Finale
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Summary
There can be no grand synthesis at the end of this study. Not only would this be an unlikely outcome given our current antipathy to and suspicion of ‘final solutions’, but it is unimaginable in the particular circumstances; it would seem to be impossible ultimately to control and comprehend all that the sonatas have to offer. They resist closure in every possible sense. This does not just entail all the difficulties of historical understanding that we have reflected upon throughout, but it is inherent in the very nature of the sonata production. In the first instance this arises from sheer weight of numbers. Such high productivity suggests to us a cultural sensibility remote from our own; this is a common difficulty of comprehension when we deal with the large musical repertories of the eighteenth century. Given also the evident linguistic variety of the sonatas, we see how easy it is for any appreciation of them to turn into an uncritical lauding of diversity – the panorama tradition. Yet in certain ‘external’ features that have perhaps been overproblematized – duration, genre (or at least title), tempo and form – the output is not notably diverse. Indeed, it is just the combination of quantity with the lack of external differentiation that has led to such images of the sonatas as a ‘forest’ or ‘labyrinth’. From this logistical point of view alone, it is not surprising that comparatively few have ventured inside.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003