Between the Signposts: Thematic Interpolation and Structural Defamiliarization in Prokofiev’s Sonata Process

This article explores the manner in which Prokofiev’s interpolation of unrelated material in the middle of a traditional theme-space ironizes a seemingly normative sonata process in the first movement of his Second Piano Sonata (1912). By serving as the motivic, tonal, and rhetorical source of much...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Music theory spectrum 2020-10, Vol.42 (2), p.193-206
Main Author: PERRY, REBECCA
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:This article explores the manner in which Prokofiev’s interpolation of unrelated material in the middle of a traditional theme-space ironizes a seemingly normative sonata process in the first movement of his Second Piano Sonata (1912). By serving as the motivic, tonal, and rhetorical source of much that follows, this interpolation launches a quietly subversive counternarrative that threatens to undermine the traditional sonata narrative upon which the P theme had embarked. I invoke Russian Formalist literary theory as a framework for clarifying and contextualizing the disruptive structural function of Prokofiev’s interpolations within his larger sonata text.
ISSN:0195-6167
1533-8339
DOI:10.1093/mts/mtaa004