"The Use of Listening Strategies in the Fantasias (not in Variation Form) by Fernando Sor," Sor Studies /Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, 2003.

Introduction

The origins of the fantasia date back to the sixteenth century and its development has a significant relationship to the family of plucked stringed instruments. The fantasia’s not in variation form by Fernando Sor contain some design features that are related to traditional formal patterns, but whose network of relationships remain architecturally and historically distinct. By exploiting the harmonic, melodic, and textural processes that typically advance the musical rhetoric, and ultimately define a form, Sor is able to avoid some of the most common structural constraints that govern patterns of presentation, continuation, and development. His absorption and manipulation of these principles into a flexible system of relations results in a composition whose formal outline reflects both an awareness of traditional schemes of structure while allowing for an expansion and exploration of those patterns. It is my aim to bring these often neglected pieces into a detailed analysis and to demonstrate, through the development and application of listening strategies, how the awareness of specific compositional principles and stylistic features, as well as the formal archetypes (sonata, rondo, minuet, etc.), contribute to the uniqueness of the fantasia’s construction and to the reception and comprehension of the piece.