Thursday, February 14, 2008

Elision

I'm angry.

I'm trying to find out how Schenker reconciles the connection between the second theme of a sonata with the background structure during the recapitulation. In the exposition, the second theme appears either in the dominant or the mediant (usually). In these cases, the second theme can either prolong the second scale degree (in the former case) or the fifth (in the latter). However, once the recapitulation rolls around, and the second theme returns in the tonic key, it can't work out the same.

So I read Schenker's analysis Beethoven's 3rd symphony, a major key movement in sonata form that moves to the dominant for the second theme. Wanna know how Schenker solves the problem of the recapitulation? He skips it. Completely. He doesn't have it in his forground graph and in the prose he just doesn't mention it at all. He doesn't even apologize for skipping it. He's just hoping no one notices?

Grrr.

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