THE FORM OF THE DOUBLE FINALE

The second cycle of the Farewell Symphony comprises the Presto and the unique Adagio farewell movement, which together make up the double finale. (The rationale for this term has been given in Chapter 1; see also the discussion of eighteenth-century genre patterns in Chapter 6.) It is entirely progressive – not merely in being through-composed and in the “action” of the “farewells,” but also in thematic development and formal and tonal structure. The farewell music has never been analyzed; a brief overview at the beginning of this chapter may therefore be helpful. However, its form can be understood only in conjunction with the Presto: the movement pair is not only run-on, but governed by a single background progression (see Example 3.5 below). The Presto, in many respects a typical “Sturm und Drang” symphonic finale, is in very clear sonata form, except that the recapitulation breaks off at the last minute without attaining closure; this disruption leads to a structural dominant, which does not resolve, but progresses indirectly to A major and the farewell movement (this join is shown in Example 1.4). The latter is in two main parts: a binary movement in A (mm. 1–55), and a compressed recapitulation and conclusion in F-sharp major (mm. 68–107); they are linked by a modulating transition (mm. 55–67), which “recaptures” the unresolved structural dominant from the end of the Presto. (Throughout this discussion I use Landon's measure numbering for the farewell movement; the corresponding numbers in JHW are higher by 150.) Hence the concluding F-sharp-major section provides tonal resolution for the entire double finale.