JAVS Spring 2019

Interpreting this phrase as a reference to a classical sentence structure draws attention to the role of each instrument in defining this formal type. The 2+2+6 organization is quite clear in the piano’s part due to the texture: the rhythms and general shape of mm. 1–2 are nearly exactly repeated in mm. 3–4, and the new contour of the right hand’s eighth notes in m. 5 repeats in the following two measures. The viola, on the other hand, seems to fight against these formal divisions. She presents the sweeping, descending fourth motive as a basic idea and begins a repetition of it, but then holds the A-sharp for too long, blurring over the boundary between mm. 4–5 with a tie instead of articulating a new beginning to initiate the continuation. Her ascending leap from B to A-sharp builds intensity, propelling the line to soar ever higher, only coaxed to a cadence by the piano’s hemiola like rhythms.

This opening phrase serves as the primary theme in a twentieth-century interpretation of a sonata form, shown in Figure 1. The transition section begins with the arrival on the cadence in m. 10, establishing a “new key” area with a pitch center of C, the dominant. Here the viola lands on a whole-note G, shifting the listener’s attention to her duo partner. The piano responds by repeating the melody of the primary theme, now transposed up a fifth and situated in new textural surroundings (ex. 1, mm. 10–11). 7 The stability of the bass line is gone: the lowest voice of the piano’s left hand still ascends by semitone; however, it is now three octaves higher than before. This high register creates a less grounded feeling, as is appropriate during the transition section of a sonata exposition. Instead of playing the original inner-voice accompaniment, the piano introduces a new eighth-note idea beneath the primary theme. This gesture is passed to the viola, who initially passes it back (m. 12), but then

Figure 1: Formal Map of Rochberg, Sonata for Viola and Piano, 1st movement

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring 2019