Towards a Theory of Early-Romantic First-Movement Concerto

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Towards a Theory of Early-Romantic First-Movement Concerto Towards a Theory of Early-Romantic First- Movement Concerto Form: A Study of Felix Mendelssohn and His Contemporaries Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Abdalla Abarca, Faez Ismael Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 09/10/2021 20:40:15 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/642103 TOWARDS A THEORY OF EARLY-ROMANTIC FIRST-MOVEMENT CONCERTO FORM: A STUDY OF FELIX MENDELSSOHN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES by Faez Ismael Abdalla Abarca ____________________________ Copyright © Faez Ismael Abdalla Abarca 2020 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the FRED FOX SCHOOL OF MUSIC In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN MUSIC THEORY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2020 May 7, 2020 5/7/2020 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe my deepest gratitude to my family—in particular my mother Marta, my father Faez, and my sister Gloria—for their encouragement and reassurance. None of my accomplishments would have been possible without them. More than anything, I thank them for their love and for helping me become the person I am today. Special thanks also to my dog Luna for her loving attitude towards me and (perhaps unknowing) emotional support. I cannot begin to express my appreciation to my professor and advisor, Dr. Boyd Pomeroy. His kindness, knowledge, patience, and love for beer were valuable sources of encouragement during these years at the University of Arizona. His thorough and constructive feedback helped me improve substantially the quality of this dissertation, as well as inspire me for future projects on concerto form. Thanks to him, I am now a better scholar, a (baby) Schenkerian, and a more proficient “Hep-Cat.” I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to my theory professors Dr. Donald Traut and Dr. John Muniz for their guidance and support. Dr. Traut’s love for rock and pop music is contagious and inspiring. I now want to follow his (analytical) footsteps and approach this repertoire myself in the near future. Dr. Muniz’s philosophical insights proved invaluable. His comments and suggestions helped me (re)consider several of my positions, particularly on the aesthetic value of music and the circularity of the musical canon. 4 I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the faculty at the Fred Fox School of Music, in particular Dr. Jay Rosenblatt, Dr. Matthew Mugmon, Dr. John Brobeck, and Dr. Dawn Corso. Many thanks to the staff at the University of Arizona Libraries for their uninterrupted assistance (especially during these difficult times) and for bringing me countless books and scores from libraries around the world. I am grateful to my friend, colleague, theory mentor, and partner in mischief Gabriel Venegas, his academic (and personal) experience helped me greatly during the last stages of this work. My theory friends and fellow TAs Morgan Block, Miguel Arango, and Olga Savic, for helping me grow as a theorist and music teacher. To Morgan I owe special gratitude for all the music discussions (and delicious IPAs) we shared when I was still in Tucson, and for welcoming me in his home earlier this year. My dear friends Juancito Mejía and Carlita Fabris for their wonderful hospitality and for all the fun times we had together. My good friends (and former neighbors) José Luis Puerta and Arlene Islas for inviting to their many barbecues and for helping me through tough times. And of course, my friend and writing advisor Dr. Leslie Dupont for teaching me how to good English better. I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my dear friends in Arizona: Ingvi Kallen, Juan Carlos Merello, Marjorie Choque, Natalia Duarte, Diana Yusupov, Spencer Miller, Jessica Muiseke-Wilkison, Olman Alfaro, Mariana Mevans, Cecilio Novillo, Jamey Wright, and my “primo” Rolando Coto. As well as my friends in Costa Rica: Verónica García, José Andrey Morales, David Paris, Gaby Alfaro, Sebastián Ruiz, Lucía Trejos, Carlos Leitón, Pablo Morales, Valentina “la Mechu” Maurel, Juan Diego Vargas, and Mario Ruiz. 5 Last (but not least), I am indebted to the University of Costa Rica for helping me pursue my master and doctoral studies. In particular, I would like to thank María Clara Vargas, Fernando Zúñiga, Alonso Canales, Álvaro Artávia, Oscar Cambronero, Daniel Garrigues, Diana Senior, Sandra Duarte, Alex Murillo, Federico Molina, and the staff at the Office of International Affairs. 6 A mi mamá, Marta por ayudarme a cumplir este y todos mis logros 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF EXAMPLES ...................................................................................................... 10 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 13 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 15 LIST OF “ANALYTICAL VIGNETTES” ....................................................................... 17 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ......................................................... 22 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... 23 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 25 CHAPTER ONE — Concerto, Concertos & Konzertlehre .............................................. 29 I. The Evolution of the Concerto Formenlehre .............................................. 29 II. The Nineteenth-Century “Concerto Problem” ........................................ 36 III. The Potential Circularity of the Musical Canon...................................... 45 IV. The Concerto Problem and the Mendelssohnian Paradox ...................... 52 CHAPTER TWO — Concerto Forms .............................................................................. 59 I. Mozart, Mendelssohn, and the Concerto Forms in the Late-Eighteenth Century ..................................................................................................................... 59 II. The Multifaceted Manifestations of the Concerto Form ......................... 63 Subtypes A and B ........................................................................................... 64 Subtype C ....................................................................................................... 76 8 Subtype D ....................................................................................................... 81 Subtype E ....................................................................................................... 91 Subtype F ..................................................................................................... 102 CHAPTER THREE — The Non-Mozartian Precedents of the Early-Nineteenth-Century Concerto Form ....................................................................................................... 114 I. Joseph Haydn ............................................................................................ 115 Ternary R1: the “Rounded” First Ritornello ............................................. 117 Monothematic Expositions .......................................................................... 123 Continuous Expositions ............................................................................... 130 Expanded Caesura Fill ................................................................................ 136 II. Johann Christian Bach ........................................................................... 138 Ternary S1: the “Trimodular” Solo Exposition .......................................... 142 The Type 5-Type 3 Concerto Merger .......................................................... 148 Off-tonic Launch of the Recapitulatory Rotation (I) ................................... 151 III. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach ................................................................... 153 The Connecting Link between the First and Second Movements ................ 156 The False-Ritornello Effect ......................................................................... 158 Off-tonic Launch of the Recapitulatory Rotation (II) .................................. 161 Addendum: A Discussion of C.P.E. Bach’s First “Hamburg” Concerto ... 163 9 CHAPTER FOUR — Mendelssohn’s Concertos and the Concerto Forms at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century .......................................................................................... 165 I. Mendelssohn’s Concerto Practice ............................................................. 165 Formal Compression ................................................................................... 166 The Rise and Fall of the First Ritornello ..................................................... 175 The Developmental Thematic Episode ........................................................ 188 The Quasi-Thematic Caesura Fill ............................................................... 194 Addendum: Mendelssohn’s Subtype-D Concerto ........................................ 197 II. Other Non-Mendelssohnian Early-Romantic Concerto Practices ......... 200 The “Concertante” Form ...........................................................................
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