Structural Dissonance Re-Imagined: The Finale of Elgar’s Violin Sonata, OP. 82

Abstract

Abstract Contemporary critical reception of Elgar’s Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82 was divided: was this work old hat or modestly cutting edge? Study of the tonal intricacies of its finale can facilitate interesting answers to this question, which mediate between its implied extremes. The article focuses on Elgar’s unusual treatment of sonata form’s traditional harmonic pillars, arguing that he radically changed their surface contents while still attempting to guarantee their continued relevance as organizing presences at a level below the musical surface. Particularly important is his articulation of the finale’s structural dominant. The music that follows on from an abortive cadence in V at the end of the finale’s secondary theme area might be thought to ‘translate’ the dominant into a more modern kind of musical language; it can thus be perceived as a genuine structural dissonance once more, rather than as a consonant cliché.