[Smt-talk] vocal sonata forms

[James Sobaskie]

Peter Silberman's quest -- "I'm looking for compositions for voice written in sonata form - either solo voice(s) with accompaniment or choir with or without accompaniment" -- prompts me to invite consideration of Schubert's alternate Benedictus for his Mass in C major (D 961), written for choir, soloists, and orchestra in the month before the composer passed away.

Sonata principles are reflected in its design, though certain expected features of the form are missing and others are added, since the Benedictus was intended as a component within the composite form of his Mass's Sanctus, and consequently, I would hesitate to identify it an instance of sonata form, per se.  But Schubert's setting may be most notable for its reprise of second tonal area material in A major, instead of the opening tonality of A minor, a choice that may bear intriguing implications.

Jim Sobaskie



James William Sobaskie, Ph.D.
Book Reviews Editor, Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Music Theory Coordinator, Department of Music
Mississippi State University
P.O. Box 6240
Mississippi State, MS 39762
USA

jsobaskie at colled.msstate.edu
662.325.2871
http://music.msstate.edu/faculty/staff.php?id=js1112
http://js1112.colled.msstate.edu/JamesSobaskie.pdf
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded message was scrubbed...
From: <psilberman at ithaca.edu>
Subject: [Smt-talk] vocal sonata forms
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:58:22 -0400 (EDT)
Size: 3654
URL: <http://lists.societymusictheory.org/pipermail/smt-talk-societymusictheory.org/attachments/20111016/00e8f038/attachment-0004.eml>