Dissertation Index
Author: Block, Morgan E. Title: Towards a Theory of Deformational Expositions: Voice Leading, Form, and Structural Tension in Sonatas With Non-Normative Secondary Keys Institution: University of Arizona Begun: August 2023 Completed: June 2026 Abstract: This study develops a theory of deformational expositions in late-Classical and Romantic sonata movements whose expositions modulate to non-normative secondary key areas. Drawing on Schenkerian voice-leading theory, Hepokoski and Darcy’s Sonata Theory, Caplin’s theory of formal functions, and recent work on topic, narrative, and musical expression, it theorizes structural tension as the condition that arises when expected tonal, formal, and voice-leading trajectories are deferred, displaced, or reconfigured. In such movements, a non-normative S-zone does more than depart from convention; it creates structural obligations that later formal space must fulfill, redirect, or compensate for, allowing this tension to reverberate across the movement’s tonal, formal, and expressive design. Through analytical models, vignettes, and case studies of works by canonical composers, the study shows that these expositional deformations redistribute tonal labor across the movement as a whole. Non-normative S-keys often coincide with marked changes in thematic character, cadential weighting, and topical profile, creating patterns of disruption, resistance, and transformation whose consequences shape the movement’s subsequent formal and expressive trajectory. By integrating voice-leading and formal analysis with rhetorical and expressive interpretation, the study offers a multidimensional framework for understanding how sonata forms embrace deformation without forfeiting coherence. This study argues not only that deformational expositions—often treated as isolated anomalies or “exceptions to the rule”—are coherent and expressively potent, but that their non-normative tonal choices project movement-wide consequences that illuminate the 19th-century sonata’s evolving aesthetic logic. Keywords: 19th Century Music, Linear analysis, Sonata Form, Deformational Expositions, Non-normative S TOC: I. CHAPTER ONE—Form, Structure, and Expression: Theoretical Contexts for Deformational Expositions II. CHAPTER TWO—Deformational Expositions, Structural Tension, and Analytical Heuristics III. CHAPTER THREE—(Sub)Mediant Deformations, the Third-Axis: Models, Vignettes, and Case Study IV. CHAPTER FOUR—Beyond the Third Axis: Peripheral and Pre-Dominant Deformations V. CHAPTER FIVE—Structural Tension and Sonata Practice: Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions Contact: Morgan Block, block.morg@gmail.com |