The question of how a development section ends takes us back to the theoreti-cal model of a point of furthest remove, often the submediant, as a culmination of the development’s centrifugal action. Although this is useful as a yardstick for Haydn’s procedures, the potentially confusing “furthest remove” cannot always be equated with the most distant tonal center. Especially among quartets from
Op. 50 on, there are developments that lead to a remote key early in the section, as in the first movement of Op. 55/1/i (A major), where an initial span of tran-sition veers from the dominant of E minor to the distant realm of C (m. 78), or even at the outset (for example, the first movement of Op. 54/3/i, with its im-mediate jump from the dominant, B, to the key of G).
In the two movements just cited, the appearance of a foreign key begins a modulatory process that eventually ends with a move to the submediant. The tonal path, in other words, has stretched from a distant region to a tonal orbit immediately adjacent to tonic, and from this point an imminent return to the home key is assured. Normally, a span of dominant preparation will intervene at this juncture, although there are several cases in which motion to the dominant of the relative minor actually marks the last event of the section before an un-mediated return to tonic.11The first movement of Op. 54/3 (E major) is a strik-ing example. Here, ongostrik-ing elaboration of the primary theme persists above a pedal point in the cello (G, as V of Cminor) all the way from measure 98 to the very end of the development at measure 106.
In the vast majority of movements that do incorporate a preparatory domi-nant, this final piece of connective tissue seldom extends more than several mea-sures. But even when the span is relatively long, it rarely entails dramatic or ex-plosive gestures. Suppressed intensity better describes Haydn’s typical procedure as motion either comes to a halt or else persists in the form of a thematic or ac-companimental overlap, a wholesale elision at the join between sections, or the occasional, more delicate effect of a single, tenuous thread to reach across the di-vide and join with the start of the recapitulation. In an instance of this maneu-ver, from the finale of Op. 55/3, the returning primary theme is seamlessly em-bedded in the connecting solo line, so that it is only in retrospect that we can comprehend how the point of recapitulation has merged with the peak of the as-cending scale on the upbeat to measure 66 (see ex. 4.5).
Recapitulation
As affirmed in writings by theorists of the time, including those of Koch, Francesco Galeazzi, and A. F. C. Kollmann, tonal resolution is the defining ingredient of what we understand as a sonata form’s recapitulation.12But for present-day com-mentators, deriving their models from observed compositional practices as well as the classical theoretical accounts, large-scale thematic correspondences be-tween outer sections prove no less germane than the question of tonal design,13 and from this latter vantage point, the exposition and recapitulation may be per-ceived as more or less symmetrically balanced pillars of the form.
With respect to Haydn’s practice, we can speak of a range of possibilities for proportion and thematic profile: on one end of the spectrum, the occasional
oc-65
recapitulation
e x a m p l e 4 . 5 Op. 55/3/iv, mm. 65–67
currence of a literal recapitulation whose duration and order of events closely matches that of the exposition; on the other, a final section so freely conceived as to challenge the very principles of thematic recapitulation and proportional equivalence. As a rule, recapitulations begin by restoring the home key simulta-neously with a recurrence of the exposition’s opening phrase. On rare occasions, this crucial thematic event precedes a delayed tonal return (as in Op. 33/3/i, mm.
108–10), or else the reinstatement of tonic coincides with something other than the primary theme. There are also a few cases in which the basic elements of the-matic and tonal return come together on schedule, yet the moment is colored by harmonic ambivalence or uncertainty, as in the first movement of Op. 55/3 (B).
The opening theme begins with a tonic note whose downbeat placement, long duration, and unison sonority help signify a stable point of departure (see ex. 4.6a).
But the implications of this note are transformed at the start of the recapitu-lation (m. 129), where it now attaches to the end of a descending, dominant seventh arpeggio in the first violin (mm. 127–28; see ex. 4.6b). Embedded in this new context, the pitch sounds more like an appoggiatura than any definitive rep-resentation of tonic, especially as the motion from Bto A is now positioned to recall that of measure 127 (bracketed in ex. 4.6b), where the Bwas heard as an accented dissonance. The lower parts reinforce this impression by entering on a dissonant chord, resolving to the dominant on beat 3, and withholding tonic harmony to the end of the next measure, midway through the phrase. The restora-tion of tonic therefore takes place not as a single, sharply focused event but as a gradual process.14
Apart from such rare aberrations, it is Haydn’s practice to emphasize both tonal and thematic certainty at this juncture and thus to convey an apparent promise of stability and reconciliation. But what actually happens once the struc-tural landmark has been reached is far from certain. Determining factors may
in-clude a particular recapitulation’s obligation to trim material from the exposition that might otherwise seem redundant;15to respond to basic peculiarities of the preceding development section, thereby highlighting the interdependence of the form’s principal sections; to promote undiminished attention to develop-mental process, novelty, and structural intrigue; or to achieve a rhetorical cli-max, perhaps realizing far-flung implications of a particular theme, enhancing the impression of long-range directional motion, or dramatizing the act of tonal reaffirmation.
Strategies that entail fresh development or special structural accent may stretch the size of the recapitulation considerably, as in Op. 64/1/i, where expo-sition and recapitulation contain sixty and seventy-seven measures, respectively, but such cases are not common. More typically, Haydn’s preference accords with Koch’s description of a plan in which “the most prominent phrases are now [i.e., in the recapitulation] compressed”;16and there are some movements (Op. 9/4/i is an outstanding instance) in which abbreviation or compression shrinks the re-capitulation to a fraction of the exposition’s size.