Violin Sonata Research Articles

The Appearance of the “Ideal” and Other Topoi in Bartók’s Two Sonatas for Violin and Piano nos. 1–2

Abstract The early Violin Concerto (1907–1908) dedicated to the young violinist, Stefi Geyer, is regarded as one of the most personal compositions by Béla Bartók. The transparent structure, and the ethereal, unearthly tone of the first movement, probably inspired by Stefi Geyer’s playing, belongs to the warmest and most intimate tone used by the composer. Presumably, its re-emergence in certain passages of the two Violin-Piano Sonatas (1921 and 1922) was not by chance. It might have been the composer’s reaction to Jelly d’Arányi’s violin playing that evoked the memory of the early concerto and its source of inspiration. However, despite their similarities the “ideal” tone of the Sonatas is not the same as that in the Violin Concerto. It is still recognisable, but it has a different, perhaps more mature character and, furthermore, within the material surrounding it, we can detect the kernel of those Bartókian types which gain their definite form only in his 1926 emblematic piano pieces, for instance some elements of his “night music” type, his mourning song type, and some characteristic traits of his “chase” music. In the present article, besides following the process of transformation of the “ideal,” I make an attempt to identify the newly developed musical types, and to find an explanation of all these changes.

Performance and Reception of Bartók’s Violin Music during His First Concert Tour of the United States (1927–1928)

Abstract During his first concert tour of the United States (1927–1928) Bartók played primarily his own music in lecture-recitals, orchestra performances, and chamber music concerts in fifteen American cities. Over the course of the tour, he collaborated with violinists Jelly d’Arányi and Joseph Szigeti to present a few of his works for violin and piano to members of musical clubs in New York City and Philadelphia, and before dignitaries at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C. – namely his Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 2 (1922), Hungarian Folk Tunes, for violin and piano (arranged by Joseph Szigeti, 1926), and Romanian Folk Dances for Violin and Piano (arranged by Zoltán Székely, 1925). In Boston and New York, Bartók played on recitals that also included performances of his String Quartets nos. 1 and 2. In this article I document the American reception of Bartók’s violin music during his U.S. recitals of early 1928. Music criticism in American newspapers and music journals, as well as detailed program notes from the string quartet performances, have been taken into account to reveal the assessment of Bartók’s violin music and string quartets and the characterization of the composer in the American press and concert halls. The reviews have also been considered in comparison to later recordings of the violin and piano works made by Bartók and Szigeti.

Bartók, Biography, and the Violin

Abstract Biography takes the scant facts of a life that are available to scrutiny, like the waypoints on a journey to be mapped, and attempts to form a coherent narrative from them. That coherence is, to at least some degree, contingent upon the ideological position of the author and as Michael Benton has noted, “the biographical subject is a textual creation as much as a historical recreation.” While fully acknowledging that one cannot “read back” from the works of an author to their life, Benton has described the substance of literary outputs as “quasi-facts” to be set beside “historical facts” and argued that these “can be seen as reflecting some contemporary events or as sublimating some experiences in the writer’s past or mirroring some authorial state of mind.” This article draws on the First Violin Sonata as such a quasi-fact of Bartók’s life to question whether biographical information can or should impact the ways that we understand and perform his music. The article additionally considers whether the content of individual works as mental products may have something tangible to impart about their composer’s personality. Given the broad consensus around the so-called “Five-Factor Model” of personality measurement within the field of psychology, it speculates whether this might offer a tool to refine our portrait of Bartók through analysis of his music.

Bartók and the Violin Music of Maramureș

Abstract The Second Rhapsody, one of Bartók’s technically most demanding concert pieces for violin, arranges archaic-improvisatory bagpipe imitations for concert performance. The arrangement itself shows a well-designed, coherent structure: the succession of dances, tonally and motivically related between each other, outline a kind of evolutionary progression from free motive-structure to strophic form. Bagpipe-music had a long-term influence on Bartók’s violin music, figuring as episodes in original works like the two Violin Sonatas or the Violin Concerto; but none exploits the genre to such an extent as the Second Rhapsody. The violin pieces with motive-structure of fascinatingly wild and virtuoso character were among Bartók’s major discoveries of the collecting trips to the Maramureş region. For the Rhapsody Bartók chose melodies from the one-time Ugocsa county, whose music, closely related to that of Maramureş county, was considered by him “the most interesting in our country [i.e., Hungary of the time], due exactly to its primitive character.” In Maramureş these melodies are less eccentric; instead, the violinists have a broader and more varied repertoire of dance music. In my article I discuss the different types of violin music of this region, focusing on structural, melodic, or interpretational elements that were of special interest for the composer. For this investigation I have made use of the primary sources of the respective collections: phonogram recordings, field notations, later transcriptions.

Imre Waldbauer, an Important but Little-Known Violinist Partner of Béla Bartók

Abstract Imre Waldbauer (1892–1952) attained his greatest stature as a performer in his position as the first violinist of the Waldbauer–Kerpely Quartet, named after him and cellist Jenő Kerpely. This ensemble premièred Bartók's String Quartets nos. 1, 2 and 4 and his early Piano Quintet. Although Waldbauer's name is mostly mentioned in the Bartók-literature primarily because of his quartet, he was also important for Bartók as a “standalone” violinist as well. Waldbauer and Bartók played numerous sonata recitals from the 1910s to the 1930s, and Waldbauer also played the first performance of important violin works by Bartók: the “One Ideal” from the Two Portraits, (première: Budapest, 12 February 1911), the Violin Sonata no. 2 (première: Berlin, 7 February 1923) and nos. 16, 19, 21, 28, 36, 42, 43, 44 from the Forty-Four Duos (concert hall première: Budapest, 20 January 1932). Although Waldbauer seems like an individual of special importance, very little is known about his relation to Bartók and about his life in general (unlike his violinist contemporaries, e.g. Joseph Szigeti or Zoltán Székely). The present paper focuses on the relationship between the composer and the violinist, using materials from the yet unexplored Waldbauer legacy held in the Budapest Bartók Archives (recent donation from the Waldbauer family).

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO BY C.DEBUSSY: VARIABILITY AND ACCENTS IN CREATING OFF AN MUSICAL IMAGE

Fingerings and accents form the basis of the performer's interpretation, and their correct selection contributes to the most complete comprehension and implementation of the composer's idea. The performer finds the necessary timbre and the accental solutions for creating of artistic image of the musical composition. The questions of the choice of a particular fingering, the variability of accents, the convenience of playing in the process of playing a musical composition are practical and" stand " always before the performers. In this work, they are considered on the musical material of the violin part of the sonata for Violin and Piano by Claude Debussy, and the necessity and importance of performing editionis emphasizedin creating of the interpretation.

Sonata for violin and piano as a Serafim Orfeyev’s creative views

The purpose of the article is to identify the intonation-content complex of the Sonata for Violin and Piano by the representative of the Odesa School of Composers Serafym Orfeyev in the area of the performer's interpretation of the symbolism of the sonata, comparison of similar works of Ukrainian composers in a specific historic period and identifying the original artistic concept of Orfeyev's work in accordance with his mindset. The scientific novelty is based on the fact that for the first time the work of Orfeyev, which has not yet been the subject of scientific research, is considered, and the significance of the composer's contribution to the development of the instrumental sonata of the XX century is revealed. Methodology. The personal features of the artist's creative preferences are determined through a complex of musical symbolism and reflection of the multiple meaning of the Orthodox church tradition of choral art, mythological information of folk-historical archaism in combination with professional achievements in the development of the chamber sonata genre. Conclusions. Sonata's analysis points to the signs of S. Orfeyev's stylistic search, which was expressed in the spread of the specifics of choral writing, to the comprehension of which (on the example of the works of Mykola Leontovych and Anatolii Lyadov) the composer paid great attention; in instrumental thinking, which was reflected in the saturation of the fabric of the ensemble work with a polyphonic plexus of voices, and especially hidden polyphony. The connection with folk art influences the reproduction of an expressive dynamic picture of a folk holiday. A rather complex synthesis of the dramatic and the lyrical creates a unique, deeply emotional concept of a musical work, which vividly complements the genre of the instrumental sonata with new features in the traditional romantic color.

Analysis on the Performance Techniques and Teaching Experience of Ysaye's "The Fourth Unaccompanied Violin Sonata"

Analysis on the Performance Techniques and Teaching Experience of Ysaye's "The Fourth Unaccompanied Violin Sonata"

The Second Sonata for Piano and Violin, Ópus 6 by George Enescu

Abstract The second Sonata for Piano and Violin, op. 6 by George Enescu marks the beginning of a long road of assimilation and synthesis of the Romanian folklore elements and of the way of expression“in Romanian popular character”, transposed on the characteristics of the universal language. Without knowing the authentic folk art from a scientific point of view, Enescu was deeply influenced, shaping his entire artistic personality. He consciously assimilated popular music by generalizing some essential folkloric principles, which he later organized in a personal vision. The innovative elements of the Enescian musical language are transposed in the free rhythm, the heterophonic construction, the complexity and subtleties of dynamics and agogics, the timbre color, as well as in the synthesis between freedom and rigor in the creative and interpretive act.

The Playing Techniques and Teaching Exploration of Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin No.9

The Playing Techniques and Teaching Exploration of Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin No.9

Features of the embodiment of the genre of sonata for violin and piano in the works by Gabriel Fauré (on the example of Sonata № 2, in E Minor, op. 108)

Background. The article reveals the genre-style, form-building and dramatic features of G. Fauré’s Sonata No. 2, in E Minor, op. 108. It is determined that this work, in contrast to his first sonata in A Major op. 13, written in the early period of the composer’s life and embodying romantic elation and inspiration, belongs to the late period of G. Fauré’s work, which is distinguished by a complex harmonic and polyphonic writing, sophisticated form and dramatic content characteristic of the early 20th century music and the First World War. The purpose of this article is a characteristic of genre-stylistic and compositional-dramaturgical features of G. Fauré’s Sonata for violin and piano № 2, in E Minor, op. 108. Results. The Second Violin Sonata by G. Fauré, in contrast to the First, has a different dramaturgy and is built on the principle of dramatic antithesis. A special place – and this brings its logical patterns closer to Beethoven’s – is given to the sonata allegro of the first movement, the excitement and explosiveness of which contrasts not only with the lyrical Andante of the second one, in A Major, but also with the enlightened and carefree Allegro non troppo of the finale in E Major. The logic of the formation in the first movement is associated with the originality of the passage of musical events and has a spiral structure consisting of five turns. The musical image of the second movement’s theme is interesting, as it is born from the conjugation of several voices, combining the features of rhythmic variability. This gives the theme a special, truly French charm. There are several dynamic build-ups in the second movement throughout Andante, which shows the implementation of the wave dramaturgy principle. Rondo shows the freshness of musical colors and spontaneity of expression. The last refrain of this part is especially interesting from the dramatic, thematic and ensemble points of view. The general culmination of the Sonata takes place in the refrain. It includes the main intonational ideas and serves as a generalization of the key events of the composition. At the highest climax of Rondo the main and secondary themes from the first movement of the Sonata appear. Thus, the idea of concentric circles, which was noted in the sonata allegro, is implemented in the finale of the Rondo. Conclusion. The analysis of the Second Violin Sonata by G. Fauré allows us to speak not only about a special implementation of the form in this work, but, in comparison with the First Sonata, about a great variety of ensemble writing, marked by the polyphonization of texture. The timbre contrast of the violin and piano allows the composer to set off the emerging replicas, arrange them in different sound spaces, which may resemble the organ register. The loss of any “character” by the members of the ensemble is most consistently traced in the sonata allegro. Another regularity can be traced in the reduction of the background, which is supplanted by the thematization of the texture. This is emphasized by the frequent change of role-playing functions of the instruments and the multitude of ensemble details that ensure the mobility of the musical texture and its multidimensionality. In this Sonata G. Fauré shows a special sensitivity to the harmonic component of the musical language. This search for expressive possibilities of harmony subsequently becomes a distinctive feature of the modern French musical language, which affects the sound image of a chamber ensemble, leading to the interpretation of chamberness as a refined variability of sensations.

PIANO QUARTETS OF L. BEETHOVEN: MOZART’S PROTOTYPES AND AUTHOR’S INITIO

Background. The article provides an analysis of L. Beethoven’s piano quartets through the prism of the ensemble writing and composition experience by W. A. Mozart. The disclosure of the successive ties between the two great Viennese classics in the field of chamber instrumental music contributes to the scientific understanding of the history of this genre, which is not sufficiently covered in musicology. The analysis revealed that the four piano quartets of L. Beethoven are focused on Mozart’s prototypes, or rather, on sonatas for violin and piano. It was found that the formative principles of Beethoven’s piano quartets grow from the above-mentioned compositions by W. A. Mozart, but the content and the ensemble-dramatic solution reflect the independence and originality of the young composer’s thinking, revealing the sprouts of a future mature style. The purpose of this article is to disclose the ways of rethinking the prototypes of Mozart in the piano quartets of L. Beethoven. The piano quartets of the latter serve as the musical material of the article: No. 1 Es-dur, No. 2 D-dur, No. 3 C-dur WoO 36, and No. 4 Es-dur op. 16. Results. L. Beethoven changes the algorithm of ensemble events contained in Mozart’s opuses, where the theme is presented in turn by piano, violin, followed by the conversation of the two. The composer immediately includes all members of the quartet in the presentation of the leading material, which specifies this genre, revealing its “intermediateness” between the intimacy of the trio and the “representativeness” of the concerto. Since the genetic origins of the genre of the piano quartet are the trio sonata, the string quartet and the clavier concerto with the accompaniment of a string ensemble, these genres influenced the type of Beethoven’s piano quartets. Thus, Beethoven’s Bonn quartets resemble in their writing a string quartet; and the piano quartet Es-dur op. 16 resembles a clavier concerto with orchestra. These compositions are related to the first of the above mentioned prototypes by the consistent application of the trio principle, which is expressed in various combinations of ensemble voices. In the timbre refraction, the trio-principle underlies the pairing of stringed instruments, where the bowed instruments form a strictly homophonic vertical with the traditional functional relationship according to the “upper voice ‒ bass ‒ middle” model. Another dimension of the trio principle arises when one of the string parts of the piano is displaced, as a result of which a multi-timbre sound field is formed. There is an obvious desire of the composer for the equality of four voices in the piano quartet. At the same time, the timbre uniqueness of the piano and the virtuosity of its part make it possible to recognize in it the leader of the ensemble union. Conclusion. The leading role of the piano in L. Beethoven’s piano quartets brings this genre closer to a piano concerto. At the same time, the piano has a variety of role functions: it can act as an equal partner, being one of the voices of the quartet score; as a concert instrument demonstrating its virtuoso capabilities; as a leader of an ensemble, a kind of conductor, giving impetus to performance, initiative in ensemble play. Similar functions can be observed in W. A. Mozart’s sonatas for violin and piano, which L. Beethoven was guided by.

Form in Beethoven’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 24

Outline Genesis and general characteristics Form First Movement “Allegro” – Detailed analysis Formal outline of the First Movement Second Movement “Adagio molto espressivo” Formal outline of the Second Movement Third Movement “Scherzo – Allegro molto” Fourth movement “Rondo – Allegro ma non troppo” Formal outline of the Fourth Movement Conclusion Bibliography

Соната для скрипки и фортепиано ор. 26 Сергея Борткевича: авторская трактовка жанрового инварианта

The article deals with Sergei Bortkiewicz form, structure and functional experiments on sonata cycle in Sonata for Violin and Piano op. 26. The date of creation of the work is clarified. The article provides an overview of the history of development of the sonata cycle genre invariant. Comprehensive analysis of the work by Bortkiewicz provides tracing influences of West-European and Russian composing traditions. Different approaches to the interpretation of the composer's idea are presented, which allows to explain the specific construction of the cycle.

Imagination and Memory: Inter-movement Thematic Recall in Beethoven and Brahms

Like several of his predecessors, Brahms reintroduces themes from one movement into a later one in several of his instrumental works. Historical circumstances and changing historical consciousness affected a composer's use of thematic recall. For Beethoven (per Elaine Sisman) recalling an earlier theme provided the creative stimulus to move forward to the end of a piece, in accordance with the linear concept of history that defined Beethoven's Enlightenment world view. Brahms's use of inter-movement thematic recall often expresses a more wistful and melancholy view of the past and focuses on the ability of recall to provide a dramatic narrative. In his earliest use of cyclical return, the Op. 5 Piano Sonata (1853), the Andante second movement is echoed and transformed by the ‘Ruckblick’ fourth movement, as Brahms plays on the poetic inscription of the former movement to raise the specter of lost love and mortality. In a more complex web of thematic recall, the op. 78 Violin Sonata (1878) combines allusions to a pre-existing pair of interrelated songs from his Op. 59 with a newly composed, recurring instrumental theme to create a multi-layered, somber character in the piece. Both of those works draw on an earlier, romantic sense of yearning for return. Near the end of his career, however, the quiet emergence and eventual dissipation of opening material at the close of the Op. 115 Clarinet Quintet (1891) reflects Brahms's awareness of his place at the end of an artistic tradition, and thereby conveys a post-Romantic conception of history.

Variations on a Theme by Vinteuil in Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu

Even though Proust disparages the methods of “musicographies,” his descriptions of and comments on Vinteuil’s violin sonata, including the “petite phrase” as Swann’s favorite theme, are the subjects of this study. By defining the registering of a musical theme as a subjective occurrence, Proust avoids naming any single model; moreover, in the course of writing Recherche, he constantly adds new musical associations. On the one hand, Proust blurs references to his starting point—Saint-Saëns’s op. 75—and on the other hand, he manages to individuate the “petite phrase” by superimposing characteristics onto it. While allowing Swann as listener to formulate concrete associations regarding the imaginary “petite phrase,” he stimulates the reader, conversely, to imagine varying kinds of music to these associations.

Strauss by Laurenz Lütteken

Reviewed by: Strauss by Laurenz Lütteken Patricia Josette Prokert Strauss. By Laurenz Lütteken. Translated by Erik Butler. (The Master Musicians.) New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. [xii, 283 p. ISBN 9780190605698 (hardcover), $36.95.] Music examples, illustrations, tables, footnotes, index. In Strauss, Laurenz Lütteken argues Richard Strauss's qualifications as a "modern" composer by presenting a "new, unprejudiced view" of the composer as one who embodied rather than clashed with his generation (p. x). The book is loosely organized by musical genre, with the first five chapters focusing on the composer's instrumental works, lieder, and conducting duties [End Page 613] and the final six chapters focusing on his operas. At first glance, the reader might assume they were about to embark on another Strauss biography; Lütteken, however, strives to differentiate his book from standard texts by primarily concentrating on the connection between modernism and Strauss's life and work. Instead of presenting Strauss's life in strict chronological order, Lütteken in each chapter examines a theme or musical genre that may span several decades of the composer's life. For example, in the second chapter, "The End of the Nineteenth Century: Leaving Traditional Genres Behind," he details how Strauss's early compositional development reflects a historical awareness because his early instrumental works oscillated between Brahmsian tradition and Wagnerian modernity. Furthermore, Lütteken uses Strauss's early compositional influences, such as Jean-Baptist Lully, Wolfgang Mozart, and Ludwig von Beethoven, to illustrate how Strauss learned and emulated standard compositional forms (sonata, concerto, suite, etc.) in order to cast them aside. For the most part, Lütteken's focus in the second chapter is on Strauss's early instrumental compositions written between roughly 1870 and 1888. He often pulls examples, however, from Strauss's later compositions and writings to bolster his arguments. For example, he quotes a 1943 letter from Strauss to music critic Willi Schuh: "At nineteen, I wrote my sole, and final, symphony; at twenty, the Piano Quartet and the Violin Sonata—then it was over, and my symphonic works were just preparations for Salome" (p. 42). Lütteken does not provide further information on Salome's score or how the early instrumental works influenced the opera. These types of examples appear throughout the text and would likely be challenging for the casual reader to understand or follow, especially considering Lütteken rarely provides context or explanation. There is a definite assumption on the part of the author that his readers already have advanced knowledge of the composer and his entire oeuvre. Lütteken pulls examples from several different sources besides Strauss's scores and writings to support the theme of the chapter. These include Strauss's correspondence, reminiscences of the composer in the writings of colleagues and friends, and Strauss's score adaptations of other composers such as Hector Berlioz and Christoph Willibald Gluck. Again, the sources span the entirety of Strauss's life, and Lütteken introduces them in each chapter without much context or explanation. He also tends to provide background information on topics that have not been properly explained. For example, when discussing Strauss's Metamorphosen, Lütteken writes that "the project was conceived in response to Paul Sacher, Willi Schuh, and Karl Böhm's request for a work to inaugurate Sacher's newly established Collegium Musicum in Zurich" (p. 194). While Lütteken had previously clarified the relationship between Strauss, Schuh, and Böhm, he does not give the same consideration for Sacher or his Collegium Musicum. Although there is an extensive personalia glossary included as an appendix, the short explanations therein are inadequate for the general reader. Moreover, in order to fully grasp many of the interpersonal relationships within the book, anyone unaccustomed to the composer's biography would have to look beyond this book and undertake a bit more research. In addition to discussing Strauss's life and works through the lens of modernism, Lütteken is unique in his approach to Strauss by devoting his fourth chapter, "Music and Life: The Kapellmeister [End Page 614] and His Duties," to the composer's various conducting experiences. Unlike the majority of his contemporaries, who held conservatory positions...

The solo violin sonatas of Ivan Handoshkin in the context of chamber and instrumental music оf eighteenth-century Russia

The solo violin sonatas of Ivan Handoshkin in the context of chamber and instrumental music оf eighteenth-century Russia

Two Beethoven Facsimiles

Reviewed by: Streichquartett B-Dur op. 130; Grande Fugue: B-Dur op. 133 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and: Klaviertrio B-Dur Opus 97 "Erzherzog"-Trio by Ludwig van Beethoven Seow-Chin Ong Ludwig van Beethoven. Klaviertrio B-Dur Opus 97 "Erzherzog"-Trio. Foreword by Mitsuko Uchida. Introduction by Julia Ronge. München: G. Henle Verlag, 2020. [Foreword and introduction in German and English. Cloth on slipcase. ISMN 979-0-201-83230-2. $245.] Ludwig van Beethoven. Streichquartett B-Dur op. 130; Grande Fugue: B-Dur op. 133. Commentary by Ulrich Konrad. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2019. (Documenta musicological. Zweite Reihe, Handschriften-Faksimiles; Bd. LV) [Commentary in German and English. Hardcover. ISBN 978-3-376-182464-1. $436.] [End Page 640] Issued to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in 2020, Henle's facsimile of the autograph of Beethoven's Piano Trio in B-flat major, op. 97, the "Archduke" Trio, the most expansive of all the composer's essays in the genre, is a beautiful document, with the deep red color of the binding and the hard case contrasting strikingly with the decorative gold lettering. Quite apart from the content of the facsimile, the richness of the presentation alone invites one to pick it up and admire it. The autograph, originally housed in the Preußische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin prior to World War II, is now kept in the Biblioteka Jagiellónska in Cracow, Poland. An account of how this autograph, together with many other priceless manuscripts previously kept in the Preußische Staatsbibliothek came to be deposited in the Biblioteka Jagiellónska, is given in Nigel Lewis's Paperchase (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981). The autograph is bound in two volumes, the first containing the first two movements of the work and the second, the last two. Both volumes, however, are not of the same size, and the facsimile is accordingly published in similar fashion. Published in color, it appears to preserve the physical dimensions of the autograph (although this is not mentioned in the commentary). The first two movements of the autograph feature papers in the usual oblong Querformat that Beethoven had so often used throughout his career. The last two movements, by contrast, are characterized by papers in vertical Hochformat. This dissimilarity in paper size and orientation within the same autograph is extremely unusual for Beethoven. Indeed, the watermark of the second volume's Hochformat paper is a rarity in Beethoven: among the thousands of Beethoven manuscript papers in existence, only forty-five folios are known to bear a similar watermark (including the papers for the autograph of the Violin Sonata in G major, op. 96, a work roughly contemporaneous with the "Archduke" Trio). Manufactured in Italy, in a town called Fabriano (in the Marche region), this Italian paper stands apart from the vast majority of papers made within the Hapsburg empire that Beethoven had often used. For a more extensive discussion of the autograph, see my article "The Autograph of Beethoven's 'Archduke' Trio," in Beethoven Forum, vol. 11, no. 2 (2004): 181–208. The introduction to the facsimile, written by Julia Ronge, describes in brief the history of the work, its genesis, the circumstances of its publication, the autograph, and the composer's working methods in connection with the "Archduke" autograph (although, to be sure, Beethoven's manner of working described here may be applied more widely to the composer's manuscripts in general, including his sketches). Not included in the introduction are some of the details that a musicologist may look for, such as diagrams showing the paper gathering structure of the autograph and drawings of the watermarks of the papers used. While these details are available elsewhere, having them here would have been especially appropriate and convenient. Beethoven's autographs are essentially working manuscripts at a late [End Page 641] stage of the compositional process. As such, they are typically characterized by revisions and emendations of various kinds, from corrections of small errors to reworkings of longer musical passages. Revisions that are particularly involved are sometimes written out on fresh manuscript paper that is then pasted over the original musical text. Although such paste-overs are not present in the "Archduke" Trio autograph...

Structural Dissonance Re-Imagined: The Finale of Elgar’s Violin Sonata, OP. 82

Abstract Contemporary critical reception of Elgar’s Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82 was divided: was this work old hat or modestly cutting edge? Study of the tonal intricacies of its finale can facilitate interesting answers to this question, which mediate between its implied extremes. The article focuses on Elgar’s unusual treatment of sonata form’s traditional harmonic pillars, arguing that he radically changed their surface contents while still attempting to guarantee their continued relevance as organizing presences at a level below the musical surface. Particularly important is his articulation of the finale’s structural dominant. The music that follows on from an abortive cadence in V at the end of the finale’s secondary theme area might be thought to ‘translate’ the dominant into a more modern kind of musical language; it can thus be perceived as a genuine structural dissonance once more, rather than as a consonant cliché.