The Urge to Vary: Schubert's Variation Practice from Schubertiades to Sonata Forms

Abstract

The Urge to Vary: Schubert’s Variation Practice from Schubertiades to Sonata Forms Caitlin G. Martinkus Doctor of Philosophy, Music Theory Faculty of Music University of Toronto 2017 Abstract Repetition has long been a focal point of both critiques and scholarly inquiries of Schubert’s instrumental music. Casting repetition as redundant, critics condemned his instrumental music—especially those works in sonata forms—throughout the majority of the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries. Recently, variation has emerged as a fruitful lens for the analysis of repetition in Schubert’s sonata forms. Building upon this notion, I further illuminate the role of variation (as a set of techniques, musical processes, and form) in Schubert’s idiom. To develop an analytical framework tailored to the analysis of variation, I establish why variation would be so prominent in Schubert’s oeuvre, and how it is employed. I lay the conceptual and analytical framework of the dissertation in Chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1 establishes the centrality of repetition to discourse on Schubert and, through a thorough consideration of Schubert’s musical-social life, establishes the relevance of variation beyond composition. I also consider current tools of Formenlehre analysis, and situate my use of William Caplin’s theory of formal functions as a supplement to analyses of variation. Chapter 2 investigates idiomatic variation techniques. These techniques, set against the backdrop of Schubert’s musical training and practice, form the variation perspective that guides my analyses of sonata forms. In Chapters 3 and 4 I analyze the interaction between elements of variation and sonata form. I create my own analytical tools, including the concepts of embedded versus distributed variations, and tight-knit versus loose variation procedures, to demonstrate the presence of variation within and across large-scale units of musical form. Three full-movement case studies highlight Schubert’s use of variation (techniques and form) across expositions, developments, and recapitulations. Most pronounced in these analyses is Schubert’s use of variation in development sections. I thus close my analytical chapters by problematizing the binary opposition between thematic development and variation, for it is a distinction that lies at the heart of many critiques of Schubert’s sonata forms. Ultimately, this study reveals the many and nuanced ways in which elements of variation permeate Schubert’s oeuvre through a unique analytical framework, and situates Schubert’s sonata forms within the ever-evolving historical trajectory of the genre.