The Role of the Development in Felix Mendelssohn's Sonata Forms

This dissertation presents a theory of development sections based on their roles in Felix Mendelssohn’s instrumental sonata forms. Given its contextual perspective on developments, my theory critiques established approaches in Schenkerian studies and recent formal treatises by Caplin (1998) and Hepokoski and Darcy (2006), which focus mainly on the inner workings of formal areas rather than their inter-relationships. My theory for classifying an extensive body of developments holds the potential to further sonata-form study across works by other nineteenth-century composers. I apply what I call an “inner-outer perspective” to offer local and global delineations of developmental space. My "inner perspective" enables detailed discussions of developments by contributing concepts like the “developmental gap (DG)”, “retransition (RT)-prep zone”, “retransitional sequence”, “retransitional caesura (RTC)”, and “retransition (RT)-connect”, and it expands on what I call “development-recapitulation (D-R) overlap”. The "outer perspective" of my theory proposes that all developments are classifiable according to two criteria: (1) developments achieve a tonic- or a non-tonic-articulated “development-recapitulation (D-R) border”, and (2) developments have either a minimal or a strong tie to the rest of the form. I combine these criteria to produce four “development classes”—I, II, III, and IV—but focus on those fifty Class-I and -II developments that exhibit a strong tie to the rest of the form. My analyses identify five DRTs, or “developmental relationship types”, by which to classify all fifty of Mendelssohn’s developments selected for detailed study. In DRT1, the development forwards material to the coda (“development-coda pairings”); in DRT2, the development forwards material which helps to defer the essential structural close (ESC); in DRT3, the retransition calls for “compensation” towards the movement’s end; in DRT4, the development furthers an aspect from the exposition or introduction into the recapitulation and/or coda; and in DRT5, the underplayed D-R border channels motion and contributes to the movement’s single-sweep design. DRTs offer important insights on developments, large-scale form, and Mendelssohn’s music. The pathways that arise from considering the confluence of various musical parameters within developments and beyond suggest transformation narratives through the form. DRTs therefore highlight the development’s importance to Mendelssohn’s aesthetic and early-nineteenth-century sonata form.Ph.D