“Beethoven” and “Sigue Beethoven”: The Sonata-Form Structure of Galdós’s La desheredada

Authors

Vernon A. Chamberlin

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Decimonónica

Volume

3

Issue

1

Publisher

Decimonónica

Publication Date

2006

First Page

11

Last Page

27

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that while creating the novel Tristana, as well as the first volume of Fortunata y Jacinta, Galdós did clearly follow the musical pattern known as sonata form.¹ This musical design is most frequently used as the basic structure for the first or last movement of a sonata (and sometimes also for the first movement of a symphony, as in the case of Beethoven’s Third [Eroica] Symphony). In creative fiction it has served as a model for such well-known authors as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, and Anthony Burgess.² Because Galdós suggests in two consecutive chapters, “Beethoven” and “Sigue Beethoven,” that La desheredada might be read as if it were a sonata, the purpose of the present study is to explore the structure of the novel as sonata form, as has been done with Tristana. Further, we shall suggest why Galdós chose La desheredada to be the first of his sonata-form novels.

Recommended Citation

Chamberlin, Vernon A., "“Beethoven” and “Sigue Beethoven”: The Sonata-Form Structure of Galdós’s La desheredada" (2006). Decimonónica. Paper 161.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/decimononica/161