Form and Repetition: Deleuze, Guillaume and Sonata Theory

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article proposes an alternative way to think about the process of expositional closure. The recent resurgence ofFormenlehrehas given rise to a dispute about the correlation between expositional closure and the sequence of local perfect authentic cadences in the second group. Noting that the two sides of the debate produce opposing representations of the temporality of listening, I draw upon philosophical and linguistic models of actualisation to theorise the way in which expositional closure is realised across the second group. To this end, I focus on the refrain cadences in the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491, which, as a means of deferring expositional closure, sit uneasily alongside other strategies of thematic loosening and cadential liquidation. The idea of the refrain leads me to Gilles Deleuze's theory of repetition and from there, via the notion oftemps impliqué, to Gustave Guillaume's system of verb formation – both of which problematise the passage from potentiality to actuality, isolating a dimension of contingency as that which may or may not come to pass.