Schubert's treatment of the medial caesura differs on many levels from that of the Classical tradition. He problematizes many of its norms, introducing complications to the course of his sonata movements. Much research has been devoted to Schubert's approach to sonata form, his large-scale formal deformations as well as his innovative harmonic language. However, few of these writings have discussed the importance of the medial caesura to his sonata forms. Through the lens of Sonata Theory, this dissertation examines Schubert's handling of the MC, demonstrating how the complications derived from his unorthodox practice modify the structural and rhetorical layout of his pieces. I investigate Schubert's approach to three stages surrounding the MC articulation, TR and the energy-gaining process, the MC point of articulation, and the S-theme, discussing specific formal and rhetorical complications that arise from each of them. In chapter 1, I reconsider Schubert's MC practice from a dialogical perspective, demonstrating how some non-normative procedures (in Classical terms) became the norm within his own style. In chapter 2, I examine the impact of two common Schubertian procedures on the function, perception, and meaning of the MC: tonally over-determined TRs and the early arrival of the secondary key within TR. Finally, in chapter 3, I demonstrate how Schubert broadened the available cadential arrangements within MC pairs in declined-MC situations, exploring the expressive potential of normative/non-normative dual oppositions. The conclusion shows that 1) Schubert's stylistic preferences radically expand many of the default procedures posited by Sonata Theory, inviting refinements of the theory; and 2) that the Schubertian MC may incorporate two structural roles beyond its most fundamental function as a formal articulator: clarification of the function of a formally ambiguous passage, which is often connected to cases of tonal over-determination or the early arrival of the secondary key; and introduction of tonal and formal complications into the work's trajectory, invoking some kind of "correction" or compensation.

The last thirty years have seen a resurgence in the research of sonata form. One groundbreaking treatise in this renaissance is James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy’s 2006 monograph Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata. Hepokoski and Darcy devise a set of norms in order to characterize typical happenings in a late 18th-century sonata. Subsequently, many theorists have taken these norms (and their deformations) and extrapolate them to 19th-century sonata forms. My work aims to characterize Antonin Dvořák’s chamber music in the context of Sonata Theory, using the treatise as a jumping off point in order to analyze his music. This dissertation contains three main chapters. The first chapter deals with two of the themes of this dissertation: form and influence. Schubert’s influence on Dvořák’s music was notable, so after comparing some of Dvořák’s writing about Schubert’s music, I examine specific musical elements (sonic, formal, and structural) from Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 that Dvořák emulates in his string quartet in the same key. Chapters 3 and 4 put Dvořák’s sonata form practices into a 19th-century context, and I examine how he treats the MC and EEC sections of an exposition. In Chapter 3, I contend that Dvořák’s use of energy loss before and after the medial caesura is just as rhetorically successful as 18th-century composer’s use of energy gain in the transition section of a sonata. Additionally, many of Dvořák’s sonata forms feature expositions with vastly elongated S themes, thereby pushing rhetorical closure of the exposition back. This is unlike 18th-century sonatas, whose expositions routinely wrap up with a cadence in the second key after the first phrase. Thus, Chapter 4 displays several sonatas where Dvořák extends S-rhetoric in order to delay the close of the exposition. Even though not originally intended for this music, Hepokoski and Darcy’s treatise provides a fruitful set of norms that can be related to works from the 19th century. Additionally, Dvořák’s music is especially appropriate for this treatment, as his compositional style owes many allegiances to 18th-century techniques.

Many have noted nineteenth-century composers' tendency to undermine crucial formal boundaries normally found in eighteenth-century sonata forms. This dissertation examines phenomena that undermine the demarcation between the expositional secondary theme and closing section. In this document I refer to such events as "S-C Complications." In their Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (2006), James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy argued that this point of articulation plays a much more crucial role than that of merely forming a boundary between S- and C-space. Rather, it serves as the goal for the entire expositional trajectory, a goal whose presence is felt from the very outset of the movement. The authors refer to this moment as "essential expositional closure," or EEC. In this dissertation I attempt to show what role EEC in Hepokoski and Darcy's sense plays in nineteenth-century movements featuring S-C Complications. I conclude that nineteenth-century composers were very likely aware of the EEC's genre-defining status since they consistently and systematically undermined it. Further, whereas in the late-eighteenth-century repertoire S-C complications were rarely employed, in the nineteenth century they became more normative, and thus non-deformational. In addition to discussing the phenomena's dialogic relationship with eighteenth-century norms, I also address their effect on tonal structure and formal syntax, concluding that S-C Complications frequently have the effect of expanding closure beyond the scope of one cadence. For practical reasons I have limited the scope of this study to non-concerto movements written primarily by Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms.

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This study describes a set of salient formal norms for the eighteenth-century Spanish keyboard sonata through an application of Hepokoski and Darcy's sonata theory, William Caplin's form-functional theory, and Robert Gjerdingen's schema theory. It finds that particular thematic types, intra-thematic functions, and rhetorical markers characterize this repertoire. In order to trace the development of these norms throughout the eighteenth century, this work is organized into two parts. The first part (Chapters 2 and 3) examines the mid-century Spanish keyboard sonatas of Sebastián de Albero (1722–1756), Joaquín Ojinaga (1719–1789), and their contemporaries. The second part (Chapters 4 and 5) examines the late-century Spanish keyboard sonatas of Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750–1783) and his contemporaries.

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