McClary - Second movement of the "Unfinished Symphony"

Question 1

Establishes first key area very unusually

Answer 1

Schubert’s tonal formulations do not enact the more standard model “in which a self strives to define identity through the consolidation of ego boundaries”

Question 2

The opening passages drift through key areas - which?

Answer 2

C# minor
G major
E minor
back to E major

Question 3

Impact of these tonal shifts

Answer 3

It “invites us to forgo the security of a centered, stable tonality and, instead, to experience - and even enjoy - a flexible sense of self”

Question 4

How does Schubert construct his subjectivity?

Answer 4

“painstakingly from the stuff of standard tonality”

Question 5

Good quote on tonality/sexuality

Answer 5

Schubert “tends to disdain goal-oriented desire per se for the sake of a sustained image of pleasure and an open, flexible sense of self”
This was very much at odds with the constructions of masculine identity of the time

Question 6

Standard accounts

Answer 6

‘warily label Schubert’s music as sentimental, feminine, or weak, even as they mean to praise him’

Question 7

Impact of McClary’s approach?

Answer 7

Schubert’s music may no longer be seen as ‘defective’ but rather “purposeful, ingenious, and liberatory”