Eroica First Movement Exposition Repeat

[gradus]

Perhaps the website below might cast some light on this and other questions of Eroica interpretation: http://www.grunin.com/eroica/

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I must say that I'm not convinced by eA's 'structural sense' argument (#3). Listening to a symphony is a very different experience from reading a novel (where you can flip back through the pages if you forget just what a character did in those 1st 3 chapters); I agree with #6 & #7.

But it doesn't make sense in musical terms. A sonata form exposition is a complex piece of writing, with a first subject in the tonic key, with a carefully constructed transition section (and this is the significant bit) that moves the musical argument away from the tonic to a related (usually) key. This key change is sometimes consolidated by further themes in the new key and, to round it off, add a codetta.

So far, so good. But then a double barline decorated by a couple of dots puts paid to all that, and we suddenly find ourselves thrown back to where we started off. This may be abrupt and a bit of a shock; or there may be first-time bars leading us back more gently, which is a little better, but it still seems to imply we weren't listening properly the first time. But I do accept the argument that at the time of their composition, many people might only ever have had one opportunity to hear the works once in a lifetime.

[ostuni]

I don't think I hear the average exposition repeat as as much of a shock as you imply. After all, the 'related key' is normally a very closely related key: in a major-key exposition, 95% of the time it will be the dominant. And a return to the tonic after a period in the dominant isn't too shocking... On the other hand, the shock (often) comes at the start of the development, where composers frequently plunge immediately into a far less closely related key - and the drama of the moment is intensified if we've already heard the codetta moving comfortably back to the beginning of the movement. Then, on the second hearing, new horizons are suddenly opened.