Deciphering the Arabesque: Genre Mixture and Formal Digression in the Early Romantic Piano Concerto

Abstract

This dissertation uses Friedrich Schlegel’s (1772–1829) literary concept of the arabesque to analyze genre mixture and formal digression in the early Romantic piano concerto. Drawing on both John Daverio’s adaptation of the arabesque for nineteenth-century music (1987;1993) and contemporary theories of musical form (Caplin, 1998; Hepokoski and Darcy, 2006; Vande Moortele, 2009; and Horton, 2017), I identify four procedures in which elements of ritornello form, variation form, song, or fantasy engage with, interrupt, or supplant sonata-form functions. Using examples from a corpus of 24 piano concertos by Bennett, Chopin, Field, Henselt, Herz, Kalkbrenner, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Schumann, Taubert, Thalberg, and Wieck, I demonstrate that seemingly supplementary embellishments, ritornellos, and lyrical interludes proliferate and fragment the central sonata form to produce a distinctly Romantic genre. Chapter 1 surveys the history of the arabesque as it developed from an ornate framing device for pictorial artworks to a metaphor for the chaotic genre fusions of the Romantic novel, and, later, as an analytical tool for disruptive characteristics in nineteenth-century music. Chapter 2 establishes the concerto as a hybrid genre in which the ritornello framework interrelates with the interior sonata form to varying degrees depending on subgenre. The virtuoso concerto, for example, maximizes the distinction between the orchestral framework and solo sonata form, while the symphonic concerto minimizes the distinction. The chapter then outlines four arabesque procedures that further complicate these paradigms. Chapter 3 examines the first arabesque procedure, in which solo bravura, passagework, and dominant embellishments pervade the sonata form proper in lieu of an interpolated cadenza. This process, which is characteristic of the virtuoso concerto, transfers virtuosity from the exterior to the interior of the concerto form, enlarging the solo domain. Chapter 4 covers local ritornello statements that participate in the sonata form, eroding the textural framework and producing a topical likeness with the symphonic genre. Chapter 5 studies local digressions that require the mediating judgement of an interpreter to decipher hidden formal logic, while Chapter 6 covers large-scale lyrical episodes that intrude upon single movements or overarching sonata forms in continuous cycles, conflating formal levels and introducing elements of fantasy.