Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo

Author(s): Joel Galand

Source: Music Theory Spectrum , Spring, 1995, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 1995), pp. 27-52
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Music Theory

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/745763

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 Form, Genre, and Style
in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo

Joel Galand

INTRODUCTION
writings, especially the later ones, do not dispel
sion in any obvious way, for he tends to limit h
Schenkerians have generally been reluctant to ations
venture ofbe-
form to the most basic techniques of co
yond analyses of individual works. They have focused mostly
the Ursatz, those belonging to the first level of
on details of motive, voice leading, and harmonic ground. prolon-
gation, whereas broader style-historical issues entail consid-
Indeed, contemporary Schenkerians tend to lump together
erations of rhythm and form.' Can Schenkerian otheranalysis ad-
aspects of a piece under the rubric "design"-even the-
dress form in a way that a historian might findmatic functions,
useful? The whose increased differentiation is so often
failure of most theorists to answer this questioncorrelated
has led mu-
with the development of sonata form.3 Since "de-
sicologists to insist that Schenkerian analysis can sign"
addisnothing
obliged to carry everything in the music save for the
substantive to our historical knowledge.2 Schenker's own
most generally applicable of articulations (e.g., interruption),
the form/design dichotomy seems limited as a model for
1Some exceptions: William Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music
(New York: Schirmer Books, 1989); Allen Cadwallader, "Form and Tonal
very difficult figure for the historian or the critic to get much out of ...
Process: The Design of Different Structural Levels," in Trends inThere
Schenkerian
are (a few) musicologists who profess to admire Schenker, but I
Research, ed. Cadwallader (New York: Schirmer Books, 1990),cannot 1-22; Janet
think of any major study in historical criticism that draws on his
Schmalfeldt, "Towards a Reconciliation of Schenkerian Concepts work With Tra- way. James Webster's important study of 'Schu-
in any substantial
ditional and Recent Theories of Form," Music Analysis 10 (1991): 233-87;
bert's Sonata Form and Brahms's First Maturity', for example, which uses
Kofi Agawu, Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation ofgreatly
Classic Music
simplified Schenker graphs to good effect, uses them to enlarge
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 113-14; James on anWebster,
insight of Tovey's which owes nothing to Schenker.
Haydn's "Farewell Symphony" and the Idea of the Classical Style (Cambridge:
One might counter that the mutual conditioning of motive, harmony, and
Cambridge University Press, 1991). large-scale form emerges in Webster's study more lucidly and dramatically
2Joseph Kerman puts it this way in Contemplating Music than (Cambridge,
in Tovey's relatively ad hoc remarks, prescient though they are. A theory
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), 85: need not yield results unattainable in any other way; if it can express insights
In the service of his idealistic vision, Schenker was readycogently,
to strip away
perhaps even facilitating their discovery, that is all to the good.
not only salient details of individual compositions, but also3For distinctions
one version of the form/design distinction, see Cadwallader, "Form
between compositions, composers, and periods . .. [T]his and makes him a 5.
Tonal Process,"

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28 Music Theory Spectrum
historical research. Of course, stylistic conventions (e.g.,
that of the classical Satz) place constraints on particular
"composings-out."4 An implicit knowledge of these conven-
tions surely guides the analyses even of Schenkerians.5
Schenker's well-known contempt for the style history of his
day may have had something to do with the abstraction of
his later theory of form. When, for instance, Riemann and
Adler debated the origins of sonata form, they looked for
thematic dualism in the works of Stamitz and Monn, respec-
tively. Schenker, an early critic of the dualistic theory of
sonata form,6 posited interruption as the decisive factor-a
more generalized binary framework accommodating many
types of thematic organization. In light of revised interpre-
tations of the classical period that musicology has since
achieved, however, the time has come for theorists to turn
once more to style-historical questions. Conversely, a his-
torical perspective might well benefit from the analytical rigor
theory provides. Indeed some of Schenker's formal concep-
tions have since been espoused by musicologists who oth-
erwise have not adopted his methods.7
My principal goal in this essay is to use Schenkerian anal-
ysis in order to shed light on rondo-form problems in the
eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. I contend that
Schenkerian techniques can be used to good advantage in
taxonomic, style-historical investigations that seek to estab-
lish a horizon of expectations for particular repertoires.
4Schmalfeldt makes this point in "Schenkerian and Traditional Theories,"
235. For a critique of an "ahistorical, value-free" conception of "design," see
Agawu, A Semiotic Interpretation, 113-14.
SSchmalfeldt's analyses explicitly coordinate voice-leading structure with
intra-thematic functions.
6See, for example, "Haydn: Sonate Es Dur," Der Tonwille 3 (1922): 5.
7For instance, Leonard Ratner, "The Harmonic Aspects of Classic Form,"
Journal of the American Musicological Society 2 (1949): 159-66; Jan LaRue,
"Significant and Coincidental Resemblances Between Classical Themes,"
Journal of the American Musicological Society 14 (1961): 226.
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Indeed, I hope to use Schenkerian theory to challenge some
of the traditional ways in which rondo form has been
understood.
In Part I, I identify problems raised by Schenker's account
of rondo form. These stem first from a certain insensitivity
to the flexible interaction between form and genre that char
acterized eighteenth-century music; in this respect Schenke
has much in common with the nineteenth-century Formen-
lehre he sought to displace. Secondly, he grants middleground
patterns a quasi-ontological status as the essence of a genre,
a status previously granted to the formes fixes determined by
patterns of thematic contrast and return; either strategy lead
to formal rigidities.
In Part II, I discuss the eighteenth-century rondo idea and
its interaction with various binary and ritornello formal types
Part III presents analyses of representative works that pose
difficulties when viewed in terms of conventional rondo cat-
egories. I propose a revision of some of the ways in which
the forms of these "hybrid" movements have been under-
stood, using Schenkerian graphs to clarify the interaction of
ritornello patterns with binary structural divisions. If we take
more account of their historical context, these movements are
not as exceptional as is often thought; they have their source
in the rich diversity of binary and ritornello techniques avail-
able during the second half of the eighteenth century. Formal
procedures previously considered sui generis were fairly com-
mon solutions to the problem of the finale.8 Later composers,
8The common notion that Mozart (or perhaps Haydn) invented the
sonata-rondo originated, so far as I know, in Rudolf von Tobel's Die For-
menwelt der klassischen instrumental Musik (Bern: P. Haupt, 1935), 181-83.
It was reiterated by Malcolm Cole in "The Development of the Instrumental
Rondo Finale From 1750-1800" (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1964), 4,
and by many scholars since. But in light of similar movements by composers
like Vanhal and Steffan, and in the absence of firm dates for the works of
such lesser-known contemporaries, it is safer merely to assert that Haydn and
Mozart were exploiting formal possibilities that were in the air.
 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 29

notably Schubert and Brahms, continued working with these
possibilities in movements usually deemed anomalous.
I
In Free Composition, Schenker claims to present a radi-
cally new way of interpreting musical form as the "ultimate
manifestation of that structural coherence which grows out of
background, middleground, and foreground."9 By this stage
of his development, of course, the background Ursatz itself
had become formless, a conceptual category existing prior to
the concretizing phenomenon of time. This anteriority makes
the Ursatz the ultimate guarantor of formal cohesion; it ac-
crues individual traits only as it moves across transformation
levels (Verwandlungs-Schichten) towards its actual manifes-
tation. In particular, form arises from delaying the comple-
tion of the Ursatz. Schenker invokes this notion of artistic
delay when, in connection with the first level of middle-
ground, he describes the form-generating potential of inter-
ruption, mixture, and the upper neighbor. The differences
between these delaying strategies, regarded as diminutions at
the highest level, become the criteria for his formal classi-
fication. One of Schenker's major achievements was to con-
ceive principles of voice leading as participants in the creation
of musical form.
for nineteenth-century theorists. In other words, Schenker's
form types are relatively neutral with respect to genre and
style. It is up to us to discover and interpret significant
correlations-for instance, that middleground patterns based
on closed, tripartite paradigms (e.g., mixture) characterize
Schubert's sonata-allegro movements more than Beetho-
ven's. We needn't go on to claim that Schubert has betrayed
the essence of sonata form.
Nineteenth-century theorists tended to conflate form and
genre in their systematic writings.10 Differences between so
natas and symphonies, for example, were less crucial tha
their shared reliance on sonata form. Collapsing genre into
form went hand in hand with a genetic, teleological view o
formal evolution. A. B. Marx recognized the empirical e
istence of several types of rondo, but only one rondo form
represented the logical development of the genre.
Eighteenth-century theorists, on the other hand, con
cerned themselves more with interactions between form and
genre. Two genres could share some formal characterist
and not others. Classical symphonies often open with large
ritornello-like complexes that lead directly into unstab
Fortspinnung sections. Sonatas, on the other hand, tend to
open with a series of tighter-knit sentences."1 But both gen
10On the disintegration of genre as a concept in the nineteenth centur
see Carl Dahlhaus, "New Music and the Problem of Musical Genre," in

Schenker's typology of forms breaks innovatively withSchoenberg and the New Music, trans. Derrick Puffet and Alfred Clayton
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 32-44; idem, Esthetics of
nineteenth-century tradition in its partial disentanglement of
Music, trans. William W. Austin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
form and genre. Although he retains conventional terms like1982), 15. According to Dahlhaus, because generic categories stem from the
rondo and sonata form, such features as thematic distribu- association of musical features with social functions, he links the decline in
tion, contrast, character, and inner construction do not pre- the relevance of genre with the aesthetic shift away from tradition towards
determine his formal classifications to the extent that they didthe individual, autonomous, and unrepeatable. For a different view see Jef-
frey Kallberg, "The Rhetoric of Genre: Chopin's Nocturne in G Minor,"
19th-Century Music 11 (1988): 238-61, especially pp. 239-42.
9Heinrich Schenker, Free Composition, trans. Ernst Oster (New York: 11Generic distinctions between symphony and sonata are explored in Jens
Longman, 1979), 130. All further references to this work are to this trans-Peter Larsen, "Sonaten-Form Probleme," in Festschrift Friedrich Blume (Kas-
lation. sel: Barenreiter, 1963), 221-30, trans. Ulrich Kramer in Larsen, Handel,

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30 Music Theory Spectrum
share aspects of what became known as sonata form. Pre-
cisely such distinctions interested Koch; after describing the
usual arrangement of the first Hauptperiod in the symphonic
allegro and noting that the form characterizes a variety of
genres, he notes that
as similar to one another as the forms of the sonata and the sym-
phony may be in the number of periods and the course of modu-
lation, as different, conversely, is the inner nature of the melody in
the two . . . [I]n the sonata the melodic sections are not connected
as continuously as in the symphony, but more often are separated
through formal phrase endings. They are not usually extended
through the continuation of a segment of this or that melodic section
or through sequences, but more often by clarifying additions, de-
fining the feeling most accurately.12
An exposition like that belonging to the first movement of
Haydn's Symphony No. 82, for instance, is difficult to analyze
according to the thematic functions of sonata-form theory
(principal, transitional, secondary, and closing). It makes
more sense to hear first a ritornello-like succession of brief
ideas (mm. 1-20); then an unstable, episodic Fortspinnung
that refuses to cadence firmly (mm. 21-69); and finally a
briefer, stable closing section in the new key (mm. 70-102).
No single factor determines a genre, and no single genre
exhausts a form. The late eighteenth-century rondo cannot
be distinguished from expanded-binary or sonata form on the
bases of harmonic plan or patterns of thematic recurrence,
development, and contrast. If one points to the regular return
Haydn, and the Viennese Classical Style (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press,
1988), 269-79; and Michael Broyles, "The Two Instrumental Styles of Clas-
sicism," Journal of the American Musicological Society 36 (1983): 210-42.
'2Heinrich Christoph Koch, Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition, vol.
3 (Leipzig: Adam Friedrich Bohme, 1793; facsimile, Hildesheim: G. Olms,
1969); trans. Nancy K. Baker as Introductory Essay on Composition (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 204. All future references are to this
translation.
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of the refrain in the tonic, another might note the existence
of the modulating rondo and its recognition by theorists like
Turk (see note 16, below). But the return of opening material
in other keys articulates ritornello forms generally, and ritor-
nello construction in turn characterizes not only concertos but
also symphonies and chamber music, which often bear con-
certante traits. We might categorize rondos as song forms, but
in the eighteenth century they are often ritornello forms; we
hear a return as a new beginning, an impetus for further
expansion, rather than as a discrete frame for a contrasting
middle section. Rondo episodes may be developmental; con-
versely, symphonic developments may be episodic (e.g., the
famous case of Haydn's Farewell Symphony).
We might at least say that a typical rondo theme is a Lied-
typus, more formally closed than its counterparts in other
movement types, and having a relatively popular, dance-like
character. Here is a remnant of the originating social function
that, according to Dahlhaus, underlies generic categories.
Nonetheless, we have to recognize cases like the finale of
Mozart's Concerto in B-flat, K. 449, where "low-style" rondo
traits are fused with elements of the traditional, "high-style"
fugal finale. One-to-one correspondences between genre and
style are problematic in a repertoire marked precisely by its
mixture of styles. The rondo, in short, was not so much a form
as a loosely defined genre that could be adapted to any num-
ber of formal procedures: sectionalized ternary forms, vari-
ation, ritornello forms, and expanded-binary forms. Genre
characteristics cut across formal boundaries, and formal pro-
cedures cut across generic categories.
In some ways Schenker himself did not go far enough in
freeing genres from a dependence on particular formal types.
He links middleground paradigms with specific types of
pieces-interruption with sonata form, for example, or song
form with the rondo-even if, historically, the one did not
necessarily imply the other. Though he might inveigh against
nineteenth-century form theorists, their hypostatized "genre/
 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 31

forms" still influence him, and this is especially apparent in forms, differs markedly in effect from the more archite
his treatment of the rondo. second type, exemplified by nineteenth-century song f
Schenker's description of rondo form in Free Composition Oddly, in Free Composition Schenker never distinguish
resembles standard accounts: a tonic refrain alternates with tween the two, an omission that leads him to contradic
contrasting episodes; rondos derive from the combination of when he arrives at his rondo discussion, for there he pre
two or more three-part song forms.13 The refrain, if it is to an illusory distinction between rondo and sonata form,
contrast effectively with the episodes, must "not be over-inherited from the very nineteenth-century theorists h
burdened with too much inner tension" (141). Eighteenth-misses:
century theorists laid similar stress on the desirability of pop-
The significant difference between the rondo and the sonata form
ular, easily-grasped rondo themes.14 Schenker does not dwell
lies in the fact that the latter involves a forward thrust to 2 (where
on episodes because they are equivalent to the middle sec- an interruption in the sense of structural division occurs); this motion
tions of the song forms he has previously discussed (? 310). is not present in the rondo (142).
One ternary paradigm features an undivided Urlinie whose
middle section prolongs 5, counterbalancing identical fifth- This distinction contradicts Schenker's earlier explanation
progressions in the outer sections. The other three song-form that rondo episodes are generated by the same procedures as
types arise through interruption and through the inflection ofthe middle sections of song forms, procedures that, of course,
the primary tone, either by modal mixture or by an upper include interruption. The "forward thrust" image does not
neighbor. help since in classical rondos the initial refrain-episode pair
One problem with Schenker's rondo discussion appears if often entails just such a sonata-style polarity. Conversely,
we read it in light of his theory of interruption. Under this Schenker analyzes some nineteenth-century ternary pieces as
technique Schenker subsumes two formal types: those forms interruption forms, even when the three sections are discrete
whose first section entails a progression of the Urlinie to 2, and harmonically closed, as in his analysis of Chopin's Noc-
and those in which a discrete middle section alone prolongs turne in E-flat, op. 9 no. 2, in Figure 84 of Free Composition.
2. We may represent the two cases schematically as shown in Only in Free Composition did Schenker extend interrup-
Example 1. The first type, characteristic of sonata and binary tion to cover sectionalized ternary forms. In Das Meisterwerk
in der Musik, Schenker had worked out the concept of in-
terruption on the basis of antecedent-consequent phrase
'3Compare Adolf Bernhard Marx, Die Lehre von der musikalischen Kom- structure; the binary division of the parallel period was the
position (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1845) 3: 91-92. His views and those paradigmatic interruption progression.15 The Meisterwerk
of other theorists are discussed in Malcolm Cole, "Sonata-Rondo, the For-
analysis of the same nocturne (vol. 2, 17) shows the 2 of the
mulation of a Theoretical Concept in the 18th and 19th Centuries," Musical
Quarterly 55 (1969): 187-89 and "The Development of the Instrumental middle section arising not from interruption but from a pro-
Rondo Finale." longed lower-neighbor. This earlier reading conveys the
14In his Musikalisches Lexikon (Frankfurt: Hermann, 1802; facsimile,
Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1964), 1271-72, Koch distinguishes the rondo through
its "ungezwungenen und naiven Stil" and the simple, closed periodic structure
15Heinrich Schenker, "Fortsetzung der Urlinie-Betrachtungen," Das
of its refrain. See also Daniel Gottlob Tirk, Klavierschule (Leipzig: Schwick-
Meisterwerk in der Musik 2 (Munich: Drei Masken Verlag, 1926; facsimile,
ert, 1789; facsimile, Kassel: Biirenreiter, 1962), 398. Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1974): 15-16.

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32 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 1. Two types of formal interruptions

1.
A B A' A B A

3 2 11 3 2 1 3 2 3 2 1
A A) 1

i L J II II - - f
Example 2. Schenker, Free Composition, Figu

Example 2. Schenker, Free Composition,

solution, Figur
for in his ron
Mozart, Rondo in D Major, K. 485
interruption in sectiona
nately, he thereby also e
m. :16 63 66 67 71 90 95 108 112 120 125
(*) (*) (*)

3 .. - '1 J Lia (67) (6)

I I _ flexible eighteenth-cent
, . 1 X0t 9 r: r 4)O (Coda) binary or sonata-form
5-- -h

Another problem arise

Iv VrI- I I_ I h u- - I

in rondo form: the app

Used with permission of Simon and Schuster Macmillan from the
than
Schirmer Books publication, Heinrich the tonic,
Schenker: characte
FREE COMPOSI-
two
TION, translated and edited by Ernst analytic
Oster, examples
Supplement: EXAMPLES.o
Copyright ? 1979. Rondo a capriccio, op.
latter reproduced as E
large-scale formal simplicity characteristic
"a rather of the Romantic
astonishing ex
lyrical piece, and it emphasizes bass reveals
the family two caden
resemblance be-
tween the nocturne and compositions
main belonging
tonalityto atthe same
the po
tradition that are based on mixture
form or here
the upper neighbor. t
approaches
Bach"
The 2 of the middle section is not (142).
directly His with
involved graphthe
progression of the Urlinie; the in Figure
delay 1.
it engenders evokes a
sense not of thwarted, interrupted motion, but of lyrical sta-
16Compare
sis. If in Free Composition Schenker Turk,
rejects the Klaviersc
lower neigh-
ein Rondo oft zwey, drey un
bor as a form-generating device, it is perhaps because he
Das dieses nicht immer im H
wishes to give form a firmer basis in strict counterpoint,
verschiedenen Nebentonenwhere
sta
the upper neighbor is preferred. Schenker's
gezeigt." own
Other explanation
eighteenth-ce
is that a lower neighbor at the usually
first level
withmight be confused
specific referen
with interruption (37), but it isForkel,
he who Musikalisch-Kritisch
has confused the two,
281-93; Carl Friedrich Crame
thereby eliminating an important formal distinction. There is
Augustus Kollmann, An Essa
no reason to subsume one form under another just because
the author, 1799; facsimile, N
their middlegrounds display the same
calls series with
rondos of pitches. In-
modulating
deed, Schenker may not have been entirely
"Rondos, satisfied
Proper with
and this
Impro

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 33

Figure 1. Mozart, Rondo, K. 485: Formal divisions Figure 2. Mozart, Rondo, K. 485: Analysis
mm. 1-16 Al Theme I Exposition
mm. 17-35 B Episode I-[V] mm.: 1 9 16 21 28 36 43 53
mm. 36-52 A2 Theme V Pa a1 b T(Pa) 1S(Pa) 2S(Pa) K(Pa)
(altered with I
addition of Iclosing
[V] V material)
mm. 53-59 Epilogue V
:l|: Development Recapitulation Coda
mm. 60-70 C Episode V-V/IV 60 67 71 78 90 95 103 112 120 125 136 148
mm. 71-78 A3 Theme IV
(Pa) Pa' b Pa (Pa) T 2S (Pa) K(P)
mm. 78-94 D Episode 'V-V V-V/IVIV IV --V I i-V/ bIII-V I VI I
mm. 95-106 A4 Theme I III
mm. 107-11 E Episode I-V/~I'l
mm. 112-15 A5 Theme
(fragmentary)
mm. 116-24 6IIII-V The refrain (Example 3), a sixteen-bar
F Episode
m. 125 A Theme bar epilogue, is one Mozart had already
m. 136 Coda ?I'VI-V-?I idea in the finale of the G-minor Piano
eight-bar phrases present the groupi
2), an arrangement characteristic of t
which a repeated two-bar idea is followe
Schenker exaggerates the distinction between refrain
tinuation that can itself be subdivided in
and episodes, for in K. 485 every musical sentence begins,
"reduction" (Schoenberg) and a two-b
ritornello-like, with a variant or paraphrase of the opening
The four-bar epilogue extends the cadent
theme. The piece is misconstrued if it is interpreted according
Example 4 shows how each of the re
to later categories of rondo or sonata-rondo; despite the
tences of the exposition-the transition
rondo designation it corresponds most closely to the so-called
sidiary themes (1S and 2S)-modifies t
monothematic sonata form, as shown in Figure 2.17
refrain model while preserving its inter
instance, in T Mozart extends the [V] re
'7The symbols in my form diagrams are adapted from Jan LaRue, Guide- measure, creating a fifteen-bar group
lines for Style Analysis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1970). Principal, tran- type of extension as an Anhang). In 1S (
sitional, secondary, and closing thematic functions are indicated by letters P,
T, S, and K, respectively. The letter R denotes a ritornello or refrain. One
special symbol introduced here is the letter E, which stands for a new solo technique of articulating the arrival of the domi
entry or re-entry theme in concertos. If a single thematic group has two formal
principal theme yields an "S(P) exposition."
functions, letters are merged (e.g., SK). Arabic numerals indicate individual 18The specific conceptions of Satz and Period i
ideas within a functional group (e.g., 1T). Lower-case letters (a,b,c ...) berg's as expressed in Fundamentals of Musical
enumerate individual phrases; subcomponents may be designated by letters Strang and Leonard Stein (London: Faber and Fab
x, y, z (e.g., ISax y). Variants are shown with Arabic superscripts. For ex- has been amplified by, among others, Janet Schmal
ample, an initial theme with a parallel periodic (antecedent-consequent) struc- kerian and Schoenbergian approaches to form in
ture might be represented as lPa a'. Parentheses indicate derivation; Haydn's of Schenkerian Concepts."

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34 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 3. Mozart, Rondo, K. 485, refrain

x
y

ft j -V- JL , ^ . Ir- =- r _ -

xea I -4f f :i 1 ^ 4it 8- r l1 r , |iL- L ,|

Y z

Example 4. Mozart, Rondo, K. 485: Voice-leading sketch of the second group

Pb T(Pa)x x' y z 1S(P)x x' y z 2S(P)x x' y y' z K(P)

mm: 17 21 36 43 53
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(+7) 1 2 3 4 6 7 8=1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A AA
3 2(5
A

4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1) 5

(5)' I I I I 7 , I .1 I I --
10 10 10#3.@f;- rI -i

10 --- -7 -- 10 A <I t

L
( " F x.rv T?21 1~- -L~-~ I

I
II 1I
[V] V
A: I IV V I IV V

shortened to seven bars

quent (Pa1)through Takterstic
is reiterated literally. The ensuing retransition
minology for a suppressed
treats the refrain'sor elided
epilogue (Pb) sequentially in an bar).
ascending Co
extends 2S through concerto-style passage
5-6 series. In effect, the development section is an enlarged
dence; specifically, the variantseventh measure of
of the twenty-bar ritornello.
panded to four bars in Schenker mm. 49-52
misses the recapitulatory (Koch's
aspect of mm. 95-156,
Kadenz). which correspond to mm. 1-59 (Example 6). After repeating
Example 5 presents a graph of the development section, the refrain antecedent exactly in mm. 95-102, Mozart revises
which in its entirety paraphrases the tonic group. First, Mozart the two phrases that formed the original refrain consequent
reworks the refrain antecedent (Pa) as a transitional passage (Pal) and transition (T): now they compose out a bass ar-
that establishes the subdominant, in which key the conse- peggiation from minor tonic to dominant by way of the flat

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 35

Example 5. Mozart, Rondo, K. 485: Voice-leading sketch of the development

Exp. Dev. (Theme)
(Pa) Pa' Pb
mmn. 60 71 78 86 90

I V IV"

Example 6. Mozart, Rondo, K. 485: Voice-leading sketch of the recapitulation

Pa Pa' T 2S (Pa) K
mm. 95-102= 112 120 125 136 148
1-8
A A A A A A
5 4 3 2

Af U _4Y dL.- . - I >_

(e i "i- r -'r r ; ,-~ C d

I

6
b 10 7 4 76 67 5 5

. r f--sf-l rC-r~~R
r- -L~I~
K r r I3
I
r

I
I
I III V I VI II V bVI V I

mediant (mm. 103-24). This recomposition fulfills a basic
recapitulatory function: the detour to the flat side of the tonic
in the revision of I-[V]-V as I-b III-V makes the progression
to the dominant less conclusive and prepares the tonic res-
olution of the second group. At m. 125, Mozart omits 1S
while expanding 2S with a "purple patch" on the flat sub-
mediant, an expansion that compensates for the omission of
1S while avoiding an additional tonic repetition of the theme.
This free approach to recapitulation, less usual for Mozart
than for Haydn, arises from the articulation of each group

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36 Music Theory Spectrum

with the opening material: monotony is a danger of mono-
thematicism.
It is unclear from Schenker's graph where the coda is sup-
posed to start; he indicates only that it occurs sometime after
m. 125. Clearly, it cannot begin at m. 136, since the flat-
submediant passage there functions as a quasi-improvisatory
interpolation within the tonic reprise of the second group.
(The interpolation, which Koch would have called an Ein-
schaltung, is bracketed in Example 6.) Since mm. 148-56
correspond to the exposition's closing theme, it seems clear
that only the last dozen measures constitute the brief codetta.
Despite all the modifications of what eighteenth-century
theorists would have called the underlying "rhythm of mea-
sures" (nowadays hypermeter is the more common, though
perhaps misleading term), K. 485 imparts an impression of
consistent periodicity, adhering throughout to the refrain
model. This rhythmic organization and the popular character
of the theme best explain the rondo designation, one that may
not in fact be Mozart's. The autograph is untitled, bearing
only the tempo marking "All0," and Mozart never entered
it in his Verzeichnis aller meine Werke. Independent keyboard
rondos were fashionable at the time,19 and when Mozart's
friend Hoffmeister published the piece in 1787 as Rondo tres
faqile, he no doubt took into account the character and fre-
quent recurrence of the theme, and the social setting in which
K. 485 would be put to use.
In sum, K. 485 involves a special application of ritornello
principles to an expanded-binary framework:
|| :R-- R-- : :R-- R--- R- :--
:I V :V X I
R denotes ritornello;
dominant area
19Malcolm Cole, "The Vogue of the Instrumental Rondo in the Late22For example, Haydn's Capriccio ("Acht Sauschneider miissen sey
Eighteenth Century," Journal of the American Musicological Society 22
(1969): 425-55.
Schenker's misinterpretation stems partly from the ahistor
belief that rondo implies a particular form rather than a lo
genre encompassing several formal possibilities, partly fr
theoretical inconsistencies regarding interruption in s
forms and rondos. Schenker is not alone; disagreeme
abounds in the musicological literature on this little piece
Abert, Saint-Foix, and Tobel disregard the title altogethe
calling K. 485 a sonata form. Max Lowengard uses it as
model of rondo form! Jahn and Einstein, like Schenker, h
it as a rondo in the style of C. P. E. Bach, as does, m
recently, Malcolm Cole, adopting Kollmann's "improp
rondo" category. Exceptionally, Roland Tenschert interpr
it as a mediation of rondo and sonata through older ritorn
techniques.20 The ubiquitous comparison with C. P. E. Bac
is not convincing, and not only because Bach's influence o
the Viennese classicists may have been exaggerated.21 Bac
elaborate fusions of fantasy and rondo bear little resembla
to K. 485, calling to mind rather the Austrian capriccio r
ertoire.22 We must look elsewhere for a historical explanat
of Mozart's seemingly anomalous piece.
20Hermann Abert, W. A. Mozart, 7th ed. (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hir
1956) 3: 205; Theodor Wyzewa and Georges de Saint-Foix, Wolfgang Amdd
Mozart: sa vie musicale et son oeuvre (Paris: Desclee, de Brouwer et
1936-46) 4: 134-35; R. von Tobel, Die Formenwelt, 198-99; Max L6weng
Lehrbuch der musikalischen Form (Berlin: Verlag Dreililien, 1964), 38
Otto Jahn, W. A. Mozart (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hairtel, 1891), 161; Al
Einstein, Mozart, His Character, His Work (London: Oxford Universit
Press, 1945), 118, 248; Malcolm S. Cole, "Rondos, Proper and Improp
Roland Tenschert, "Zwischen den Formen (Mozarts Klavierrondo KV. 4
in Festschrift Wilhelm Fischer (Innsbruck: Selbstverlag des Sprachwis
schaftlichen Seminars der Universitit Innsbruck, 1956), 33-37.
21See A. Peter Brown, "Joseph Haydn and C. P. E. Bach: The Quest
-> denotes
of Influence," elaboration;
in Haydn Studies: Proceedings of the International Haydn
gress, Washington, D. C., 1975, ed. Jens Peter Larsen, Howard Serwer
James Webster (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 158-64.
Hob. XVII:1; his Fantasy, Hob. XVII:4; Anton Steffan's keyboard cap
cios; and Beethoven's Rondo a capriccio, op. 129 (1795).

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 37

II many of the resulting "sonata-rondos" do follow the textboo

scheme: A B1 A C A B2 A, where the initial A and B section
For eighteenth-century composers, the term rondo evoked correspond to a sonata exposition, the C to an often-
a variety of formal schemes. It could suggest, for example, developmental episode, the repetition of A and B to a r
a free fantasy, or a set of variations on a theme of popular capitulation, and the final refrain to a coda. In K. 485, how-
character in the manner of a French rondeau, with episodes ever, the primary material articulates formal divisions and
that do not contrast with but rather modify the theme. harmonic goals in a ritornello design more characteristic of
Mozart's substitute finale for the Keyboard Concerto K. 171 first-movement form. Nonetheless, like the standard sonata
-the "Rondo with Variations" K. 382-exemplifies the latter rondo it adopts both the sonata principle and the basic char
type.23 The practice of inserting lengthy episodes with bold acteristic of the rondo: multiple statements in the tonic or
contrasts gradually came into use in the second half of the other keys of an easily-grasped, closed thematic unit. More
eighteenth century, and not in all geographic areas. Cer- over, the piece is not as exceptional as the scholarly literatur
tainly, descriptions of the rondo by North Germans like about it suggests; its particular ritornello/binary scheme in
Reichardt, Forkel, and Cramer do not call for contrast; forms several other eighteenth-century movements that ar
these critics uphold as models the monothematic rondos of designated as rondos.25
C. P. E. Bach.24 Two principles need to be distinguished: that The finale of Haydn's Trio in A-flat, Hob. XV:14 (Ex
of variation or modification, and that of contrast and return. ample 7) has much the same thematic and harmonic org
Both, of course, depend on the recurrence of a readily iden- nization as K. 485.26 The exposition opens with a two-fo
tifiable theme, and this appears to be the one necessary re- statement of an eight-bar sentence in a popular vein. Th
quirement for a rondo. same theme also marks the arrival of the dominant at m. 47
If K. 485, its monothematicism aside, does not belong to and provides material for the transitional and closing func-
the fantasy-capriccio tradition, neither does it correspond to tions. After the double bar, a modulatory passage leads to
the familiar "sonata-rondo," a term of fairly recent origin that a reiteration of P in the subdominant (m. 109). In contrast
emerged from attempts of nineteenth-century theorists to to K. 485, IV acts as an upper neighbor to the mediant,
grapple with an apparently hybrid category (see note 13). To instead of as a lower neighbor to the dominant. The overall
be sure, composers in the last quarter of the eighteenth cen-
tury often combined in finales the rondo principle with es-
sential features of what became known as sonata form. And 25For example, finales by Haydn to the Piano Trio in A-flat, Hob. XV: 14,
and the Piano Concerto in G, Hob. XVIII:4; by Mozart-Honauer to the Piano
Concerto in F, K. 37; by Vanhal to the Bassoon Concerto in C (ms. in
23The title "Rondo with Variations" is Mozart's; see Letters of Mozart andSchwerin Landesbibliothek; modern edition, Hamburg: Simrock, 1964); by
His Family, ed. Emily Anderson (London: Macmillan, 1938), letter 484. On Abel to the Flute Concerto in G (modern edition in K. F Abel: Kompo-
the hybrid variation rondo genre, see Koch, Introductory Essay, 202; Elaine
sitionen, ed. W. Knape [Cuxhaven: W. Knape, 1958-74], vol. 10).
Sisman, Haydn and the Classical Variation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni- 26Charles Rosen notes that even though this finale is in a "first-movement
versity Press, 1993). Sisman's discussion of K. 382 comes on p. 40. form in Haydn's monothematic style . . . it is properly termed a rondo . ..
24In addition to the citations in note 16, see Musikalisches Kunstmagazin,It sounds like a rondo" (Sonata Forms [New York: W. W. Norton, 1980], 126).
ed. Johann Friedrich Reichardt (Berlin, 1782; facsimile, Hildesheim: G.
I doubt, though, that such movements result from the "stylistic inflection and
Olms, 1969), 4: 168. transformation of one preexistent form, the rondo" (italics mine).

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38 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 7. Haydn, Piano Trio in A-flat, Hob. XV:14/iii: Voice- In Type I, both parts reh
leading sketch quence with a reversed tona
p P p
ond part begins with a mor
mm. 47 98 109 136 147 opening in the dominant, f
pansion of the remaining p
and then by a more or less
second group. Sometimes, as
earlier in the course of the t
N
I V III (IV) III
material, or a partial allusio
tonic at the movement's con
133, K. 162).27
The finaleV-III-I
bass motion yields a descending of Mozart's Serenade in G ("Eine kleine Nacht-
arpeggiation, a c
mon development plan. Haydn's coordination
musik"), K. 525, labeled Rondo in the autograph, exhibitsof a the
Type I symmetrical
return and harmonic progression herebinary frame (shown in Example 9).
directly Like
compar
the first movement of his K. 485, this movement has sustained
Symphony No. widely 85 divergent
("Lain-Reine
B-flat (shown in Example 8), which
terpretations.28 Its second part even
(mm. 58 ff.)more
presents the same thoro
sequence of material
amalgamates ritornello principles and as the sonata
first, and although the swerve Of c
form.
unlike K. 485, no one wouldaway
ever call occurs
from the dominant the first
immediately after themoveme
internal
"La Reine" a rondo. The two movements differ consider
in thematic character and in27The
dimension; to
terms mirror, reversed, and Mannheim sonatathat extent,
form are misleadingly
suggest different genres. restrictive.
Yet Concerning they possess
this and other similar
variants of sonata form, see James m
Webster, "Binary Variants of Sonata Form in Early Haydn Instrumental Mu-
ground patterns and the same coordination of binar
sic," in Internationaler Joseph Haydn Kongress Wien 1982 (Munich: G. Henle,
ritornello procedures; to that extent, they suggest the
1986), 127-35; idem, "Freedom of Form in Haydn's Early Quartets," Haydn
form.
Studies 1975, 526-27; R. M. Longyear: "Binary Variants of Early Classic
One explanation for these Sonata
apparently
Form," Journal of Music Theory unusual rondos,
13 (1969): 162-85; Mark Evan
tually identical in form to Bonds,
ritornello-influenced first m
"Haydn's False Recapitulations and the Perception of Sonata Form
in the Eighteenth
ments, lies in the more flexible Century" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1988), 204-33;
eighteenth-century noti
Fritz Tutenberg, "Die Durchfuhrungsfrage in der vorneuklassischen Sinfo-
genre as partially determined by character. A related e
nie," Zeitschrift fur Musikwissenschaft 9 (1926-27): 90-94; and Jan LaRue,
nation has to do with the range
"Symphony," in of formal
The New Grove 11: 445. possibilities
combining ritornello and binary 28Abert callsprocedures, one
it a rondo in the style of C. P. E. Bach, option
while Tobel and
the false-recapitulation model
Saint-Foix considerthat
it to be in sonatainforms K. 485.
form. Cole suggests it is an "improper
rondo." Abert, Mozart, 393-94; Tobel, Formenwelt, 198-99; Saint-Foix,
techniques were applicable to a variety of genres. By w
Mozart, 4:267; Cole, "Rondos Proper and Improper," 396-98. Oddly enough,
further illustration, Figure 3 summarizes three other com
Ginther Hausswald (Mozarts Serenaden [Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1951;
binary/ritornello arrangements. All
2nd ed. 1975], 70) three
considers types
that the development readily
extends through m. 130
pear both as rondos and as first movement
and identifies the forms,
beginning of the recapitulation alth
at m. 131, although in the
we do not commonly associate autographthem
Mozart writes with
"coda" here. the former.

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 39

Example 8. Haydn, Symphony No. 85 ("La Reine")/i: Voice-leading sketch; "*" denotes ritornello
mm. 112 114 134 144 152 160 170 191 212
* * * * * *

I V III# 111

Figure 3. Binary/ritornello types

double bar, Mozart reiterates P fully in the flat-submediant.29
Subsequently, a developmental passage based on the tran-
Type I: Simple Binary
sition leads to a half cadence on the dominant at m. 82,
A B A B (A)
whereupon Mozart recapitulates the remainder of the first
:P T S K : :P T S K (P) :
part at the lower fifth. The coda functions as both ritornello
: I I V : :V X I
and terminal development.
developmental expansion
In Type II a developmental or episodic expansion inter-
Examples: Mozart, Symphony in A, K. 134/i; Symphony inrupts
C, K.the recapitulation. Such movements exhibit a parallel,
162/i
exposition-recapitulation arrangement in which, at most, a
brief passage on the dominant, often based on primary ma-
Type II: Exposition-Recapitulation Binary
terial, intervenes between the end of the exposition and the
A B A C B (A) tonic return of the first group. The movement may close with
:P T S K: :(P) P Expansion T S K (P) : a final ritornello.30 This variant of sonata form was also
'I I V : :(V)I -X V I
Mozart's favorite method of lending rondo characteristics t
an expanded-binary frame. Nor was he the only eighteenth-
Examples: Haydn, Quartet in E-flat, op. 1, no. 2/i; Mozart, String
Quartet in C ("Dissonant"), K. 465/iii century composer to adopt this convention in his finales, as

Type III 29Restating the main theme in the dominant after the double bar becam
A B A "C" A B (A) rarer after the mid-1770s. Koch, writing in 1793, notes that "modern sym
phonies" do not always follow this once common procedure (Introductor
:P T S K: :P (P) Development PT S K (P):
:I V : :V (I) X - V I Essay, 201). In K. 525/iv, mm. 58-65 sound like a half-step inflection of th
earlier convention.

30The terms "sonatina form," "slow-movement form," or "overture form"

Examples: Mozart, Symphony in E-flat, K. 184/i; Haydn, first movts.
of Symphonies Nos. 17, 19; Sonata in D, Hob. XVI:51/i are too generically restrictive. In "Binary Variants," Webster suggests the
term "immediate reprise." Bonds ("Haydn's False Recapitulations," 225) pre-
Parentheses denote variable traits; "x" denotes non-tonic, non- fers the term "disjunct recapitulation" to indicate that this formal function
dominant area, often vi or IV is split between two passages.

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40 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 9. Mozart, Serenade in G ("Eine kleine Nachtmusik"), K. 525/iv: Voice-leading sketch

P IT 2Ta b S(P)
mm. 50 58 71 73 77 82 83 91 97 99

V IV v (I) V

is commonly keys.33 As Koch notes, these tonic returns are fleeting; b Schen
concertos of
kerians tend to call them "apparent" J
or "parenthetical," or
remarkable for their bold chromaticism and their fusion of else to question whether the movements in which they appea
symphonic form, concerto, rondo, and solo sonata.31 Rondosare even in sonata form.34 The close relationship between th
of this type, discussed more thoroughly in Part III of this and the other movement-types indicates that the sense o
article, are usually misunderstood. return is not supposed to be merely illusory. To identify so
Until the last quarter of the century, it was common for
the primary theme to articulate all three sections, and perhaps 33Koch, Introductory Essay, 200, 235, 237.
a coda as well, in sonata forms with differentiated exposition, 34See Jack Adrian, "The Ternary Sonata From," Journal of Music Theory
34 (1990): 57-80. Adrian mentions that "about ninety percent" of such pr
development, and recapitulation. Type III illustrates.32 Koch
cursory returns are "apparent." This claim is difficult to evaluate, since h
describes the convention of beginning the second section ofcites only the five exceptional movements (one by Haydn, four by Brahm
a movement with a two-fold statement of P, first in the dom- that in his opinion feature a true return. Moreover, even in these cases,
inant and then in the tonic, before moving to more distantreads the entire movement with a single interruption; he regards the domina
at the end of the exposition as only a "divider" applied to the opening tonic
That tonic, restated after the double bar, continues to govern at the Ur-lev
until the dominant arrival at the end of the development. Ernst Oster co
3'See, for example, the finale of his late Piano Concerto in B-flat, ed.siders that Haydn's Piano Sonata in D, Hob. XVI:51/i (illustrated here in
Howard Picton (Madison: A-R Editions, 1980). Figure 4) represents a "border-line case of sonata form" (Free Compositio
32Tutenberg calls this type "Viennese ritornello" ("Durchfiihrungsfrage,"140). By the 1790's, it may have been relatively old-fashioned for Haydn
93-94). Bonds adopts the term "precursory recapitulation" for the early tonic
articulate the tonic so strongly at the beginning of the development, but it
return ("Haydn's False Recapitulations," 220-24). is not a "borderline case" if we adopt a larger chronological perspective.

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nata form with a single, over-arching interruption is to ob-
scure the concerto-ritornello background of these move-
ments, in which we might hear instead a series of new
beginnings acting as impulses for further elaboration.
Indeed, when the temporary tonic return at the opening
of the second part is strongly articulated, one may question
whether there really is any large-scale interruption at all. For
instance, the first movement of Haydn's Sonata in D, Hob.
XVI:51 has the plan shown in Figure 4. Haydn treats sonata
form here as a broad, tripartite design, with each stanza ar-
ticulated by a tonic ritornello. The conventional interruption
paradigm does not quite capture this more relaxed, strophic
approach to sonata form. In view of the I- III-V progression
that begins at m. 44, a Schenkerian analysis might show two
separate bass arpeggiations from I prior to the final Urlinie
descent. This is, in fact, the typical Schenkerian approach to
the rondo as a combination of two song forms, and the move-
ment does correspond to the conventional definition of
sonata-rondo. That it is obviously not a rondo, despite the
formal congruence, suggests once again that the difference
can be largely one of character, of genre.
I have emphasized the ritornello background because
composers like Mozart and Steffan, when introducing rondo
elements within expanded-binary structures, could turn to
already-established techniques of combining concerto-
ritornello procedures with symphonic form or chamber
music.35 The expanded-binary rondos of Steffan, Haydn,
35The articulation of formal divisions by the return of primary thematic
material arose from a fusion of binary and ritornello techniques that was
already effected by the early 1700's in the ripieno concerto, a genre that may
well predate the opera sinfonia as an antecedent of the classical concert
symphony. See Eugene K. Wolf, "Antecedents of the Symphony: The Ri-
pieno Concerto," in The Symphony: 1720-1840, Series A, vol. 1 (New York:
Garland, 1983), xv-xxix. On the role of the concerto in the development of
the classical symphony, see Tutenberg, "Durchfiihrungsfrage"; Jens Peter
Larsen, "The Symphonies," in The Mozart Companion, ed. H. C. R. Robbins
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Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 41
Figure 4. Haydn, Sonata in D, Hob. XVI:51/i: Analysis
Exposition "Development" Recapitulation
1P 2P T S K 1P S onT 1P S K
I I I-[V] V I i III-iv-V I
mm. 111 20 2639 44 54 67 71 73 80 90 106
Vanhal, and Mozart resemble concerto form in several re-
spects. The second solo of the concerto-like the develop-
ment section of a symphony-frequently begins by restating
the primary theme in the contrasting key (e.g., K. 491/i) and
sometimes in the tonic immediately thereafter (as in the op.
3 concertos by Johann Samuel Schr6ter, c. 1752-88) prior to
a more improvisational passage. The second solo might also
incorporate a new episodic theme (e.g., J. C. Bach, op. 7,
no. 5/i; Mozart, K. 414/i); this is a possibility specifically
mentioned by Koch.36 Similarly, symphonies with a marked
concertante character can feature a new theme in the de-
velopment (e.g., Haydn, Symphony No. 14/i). In short, nei
ther the presence of a contrasting episode in the devel
ment, nor the immediate return of the primary theme-in
tonic or otherwise-at the beginning of the movement's sec
ond section is unique to rondos. The distinction of the ron
is not a formal but a characteristic one.
III
Although Schenker's explanation of the rondo is self-
contradictory and historically limited, his analytic techniques
reveal much about the varieties of formal organization to
Landon and Donald Mitchell (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956),
156-99; and Friedrich Blume, "Die Formgeschichtliche Stellung der Klavier-
Konzerte Mozarts," Mozart-Jahrbuch 2 (1924): 86.
36Introductory Essay, 221.
42 Music Theory Spectrum

which the genre was adapted and about its relationship to
other movement-types. The following analyses exemplify
how common notions of eighteenth-century rondo form
might be revised. The interruption technique, which Schen-
ker banishes from the rondo, will serve as the point of de-
parture.
(1) Mozart, Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466/iii
Example 10 demonstrates that the tonic return of the re-
frain does not necessarily override an underlying structure;
the two surrounding episodes may be linked by a single voice-
leading gesture.37 A rondo can have an underlying formal
organization independent from, and as crucial as, the regular
returns of the refrain dictated by the genre. Thus K. 466/iii
exhibits a large-scale I-III-(IV)-V-I progression, even
though the refrain returns in the tonic between the second
group in the mediant and the developmental expansion cen-
tering on the subdominant.38 On the other hand, this move-
ment also presents a parallel, "exposition-recapitulation"
form engendered by precisely that first tonic return.
The exposition can be parsed as shown in Figure 5. As
Example 10 indicates, there is no central rondo couplet. In-
stead, following the refrain's return in its solo guise (R, m.
167), Mozart reworks the orchestral version of the theme (R1,
mm. 180-95), developmentally expands the solo-entry theme
(E, mm. 196-270), and then recapitulates the second group
at the lower third. As is usual in concerto movements, Mozart
reserves the material that closed the initial ritornello group
37Ernst Oster makes this point in connection with the rondo from Mozart's
Violin Sonata in A, K. 526 ("Register and the Large-Scale Connection," in
Readings in Schenker Analysis, ed. Maury Yeston [New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 1977], 54-71). See also Carl Schachter, "Either/Or," in Schen-
ker Studies, ed. Hedi Siegel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990),
173-75.
38The graphic analysis of K. 466 expands Edward Laufer's in "Interpo-
lations and Parenthetical Passages," a paper read at the 1985 Schenker Sym-
posium, Mannes College of Music, New York.
(RK) for the end of the movement, prior to the caden
Rondo episode, development, and coda are inextricabl
merged within an expanded recapitulation of mm. 1-16
A Schenkerian study clarifies the relationship of K. 466/
to binary form by revealing underlying continuities that tr
scend the rondo return -continuities that might not beco
explicit otherwise, for the interruption articulated by th
I-III-(IV)-V arpeggiation conflicts with the manifest th
matic arrangement; the two binary divisions do not coincid
A comparison to Mozart's other rondos supports the first
somewhat counterintuitive interpretation: whereas he usua
prepares the first tonic return of the refrain with a distin
retransition section emphasizing the root-position domina
seventh, in this case preparation for the tonic is fleeting w
the home dominant only a passing diminished six-five chord
Moreover, the harmonic syntax according to which the m
diant progresses to the dominant via a subdominant functi
is too well-established for the intervening rondo return t
obliterate it altogether.
Schenker was aware of such interpretive difficulties, as
Figure 131/2 from Free Composition (shown in Example 1
attests. Here the parallelism between the two eight-b
phrases favors interpreting III as a third divider rather th
as part of a I-III-V arpeggiation, and perhaps for this reas
Schenker has placed III in parentheses. On the other ha
his upper bass slurs do show III as an intermediate st
within such a I-III-V arpeggiation. In K. 466/iii Mozar
avoids the larger parallelism that would have emerged
more of the opening tonic block returned at m. 167. The ex
39The only other expanded-binary rondo that Mozart wrote in the min
mode, the finale to the Piano Sonata in C Minor, K. 457, shares with K. 466
several other exceptional features: a I-III-IV-V binary interruption that ov
rides the first rondo return; a rondo return that articulates a bipartite thema
arrangement of exposition and expanded recapitulation; the same passing
progression at the moment of retransition; and an episode and coda that a
also at once recapitulatory and developmental in function.

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 43

Example 10. Mozart, Concerto in D minor, K. 466/iii: Voice-leading sketch

PART I PART II

R,R', RK,E T(R) 1S,2S K R R' E Dev. E Dev. IS, 2S, K, RK, Cadenza, R, Coda (2S)
mm. 1-74 83 85 92 138-160 167 188 196 224 230 260 271/354
A A A A A A A A A
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 #3 2 1

.^ i J - -a' I > -I I i4.

-a
I J I 1
-,,,"I i .i
-0
_=^ S- ^^^ Ji - e^^ i t? - e re~iJ ___
5 6 5 #6 5 8 5 6

.f_ r- I'-- I -X5_r~ 1 r r. f

b ^ . - rr ' r f f

I III (I) V# V I
I~~ ---~~ ~~ (I) v ~~~ (IV)

Figure 5. Mozart, K. 466/iii: Formal divisions of the each first corresponds

part in its own way to palpable ef
music, and on the other hand they are insufficient
Ritornello Group
m. 1 R Refrain (solo) with one another to permit a principled choice
m. 14 R1 Refrain (tutti); developmentally extended of K. 466/iii that stresses thematic parallelism a
m. 30 RK Orchestral closing group third divider at m. 138 takes its cue from the
pectations that a finale elicits: a relatively relaxed
First Group of rondo/ritornello and expanded-binary techniq
m. 63 E New solo entry theme ing a distinct sense of return between the first
m. 74 T(R) Transition (based on refrain) I V/III
main sections of the movement. The other reading
style-historical observation that by the last quar
Second Group
m. 92 1S, 2S, K eighteenth century all genres (rondo, concerto,
iii-III
sonata) tend increasingly towards a single, stron
lated return of the tonic approximately two-third
parallelism of mm. 1-13, however, suggests that athroughreading the
of movement, after a development
III as a third divider, consistent with the criteria cited for this
structural interpretation that overrides the first
Chopin analysis, would be entirely reasonable.
Such tensions between analyses should not be 40See
regarded
Bonds, "Haydn's False Recapitulations," 295-302, fo
as mere by-products of theoretical abstraction. Nor canofone
survey the moment of recapitulation in works by Austro-
reading yield to the other a priori, because on the one handof Haydn."
temporaries

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44 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 11. Schenker, Free Composition, Figure 131/2 ment.41 The problem with this view is that Mozart never
suggests compositionally that a refrain has been omitted. The
Chopin, ltude op. 10 no. 5 expansion that generates the so-called second couplet takes
m. 8 16
A place either within the transition area-often extensively re-
8 2
composed in recapitulations anyway-or earlier, within the
2 I. ,
A first group cum refrain, in which case couplet and refrain
merge. Either way, Mozart conveys the expectation that the
expansion will be followed not by another rondo return but
by a continuation of the recapitulation. The presumption of
a genetic link to standard ternary sonata form is dubious; the
i ((In
I ( 3 8)
-l-I-- v
v present analyses demonstrate that expansion of a binary
form, not abbreviation of a ternary one, is the operative
Used with permission of Simon and Schuster
principle Macmillan
here. from the
Schirmer Books publication, Heinrich Schenker: FREE COMPOSI- These rondos are among Mozart's most innovative finales,
TION, translated and edited by Ernst Oster, Supplement: EXAMPLES.
Copyright ? 1979. those in which he arrives at a final synthesis of closed sonata-
form design with open, heterogenous rondo elements. Al-
also captures remarkably well the effect of this particular
piece on the listener, namely, the pathetic
41Free urgency
Composition, 142. with which
This view is preserved in so many textbooks,
studies of the
it presses on past the first rondo return, Mozart concertos, to
imparting and scholarly
that essays-even of recent
vintage-that it would be pointless to enumerate them all. Some examples:
tonic an unresolved quality.
C. M. Girdlestone, Mozart's Piano Concertos (London: Cassell, 1948), 323;
The bipartite thematic pattern in the finale of K. 466, with
Malcolm Cole, "Development of the Instrumental Rondo," 131; Charles
its thorough amalgamation of development, rondo
Rosen, Sonata Forms, episode,
121-22. Rosen recognizes the inherent binary structure
and recapitulation, presents us with aof special
of two case
these movements, of
the finales Mo-
of the String Quintet, K. 515, and the
String Quartet in E-flat,
zart's preferred rondo form. The combination of K. 428, but he does not recognize them as members
a stylistic/
of an extended family. John Daverio has investigated the series of what he
taxonomic approach with Schenkerian analysis reveals that
terms Mozart's "amplified binary" movements and their influence on Brahms
Mozart's formal technique in such rondos (some three dozen
("From 'Concertante Rondo' to 'Lyric Sonata': A Commentary on Brahms's
movements in all) involves applying ritornello
Reception procedures
of Mozart," in Brahms Studies, ed. David Brodbeck [Lincoln:
and internal expansion to an exposition-recapitulation
University of Nebraska Press, 1994],binary
111-38). Daverio's case is convincing;
indeed
frame. This interpretation of Mozart's the presence of similar binary
characteristic Afinales
B1 withA rondo characteristics in
C B2 A rondo scheme differs from the usual one. Schenker works by Vanhal, Haydn, Mozart, Steffan, Beethoven, Schubert, and
Brahms, indicates a certain formal continuity in this respect throughout the
was typical in viewing it as a modification of standard sonata-Viennese instrumental tradition. Other authors who have touched on this
rondo form: Mozart-Brahms connection, though without the same comprehensiveness, are
Donald Francis Tovey, "Brahms's Chamber Music," in The Main Stream of
A (tonic)-B (dominant)-A (tonic)-C (x)-A (tonic)-B1 (tonic)-A
Music and Other Essays (New York and London: Oxford University Press,
with the third refrain removed, thereby effecting a "mirror 1949), 244; and Robert Pascall, "Some Special Uses of Sonata Form by
recapitulation" following the central episode qua develop- Brahms," Soundings 4 (1974): 58-63; both cited by Daverio.

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though he was not the only eighteenth-century composer to
write such movements, he used the type most consistently,
and his influence on later composers in this respect, especially
on Schubert and Brahms, was apparently enormous.42 These
composers continue to draw upon earlier possibilities of com-
bining ritornello and expanded-binary characteristics in
movements that are taken as sui generis only because they
are rarely studied in light of more flexible eighteenth-century
procedures. The purpose of the next two examples is to dem-
onstrate that the form's characteristic expansion can appear
"generative" in so far as it is suggested by the refrain itself.
(2) Mozart: String Quintet in C, K. 515/iv
A graphic analysis appears in Example 12. Part I (mm.
1-205), the exposition, comprises the refrain and first epi-
sode; in Schenkerian terms, it entails an interruption. Part II
forms an expanded recapitulation in which the second epi-
sode ("C") arises from a developmental interpolation, a dis-
cursive treatment of the common recapitulation technique
whereby the transition group is revised to turn towards the
subdominant.43 Here the shift from G major to G minor at
m. 288 (which corresponds to m. 77) initiates this turn to the
flat side of the tonic. Mozart then prepares and develop-
mentally expands the subdominant, interrupting the recapit-
ulatory process and prolonging 6, the upper neighbor to the
primary tone. Only at m. 333 does the music corresponding
to m. 78 appear.
Example 13 demonstrates a hidden connection between
this passage and the opening measures. The essential bass
motion of mm. 297-333 is F-C-F. Example 13a shows the
initial F-C as a filled-in falling fourth (F-E-D-C). Example
13b shows each step of this descent embellished by its upper
fourth, yielding a sequence through a circle of fifths. Then,
42See Daverio, "From 'Concertante Rondo' to 'Lyric Sonata'."
43See, for instance, Koch, Introductory Essay, 201.
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Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 45
in a truly inspired gesture, Mozart fills in the first of these
rising fourths, F-B, with chromatic passing tones; the ex-
pansion is bracketed in Example 13c. This chromatically
filled-in tritone becomes the basis of an elaborate imitative
sequence based on the rondo theme, which, as Example 14
shows, features the F-B dyad as a prominent element of its
intervallic content. The refrain is counterpointed with rising,
chromaticized fourths when it reappears at m. 140 within the
second exposition group.
(3) Mozart: Piano Concerto in B-flat, K. 456/iii
This movement differs from all other Mozart rondos in the
choice of II minor as the principal region of the episodic
expansion. The prolongation of a remote key area at this
point in the form, though rare in Mozart's works, becomes
standard for Schubert and Brahms, composers who, unlike
Beethoven, also frequently adopt Mozart's characteristic
expanded-binary rondo scheme.44 The finale of K. 456, with
its novel combination of large-scale form and harmonic struc-
ture, is of historical significance as an early instance of a
particular nineteenth-century movement type.
The first part of the movement (mm. 1-144) follows a
pattern common to Mozart's concerto finales: (1) refrain an-
tecedent (solo); (2) refrain consequent (tutti, m. 9); (3) ritor-
nello closing group (tutti, m. 27); (4) new solo theme with
transitional consequent (m. 58); (5) second theme (m. 91);
(6) brilliant soloistic group (m. 106); (7) concluding tutti
based on the ritornello closing group (m. 128).
Example 15 presents a graph of the movement's second
part. The recapitulation of the refrain at m. 145 proceeds
literally through mm. 161-62, which correspond to mm. 17-
18. Mozart then uses the thematic content of just these two
bars, an ascending fifth from b-flat1 to f2, to counterpoint a
44Movements like the finale of the Fourth Piano Concerto are rare for
Beethoven.
46 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 12. Mozart, String Quintet in C, K. 515/iv: Voice-leading sketch

PART I

A B A
P T S P
mm. 1 58 69 77 86 104 205 212

5 5A 65 5
] 'T-(4 3 2)

5 75 6 6 7 6 6--5

r`6c
I [V] V

PART II

A "C" B

P
T (cont.) S

IV IV V
(to m. 333)

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 47

Example 13. Mozart, String Quintet in C, K. 515/iv: Voice- bass descent from I to V/bII (B1l to FH) in mm. 163-70; the
leading sketches variants of the ascending fifth motive are bracketed in the
a)
graph. The flat-supertonic episode, notated enharmonically
mm. 296 297 333 341 359 in B minor, presents an eight-bar skeletal idea (mm. 171-78)
and its thematicized repetition with soloistic figuration (mm.
I j 179-86). Mozart effects the retransition to the tonic, which
prepares the recapitulation of the solo re-entry theme,
through an outer-voice pattern of parallel tenths that re-
establishes the diatonic form of II before proceeding to V.
This harmonically remote episode, interpolated between the
(9y i - # W reiteration of the refrain and of the solo entry theme, fulfills
the function of maintaining the recapitulation's tonic orien-
I IV V I tation. Despite the chromaticism, the overall ascending bass-
progression in mm. 145-209 (I-b II- tII-V-I) tonally anchors
b)
mm. 297 333 this improvisatory expansion of the underlying binary form.
A A
A Schenkerian analysis reveals some subtle-but not
farfetched-connections between the movement's seemingly
disparate events. The refrain's antecedent immediately opens
up the 1-5 space through a series of arpeggiations before
10 -- 10 --101 firmly establishing 3 as the goal in m. 8. This melodic struc-
ture sets up the expectation that this space will eventually be
: _ =
filled, probably by a cadential linear descent. We might even
predict, based on the conventional behavior of rondo re-
IV
frains, that this expectation will be met in a consequent
phrase that closely resembles the antecedent model. Mozart's
c) consequent begins to deviate from this model at m. 15, how-
ever. The ten-bar group of mm. 9-18 ends with another in-
conclusive i-S ascent in mm. 17-18, so that the implications
of the antecedent remain unrealized. Only the eight-bar
group of mm. 19-26 succeeds in gradually completing the
refrain with the anticipated S-1 descent.
The open-ended ascending fifth of mm. 17-18 is precisely
the point at which Mozart expands the recapitulation (Ex-
ample 15). This two-bar gesture generates the developmental
extension of the refrain (mm. 161-70), during the course of
which the fifth Bb -F is gradually transformed into B-Fit as
IV

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48 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 14. Mozart, String Quintet in C, K. 515/iv: Voice-leading sketch

m. 1 m. 140
R 2S(P)
II 1 I
II

A AD ? A'a
r F1 I I r IX l / fN T-r/ _ I \'.I. --- -
ti __ V ; -'N

r I
I I

group (mm.
preparation for the harmonically remote episode. 19-26),
Then the and it later initiates a much larger ex-
pansion
episode theme itself (mm. 171-78) proceeds to fillinjust
the form
thisof an episodic interpolation.
B-Ft space. In the varied repetition of theSecond, although
episodic a phenomenological approach based on
idea
(mm. 179-87), the small unfoldings in theimplication and realization has been proposed as an alter-
solo figuration
native, even
(f#2-bl, at l-g2) further emphasize these boundary a corrective,
tones. The to Schenkerian methods,45 if one
episode having established the inner-voice blforgoes
as its polemical
goal (m.posturing, there is no reason the two an-
187), the retransition concentrates on this alytical modes cannot
position, illuminate one another. In K. 456/iii we
elabo-
rating the descending chromatic progression, canbl(
regard
= cthe expanded
)-bb 1- consequent of mm. 9-26 and its
al. At m. 201 an unfolding of a sixth (a'-f2) further over a enlargement
dominant after m. 161 as persistent frustrations of
pedal connects the inner voice back up to the ouroriginal
expectation upper
that the 1-5 space left open by the antecedent
voice, regaining 5. The repeated ascending-fifth will be filled byof
motive a linear
the descent. Schenkerian analysis-the
refrain theme has initiated a series of chromatic alterations charting of linear progressions, boundary play, and other hor-
and connective motions (linear progressions, unfoldings) in- izontalizations of vertical tone-spaces-provides an analytical
volving the boundaries of this fifth, events that unify mm. apparatus that mediates between objectively-given pitch suc-
145-210 despite the bold episodic contrast. These connec- cessions and the subjective categories of implication, decep-
tions can be horizontalized, to use Schenkerian terminology, tion, and realization.
as shown in Example 16. Third, this analysis serves the more inclusive goal of clar-
Three points emerge from this analysis. First, Mozart's ifying the means by which Mozart fuses rondo, concerto, and
choice of the particular area to be expanded in the second
part of this binary rondo is dictated by the structure of the 45See, especially, Eugene Narmour, Beyond Schenkerism: The Need for
refrain itself. The refrain's consequent is already an expanded Alternatives in Music Analysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977),
repetition of the antecedent; the addition of an inconclusive, and Carl Dahlhaus, "Musikalische Form als Transformation" Beethoven Jahr-
rising-fifth gesture in mm. 17-18 impels a further eight-bar buch 9 (1973/77): 27-36.

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 49

Example 15. Mozart, Piano Concerto in B-flat, K. 456/iii: Voice-leading sketch

Ritornello New Theme
145 171 179
5 b6
?- I__T

r> ~ I' I I"I I (5

I _ ....li
_ _ __ I
_----~-- I I I II l _ l l 1 l l

2 3

{49:bb '^ -' b -r- - _ -F

I V/bii bii

Solo
(RETRANSITION) Entry Theme
187 201 209

4 3 2 1)

10 10 10 10 10

t+Mbb #r tz ir , -

ii ii6 "5 v Il

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50 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 16. Mozart, Piano Concerto in B-flat, K. 456/iii: Voice- The second episode is interpolated in such a way as to
leading sketch of second part prevent the onset of a stable, root-position tonic chord until
the end of the piece. Chopin has already been avoiding the
R (Interpolation) E
A
tonic from the start. The initial A-flat triad is an unstable
5
six-four chord resolved conventionally to a dominant seventh
the dominant in turn resolves evasively to V7-of-IV. Con
sistently, Chopin treats 3 as a leading tone to 4. Though
continually implied, the tonic remains unstated until the re
frain ends at m. 18. When the theme returns at m. 36, Chopin
avoids even this terminal tonic by omitting the entire con-
sequent and interpolating an episode that expands the dom-
inant goal of the antecedent.
Only with the final return of the refrain at m. 65 does the
I- 11blI ~ /II 1 tonic reappear, and there it does so with a vengeance ove
a sforzando pedal. This tonic pedal actually arrives "too
early"; 4, which has overshadowed 3 so consistently, has not
yet resolved. Moreover, the cadential dominant expected at
the end of the piece is elided or, at best, merely implied by
the melody; it is in parentheses in the graph. Just as the C
expanded-binary procedures, illuminating some of the style-
section consists of an expansion of 2 over the dominant, so
historical questions central to this study. Historical explana-
the final refrain statement constitutes a prolonged 1. To de
tion, analytical explication, and cognitive understanding mu-
scribe this rondo in conventional terms as two linked ternary
tually condition one another.
forms is to miss the point; A3 has a completely new function
(4) Chopin: Prelude in A-flat,as op. 28 no.
the completion 17
of A2, which the C episode has delayed
Chopin's A-flat Prelude (Example 17) is a two-couplet
rondo (A B A C A). The two episodes differ in formal func-
tion. The initial A B A creates a standard ternary form in
CONCLUSION

which modal mixture generates a discrete, contrasting middle

section. The following A C A, It
onis legitimate
the other to question
hand,whether Schenk
expands
niques can serve structure
the antecedent-consequent interruption historical inquiry,
ofsince
the this
Ainv
section through an interpolated a synchronic
passage perspective
that, to help understand ain-
melodically dia
cess. My intention
spired though it is, consists essentially of an has been to demonstrate
ascending andth
Schenkerian
descending chromaticized 5-6 series. concepts
This to large-scale formal
voice-leading pat-pr
tern, which would possess littlenonetheless
meaning yield
inconcrete
itself, results when comb
reinforces
the function of the C section ashistorical perspective. I have shown in particu
a quasi-improvisational ex-
pansion of 2. theoretical separation of form and genre-mid

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 Form, Genre, and Style in the Eighteenth-Century Rondo 51

Example 17. Chopin, Prelude in A-flat, op. 28 no. 17: Voice-leading sketch

A B A C A
(episodic inter
mm. 1 10 18 19 27 34 35 36 42 43 51 57 65
A A A A A

3 b3 _ 3 2 I

(2 3 2 1 ) (2)

A I . L_ nn^n hJ
/ ..---.. A i -i
Y[1Q 6. 5 5 5 5 6 / 5___ .

I566- - 56 6 56I/

v (I) J 1 I-I
(I)
/ ()
(I) bvI V (I) V V I

paradigms are generically

theory and a
range of possible
is interact
how it ma
While it is well-known
a formal th
ty
ten fused rondo and
traits, son
each o
how this was representing
done, and h
to composer and
to from
compare woin
515, his Concerto
if a K.
number 456
isodic passages expand appear theas
h
in the we need to do for the
opening rondo.
material:
finale expands motivic ele
in K. 456 and the prelud
pectation and delay esta
46In "Mahler and the 'Power of Genre'" (Journal of Musicology
cases, episodes arise
[Spring, 1994]), Vera Micznik writes as int
cess of recapitulation or
The 'institutionalized' genre is ... neither a theoretical r
construct inh
trary, there isently fixedain the work,
sense nor a rigid scheme which inconforms with w giv
hypotheses, but a flexible feature of interpretation developed through
episode, interrupts events
continuous corrections of an ideal 'schema' in the process of understan
These observations, howe
ing. Whether genre is indicated in the score, through a title, or is
of the individual
known, listeners constantlywork. B
compare and challenge their generic exp
particular to tations
a withcompositio
their own readings. (124)

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52 Music Theory Spectrum
Accordingly, I have mapped out a more flexible range of
rondo categories, comparable to the breadth achieved in re-
cent investigations of sonata form. We need such a perspec-
tive if we are to study how the genre developed, how rondos
incorporated aspects of other genres (concerto and sym-
phony), and how composers may have influenced one an-
other. Schenkerian techniques have been useful in establish-
ing these categories. For instance, they can clearly reveal
which rondos stem from the relaxed treatment of "ternary"
sonata form (e.g., the pervasive ritornello in Haydn's Hob.
XV:14/iv), which enlarge a simple-binary sonata form (e.g.,
K. 525/iv), and which result from the internal expansion of
exposition-recapitulation sonata form (e.g., K. 456/iii, K.
515/iv). In this last type, the expansion of a binary paradigm
rather than the contraction of a ternary paradigm is the basic
formal technique. This becomes clear not only from thematic
patterns of recurrence and contrast, but also from large-scale
linear and harmonic connections, the kind that Schenkerian
techniques demonstrate with particular efficacy.
Musicologists studying style have often conducted taxo-
nomic surveys in order to establish such ranges of formal
possibilities for particular genres or movement types.47
Schenkerian analysis helps us chart with greater precision the
interactions of form and genre, and of forms with one an-
other. It may clarify, for instance, whether form x represents
a contraction of form y or an expansion of form z in a way
that a simple timeline of events often cannot. Moreover, as
long as we do not insist on linking middleground paradigms
47For example, Jan LaRue, Guidelinesfor Style Analysis; Eugene K. Wolf,
The Symphonies of Johann Stamitz: A Study in the Formation of the Classic
Style (The Hague and Boston: M. Nijhoff, 1981); Mark Evan Bonds,
"Haydn's False Recapitulations."
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with genres a priori, Schenkerian patterns may assume less
at the outset than do such taxonomic designations as "pri-
mary," "transitional," or "secondary."
Style historians are interested in establishing a horizon of
generic expectations within particular repertories, in tracing
shifts of expectations between repertories, or in establishing
that the influence of a composer led to a different under-
standing of a genre. Schenkerian theory can say a great deal
about such matters, but only if Schenkerians mediate more
explicitly between harmonic/linear patterns and generic con-
ventions. We need to recapture Koch's sensitivities to formal
differences between genres that otherwise share the same
large-scale form. We might have to relinquish somewhat our
desire to systematize, perhaps allowing our formal categories
to approach that easy variability we find in the eighteenth-
century rondo.
ABSTRACT
In order to exemplify a rapprochement between analy
and historical inquiry, Schenkerian concepts of form
a style-historical investigation of the eighteenth-cen
Schenker himself, despite his innovations, too often f
tional nineteenth-century Formenlehre in narrowly equ
dividual genre with a particular formal technique, even
the one did not necessarily imply the other. The interr
form and genre is too complex to be ascribed to a sh
ground paradigm. Nevertheless, Schenkerian theory al
picture to emerge of the ways in which composers fuse
ritornello characteristics with binary variants of sonata
procedures previously considered sui generis are actually
mon eighteenth-century treatments of the finale, cha
composers like Vanhal and Steffan as well as Mozart