Expansion and Recomposition in Mendelssohn’s Symphonic Sonata Forms

Abstract This chapter rethinks Felix Mendelssohn’s position vis-à-vis the New Formenlehre by focusing on structural expansion and recomposition in the subordinate theme groups of his symphonic sonata forms. A recurring strategy in the exposition of these works is to present a short, tight-knit theme that is then repeated and progressively expanded, significantly delaying the arrival of the cadence that concludes the subordinate theme group. This process of expansion in the exposition then forms the starting point for the recomposition of the subordinate theme group in the recapitulation. Drawing on examples from the first movements of the ‘Reformation’ and the ‘Italian’ Symphonies as well as from the Hebrides and Ruy Blas overtures, this chapter seeks not only to offer a more balanced account of the relation between the old and the new in Mendelssohn’s symphonic music but also to use that music as a locus of theory formation that contributes to a definition of what constitutes ‘Romantic’ form.