14 RECAPITULATION

FOCUS ON FUNCTION

Recapitulation Without Main Theme? As a result of deleting the opening of the main theme, the large-scale form of a sonata movement would
seem to be analogous more to the small binary than to the small ternary.
Indeed, it might be questioned whether we should even speak of a
recapitulation function when the main themes basic idea is not brought
back.This requirement, above all others, distinguishes the small ternary
from the small binary, and in the case of the latter, recapitulation function
is not recognized even if material occurring later in the first part is brought
back at the end of the second part.
But since it is so traditional in theories of sonata form to label the
large-scale section following the development a recapitulation, the practice is maintained here despite these theoretical concerns. After all, one
of the principal functions of a recapitulationto restore to the home
key any material originally presented in the subordinate key (the sonata
principle)is nevertheless fulfilled even when significant parts of the main
theme and transition are eliminated.

If the recapitulation deletes the opening of the main theme, these ideas
usually return later in the movement. This procedure is often referred to as a
reversed (or inverted) recapitulation. Caution must be exercised in speaking in this manner, however, for it suggests that the composer can simply shift
around the main and subordinate themes almost mechanically.
Yet a careful examination of individual cases reveals that either main-theme
ideas are incorporated into the actual subordinate-theme area of the recapitulation or else they occur as part of a subsequent coda and thus do not belong to
the recapitulation proper.

Example 14.15: the development section ends with a dominant arrival in mm.
8687, after which the recapitulation begins with the cadential idea of the main
theme (see Ex. 10.11, mm. 58), thus bypassing the opening ideas of the theme.
That the opening of the main theme is deleted is not entirely surprising given how
pervasive it was during most of the prior development section, even appearing
at one point in the home key (see the viola part in Ex. 14.15b, mm. 6466). This
cadential material then leads quickly to an HC at m. 93 (Ex. 14.15a), thus giving
rise to a fusion of main theme and transition functions.
The first of two subordinate themes then follows. Here, Haydn uses only the
second part of the expositions subordinate theme, the first part being based on
main-theme material, in the sense of a monothematic exposition (compare Ex.
11.13, m. 18, with Ex. 10.11, m. 1).

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