Between the Signposts: Thematic Interpolation and Structural Defamiliarization in Prokofiev's Sonata Process. (10th May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Perry, Rebecca
• Is Part Of: Music theory spectrum. Volume 42:Number 2(2020:Autumn)
• Page Start: 193
• Page End: 206
• Publication Date: 2020-05-10
• Subjects: Sonata Theory -- Prokofiev -- musical form -- interpolation -- Russian formalism; Music theory -- Periodicals; Music theory; Periodicals; 781.05
• DOI: 10.1093/mts/mtaa004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-6167

Abstract

Abstract: 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.