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tool for further research on the dynamic world of journalism in the reign
of Queen Anne.
PHYLLIS J. GUSKIN
Bloomington, Indiana
It is thus seen that, for Rosen, history is the story of living organisms, of
sonata forms-not of mechanical structures, of sonata formats. Hence, the
functioning of those organisms provides the stuff with which history is
made. This appears to be the reason that, while stepping into the shoes
of the composer and discussing the internal workings of music, the author
side-steps the apparently less critical issue of criteria for selection of evi-
dence. The reader is left wondering why Rosen bothered to raise the issue
in the first place, except perhaps to express his dissatisfaction with the
"new method" of history which seeks to identify a norm, "unmediated and
uninterpreted." (See pp. 4-7.)
To trace the story of sonata forms, Rosen pays dutiful homage to the
social environment leading to, centering on, and resulting from the last
decades of the eighteenth century, those decades marking the "triumph"
of sonata forms. Before engaging in a review of the aria and the concerto
as they affect the emerging sonata forms, Rosen provides a quick synopsis
of ternary and binary forms by way of defining them as they are used in
Sonata Forms. The central section of the book is devoted to a closer
examination of the late eighteenth century sonata forms themselves, in
many ways like a separate text on sonata forms-their specific evolution,
their use of motif, and detailed accounts of exposition, development, and
recapitulation. The last two chapters turn once more to the history of the
sonata, remarking on sonatas of Beethoven and thereafter. The attempt
at all-inclusiveness, the sectionalization of the subject matter, and the
vacillation between historical (however the evidence be selected) and an-
alytical approaches-approaches at times thus not clearly integrated-
may well be another result of Sonata Forms's origin as a miscarried article
for The New Grove. As such, the segregated presentation of material
(sometimes even reflected in subtle shifts in writing style) tends to weaken
the presentation of a general theory about the evolution of sonata forms.
The greatest difficulties for the reader lie in just those chapters dealing
with the development of sonata style from the practices of the early eigh-
teenth century. These difficulties are understandable for two reasons: first,
the general reader is likely to be less familiar with the material cited and
the direction of thought Rosen is pursuing; and, second, Rosen himself is
covering ground that has not been thoroughly worked over (although it is
by no means virgin territory); by its very nature, seeking roots of flora yet
to come (much less to bear fruit and be recognizable) is necessarily a
tenuous proposition. Codifying stereotypes prevalent in even a single de-
cade is difficult at best when the organisms to which those patterns apply
change constantly; Rosen demonstrates his point well that the growth of
sonata style was not comparable to a paint-by-number canvas in which
the final outcome was preordained. Both opera and concerto (despite cer-
tain discrepancies in describing their order of influence, if any can be
ascertained) enhanced that style dramatically.
The last portion of Sonata Forms moves easily and convincingly into a
discussion of the sonata after Beethoven. Historically, by this time, basic
enough changes have taken place (e.g., the loosening of harmonic definition
and the concomitant preeminence of theme and texture as structural fac-
tors, as well as the resultant sense of sonata as a three-part or ABA form)
to warrant calling into play Rosen's question at the very start of Sonata
Forms, to wit, "but if a form 'changes,' it is not clear when it would be
useful to consider it the same form, although changed, and when we must
think of it as a new form altogether [since] .. . there is no biological
continuity among sonata forms . . ." (pp. 2-3). Moreover, the nineteenth-
and twentieth-century sonata forms are classistic in that they rely on "a
standard form, largely a generalization and a misinterpretationof Mozart
by Beethoven's generation" (p. 281). Given such a model to work from,
each new attempt refers to that model, not to its coeval style. In con-
tradistinction to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there were no
comparably revered sonata forms in the eigtheenth century (nor were any
sought), only principles capable of making history.
In dealing with those principles and the internal nature of the sonata,
Rosen demonstrates the interaction of theme (and motif), texture, and
harmony (and harmonic rhythm). At the outset, he disavows the nine-
teenth-century view of the sonata as primarily a play of thematic material.
He then claims not "to dismiss the thematic structure as merely a surface
manifestation of a deeper harmonic structure" (p. 6). Nonetheless, when
the chips are down, it is Rosen's analysis of the harmonic sense of sonata
style as a macrocosmic consonance-dissonanceprocedure that distinguish-
es his writing and gives strength and persuasion to his arguments about
the style. The insight of Rosen's analyses is amply demonstrated by his
view of tonal areas other than tonic being long-range dissonance (notably
the polarity of tonic and dominant in sonata style), resolving within the
return of tonic and the final period of stability. Further, the articulation
(by texture, phrase and period structure, and thematic character) of this
harmonic vigor makes music of the sonata style both approachable ("pub-
lic") and capable of expression ("dramatic").
Theorists might well be interested in certain harmonic details, not uni-
versally recognized, which Rosen espouses: the frequent ending of the
development section on vi followed by a "retransition"to I and the re-
capitulation; a "secondary development," typically turning to IV, with the
recapitulation soon after the return to I, an idea which amounts to an
elevation in importance of what is more commonly referred to as a tran-
sition or bridge; and Rosen's proposal of the three-key exposition, a phe-
nomenon appearing at the very end of the eighteenth century whereby a
secondary key would be inserted between I and V, an idea with special
significance in the Romantic sonata in which harmonic polarization was
replaced by a harmonic "sense of distance."
There are signs of haste in the preparation of Sonata Forms. There are
more typographical errors than one has come to expect in a publication
from Norton. There is an inconsistency in treatment of musical examples
in that some show instrumentation while others do not; the problem arises
in those instances in which an unidentified instrument is a transposing
instrument, leaving the reader who is without experience in standard trans-
positions at some loss in trying to use the musical scores. And from time
to time, Rosen's far-ranging mind tends to digress from the subject at
hand. Yet, like getting lost in Switzerland, one cannot complain too much
about the unexpected beauty of one's inadvertent discoveries, although
the disruptions of organization may be disturbing for those in a hurry and
confusing to those without a sense of orientation. Occasionally, one finds
both the reader and the writer saying, "Now, where was I?"when relocating
the train of thought. Small inconsistencies and mild contradictions some-
times hamper the clarity of Rosen's arguments. Of the former, one par-
ticular detail that comes to mind is the absence of a reliable pattern, such
as proposed by Tovey, for distinguishing between musical material being
on the dominant, say, rather than in the dominant. In all fairness, at the
same time, there are passages in which the obvious and the accepted are
worded in such a way that they are memorable, for instance: "The method
used by Mozart is popular, but I do not know if it occurs more often than
some others. It appears to be normal here largely because it is so well
done" (p. 223). The same can be said for the presentation of any number
of Rosen's ideas.
Rosen, the "dilettante theorist," has done no harm. Sonata Forms may
not be the best work to pour forth from his pen, but if anyone is betrayed
by its shortcomings, it is Rosen, not music. To paraphrase his own words,
Sonata Forms has all the makings of a remarkable work, "so good, in fact,
that it should be revised without delay" (Rosen, "The Musicological Mar-
vel," p. 38). The art of music is still in good hands with Charles Rosen.
JANE PERRY-CAMP
The Florida State University