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Abstract:

This study establishes a context for Haydn’s practice of recomposing his recapitulations. While previous studies on altered recapitulations have tended to focus on Haydn’s oeuvre in isolation, in particular on his string quartets, the present study includes a comparatively high number of supposedly minor composers in order to examine whether Haydn’s practice was as exceptional as is generally assumed.The first part addresses important conceptual issues: Chapter 1 considers the methodological foundations for a scientifically oriented Formenlehre, arguing that the current form-analytical practice is characterized both by a lack of historical contextualization and a disregard for empirical methods. I argue further that analytical statements concerning causal dependencies between formal options are in reality often covert intentional explanations, a fact, however, that is rarely reflected upon explicitly. Based on this observation, I outline ways in which the concept of “rational” (or intentional) explanation can be fruitfully applied to the domain of formal analysis. Chapter 2 presents a rational reconstruction of the concept of recapitulation, exploring four essential recapitulatory principles (the principle of the double return, the sonata principle, the principles of maintaining momentum and of avoiding redundancy) and potential conflicts between them. As I demonstrate in the second, empirical part (Chapters 3-7), the theoretical expectations derived from these principles are largely anachronistic in nature: Haydn and his contemporaries often did not avoid what by modern standards may be viewed as a redundant situation in the recapitulation (Chapter 3-4). Likewise, they did not see any reason to recompose an off-tonic beginning of the main theme when it returns in the reprise, even though this undermines the dramatic impact commonly associated with the moment of double return (Chapter 5). Contrary to modern expectations, also a composer’s choice to launch the recapitulation in an off-tonic (“wrong”) key did not give rise to the need to compensate for this alleged deficiency at some later point in the recapitulation (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 finally illustrates some of the difficulties involved with the teleological model of sonata form when dealing with Haydn’s (and other composers’) more circular formal conceptions in which developmental and recapitulatory procedures are strongly intermingled. These findings suggest that current Formenlehre is ill-advised in continuing to assess eighteenth-century music by modern standards of thematic redundancy, compensation, and (dramatic) goal-directedness.