Ioannis
Fulias, “Sonata
forms and their theoretical evolution: The
fifth sonata type (“sonata-concerto form”) in the
20th-century theory
and nowadays”,
Polyphonia 19, Athens
2011, p. 7-49.
The twelfth and last part
of this extensive survey of the theoretical evolution of sonata forms from 18th
to 20th centuries
examines the prevailing approaches of the fifth sonata type in the music theory
since the beginning of the 20th-century. At first, until the mid-20th-century,
almost all theorists continue essentially to describe the implementation of the
sonata form into the classical concerto genre in terms of the 19th-century
theory. Only in the last third of the 20th-century a critical re-evaluation of
both the factual (compositional) and theoretical data of the 18th-century is
successfully attempted in significant studies by Jutta Ruile-Dronke, Charles
Rosen, Konrad Küster and others, before James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy
recently present the most profound and comprehensive view on the compound sonata-concerto
form, in which they not only restore the structural autonomy of the orchestral
ritornelli, but also redefine with remarkable accuracy their relationship to the
solistic parts in the wider sonata contexts. Also, two alternative subtypes of
sonata-concerto form – based on binary sonata form and on sonata form without development,
respectively – are becoming more distinct in the music theory from
mid-20th-century onwards, especially when the research interest focuses on slow
concerto movements of the classic period.
© Ioannis
Fulias