Passé recomposé: Neoclassical Sonata Form in Interwar France

This dissertation offers a theory of neoclassical sonata form in interwar France. My theory is based on analysis of fifteen representative sonata-form chamber movements written during the 1920s and 30s by Ravel, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Tailleferre, Auric, Durey, and Ibert. My method, largely inspired by William Caplin’s Classical Form, employs a form-functional approach to melodic material rather than tonal-harmonic material, allowing this theory to be applied to this repertoire, despite the various systems of post-tonal pitch organization. The analyses reveal that the treatment of melodic elements can be used to express beginning, middle, or ending functions. These functions combine to create more complex structures that can include framing units as well as structures nested inside larger structures. The avoidance of some melodic elements can also be used to create music that does not clearly express any function, music that seems to exist outside of musical time. In Chapter One, I situate my research by providing the historical and philosophical backdrop for the repertoire and then by placing my methodology within the Formenlehre tradition. Notions of time play a central role in this chapter, and indeed throughout the dissertation. In Chapters Two and Three, I define the elements of this music that are used to express beginning, middle and ending functions. These formal functions are considered in combination with grouping structure in Chapter Four. In Chapter Five, I detail the structural elements of neoclassical sonata form, and in Chapter Six I demonstrate these structural elements using four full-movement neoclassical sonata forms. The Epilogue harks back to the first chapter, with a greater emphasis on the notion of time. At the heart of neoclassicism is the exploration of temporality: a desire to situate oneself historically, and a preoccupation with the experience of time. Form becomes the arena where historical and musical time are explored. In this repertoire, once the sonata-structure has been suggested, the form is reinvented, subverted or even abandoned. A new type of sonata form, a neoclassical sonata form, becomes the vehicle for expressing the experience of time.

Department dc:contributor.department

Music

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Russell, September Dawn

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Vande Moortele, Steven

• France
• Milhaud
• neoclassic
• Poulenc
• Ravel
• sonata form

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/100981

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/100981