Posted by Newey (A) on October 29, 2015 at 22:49:54

Buried deeply in the thread about Stanford's Stabat Mater are a series of retorts concerning musicological attitudes toward 19th century sonata forms. Since they're that deeply buried, and since I think the topic deserves attention and therefore, it's own thread, I've started this one.

A lot of the musicological analysis to which I've referred either isn't available online, or requires admission to scholarly archives and appears in non-copyable PDF's, etc. You may have to go to a good research library. Other articles appear in more popular magazines of the 1940's-1980s. I really don't have time to hunt all of that stuff down just to make my point right here, but I'll link one currently available example.

The musicological position vis-a-vis the 19th century is also reflected in a lot of latter 20th century books that were written for the general reader [which alone tells us something about that period of time] as general introductions to the symphony and/or as general surveys of composers. Those books range from being somewhat dismissive of 19th century music to being disparaging to being outright hostile. You may still be able to find such books in print on the shelves at Barnes.

Personally, I'd stay well clear of them, since, unless you've got a firm grounding in theory [and you therefore can make up your own mind with your own analysis], those books are only going to confuse you and make you think that you have to hate all of the music that came along after Beethoven. Life's way to short for that sort of nonsense.

Julian Horton is a prominent musicologist who's published a recent book on Bruckner [don't bother with it - it's so narrowly focussed and technical, that you won't get anything out of it - I didn't, and I tried]. I've linked his article on sonata form analysis here. It illustrates what I'm talking about.

Professor Horton isn't exactly of the old hardcore serialist/20th-century modernist school of analysis, but he isn't entirely free of it either. So, he doens't take the OLD SCHOOL hostile 20th century position that all 19th century symphonic composers suck [I HATE that word, but it efficiently conveys the meaning] just because they weren't 18th century composers and they dared to use freedom in composing music.

That's pretty much what it comes down to. Freedom. Creating music with feeling, rather than according to rules.

My incredible musicological breakthrough idea calls for a complete rejection of that model. A complete rejection of using the 18th century model of music composition to judge 19th century music. Simple. [As most great ideas are, if I may add].

Mr. Horton is caught in a kind of half-way position, wherein he attempts to reconcile, and give some credence to, late 19th century sonata constructions with the academic/critic 18th century rule book. Hence the adoption of the concept of "sonata deformation", and the "deformed sonata form".

Oh, and yes, I was previously THE Bruckner authority on this music board.
Severius! Supremus Invictus

• Sonata Deformation Theory - Or How To Learn NOT to Enjoy Mus   (Open in New Window)

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