Merging the Sonata and the Concerto: The Role of Virtuosic Passages in Determining Formal Closure in High-Classical Sonata Expositions

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates formal closure in sonata expositions of the high-classical era, focusing on the boundary point between secondary and closing zones. In particular, I shine a spotlight on how virtuosic passages impact perceptions of formal closure in the piano sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. This article codifies how virtuosity can be a primary ingredient for deferral of closure (termed “virtuosic deferral”), by applying a particular case of Schmalfeldt’s concept of retrospective reinterpretation: what initially appears to be the onset of the closing zone becomes a resumption of the secondary zone (C => S). Furthermore, I demonstrate how an exposition’s “display episode,” as a virtuosic passage for a soloist within a concerto, can function autonomously within piano sonatas as an agent for virtuosic deferral. Integrating intuitions from concertos, I present analyses of a wide range of sonata movements, distinguishing my approach from those that favor either early-as-possible closure (Hepokoski and Darcy) or the “large view of S” (Caplin). My narratives supplement the New Formenlehre toolbox by offering a compromise between divergent readings of form, as well as positing interpretations of works that would otherwise be viewed as problematic within a theory’s designated limits.