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- Title
Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melisande: Hidden Agendas of the Sonata Form.
- Authors
Hood, Danielle
- Abstract
Since Berg's guide to Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melisande was published, the question of the form of this symphonic poem has been discussed at length. Such scholars as Puffett, Cherlin, Vande Moortele and Haimo have entered the debate, some agreeing with Berg that it is in sonata form, others, such as Puffett, claiming that the idea of a programmatic work being in sonata form is 'aesthetically subversive'. Haimo emphatically states that '[e]verything about [Berg's abstract symphonic design] is wrong'. He suggests that Berg had a 'hidden agenda' according to which he sought to distance the work from the programmatic content, which was rapidly becoming unfashionable when Berg's 1920 guide was being written. Using a methodology that combines Barthes's multivalence approach with Vande Moortele's concept of two-dimensional sonata form and topic theory, a hidden agenda is indeed revealed. The topical narrative demonstrates how the themes interact with each other and their topical environment to create a deferment of the development of the sonata form, reminiscent of Freudian repression. In addition Freud's concept of the 'Uncanny' and the use of doubles answers the question posed by Berg et al. as to how the two aspects of the work--Programme and Form--coexist, but, further, it demonstrates how the programmatic content itself actually constructs the sonata form.
- Subjects
TRIO sonata; MUSICAL form; SONATA form
- Publication
Musicology Review, 2013, Issue 8, p62
- ISSN
1649-6108
- Publication type
Article