THE TREATMENT OF THE CYCLE AND SONATA FORM IN THE STRING QUARTET OP. 83 BY E. ELGAR

Abstract

The only one in this genre in the creation of the English composer E. Elgar, the E-minor String Quartet op.83 contains three parts, revealing a less traditional treatment of the sonata cycle used in the quartet genre. The fitting in the patterns of the sonata form in all the three parts (I — traditional sonata form, II — sonata without treatment, III — sonata with inverted reprise) allows a masterful and varied elaboration of the musical material. In this way, for the exposition of the three sonata forms, are characteristic the plurithematism of the elements of the main groups and the monothematism of the secondary groups. Another peculiarity that refers to the stylistic features and genre of the Quartet consists in the presence of different sources that have their origin in: the musical-rhetorical figures of the Baroque; arioso vocal singing; dance music both academic and ambient; music of different epochs (Baroque, Romanticism); traditional English music. In all the three movements of the cycle, the ideas and feelings, the emotions provoked by certain events are embellished in the structure made at the level of the orchestral one.

Keywords

• sonata cycle
• quartet
• E. Elgar
• English music