The bridge passage of sonata form has generally been considered less attractive to listeners and analysts than the themes it connects. This applies to general aesthetic judgements as well as to music analyses where it has been usually neglected. Sequential structures and other conventional materials typical of these transitions for a long time have deterred music theory from acknowledging the fact that many of the most important innovations of the classical sonata were shaped in the multifarious linear processes and harmonic contents of the bridge passage. The movement away from the initial tonic and the introduction of a new tonal area has become a key feature of the sonata form between 1730 and 1780 and thus has provoked many highly original compositional solutions. After general components of a formal model of the sonata bridge passage are introduced, the main section of this article discusses a broad number of examples from symphonic, chamber and solo works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in order to demonstrate how they continuously modified this scheme in order to raise attention, expectancy and expressive power. On the basis of James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy’s seminal book on sonata form (Elements of Sonata Theory, 2006) it can be shown how the compositional function of a bridge passage (exposition and extension of the principle theme, harmonic transformation from the tonic to a new key and its affirmation by a cadence, exposition of contrasting material) is modified through procrastination or hurry, displacement in time, exaggeration and understatement, interrupted processes, interpenetration, and the incongruence of design and function. Such a dialogue between generic norm and individualization can also imply semantic perspectives.

This dissertation introduces a methodic approach for constructing an architectural model of music, particularly when derived from connections between Beethoven’s renowned Ninth Symphony and New York’s celebrated Chrysler Building. Starting with a historical critique of non-systematic, or cursory surveys between the subjects of music and architecture, the author proceeds into a unique theory of art, which proposes that creative vehicles are inhabited by a kind of inspired genius. The study subsequently introduces sculpture as a “mediator” between our two main art-forms under discussion, and one that serves as an aid when embodying their associated concepts. The author then employs systematic terminology, or “spectrums” in parallel between these formal expressions, while simultaneously assembling the “Complex Array” for the mechanics of tonality in music. When applying this manner of analysis to William Van Alen’s Art Deco masterpiece and the famous romantic Symphony, a visual profile is lent to the catalog of music theory, alongside a harmonic interpretation of architecture, before concluding with how these artistic subjects are significantly distinguished from one another. / Music Theory

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Though many philosophers and music theorists have admitted the signification of the sublime in music as a possibility, the nature and mechanism of that signification has not yet been treated at length with a methodology familiar to musicians or native to music theory. Within this dissertation I have conducted a survey of the philosophy of the sublime as understood by Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797), Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804), Friedrich Schiller (1759 – 1805), and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860), with references to other contemporary philosophers and writers. The broader influence of the sublime in regards to German-speaking regions and certain musical composers was also considered. I then gathered from the above philosophers’ categories and definitions of the sublime a constellation of objects, qualities, and emotional states associated with the sublime. These functioned as signs or signifiers of the sublime, whose paths of signification were considered or determined with use of semiotics and topic theory, with reference to the work of Danuta Mirka, Raymond Monelle, and Leonard Ratner. Making reference to score examples listed in the list of figures, I implemented these techniques in analyses of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 and Sonata No. 32 in C, Op. 111 as well as Franz Liszt’s “Mazeppa,” from the Études d’exécution transcendante, “Funerailles” from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses III, S. 173, and “Marche funèbre, En mémoire de Maximilian I, Empereur du Mexique” in from Années de pèlerinage III, S.163. / Music Performance

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