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Schubert's Sonata Forms and the Poetics of the LyricAuthor(s): Su Yin MakSource: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring, 2006), pp. 263-306Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4138418

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Schubert's Sonata Forms

and the Poetics of the LyricSU YIN MAK

A criticalcommonplacen Schubertanalysisis the view that the composer's instrumental music is characterized byextended lyricism and that such lyricism is essentially at odds with Clas-sical sonata conventions. This perspective can be found even in the ear-

liest studies of sonata form in Schubert. Tovey, for example, asserts in a

1928 essay that "Schubert's large instrumental forms are notoriously

prone to spend in lyric ecstasy the time required ex hypothesifor

dramatic action."' The Schenkerian theorist Felix Salzer, in a detailed

study published in that same centennial year of Schubert's death,reaches a similar conclusion: "Schubert's greatest individuality in the

treatment of sonata form lies in the transference of lyricism and its

forms into the realm of the sonata.'"•Even Theodor Adorno agrees withthe theorists that the dialectic between the standard sonata scheme and

Schubert's instrumental forms is lyrical in conception. For Adorno, the

substance of Schubert's music has to be understood as a "landscape of

truth-characters"which "absorbswith all the force of subjective interior-

ity the fading images of an objective presence in order to rediscover

them in the smallest cells of any musical realization," and whose formal

construction is "potpourri" rather than linear, crystalline rather than

, Donald Francis Tovey, "Tonality in Schubert," Music & Letters9 (1928); reprintedin The Main Stream of Music and Other Essays (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1949), 148.

2 Felix Salzer, "Die Sonatenform bei Schubert," Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 15

(1928): 125. "Wasdiese betrifft, so muBten wir in der Ubertragung von Lyricism undihren Formen in das Gebiet der Sonatenform die Haupteigenart Schuberts in der Be-

handlungsweise dieser Formgattung erkennen"; translation mine. For non-Englishsources cited in this study, only the English will be given when a standard translation is

readily available. Where there is none, as in the Salzer article, translations are my ownand the original will be given in an accompanying footnote.

TheJournalof Musicology,Vol. 23, Issue 2, pp. 263-306, ISSN 0277-9269, electronic ISSN 1533-8347-@ 2oo6 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for

permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's

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THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

organic. Such a representation of "the subjective and the objective,

forming Schubert's landscape," argues Adorno, "constitutes the lyrical

in a new way."3The notion of lyrical form draws upon two related sets of composi-tional features conventionally associated with song. The first, roughly

synonymous with "cantabile," refers to style: the words "lyric" or "lyri-cal" describe melodies in moderate tempo with relatively even note val-

ues, regular phrasing, and simple chordal accompaniment. The second

refers to the closed binary or ternary designs often designated as "song

form," a term that originated in A. B. Marx's Formenlehre. Marx names

the first of his series of artistic forms (Kunstformen), the basic prototype

from which all instrumental forms may be derived, the Liedsatz. Hewrites: "A musical piece that holds to only one idea (a unitary content)

we call a Lied or Liedsatz, regardless of whether or not it is meant to be

sung."4 Here "song" does not refer to actual vocal music but to an ideal-

ized abstraction. Marx's Liedsdtze are small closed forms with balanced

phrasing, symmetrical periods, and cadential parallelism, supposed for-

mal features of folk song.5 Although the Liedsatz may later be expandedinto sonata form through the addition of syntactically subsidiary Sdtze, it

is closed and self-contained in its initial formation.

At the same time, lyricism in Schubert has also been consistentlyaligned with features that call into question the functional and hierar-

chical distinctions intrinsic to Classical sonata practice, even thoughthese features do not always involve cantabile themes cast in song form.

James Webster associates Schubert's "lyrical impulse" not only with "a

tendency towards symmetrical periods or closed forms such as binary or

ABA, often alternating with long modulating transitions," but also with

"a penchant for juxtaposing keys rather than preparing them, for

common-tone modulations between indirectly related keys, and for

remote keys on the flat side."6 Carl Dahlhaus, in an article on the firstmovement of the G major string quartet, claims that Schubert's approachto sonata form is "lyric-epic" in conception and characterizes the move-

3 Theodor Adorno, "Schubert," in Moments musicaux (1928); trans. Jonathan

Dunsby and Beate Perry, 19th-Century Music 29 (2oo5): 7-11;. I am grateful to Cameron

Gardner for making the unpublished manuscript of the Dunsby/Perrey translation avail-able for my reference prior to its publication.

4 A. B. Marx, Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, praktisch-theoretisch, 7th ed.

(1868); partial English trans. in Scott Burnham, Musical Form in the Age of Beethoven: Se-

lected Writings on Theory and Method (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991), 52.5 Marx's concept of the Liedsatzencompasses both binary and ternary forms; his em-

phasis is on their derivation from a single idea, what he calls "unity of content," ratherthan on their structural distinctions.

6James Webster, "Schubert's Sonata Form and Brahms's First Maturity (I)," I9th-Century Music 2 (1978): 2o, 26.



MAK

ment as "a sonata form that tends towards variation cycle." There is,

however, neither reference to cantabile style and song form, nor expla-

nation of how variation technique is related to lyricism.7 PoundieBurstein's analysis of the same quartet movement likewise explores the

relationship between lyricism and structure without defining the for-

mer, as "the lyricism of Schubert's music is universally acknowledged.'"8

I believe that our received ideas on Schubert's lyricism are essen-

tially correct; yet curiously their historical, theoretical, and aesthetic

bases have received little critical examination. If "Schubert's lyric-epicsonata form ought not to be measured by the standards of Beethoven's

dramatic-dialectic form,"9 as Dahlhaus exhorts, how might its standards

be defined? To what extent might the lyric constitute an alternative todrama as a sui generis discursive paradigm for the Classical sonata?

The Lyric as Music-Analytical Description

It may come as a surprise that despite the great deal of analytical at-

tention that Schubert's music has received in recent years, the clearest

account of the role of lyricism in the Schubertian sonata form remains

Felix Salzer's.m1 Salzer's assertion that the self-contained structures of

lyricism are incompatible with the Classical sonata style reflects the

theoretical formulations of his teacher, Heinrich Schenker. Like Marx,

Schenker sees the Liedsatz as a paradigm for singular, unified structure,

but instead of viewing song form in terms of motivic manipulation or

phrase structure his definition, as with all his definitions of formal typesin FreeComposition, is based on the concept of prolongation. In the brief

section on form in Free Composition, Schenker demonstrates throughreference to numerous musical examples that the two-part song form

usually corresponds to the two-part divided fundamental structure,

whereas the three-part song form may have either a divided or undi-

vided structure."A clearer explanation of song form occurs in Schenker's discussion

of sonata form. He writes "Only the prolongation of a division (inter-

ruption) gives rise to sonata form. Herein lies the difference between

7 Carl Dahlhaus, "Sonata Form in Schubert: The First Movement of the G-MajorString Quartet, Op.'161 (D.887)," trans. Thilo Reinhard, in Schubert:Criticaland AnalyticalStudies,ed. Walter Frisch (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1986), 1-1 2.

1 Poundie Burstein, "Lyricism,Structure, and Gender in Schubert's G-MajorString

Quartet," Musical Quarterly 81 (1997): 51.9 Dahlhaus, "Sonata Form in Schubert," i.

'"Felix Salzer, "Die Sonatenform bei Schubert," Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 15

(1928): 86-125.

"Heinrich Schenker, FreeComposition,rans. and ed. Ernst Oster (New York:Long-

man, 1979), ?308-10, 131-33.

265



266


sonata form and song form: the latter can also result from a mixture or

a neighbor note."12 These remarks imply an association between lyricism

and elements of structure. In his 1928 essay on Schubert, Schenker'spupil Felix Salzer further correlates lyricism with a tendency toward

self-contained expansiveness, repetition, and sectional subdivision:

The lyrical idea is the expression of a specific emotion that the artistwants to capture and, above all, to shape artistically.This desire to cap-ture the emotion means that each lyrically determined idea has the

tendency to expand itself and especially to develop itself further by re-

peating the same group of motives. In the end, an idea formed in this

way produces a unified construction that exists for its own sake, since

it does not appear to have been formed with regard to an artistic syn-thesis with different ideas. The abundant use of one and the same

group of motives also results in many subdivisions within such a con-

struction. Caesuras are therefore an important feature of lyrically

shaped ideas.13

Salzer argues that music's fundamental force (Grundkraft)derives

from what he calls "the improvisatory element": "its forward-drivingforce prevents the excessive development of a single key, begets dra-

matic tensions in the music, and ensures a unified coherence."14 The

lyrical tendency toward self-containment and stasis is at odds with this

improvisational aesthetic, and thus "although in its outer form (dufleren

Form) sonata form constitutes an expansion of song form, the character

of its inner form (Formung) must however deny its relationship to the

prototype."r15 Salzer then refers to examples from "Schubert's four

great predecessors," C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, in

12 Ibid., ? 312; Oster trans., 134-

in Salzer, "Die Sonatenform bei Franz Schubert," 88. "Der lyrische Gedanke ist derAusdruck einer bestimmten Empfindung, die der Kfinstler festhalten und vor allem kun-stlerisch gestalten will. Dieses Streben, die Empfindung festzuhalten, bringt es mit sich,daBjeder lyrisch angelegte Gedanke dazu neigt, sich auszudehnen und besonders aus

Wiederholungserscheinungen derselben Motivgruppe sich weiter zu entwickeln. Ein so

geformter Gedanke ergibt abschliefend ein einheitliches Gebilde, das ffir sich allein

dasteht, indem es nicht in Hinblick auf eine kfinstlerische Synthese mit andersartigen

Einfillen gestaltet erscheint. Die reichliche Verwendung ein und derselben Motivgruppehat nun auch viele Unterteilungen eines solchen Gebildes zur Folge. Casuren sind alsomit ein Hauptmerkmal der lyrisch gestalteten Einfaille."

14 Ibid., 9o. "Seine vorwartstreibende Kraft ist es, welche die allzubreite Entwick-

lung der einen Tonart verhindert, welche dramatische Spannungen in der Musik erzeugt

und einen einheitlichen Zusammenhang gewihrleistet!"15 Ibid., 89. "In ihrer diuBeren Form die Sonatenform eine Dehnungserscheinung

der Liedform bildet, der Charakter ihrer Formung aber die Beziehung zum Urbilde ver-

leugnen mul." For a succinct summary of the aesthetic distinction between inner andouter form in the history of music theory, see Mark Evan Bonds, WordlessRhetoric:MusicalForm and the Metaphor of the Oration (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1991), 13-52.



MAK

which the improvisational element is intended "either to eliminate the

lyrical element completely or at least to abbreviate the lyrical character

ofan

idea,so

that, overall, ideas are cast in the spirit of a flowing for-mal design and not allowed to expand too broadly."'6Salzer's language

suggests the paradox that the stable forms of lyricism represent dissipa-tion rather than order, and that improvisation is an agent of disciplinerather than freedom. His negative assessment of Schubert's sonata prac-tice follows from this premise: Schubert's sonata form movements are

weak because they indulge in a succession of lyricalstructures unchecked

by improvisation, and are both excessive in length and lacking in or-

ganic unity.

Anti-Schubert bias aside, Salzer's view draws attention to a crucialway in which extended lyricism is at odds with the normative discursive

strategies of sonata form. As a rhetorical argument, sonata discourse

must constantly "drive forward"; yet the lyrical tendency toward self-

expansiveness and stasis is anti-teleological in nature. Lyrical sections

linger on particular moments, thereby arresting "sonata time" and im-

peding the rhetorical progress of the discourse. Adorno's notion of

"crystalline form" and Tovey's remark about Schubert's "lyric ecstasy,"both cited earlier, similarly refer to the tension between lyricism and

the generic demands of sonata rhetoric.Moreover, Schubert frequently casts his most extended and lyricalthemes in remote key areas that are related to the structural tonic or

dominant through modal mixture or neighboring motion, and that

exhibit the prolongational patterns characteristic of Schenker's songform. If earlier on we saw that lyrical themes contradict the sonata aes-

thetic because they are too stable, here their placement in remote keyareas paradoxically leads to the opposite effect of large-scale harmonic

and formal instability. Nowhere is this effect more apparent than in the

middle theme of the so-called "three-key exposition." James Websterhas drawn attention to the affective disjunction between this type of

lyricallyconceived design and the generic expectations of sonata form:

In harmonic terms,the firstsection in a double second group alwaysleads from the tonic to the dominant, and thus alwaysconstitutes atransition.... The only possiblecriticismwould be a felt dissociationbetween the "otherworldly"haracterof a lyricaltheme and its tonal

instability, s in the Quintet.When the opening section is tonallysta-ble [in a remote key] and presentsa closed theme, one might feel a

16 Ibid., 9o. "Alle verfolgen jedoch dieselben Grundzwecke, nimlich das lyrischeMoment entweder vollkommen auszuschalten oder den lyrischen Charakter einesGedankens wenigstens zu abbrevieren, ja den Gedanken fiberhaupt im Sinne einerflieBenden Formgebung nicht zu breite Ausdehnung gewinnen zu lassen."

267



268


dissociation between its firmness of character and its tonal function as

a transition.'7

In the first movement of the Piano Sonata in B? major, D. 960, we

feel this dissociation right from the start. The movement's three-key ex-

position suggests a background structure of I-bVI-V, and the remote

key of bVI is given emphasis not only in the second group, but also in

the first (see Ex. i). We first hear G6 as a moment of disjunction, a trill

in the lowest register and with the softest dynamics (m. 8). It emergesfrom the depths of the half cadence that ends the main theme's an-

tecedent phrase and delays the appearance of the answering conse-

quent. Both Joseph Kerman and Charles Fisk have suggested that this

trill seems to stand outside the discourse of the movement, "a mysteri-

ous, impressive, cryptic Romantic gesture" that is "a harbinger of some-

thing outside or beyond what is implied by the theme itself."'1 At mea-

sures 20-35, Gk is stabilized with a closed, lyrical theme that seems to

function as the middle section of a ternary form. Yet there is no actual

modulation; the music is merely transposed to prolong the flattened

sixth scale-step. As Salzer rightly points out, there is no "absolute neces-

sity" for the middle section-or, indeed, for the impression of ternaryform-since the entire first group (mm. 1-45) is but an expanded rep-etition of the

5-,6-5relationship that was already stated in the trill fig-

ure at measure 8.'" There is no forward motion until the very end of

the a' section (mm. 45-48), when the ending of the consequent phraseis altered to serve as a transition to the second group.

The self-contained expansiveness of the lyric thus appears to affect

not only the construction of themes but also large-scale motivic designand tonal structure. Yet its rhetorical implications, the relationships it

posits between technique and effect, are often left unexplored. Tovey

simply comments that Schubert's "arbitrary short cuts and divergences

[are] attempted for the sake of variety with no clear conviction that if

the later statements are right the original statements were not wrong or

'7 Webster,"Schubert's Sonata Form and Brahms's First Maturity (I)," 30.1" Joseph Kerman, "A Romantic Detail in Schubert's Schwanengesang,"n Schubert:

Criticaland AnalyticalStudies,ed. Walter Frisch (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1986),59; Charles Fisk, Returning Cycles: Contexts for the Interpretation of Schubert's Impromptus and

Last Sonatas (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2001), 241-42.'9

Salzer,"Die Sonatenform bei Franz

Schubert," 99-1oo.Esteban Buch offers an

interesting comparison between Salzer's reading of this passage and that by another pupilof Schenker, Otto Vrieslander, followed by further comparison between their analyses andAdorno's views on the same sonata. "Adorno's 'Schubert': From the Critique of the Gar-den Gnome to the Defense of Atonalism," 19th-Century Music 29 (2005): 25-30.



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EXAMPLE 1. Schubert, Piano Sonata in B6, D. 96o/i, mm. 1-50

Molto moderato

ligato

•IVI JI...

.i0 r r r r r

77rr'r r."

"I- I--":;

12

6 "' "

r r r r ' opL,OQ

269



270


EXAMPLE 1. (continued)

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"----

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I.'ANI' "

23

I v

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333 3 3

cresc. 3:W 6

eFi 1 1 i

fi f1 N1 P 119i 19i19 1 ,9 ,,T

35

ATrlr "I

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272



37

Al"

P

40

I I

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dcresres.

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{ 3-iJ* 3 3L--- •

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MAK

superfluous.'"2 Although Salzer does examine the voice-leading conse-

quences of the composer's lyrical structures, he fails to discover a logi-

cal connection between the two and thus concludes that such practicesviolate the spirit of sonata form. Webster observes that "Schubert's lyri-cal impulse was comfortable in the tonic, and in distant [harmonic] re-

gions," and suggests that "the principle which seems to explain these

novel approaches is Schubert's aversion to the dominant,"2' but is

silent on how Schubert's supposed aversion to the dominant relates to

lyricism. Adorno's metaphor of the musical landscape comes closest to

capturing the effect of Schubert's approach to form, but its analytical

application remains elusive; we are never told how Schubert's landscape

constitutes the lyrical in a new way.2 Indeed, the critical consensus onSchubert seems satisfied to assume a dialectical opposition between the

lyric and the dramatic, with the latter taken to be normative for sonata

form. This assumption may be traced to discussions of musical form in

late 18th-century music theory, the basis for our standard critical mod-

els of sonata form today.

Hypotaxis and the Classical Sonata Style

There are striking parallels between the Melodienlehre of such theo-

rists as Joseph Riepel (1709-82) and Heinrich Christoph Koch (1749-

1816) and contemporaneous discussions of rhetoric and literary style.

Koch, especially, was explicit about the analogy between his theory of

melody and the syntactical structures of speech. At the beginningof Section 3 of his Introductory Essay on Composition, titled "The Nature

of Melodic Sections," Koch writes:

Certain more or less noticeable resting points are generally necessaryin speech and thus also in the products of those fine arts which attain

their goal through speech, namely poetry and rhetoric, if the subjectthey present is to be comprehensible. Such resting points are just as

necessary in melody if it is to affect our feelings. ... Speech, for exam-

ple, breaks down into various sentences [Perioden]through the most

noticeable of these resting points; through the less noticeable the sen-

tence, in turn, breaks down into separate clauses [Sdtze]and parts of

2, Donald Francis Tovey, "Franz Schubert," in The Heritageof Music (London: Ox-

ford Univ. Press, 1927), vol. 1; repr. in The Main Streamof Music and OtherEssays (NewYork: Oxford Univ. Press, 1949), 118-19.21 Webster, "Schubert'sSonata Form and Brahms's First Maturity (I)," 22, 26.22 Adorno, "Schubert [1928]," trans. Jonathan Dunsby and Beate Perry, I9th-

CenturyMusic 29 (2005): 3-14.

273



274


speech [Redetheile].ust as in speech, the melody of a composition can

be broken up into periods by means of analogous resting points, and

these, again, into single phrases [Sditze]nd melodic segments [Theile].23

In the rest of the section, Koch goes on to "pursue comparison of

melodic phrases with the phrases of speech," using such grammaticalterms as "subject," "predicate," "caesura," and "punctuation" to de-

scribe the construction of melodic phrases.24Koch's later description of phrase expansion techniques and what

we now call sonata form may also be understood with reference to lin-

guistic parallels.25 Particularly relevant are the concepts of hypotaxisand

parataxis,terms from classical rhetoric that describe two distinct

types of sentence construction and that were revived in 18th-centurydiscussions of literary style.26 Hypotaxis, or the Ciceronian periodic

style, features the carefully proportioned sentence within which gram-matical linkage corresponds to the connection of ideas. A principal ar-

gument would appear as the main clause of the sentence and subsidiaryideas as dependent, relative clauses. It is a style in which extensive syn-tactical interdependence serves as a means of emphasizing the hierar-

chical and functional relationships among ideas. Example 2, the open-

ingsentence from Cicero's own Oratio in Catilinam

Prima, providesan

illustration:

'3. Heinrich Christoph Koch, Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition (Leipzig, 1782-

93), vol. 2, part 2, section 3, chapter 1; partial English trans. by Nancy Baker (NewHaven: Yale Univ. Press, 1983), 1.

24 Ibid., Baker trans., 3-59.25 A number of scholars have drawn attention to the importance of the Melodienlehre

theorists to our understanding of how sonata form might have been conceived in the

Classicalstyle. See,

forexample,

Leonard Ratner'sgroundbreaking

article"Eighteenth-Century Theories of Musical Period Structure," Musical Quarterly 42 (1956): 439-54;

Bonds, Wordless Rhetoric; and Joel Lester, Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century

(Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1992). Elaine Sisman also offers an admirably clear

presentation of Koch's discussion of expansion techniques in "Small and ExpandedForms: Koch's Model and Haydn's Music," Musical Quarterly 62 (1982): 444-78. The term

"sonata form," as well as "exposition," "development," and "recapitulation," would of

course have been foreign to 18th-century theorists, but for ease of reference (e.g. "expo-sition" instead of "firstprincipal period of the opening allegro") I will make use of mod-

ern nomenclature in the present discussion.26 The most important of these is Gottsched's treatise Grundrif3 zu einer vernunfft-

miifigen Redekunst, 1729; revised and enlarged as Ausfiihrliche Redekunst, 1736. As David

Gramit andIlija Diurhammer

haveshown,

Gottsched's rhetoric formed thebasis

of Insti-

tutio ad eloquentiam Vienna: Vindobonae, 1805), the textbook used by Schubert duringhis studies at the Stadtkonvict. ee David Gramit, "The Intellectual and Aesthetic Tenets of

the Schubert Circle" (Ph.D. diss., Duke Univ., 1987), and Ilija Diurhammer, "Zu Schu-

berts Literaturfisthetik," Schubert durch die Brille 14: 4-99.



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EXAMPLE 2. Cicero, Oratio in Catilinam Prima, I, I, 327

An vero vir amplissumus, P. Shall that distinguished man, Pub-

Scipio, pontifex maximus, Ti. lius Scipio, the pontifex maximus,Gracchum mediocriter labefactan- though he was a private citizen,tem statum rei publicae privatus have killed Tiberius Gracchus,interfecit: Catilinam orbem terrae who was only slightly undermin-caede atque incendiis vastare cu- ing the foundations of the state,

pientem nos consules perferemus? and shall we, who are consuls, putup with Catiline, who is anxious to

destroy the whole world with mur-der and fire?

By contrast, as Eric Blackall has summarized in a standard mono-

graph, parataxis, or the Senecan style, was described in late 18th-

century letters as a style of writing that "has either short clauses built

into large sentences with slight, informal connections (in the 'loose'

manner), or no connection at all and short crisp sentences (in the

'curt' manner)."'" Michael O'Connor in turn defines paratactic style as

"one in which a language's ordinary resources for joining propositionsare deliberately underused: propositions are set one after another with-

out theexpected particles, adverbs,

orconjunctions."2•) Accordingly,

parataxis downplays the role of syntax and hierarchy in discourse and

instead relies on techniques of juxtaposition (such as repetition and

parallelism). Although it can imply a logical structure-for example, by

suggesting a temporal order through serial succession-the underlying

principle is associative rather than grammatical. Blackall further shows

that, although both hypotaxis and parataxis are intermixed in rhetori-

cal practice, the rounded, periodic, hypotactic sentence was considered

the syntactical norm in most discussions of prose style in 18th-centuryGerman letters.

There are close correspondences between the concept of hypotaxisand Koch's discussion of phrase expansion techniques, which illustrates

the various ways in which the extended discourse of a large-scale move-

ment may be derived from a basic periodic structure. The musical

period is an obvious analogue to the Ciceronian sentence, just as the

27 English trans. by Louis E. Lord, in Cicero: The Speeches London: Heinemann,

1937), 16-17.

2"

Eric A.Blackall,

TheEmergence of

German as aLiterary Language, 17oo00-1775,

2nd

ed. (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1978), 150.21) Michael Patrick O'Connor, "Parataxis and Hypotaxis," in TheNew PrincetonEncy-

clopediaof Poetryand Poetics,ed. Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan (Princeton: Princeton

Univ. Press, 1993), 88o.

275



276


techniques of phrase expansion constitute a musical counterpart to the

interpolation of dependent clauses within the sentence. Koch's descrip-

tion of what we now call sonata form also reveals that he sees hypotacticconstruction as normative. In a frequently cited example, he demon-

strates how an eight-measure period might be expanded into the first

principal period, or what we would call the exposition, of a sonata form

movement (see Ex. 3).31Koch's techniques of expansion include motivic echoes (both

melodic and rhythmic), interpolations of incidental passages, and exact

and sequential repetitions not of thematic sections in their entirety but

of small segments within their component phrases. Moreover, these ex-

pansions occur within the larger context of harmonic relations which,in the Classical style, are again hierarchically conceived; they function

not only as melodic extensions of phrases but also as harmonic prolon-

gations. As Elaine Sisman has pointed out, "the function of a phrasedetermines the extent to which it will be expanded."3' The expositionas a whole remains a single syntactical unit, and hypotaxis serves as

the constructive principle governing both its melodic and harmonic

organization.

EXAMPLE 3. Hypotactic style in music, according to Koch

(a) original 8-measure period

?72.To conclude this chapter,the use of the principalmeans of melodic extension explained up to now will be tested for our further

practiceon the periodof example 361.

Example361

Poco allegro fr

A O

I>•- rn ? '

S1 'A 13 I

3" Koch, Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition, vol. 3, section 4, chapter 3, examples361 and 362; Baker trans., 163-65. These examples are also discussed in Ratner,

"Eighteenth-Century Theories of Musical Period Structure," Sisman, "Small and Ex-

panded Forms," and Lester, Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century (see n25).3, Elaine Sisman, Haydn and the Classical Variation (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press,

1993), 82.



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(b) expanded 32-measure period

In the expansion of this period shown in example 362 the means of melodic extension is indicated for every phrase and everysegment by the numberof thatsection in which it was explained previously.

Example362

Poco allegro 64.

7 48. fig. 2. 68.1169.L

456.

forte

opA

64. and 68.14

7AA forte

l KI• ~

•65.

-

I r

A2020 56.

23 61

26 . 69

28 64.ig..

IF 7F ; O F - F F

30

Remark

If the trainedcomposeruses these melodic meansof extension in his compositions, he mustrememberwhat has been said in thesecond volume with regard o the different evels of ability to conceive a melody harmonically.42

277



278


In a later chapter in the treatise, Koch describes what we now call

sonata form within the context of a discussion about the symphony.32

For Koch, the first allegro of a symphony consists of three periods, cor-responding to what we now call exposition, development, and recapitu-lation. The characteristic techniques of phrase construction within

each period are directly related to its tonal function; for example, in a

major key the function of the first period (exposition) is to establish

the tonic and to bring about a modulation to the dominant. The home

key is emphasized with techniques of melodic elaboration, but at the

same time the endings of the tonic phrases are elided so as to reserve a

decisive cadence for the goal of the modulation:

(1) its melodic sections tend to be more extended already with their

first presentation than in other compositions, and especially (2) these

melodic sections usually are more attached to each other and flow

more forcefully than in the periods of other pieces, that is, they arelinked so that their phrase-endings are less perceptible.... Thus manysuch periods are found in which a formal phrase-ending is not heard

until there has been a modulation into the most closely related key.33

Koch's emphasis on the tonal function of his principal periods suggests

that the connections between the sections of sonata form are also hy-potactic. The exposition comprises a single, expanded period that

modulates to the dominant; the development forms a second periodthat modulates continuously and leads either to a cadence in a related

key or a transition back to the tonic (Zuriickgang); the recapitulation is

a concluding period (Schlussperiode) that reestablishes the principal key.In sonata form, then, the principle of hypotaxis is conceptually ex-

tended to refer to form as well as style, so that it dictates not only local

syntax but also hierarchical subordination and functional interdepen-

dence in large-scale tonal structure.

Parataxis and Dahlhaus's "Lyric-epic"

Whereas hypotaxis constitutes a recognizable norm both for proseconstruction and for Classical sonata style, parataxis, by contrast, is fre-

quently associated with verse. Verse is generally more paratactic than

prose, since in place of grammatical subordination it can rely on rhyme,

meter, and imagery to create associative connections between ideas. It

is moreover particularly appropriate for lyric verse, because the lyric

poem tends to focus on a single vision, idea, or emotional state, and

32 Koch, Versuch inerAnleitungzur Composition Leipzig, 1782-93), vol. 3, section 4,chapter 4; Baker trans., 197-202.

33 Ibid., 199.



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this "timelessness" makes it more amenable to paratactic structures.34

Example 4, an extract from H61olderlin's poem "Abendphantasie," illus-

trates the use ofparatactic style

in the German romanticlyric:

EXAMPLE4. Friedrich H61olderlin,"Abendphantasie," lines 1-835

Vor seiner Huitteruhig im Schatten sitzt Before his shaded threshold the

plowman sits,Der Pflfiger,dem Genfigsamenraucht Contented; smoke ascends from the

sein Herd. warminghearth.

Gastfreundlich t6nt dem Wandererim A welcome rings to wanderersfrom

Friedlichen Dorfe die Abendglocke. Eveningbells in the peaceful village.

Wohl kehren itzt die Schifferzum Hafen The sailors must be coming to port now,

auch, too,In fernen Stadten, fr6hlich verrauscht In distantcities;gailythe market'snoise

des Markts

GeschaftigerLarm; n stillerLaube Recedes, is still;in quiet arbors

Glinzt des gesellige Mahl den Friendstake their meals in convivial

Freunden. splendor.

In Holderlin's poem, the juxtaposed images are self-contained and

disparate scenes, each syntactically complete and thus not hierarchi-

cally distinguished. They serve no narrative or argumentative purposebut instead coalesce into a timeless landscape, the "evening fantasy" to

which the poem's title refers. Their linkage is associative, through such

techniques as alliteration (e.g. "Schatten," "Schiffer") and assonance

(e.g. "raucht," "verrauscht"). To use an anachronistic analogy, the effect

of parataxis in the poem is cinematic, where the poet's eye, like a cam-

era, moves from one close-up image to another before pulling back toembrace them in a wider perspective.

34 Karol Berger also relates the different temporal ordering in the narrative and the

lyric to their respective "thematic" functions: Narrative forms are temporal because theyrepresent human actions, whereas lyrical forms are atemporal because they representshuman passions. However, he does not, as I do here, make the connection between tem-

porality and syntax. Because Berger's discussion of narrative and lyric occurs within thecontext of a general theory of art, he does not relate specific techniques of musical con-

struction to his conception of the lyric; in fact, there is not a single music example in his287-page book. See A Theory of Art (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000), 190-212.

35 English trans. by Kenneth Negus, in German Poetry rom 1750 to I9oo, ed. Robert M.

Browning (New York:Continuum, 1984), 92-93. Adorno has shown that H6olderlin'sma-ture lyrics rely heavily on the technique of parataxis; see "Parataxis: Zur spaiten LyrikH6lderlins," Neue Rundschau 75 (1964): 15-46.

279



280


Parataxis is also a characteristic feature of early oral epic, which was

rediscovered and considerably revived in the 18th century.36 Milman

Parry and Albert Lord's "oral-formulaic theory," widely accepted as thestandard modern theory of oral poetry, provides an elegant summary of

its manner of composition and transmission:

Oral poetry, of whatever genre, is paratactic. Its style has been called

an "adding" style, because the majority of its lines could terminate in a

period, insofar as their syntax is concerned; instead, however, anotheridea is often "added" to what precedes.... Even as the formulas and

their basic patterns make composing of lines possible in performance,so the associative use of parallelism in sound, syntax and rhythm aids

the oral poet in moving from one line to another. A line may suggestwhat is to follow it. Thus clusters of lines are formed and held to-

gether by sound, structure, and association of meaning.37

The "Father's Lament" from Beowuf, reproduced below along with Sea-

mus Heaney's sensitive verse translation, illustrates the oral poet's para-tactic style (Ex. 5).38 In this intensely emotional passage, the additive

linking of self-contained formal units presents a succession of images to

evoke King Hrethel's grief. As in the Holderlin excerpt cited earlier,

there is a sense of rhetorical progress, but it is suggested rather thanargued.

EXAMPLE5. Beowulf lines 2450-62

Symble biN gemyndgad morna gehwylce

eaforan ellorsid; obres ne gymedto gebidanne burgum in innan

rfeweardas,1onne

se an hafa6

Iurh deaoes nyd daedagefondad.

Morning after morning, he wakes to

remember

that his child is gone; he has no interest

in living on until another heir

is born in the hall, now that his first-born

has entered death's dominion forever.

36 Here I must thank James Hepokoski for his response to a paper I presented atthe Society for Music Theory's Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting at Madison in November

2003, in which I discussed parataxis with reference to lyric poetry only ("Mixing Memoryand Desire: The Outer Movements of Schubert's Piano Trio in E6major, D. 929"). Profes-sor Hepokoski reminded me that parataxis is typical not only of lyric verse but also of the

early Homeric epic; and his comment prompted my exploration of the connections be-

tween lyric and epic in late 18th-century poetics.37 Albert B. Lord, "Oral Poetry," in The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics,

863-64. This dictionary article provides a clear and succinct summary of the Parry-Lordtheory of oral-formulaic composition.

3~ Beowulf. A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000),

167.



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Gesyh6 sorhcearig on his suna bure

winsele westne, windge reste

reote berofene. Ridend swefa6,

hxele6 in hooman; nis b~er hearpan sweg,

gomen in geardum, swylceb6eriu woeron.

Gewited6 onne on sealman, sorhleo6

gxele6an aefteranum; buhte him eall to rum,

wongas ond wicstede.

He gazes sorrowfully at his son's dwelling,the banquet hall bereft of all delight,the windswept hearthstone; the horsemen

are sleeping,the warriors under ground; what was is no

more.

No tunes from the harp, no cheer raised in

the yard.Alone with his longing, he lies down

on his bed

and sings a lament; everything seems

too large,the steadings and the fields.

The notion of epic is not only suggestive with respect to what Schu-

mann has described as Schubert's "heavenly length;"39 it also finds iso-

morphic correspondence with other features of Schubert's instrumen-

tal music. Schubert's themes often comprise symmetrical periods and

closed forms that could be syntactically complete but that are subse-

quently extended through literal or varied repetition-a device analo-

gous to the associative parallelisms of paratactic style. The second

theme group from the first movement of the Piano Trio in Eb major, D.929, exemplifies Schubert's use of paratactic construction (see Ex. 6).

The theme comprises a series of modulating periods related through

sequential repetition. Phrase linkage is additive rather than hierarchi-

cal; although the section is framed by dominant harmonies, the fore-

ground key relations among the transposed phrases do not exhibit the

clear harmonic logic characteristic of Classical sonata style.The concept of parataxis also clarifies what Dahlhaus may have

meant by Schubert's "lyric-epic" approach to sonata form. As noted ear-

lier, Dahlhaus characterizes the first movement of the G major stringquartet as a "sonata form that tends towards variation cycle"4o but does

not explain how variation technique is related to the notion of "lyric-

epic." I should like to gloss Dahlhaus' remark as follows: Theme and

variation exhibits the same patterns of repetition, parallelism, and addi-

tive construction as the epic, and what is repeated are the small closed

forms that have long been associated with lyricism in the analytical tra-

dition. This perspective resonates with A. B. Marx's definition of varia-

tion form as consisting of "a succession of repetitions of a Liedsatz

(theme) in constantly altered presentations-the consideration of the

:s Robert Schumann, "Schubert's C major Symphony " (1840), in Robert Schumann

on Music: A Selection from the Writings, trans. and ed. Henry Pleasants (New York: Dover,

1965), 163-68.

4o Dahlhaus, "Sonata Form in Schubert," 9.

281



282


EXAMPLE 6. Schubert, Piano Trio in E6, D. 929/i, second theme group

42 _r

cresc.

Cello9p cresc.

Piano pcresc--

45

V•n.T-- (t)) -&6

Vic.

if

Pno. "L"

47

Vln.

(tr)ffzpp

v • • •• • •- ?TIi



MAK


50

A n . III- I- -I - Iln.

(stacc.)

Vlc.

( s t a c C . )

P n o .

L

v I I. . . .!q.: OP!

vic.I X - l

.Pno.

F

,

I

I-.I-

tr*

T1v,

T

vie.

-Pnole

Pno.()op

A I& -1&IL I 1*

V in. 2 1 i I L I i •

.•

I I I Ilm

[•.

• P I,1 " i ,l

Pno.

283



284



t r l l l l .

Vln.

V i n .

P n o .

?no i ii.. 3.•

k

3

Ni ;

I.I.I

3 3 3 3 3

740

66

.,- .i

,

TTm H

V l n .

Vic.

(8v

(s),,,,,,,,,,,-"-,,,,,,,,,

3 3 3 3 3 3

,v,. . . .j

..

..---.

P n o .

333 3 3 3

70

Vln.

--ic. toI

VA"I I

_ . ..............................

..

v~.: '

.It ttIV.

ft

IMO•F =IPeIV

II r-

•I

rI4

t)3 3 3 3 3 3

Pno.

I•3 3 3 3 3 3



MAK


v I n .

vie 7

Pno.

78

33vI1 I

vie.

33

33 3

Pno.

V Wr Wr?III I I I I I

82

.6> .-- --_

V l n .

3 3

Vic . ...'. . ." ~ _ •3 3

\N i ii 71dI

Pno.

V~nI-fo

t-• Millp-

I

. . . . .t4 I I I- II -C. I I I

L>

I

285



286


same idea from different perspectives, its application in a different

sense."41

Dahlhaus' "lyric-epic," then, may be understood as a reference toparatactic style, a description for the ways in which variation techniqueinteracts with, and modifies, the thematic processes typically associated

with sonata form. At the same time, the phrase also alludes to, and con-

flates, two poetic genres with different aesthetic and discursive attri-

butes: The epic is long, relatively objective, and communal, whereas the

lyric is brief, subjective, and personal. Moreover, the former is narrative

by definition, while the latter represents timeless moments-images,

emotions, thoughts, situations. This distinction is crucial for our pres-

ent purpose, for it brings to the fore the issue of temporality in Schu-bert's extended sonata form discourse.

Returning to the notion of lyricism in Schubert, I suggested earlier

that parataxis, or the deliberate omission of syntactical connections be-

tween phrases and formal sections, provides a technical link between

Schubert's instrumental practice and the discursive strategies of poetry.

By contrast, normative sonata rhetoric relies on hypotaxis, or the hier-

archical interdependence between syntactical and formal units, that is

more typical of prose. Yet to what extent can we attribute the paratactic

style to a poetic sensibility, and-pace Dahlhaus-is this sensibility lyricor epic in character? For one can never assume a one-to-one correla-

tion between technique and aesthetic: Pieces with undivided structures

are not necessarily lyrical in nature, although Schenker does posit an

association between lyricism and the undivided background.42 Our

consideration of Schubert's lyricism must therefore also take into ac-

count the historical context within which the composer developed his

aesthetic beliefs. I shall be arguing that Schubert's treatment of form

and syntax in the late instrumental music bears resemblance not only

to the discursive techniques of lyric poetry in general but also to a his-torically specific aesthetic conception of lyricism in late 18th- and early

S9th-century German letters: namely, the idealist Weltanschauung.43

4' A. B. Marx, "Die Form in der Musik," Die Wissenschaften im neunzehnten Jahrhun-dert,ed.J. A. Romberg, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Romberg, 1856); English trans. by Scott Burnhamin Musical Form in the Age of Beethoven: Selected Writings on Theory and Method (Cambridge:

Cambridge Univ. Press, g991), 86.

42 See, for example, the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 2 no. 2,and Schenker's sketch of the movement in FreeComposition, ig. 1oo, 5. See also Ernst Os-

ter's commentary on sonata forms with undivided background structures in the extensivefootnote to ?306; Oster trans., 139-41.

43 For a discussion of the influence of idealism on Romantic musical aesthetics, seeMark Evan Bonds, "Idealism and the Aesthetics of Instrumental Music at the Turn of theNineteenth Century," Journal of the American Musicological Society 50 (1997): 387-420.Bonds's interest is in idealism as the aesthetic basis for writings aboutmusic, and not its



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The Ideal of Song

It is worth remembering that the word "lyric"derives from the Greek

lyra, and its primordial form is song. The image of the preliterate bardas an Orpheus who is as much musician as poet has sustained the Euro-

pean literary imagination since Horace's Ars Poetica, and it became es-

pecially important in the 18th century, when intellectuals became in-

creasingly interested in developing theories on the origins of human

language. Here we might turn to the writings of Herder, who not only

played a prominent role in late 18th-century German culture in gen-eral but who also, as David Gramit has demonstrated, exerted a stronginfluence on the early Schubert circle.44

In the celebrated essay "On the Ages of a Language" (1767),Herder sketches the development of a language from the primitive to

the sophisticated and explicitly valorizes poetry and song as the source

of artistic expression:

This youthful age of language was simply the poetic. People sang in

everyday life, and the poet only raised his stresses in a rhythm chosenfor the ear; language was sensuous and rich in bold images; it was still

an expression of passion; it was still unfettered in its connections,the

period[i.e. sentence construction]

fragmentedas it

pleased!-Behold! that is the language of poetry, the poetic period [i.e. chrono-

logical demarcation]. The finest youthful blossom of language was the

age of the poets, when the singers and rhapsodists sang.45

Herder's conception of language equates the lyric with the poetic

imagination. In his "youthful age of language," poetry and music origi-nated simultaneously as "the expression of passion." By contrast, his

own time is the "philosophical age of language," when "grammarians

lay inversions in fetters ... tuned down the poetic rhythm to the melo-

diousness of prose, and hemmed in the previously free arrangement of

the words more into the roundedness of a period."46 The lyric is thus

associated not only with subjective and personal expression, but also

influence on compositional procedures found in actual musical works, which is my focushere.

44 David Gramit, "The Intellectual and Aesthetic Tenets of the Schubert Circle"

(Ph.D. diss., Duke Univ., 1987), 31-67. Among the documentary evidence cited byGramit is a 1815 letter from Spaun to Schober recommending that the latter read "the

more the better" (je liingerjelieber) f Herder's works.45 Johann Gottfried Herder, "Von den Lebensaltern einer Sprache," in Uber die

neuere Deutsche Literatur, erste Sammlung von Fragmenten (1767); trans. as "On the Ages of a

Language" by Timothy J. Chamberlain, in EighteenthCenturyGermanCriticism New York:

Continuum, 1992), 10io6.46 Ibid., 107.

287



288


with natural spontaneity and artlessness. This revival of interest in an-

cient poetry in turn led to the study of ballads and folk songs, as evi-

dent in the seminal collection StimmenderV61kern Liedern(1778).For Herder, then, lyricism is a means of rejuvenation, of returninghuman language to its primordial, natural state and awayfrom the over-

intellectual and prosaic tendencies of his age. Yet in another sense the

lyric is also the most artificial mode of literary discourse. As Herder

points out in Essay on the Origin of Language (1772), even at its most

primitive stage human language differs from the natural language of

animals not only in degree, but also in kind, by virtue of the human ca-

pacity for reflection. While animals merely give voice to emotions such

as fear and joy, reflection allows human beings to invent words both fornon-sounding objects and for abstract concepts. Because the expressionof non-sounding perceptions and experiences through language re-

quires the mediation of the auditory sense, it is neverdirect; speech it-

self is already an act of artifice.47

The language of poetry is even less transparent, since it presents,and therefore organizes, its subject through the use of regular meter

and rhyme, repetitive formal patterns, and figures of speech. Poetic ar-

tifice is the original agent of civilization, the means by which human be-

ings are distinguished and elevated from the wretchedness of bestiality:The lyre of Orpheus tames wild beasts. Related to this civilizing poweris the lyric's capacity to heal, to save human beings from their fallen

state, to snatch Eurydice even from the clutches of Death. By imposingan artificial order on disparate experiences and raw emotions, the poetdistills and transmutes reality into concepts and restores human beingsto the condition of grace.

According to Herder, the "age of philosophy" is just as much a

fallen state as untamed barbarity and therefore requires instruction

from the "youthful age": "The Child is father of the Man."48 Paradoxi-cally, then, the lyric poems of his time must civilize through negatingthe overcivilized, through conjuring an Arcadia of nymphs and shep-herds, through simulating the spontaneity of their song. Like MacPher-

son's Ossian, however, these poems are ultimately forgeries, acts of ven-

triloquism that ape the primordial through the greatest sophistry.Indeed, among the different poetic types in the lyric mode, the pastoralmost clearly reveals the poet's artifice. To cite two examples familiar to

Schubert, the protagonists of Mayrhofer's "Der Hirt" (D. 405) and "Die

47 Johann Gottfried Herder, Abhandlung iberden UrsprungderSprache Berlin, 1772),

section 2; trans. as Essayon the Origin of Language by Alexander Gode (Chicago: Univ. of

Chicago Press, 1966), 107-28.48 William Wordsworth, "MyHeart Leaps Up," line 7.



MAK

Alpenjiger" (D. 524) are not real shepherds or hunters, but the poethimself in fancy dress. Attempts by Herder and his greatest disciple,

Goethe, to imitate the folk style reveal a similar conceit.Even from its very inception, then, poetry must rely on linguistic

mediation to depict natural human feeling, and the resultant portrait is

more imaginary than real, more deliberate than instinctive. Moreover,

at the same time that Herder idealizes primitive oral poetry as the "un-

fettered" expression of passion, he also recognizes that it is tightlybound by conventions, that it addresses a limited number of stock sub-

jects, and that it employs formulaic patterns of meter, rhyme, and for-

mal repetition. In his Ossian essay, for example, Herder characterizes

primitive poetry as both "unsophisticated" and "skillful":

Ossian's poems are songs, songs of the people, folk songs, the songs ofan unsophisticated people living close to the senses, songs that have

been long handed down by oral tradition.... The purpose, the na-

ture, the miraculous power of these songs . . . depend on the lyrical,

living, dancelike quality of the song, on the living presence of the im-

ages, and the coherence of the content, the feelings; on the symmetryof the words and syllables, and sometimes even of the letters, on the

flow of melody, and on a hundred other things that belong to the liv-

ingworld .. .-how

manykinds of meter! How

exactlyis each one

determined by the ear's immediate susceptibility to rhythm! Allitera-tive syllables symmetrically arranged within the lines like signals for

the metrical beat, marching orders to the warrior band. Alliterative

sounds as a call to arms, for the bardic song to resound against the

shields. Distichs and lines corresponding! Vowels alike! Syllables

harmonizing-truly a rhythmical pulse to the line so skillful, rapid,and exact that we study-bound readers have difficulty apprehending it

with our eyes alone.49

I am interested in thispassage

notonly

because it illustrates the

nature-artifice paradox intrinsic to the lyric, but also because its focuses

almost exclusively on the poet's manipulation of sounds. AlthoughHerder designates the Ossian poems as songs, he pays scant attention

to tangible melodies or musical accompaniment but instead concerns

himself with the means by which language can approximate the effect

of music. Here Herder's conception of lyrical musicality seems closer to

the written lyric than to primitive song: When the lyric detached itself

from actual music, poets had to compensate for music's absence

49Johann Gottfried Herder, Auszug aus einemBriefwechseliberOssian und die LiederalterVolkerHamburg, 1773); partial trans. byJoyce P. Crick and H. B. Nisbet as "Extractfrom a Correspondence on Ossian and the Songs of the Ancient People," in Eighteenth-Century German Criticism, 133-35-

289



290


through purely linguistic means. As James William Johnson has pointedout:

In its modern [i.e. post-Renaissance] meaning, a lyric is a type of po-

etry which is mechanistically representational of a musical architec-

ture and which is thematically representational of the poet's sensibilityas evidenced in a fusion of conception and image.... Although lyric

poetry is not music, it is representative of music in its sound patterns,

basing its meter and rhyme on the regular linear measure of the song;or, more remotely, it employs cadence and consonance to approxi-mate the tonal variation of a chant or intonation. Thus the lyric re-

tains structural or substantive evidence of its melodic origins, and this

factor serves as the categorical principle of poetic lyricism.so

To paraphrase Walter Pater, the lyric poem aspires towards the condi-

tion of music, but this condition has little to do with actual musical

practice.In The Mirror and the Lamp, M. H. Abrams suggests that the Roman-

tics attributed the natural expressiveness of the lyric to its affinity with

music. Of all the arts, Abrams argues, music is seen to be the least

mimetic in nature: "Except in the trivial echoism of programmatic pas-

sages,it does not

duplicate aspectsof sensible

nature,nor can it be

said, in any obvious sense, to refer to any state of affairs outside itself.

... In the theory of German writers in the 179os, music came to be the

art most immediately expressive of spirit and emotion, constitutingthe very pulse and quiddity of passion made public."5' Music is thus a

metaphor for pure, primordial expression; and the lyric, because of its

kinship with music, came to replace the epic as the norm and epitomeof poetry.

Yet in striving to imitate music, the lyric poem also constantly re-

minds the reader that it is not music and thus draws attention to its own

artifice. I offer the following example from Keats to illustrate the pointmore clearly for the English-speaking reader:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

(Keats, "To Autumn," lines 1-4)

5( James William Johnson, "Lyric," in The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poet-

ics, 715-51 M. H. Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1953), 50.



MAK

As the scansion shows, Keats's word accents in the first two lines of-

ten contradict the underlying iambic pentameter, so that we hear them

against the ideal metrical pattern to which they are expected to con-form. The Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins has described this

rhythmic effect as "counterpoint," but to my ears it sounds more like an

imitation of musical rhythm, where strong and weak beats do not alter-

nate with rigid regularity and not every downbeat is accented. Like a

time signature, the iambic pentameter functions as an abstract grid of

beats and stresses that anchors, rather than dictates, the actual rhythmof the verse. The accumulation of alliterated sibilants ("season,"

"mists," etc.) and bilabials ("mists," "mellow," "bosom," etc.) also forces

the rhythm to slow down, inviting the reader to bask under the light "ofthe maturing sun." Starting in line 3, Keats creates a sense of motion by

gradually removing the alliteration and feet substitutions, until the me-

ter becomes perfectly iambic; the enjambment between lines 3 and 4also quickens the pace. The verse rhythm, now loaded and blessed with

the artifice of poetic meter, epitomizes the fruit of autumn's conspiracy.Here the poem's subject matter is nature, but its rhythms are florid,

mannered, and sophisticated. Instead of art being legitimized by its

likeness to nature, nature is likened to a collection of acoustic effects.

Indeed, the following lines from the last stanza of the poem are asmuch an apostrophe to the musicality of lyric poetry as it is a paean to

autumn:

Where are the songs of Spring?Ay,where are they?Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -

(lines 23-24)

The notion of musicality both encapsulates and defines a central

paradox associated with lyric poetry at the turn of the 19th century.

The lyric poem is fundamentally an attempt to replicate the effects ofmusic after poetry has become nonmusical; but because it must do so

within the domain of language, it draws attention to rather than awayfrom its own verbosity. Music is at once a metaphor for pure, natural

expression and the source of the greatest linguistic artifice.

Schubertthe Poet

There is documentary evidence that members of the Schubert cir-

cle shared the idealist conception of lyricism. In a letter dated 16 Feb-

ruary 1813, when Schubert was in his mid-teens, Josef Kenner wrote to

Franz Schober:

[Poetry's] purpose should be to address men truthfully-from the

prophetic mouth of the consecrated singer (vatis) or hero, about a

291



292


world that differs from the real one. ... It is the painting of a concep-tual world, of an ideal life, which turns into the balm for our feelingsand raises our hearts and spirits, and which conjures up an example of

a higher world beyond the reality and sovereignty of representations.52

Schober's poem "An die Musik," which Schubert set to music in March

1817, provides additional corroboration (see Ex. 7).

EXAMPLE7. Franz von Schober, "Andie Musik"

(text of Schubert's D. 547)53

Du holde Kunst, in wieviel grauenStunden,

Wo mich des Lebens wilder Kreis um-

strickt,

Hast du mein Herz zu warmer Lieb

entzunden [sic]

Hast mich in eine bessre Welt entriickt!

Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf

entflossen

Ein suisser, heiliger Akkord von dirDen Himmel bessrer Zeiten mir

erschlossen,

Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir daffir!

Beloved art, in how many a bleak hour,

When I am enmeshed in life's tumul-

tuous round,

Have you kindled my heart to the

warmth of love,

And borne me away to a better world!

Often a sigh, escaping from your harp,

A sweet, celestial chordHas revealed to me a heaven of happier

times.

Beloved art, for this I thank you!

A notebook entry dated March 1824 further suggests that the mature

Schubert continued to adhere to this ideal in his later years. His re-

marks on the imagination's power to preserve us from the bloodless ra-

tionalism of the Enlightenment are reminiscent of Herder:

O imagination! thou greatest treasure of man, thou inexhaustible

wellspring from which artists as well as savants drink! O remain with us

still, by however few thou art acknowledged and revered, to preserve

52 "Die Dichtkunst ... ein wahres Wort zum Menschen sprechen soll-aus dem

prophetischen Munde des geweihten Singers (vatis) oder eines Helden, einer Welt, die

sich von der wirklichen unterscheidet ... Sie ist die Malerey einer Begriffswelt, eines ide-

alen Leben, dem zur Linterung [sic] unserer Gefiuhle und zur Erhebung unsers Herzens

und Geistes wird auler der Wahrheit und Hoheit der Vorstellungen Beyspiel erfordertaus einer h6hern Welt."The complete letter is transcribed in Gramit, The Intellectualand

AestheticTenetsof the SchubertCircle,Appendix 1.6, 383-84, and partially translated on pp.57-58; the translation here is mine.

53 English trans. by Richard Wigmore, in Schubert:The Complete ong Texts(London:Gollancz, 1988), 44-45-



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us from that so-called Enlightenment, that hideous skeleton without

flesh and blood!54

Schubert could also have become familiar with the idealist aesthetic

of lyricism by way of Schiller. Schubert composed 44 Schiller settings

throughout his career, and their high proportion among his song output

-only Goethe and Mayrhofer received more settings-suggests a

strong aesthetic influence from the author. Among the poems Schubert

chose for musical setting, "Die Gotter Griechenlands" seems to have

been particularly appealing. Schubert not only set one strophe of the

poem as D. 677, but also quoted the song setting's opening motive in

the Octet (D. 803) and the

String Quartet

in A minor (D.804).

EXAMPLE 8. Schiller, "Die G6tter Griechenlands," strophe 1255

Sch6ne Welt, wo bist du? Kehre wieder,Holdes Blfitenalter der Natur!

Ach, nur in dem Feenland der Lieder

Lebt noch deine fabelhafte Spur.

Ausgestorben trauert das Gefilde,Keine Gottheit zeigt sich meinem Blick,

Ach, von jenem lebenwarmen Bilde

Blieb der Schatten nur zurfick.

Where are you, lovely world? Return again,Nature's fresh blooming time, for your I

long!

Some fragments of that glory still remain

But only in the fantasy of song.

The mourning fields lie empty and bereft,No God appears before my mortal sight,And of thatlife-warmmage,nothingleft-

Shadows have gathered, putting it to flight.

The strophe from "Die G6tter Griechenlands" that Schubert set (seeEx. 8) clearly illustrates Schiller's aesthetic conception of lyric poetry,and in particular the genre of the elegy. In "On Naive and Sentimental

Poetry," Schiller defines three genres of sentimental poetry: satire, el-

egy, and idyll. He distinguishes the elegiac from the satiric and idyllic as

follows:

In satire, actuality is contrasted with the highest reality as falling shortof the ideal. ... If the poet should set nature and art, the ideal and ac-

tuality, in such opposition that the representation of the first prevailsand pleasure in it becomes the predominant feeling, then I call him

elegiac.Either nature and the ideal are an object of sadness if the first

54 In Otto Erich Deutsch, The SchubertReader, rans. Eric Blom (New York:W.W. Nor-

ton, 1947), 337-55 English trans. by Pauline Burton (unpublished manuscript).

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294


is treated as lost and the second as unattained. Or both are an objectof joy represented as actual. The first yields the elegy n the narrower

sense, and the second the idyll in the broader sense.56

For Schiller, das Feenland der Lieder is both an ideal object and an ex-

pression of the poet's longing. This longing, moreover, takes the form

of a dialectic opposition between ideal and actuality, so that poetrybecomes a means of critical engagement with the present. If Schubert

abided by a similar aesthetic, as I contend, then his innovations in

sonata form may be read as attempts to recreate poetry in an age of

prose, to rejuvenate the musical language of his time by emulating the

discursivestrategies

oflyric poetry.I suggest that in Schubert the cantabile style, with its long associa-

tion with lyricism in music, often functions as a musical topic, in

Leonard Ratner's sense, to represent the ideal of song.57 Schubert's

cantabile themes signal the lyric not only because they are sentimental

and beautiful, but also because they are so often deliberately set apartfrom the hypotactic norms of the Classical sonata style. James Webster

has referred to the "songful, almost otherworldly" second subjects in

the first movements of the "Unfinished" Symphony, the Piano Trio in

Bb,the

Lebensstiirmefor

pianofour

hands,the

String Quintetin

C,and

the late Sonata in A (D. 959);58 to Webster's list might be added the

Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703 (see Ex. 9).The fast, agitated first theme is based on a two-measure motive

clearly based on the descending tetrachord i-67-6-5-, a conventional

emblem of lament. Canonical statements of this motive, in two-measure

hypermeasures, build up to a ffz Neapolitan sixth chord (mm. 9-10),

which leads to the dominant. In the counterstatement, bII is reinter-

preted as IV of Ab to initiate a modulation to the submediant. Although

thesecond theme is

similarlyderived from the

descending tetrachord,it is set apart from the first by means of conventionally lyrical gestures: a

56 Friedrich von Schiller, "Uber naive und sentimentalische Dichtung" (1795-96);

English trans. by Julius A. Elias in "Naive and Sentimental Poetry "and "On the Sublime" (New

York: Frederick Ungar, 1966), 118 and 125.57 The theory of the musical topic was developed by Leonard Ratner in his seminal

work on the Classical style and was later extended by V. Kofi Agawu, Robert Hatten, and

others. See Leonard Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style (New York: Schirmer,

1980); V. Kofi Agawu, Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretations of Classic Music (Prince-

ton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1991); Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Marked-ness, Correlation, and Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1994). Hatten's

ideas on musical markedness, stylistic opposition, and expressive genre are especially rele-

vant to the present study.58 Webster, "Schubert's Sonata Form and Brahms's First Maturity (I)," 2o. Hereafter,

all music examples will refer to first movements unless otherwise indicated.



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EXAMPLE 9. Schubert, Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703, mm. 1-37

*descendingtetrachord

Violin 1

Violin 2

Viola

Violoncello

Vln. .I

,

'.

.-ln.' I

Vc.

V l n .

I r

Vln. 2

cresc.

pp cres.

Vc. -:Y7_ki_ _

V

295



296



Vln. 1 v

O cresc.

Vln. 2

0 f cresc.

Via. i I I I

f cresc.

vc.f cresc.

9

VIn. d

ffz fp pp

Vln. 2

ffzpp pp

ffz pp

Via.

ffz

14

Vln. 2

-IkT

Via.

Vc. V



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18

Vln. 2

Via.

Vln. 1

Vln. 2

v i a .

26 dolce

Vln.

Vln.

Via.

PP

297



298


EXAMPLE9. (continued)

30

Vln. 2

Via.

Vc.

34

Vian. ),

Vi•.2

V i. IV . ?

V l a .

,c.

'Vcn. .

b

soaring melody, marked dolce, simple accompaniment texture, periodic

phrasing, and pp dynamic. If the descending tetrachord of the Quartett-satz's first theme identifies the discourse as a lament, then the second

theme, with all its cantabile markers, presents Schiller's "object of sad-

ness" as das Feenland derLieder.

Such a formal and affective contrast between a dramatic first theme

and a lyrical second theme is not uncommon in Classical sonata exposi-

tions, where the melodic stability of lyricism serves as a means to con-

firm the arrival of the contrasting key. But Schubert also often writes

lyrical first themes, so that the movement loses its tonal impetus to mod-

ulate away from tonic; the String Quartet in A minor, D. 804 is a well-known example. Moreover, he also frequently places his most extended

cantabile themes in remote key areas-particular favorites are the ma-

jor and minor forms of the flat submediant-so that the stable forms of

lyricism paradoxically create the opposite effect of large-scale structural



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instability. We see this in the Piano Sonata in B6 as well as the Grand

Duo for piano four hands, D. 812.

Aside from cantabile style, Schubert also relies on other means torepresent the lyric. Let us return to the second theme of the Piano Trio

in E6,cited earlier as Example 6. The movement began conventionally,with a heraldic first theme followed by motion toward the dominant.

After several frustrated attempts, the music reaches a strongly articu-

lated half cadence at measure 35. The listener therefore expects that V

of I will be reinterpreted as I of V to initiate a second theme in the

dominant key, in the manner of what Robert Winter calls a "bifocal

close."59Instead, a G6neighbor note is re-notated as F#, and the music

is abruptly redirected to B minor, the minor flat submediant.In affect, key, mode, and dynamics, the second theme exhibits

sharp contrasts with the previous material and is clearly anomalous with

respect to Classical sonata practice. Although the theme is not in the

cantabile style that is conventionally associated with lyricism, its formal

design and voice-leading structure rely on discursive strategies that I

have earlier described as characteristic of the lyric. First, though har-

monically open-ended, its periodic phrasing and metrical regularity

suggest the forms of the Liedsatz,and the melody exhibits what Salzer

calls "the lyrical tendency to expand itself by repeating the group ofmotives."'' One might also argue that the accompanimental pattern

(quarter plus a group of four eighths) imitates the dactylic poetic meter

(/ -)-with the added lilt of a dance-and that the repeated notes in

the melody have the character of vocal declamation.

More importantly, the additive phrase construction in this section

exemplifies the principle of parataxis. The section comprises four

eight-measure phrases with extended two-measure upbeats. These

phrases may be divided into two groups, which share the same accom-

panimental pattern but which are distinguished by a change in melodicconfiguration; the latter phrase within each phrase group is a transposi-tion of the first. Because the first phrase (mm. 50-57) modulates down

a major third from B minor to G major, its sequential transposition in

5:)Winter describes the "bifocal close" as including the following elements: (1) a di-

atonic first group that reaches a half cadence on the dominant; (2) the articulation ofthis half cadence by a prominent rest immediately after; (3) the continuation and imme-diate tonicization of the local dominant harmony of the half cadence; and (4) a parallelstructure in the recapitulation in which the half cadence now functions as a local domi-

nant to the second group in the tonic. "The Bifocal Close and the Evolution of the Vien-nese Classical Style," Journal of the American Musicological Society 42 (1989): 278. Winter's

"bifocal close" is equivalent to the "second-level default medial caesura" in James Hep-okoski and Warren Darcy's Sonata Theory. See "The Medial Caesura and Its Role in the

Eighteenth-Century Sonata Exposition," Music Theory Spectrum 19 (1997): 115-54-6o Salzer, "Die Sonatenform bei Franz Schubert," 88.

299



300


the second phrase results in the modulation from G minor to E1 major

(mm. 59-66, with the change of mode occurring in the two-measure

upbeat). This descending-third bass sequence continues across phrasedivisions to C minor, at the beginning of the third phrase (m. 67).6'The large-scale bass motion B-G-EK-C in measures 48-67 is balanced

in the second phrase group (mm. 67-84) by an ascending bass se-

quence C-EB-G-B6 that is similarly paratactic.Schubert's phrase construction exemplifies Dahlhaus's "lyric-epic":

Its diffuse nature negates the teleological impulse of normative sonata

rhetoric and dislocates the second theme from the symphonic rhetoric

of the opening. "Lyric-epic," however, refers to technique rather than

sensibility. The passage is, I believe, purely lyrical in character, for theabrupt way in which Schubert introduces B minor into the Eb majorcontext projects a sense of estrangement. It inhabits a static "lyric

space" that is affectively distant from past and future events.

The notion of estrangement has obvious resonance with Adorno's

personification of Schubert as a wanderer, an archetype that has also

been explored in recent Anglo-American studies of Schubert's instru-

mental music.62 William Kinderman, for example, suggests that in both

Schubert's song cycles and his later instrumental works "a combination

of thematic and modal contrast often coupled with abrupt modulation"signals a duality between the inner world of the imagination and the

outer world of external reality.6i3 Such a perspective is in keeping with

cultural and aesthetic context that frames my perspective of the lyric,and the wanderer image is certainly useful here. Aside from mirroringthe dichotomy between inner and outer reality, it also accurately sum-

marizes the effect of the second theme's phrase construction. However,

Kinderman seems to read the dialectic of the two worlds as confronta-

tional; his wanderer is a protagonist struggling against an "indifferent,

banal, or hostile and threatening" external reality.64 I view instead thedisruptive contrast between V and bvi not so much as a dramatic con-

flict, a Promethean struggle for one to gain control over the other, as a

shift in sensibility. The lyric is an alternative to the external reality epito-mized by the hypotactic norms of the Classical sonata style.

61 Note, however, that this bass sequence is not an exact subdivision of the octaveinto major or minor thirds.

62 See Adorno's "Schubert,"cited earlier, as well as William Kinderman, "WanderingArchetypes in Schubert's Instrumental Music," I9th-Century Music 21 (1997): 208-22; see

also Charles Fisk, Returning Cycles: Contexts for the Interpretation of Schubert's Impromptus andLast Sonatas (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2001). While both Kinderman and Fiskmention possible literary influences on Schubert, neither author explores the technicalconnections between poetry and instrumental composition, which is my focus here.

63 Ibid, 209.64 Ibid.



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Moreover, the E6 trio's second theme is framed by the two Bb har-

monies at measures 35 and 84, and analysis reveals a linear bass motion

8-b6-( 6)-5 in the middleground, in which B minor functions as alarge-scale neighbor note prolonging scale step 5 (see Ex. 1o). The par-enthetical structural role of bvi confirms our earlier impression that the

second theme inhabits a lyric space outside sonata time. Granted that

the first theme's Eb major epitomizes normative sonata discourse, the

modulation to bvi, initiated by the same voice-leading as the precedingtransition (mm. 36-48), in turn suggests that the rhetorical worthiness

of sonata discourse is revisited and reevaluated in a new, lyrical context.

If the modulation to bvi coincides with the rhetorical shift to the

lyric mode, the dominant arrival at measure 84 signals the resumptionof sonata time. After the cadence at measure 84, the movement's first

perfect authentic cadence in the key of Bb, there are two further ar-

rivals on V, at measures 90 and 99 respectively. Beginning at measure

116 and again at measure 140, there are two distinct new themes in the

dominant key. Salzer describes the material between measures 85 and

116 as three cadential groups and locates the "real secondary theme"

(Seitensatz selbst) at measure 116.65 This Seitensatz is, however, con-

structed from a series of cadential modules and has the confirmatory

character of a closing theme rather than the presentational characterof a conventional second theme. We therefore expect the exposition to

come to a close. Instead, a single, sustained F in the cello leads to yetanother new theme in the dominant-the real closing theme.

Here, after the work of the exposition has finally been completed,Schubert offers a conventional representation of lyricism, the most

cantabile theme of the movement thus far (see Ex. 11). The long notes,

balanced phrasing, homophonic texture, and pianissimo dynamic of this

theme together suggest a slower temporal unfolding, a sense of relax-

ation and repose. If the second group offered the lyric as a liberatingcounter-reality, the cantabile closing theme explicitly identifies this

counter-reality as Schiller's sch6ne Welt, the ideal of song.There are, to be sure, motivic connections between this theme and

the exposition's earlier material, but previous ideas are not so much re-

composed or corrected as they are reexamined. Instead of offering fur-

ther tonal arguments, Schubert seems to recall, and reflect upon, the

experience of their earlier transformations. Along with more conven-

tional gestures, this reflective quality marks this passage as lyrical in

character.

65 "Hier erscheintjedoch noch nicht der Seitensatzgedanke, sondern es folgen drei

Kadenzgruppen, so daB der Seitensatz selbst erst mit Takt i1 6 beginnt." Salzer, "DieSonatenform bei Franz Schubert," 115-

301




EXAMPLE 10. Schubert, Piano Trio in E[, D. 929/i, mm. 1-84, voice-

leading sketch

0. ?

(a)> _ _

parenthetical?

Th. I Trans.

o @

(b)-~-

302

I v

As we have seen, the exposition begins in sonata time, but the sec-

ond group, in bvi,momentarily diverts the discourse into the realm ofthe lyric. The drive to the dominant resumes at the end of the second

group; and after this goal has been repeatedly established, the closingtheme provides yet another moment of lyrical reflection. The formal

design as a whole alternates between forward-driving sections and static

ones, thereby suggesting parataxis on a large scale.

The development, comprising a series of self-contained sections re-

lated through juxtaposition rather than syntax, is similarly lyrical in

character.66 Its thematic basis is the cantabile closing theme, the most

conventionally lyrical gesture we have heard thus far. Schubert restatesand expands this theme in three large, transposed blocks related by

I" Other similarly organized development sections can be found in G major string

quartet, D. 887, and the string quintet.



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EXAMPLE 11. Schubert, Piano Trio in E6, D. 929/i, mm. 140-48

140

Violin

[o•'---

[. • [ •I

I i i i ,4 ' i -J 1 i t i t\i i

Cello , I ____

pp..._.-

.:?

Piano pp - -I----=? -'- . 0.7

. .,U0

_ _IF . _O

perfect fifths, beginning respectively on B major (m. 195ff.), F# major

(m. 247ff.), and Db major (m. 299ff.).67 The subsections within each

block are also transpositionally related by third and recall the tonal de-

sign of the second group. As my voice-leading sketch shows (Ex. 12),

the structural bass line for the development, 4-b6-(_6)-5, is a large-scale recomposition of measures 1-84, which had earlier epitomizedthe shift between lyric and dramatic spaces.

Here there is motion without movement; instead of fulfilling

clearly defined teleological goals, Schubert's paratactic repetitions con-

tinually revisit the same subject from different perspectives. The lis-

tener is directed to perceive them not as gestures signaling a particulartonal or thematic function within the discourse (as in "this cadence

marks the arrival of the structural dominant") but as moments that in-

vite aesthetic contemplation. In a manner analogous to what the literarycriticJ. Hillis Miller has called "the linguistic moment," "a poise or pause

suspending the action in a prolonged arhythmical hovering separatingthe first part of the action from the last," these "moments musicaux" exist

outside the normal temporal flow of the discourse.68 They behave like

67 The next logical step of this perfect-fifth cycle is A (IV)-which may explain theunusual emphasis on the subdominant in the recapitulation.

68 J. Hillis Miller, The Linguistic Moment from Wordsworth to Stevens (Princeton: Prince-

ton Univ. Press, 1985), 40. Coincidentally, the context for Miller's comments is a discus-

sion of H61lderlin'spoetic practice. I borrow the wording "momentmusical" from CharlesFisk, who uses it to describe "several types of special, transformative or conflictual mo-ments in Schubert's music." See "Rehearing the Moment and Hearing In-the-Moment:

Schubert's First Two Moments Musicaux," College Music Symposium 30 (1990): 1-18. Al-

though neither author seems aware of the other, the conceptual similarity betweenMiller's "linguistic moment" and Fisk's "momentmusical" s remarkable indeed.

303



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EXAMPLE2. Schubert, Piano Trio in Eb,D. 929/i, development, voice-leading sketc

Block 1 Block 2Blc3

44

Block 1 Block 2 Block(b)

0- -T....

ur ,-

TIf

N



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fermatas that suspend musical continuity, and the sense of suspension is

all the more acute because they are highly marked as formally or har-

monically anomalous, and because the syntactical connections betweenthem are deliberately omitted. They relinquish, rather than deny, struc-

tural expectations and exemplify an acute linguistic self-consciousness

that has often been noted by writers on Schubert. For example, Charles

Rosen observes that Schubert's treatment of motives "reflects his age in

its attempt to go beyond the rendering of what might be conceived as

the underlying static conditions of experience-the structure beneath

the skin, so to speak-and to represent instead the very movement of

phenomena."69 Scott Burnham in turn offers the following felicitous

description of the Adagio movement of the String Quintet in C: "Schu-bert is able to invest the surface of his music with a compelling opaque

materiality, such that we attend to it rather than through it."70

This linguistic self-consciousness may be directly attributed to a lyri-cal poetic conception. I suggested earlier that the lyric mode in poetryis essentially paradoxical because it simulates the effects of music with

verbal artifice: Keats's "Ode to Autumn" does not represent autumn

through the imitation of its natural sounds (such as the rustling of

leaves) but rather offers its collection of acoustical effects as autumn's

music itself. The paradox is compounded when we try to speak of musicthat draws upon the poetic ideals of lyricism. For Schubert's songs are

not Keats's "spirit ditties of no tone"71 but real, actual, heard melodies

played to the sensual ear; and these melodies, along with harmony,

form, texture, and other compositional parameters, necessarily partici-

pate in the reality of musical discourse.

Because the musicality of lyric poetry has little to do with actual

music, musical lyricism is not the condition to which poetry aspires but

is instead an aspiration toward the condition of poetry; and because

this poetry is also modeled upon an abstract ideal of music, musicallyricism becomes a twice-removed metaphor. It engages in a sort of self-

reflexive double impersonation and insists on being heard as music at

the same time that it stands for something other than itself. This vortex

of double impersonation is, I believe, the central paradox of musical

lyricism.In evoking the lyric in the sonata, that quintessentially hypotactic

classical form, Schubert not only brings this paradox to the fore but

69 Charles Rosen, "Explaining the Obvious," in The Frontiers of Meaning: Three Infor-mal Lectures on Music (New York: Hill and Wang, 1994), 124-25.

7o Scott Burnham, "Schubert and the Sound of Memory," Musical Quarterly84(2000): 662-63. I am grateful to Professor Burnham for making a copy of this articleavailable to me before its publication.

71 John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn," line 14.

305



306


also secures a place for the poetic imagination in instrumental music.

For Schubert's style was informed by two parallel but separate tradi-

tions: the compositional tradition he inherited from Mozart andBeethoven, and the literary tradition he learned within his circle of

friends. These traditions, I believe, were for Schubert not so much di-

vided opposites as simultaneously available options. Schubert moved

amphibiously between them, and in so doing he reunified the dissoci-

ated sensibility of the Enlightenment.

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

ABSTRACT

Although recent scholarship has witnessed a welcome disavowal of

the view that Schubert's formal and tonal designs in sonata form com-

positions bespeak the song composer's inability to master large-scale in-

strumental genres, it remains a commonplace to characterize Schu-

bert's unorthodox practice as "lyrical." Yet the historical, theoretical,

and aesthetic bases of this lyricism have received little critical attention.

A systematic and historically grounded approach to the notion of lyrical

form in Schubert may be established by appealing to the rhetoricaldistinction between hypotaxis and parataxis, which pervaded late 18th-

century discussions of both music and language. In particular, parataxis,a style that deliberately omits syntactical connections and relies instead

on juxtaposition and parallelism, offers a suggestive technical link be-

tween Schubert's instrumental practice and the discursive techniques of

contemporaneous lyric poetry. There are also aesthetic connections be-

tween idealist views of the lyric and the composer's own artistic beliefs,

as confirmed by biographical documents. Schubert's approach to form

was as much informed by these literary sensibilities as by the Classicalcompositional tradition. Like poets for whom the lyric served both as

an Arcadian ideal of song and as an alternative to the prosaic realities

of the present, Schubert evoked the lyric within the context of the

sonata as a means of reunifying the dissociated sensibility of the En-

lightenment. In so doing, he secured a place for the poetic imaginationin instrumental music.

Poetika lirskog

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