JAVS Spring 2019

Suddenly, the piano interrupts with secondary theme material. From here the development continues to combine the various themes in an increasingly fragmented manner. Twice more this culminates in an ascending viola line—the climbing sixteenth-notes turn into thirty-second notes (mm. 117–20 and mm. 124– 27)—and both times it arrives at a viola cadenza, each one longer than the last (mm. 121–23 and mm. 128–31). The rotation through thematic material finally concludes with a fragmented version of the closing theme which passes the melody from the piano’s left hand to the viola (mm. 132–40).

The piano is the first to urge for recapitulation by beginning a statement of the primary theme at the sforzando arrival on the downbeat of m. 142 (ex. 4). But his return is fake. The pitch center of this return is a step too high: it’s on G, instead of the global tonic of F, necessary for a true recapitulation. The piano begins another statement of the primary theme with a gentler arrival in m. 155. This time the viola picks up the theme after two bars, as if finally in agreement that this is the proper moment for recapitulation (ex. 5). She enters in the exact same register as in the movement’s opening bars, but now she begins with a rolled chord—as if to draw the

Example 4: Rochberg, Sonata for Viola and Piano, I, mm. 140–45

Example 5: Rochberg, Sonata for Viola and Piano, I, mm. 153–58

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

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