Schubertian Tonal Plans Reinterpreted: Dvořák's 'Shadow-Key' Sonata Forms

Authors

John K. Novak, Northern Illinois UniversityFollow

Files

Description

This article compares the tonal processes of the first movement Dvořák’s D major Piano Quartet (1875) to those of the first movement of his String Sextet in A major (1878).  Like certain works of Franz Schubert, these movements have a three-key exposition. However, in the case of Schubert, the third key is in the dominant.  In the Dvořák works, the second key is in the dominant, while the third key is a major third above tonic. This chromatic mediant is the “shadow key.” In both works, the shadow key is hinted at very early.  Since the recapitulation brings down both the second and third key areas a perfect fifth, the sonata form proper ends in a key outside tonic. As in the Piano Quintet in A major (1887) and the Ninth Symphony in E minor (1893), Dvořák relies on a coda to bring back the tonic key. The processes of the String Sextet are also seen to be a tightening of the processes of the Piano Quartet.

ISBN

978-0198164111

Publication Date

1996

Department

School of Music

Publisher

Clarendon Press

City

Oxford

Keywords

Piano quartet, string sextet, sonata principle, three-key exposition, chromatic mediant

Comments

This is the open access version of an essay appearing in Re­thinking Dvořák: Views from Five Countries. The citation for the version of record is: "Schubertian Tonal Plans Reinterpreted: Dvořák's 'Shadow-Key' Sonata Forms." Re­thinking Dvořák: Views from Five Countries. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996, 193-200.

Rights Statement

In copyright

Original Citation

"Schubertian Tonal Plans Reinterpreted: Dvořák's 'Shadow-Key' Sonata Forms." Re¬thinking Dvořák: Views from Five Countries. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996, 193-200.