Diverging Subordinate Themes and Internal Transitions: Assessing Internal Modulations in Three‐Key Expositions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent scholarship on the ‘three‐key exposition’ has drawn attention to its historical evolution, Schenkerian voice‐leading considerations and issues with cadences and internal ‘crises’ in Schubert's three‐key expositions. One question remains to be answered: How and where do composers get from the second key to the third? Using William Caplin's theory of formal functions to help classify those internal modulations, this paper will assess strategies employed in these unique expositional layouts. Using a range of works from Haydn to Tchaikovsky, a number of categories for such modulations are identified on the basis of their location within the relevant subordinate theme. These categories are then used to examine the nature of second modulations, and to adapt Caplin's theory to promote a clearer understanding of the harmonic richness and formal complexity of nineteenth‐century sonata style.