Becoming and Beyond: Applying Goethe’s Progressive and Retrogressive Metamorphosis to Fanny Hensel’s Piano Sonatas

Abstract Over the last decade, Janet Schmalfeldt’s concept of “becoming” has provided groundwork to evaluate how ambiguous formal moments gradually come into focus through the practice of retrospective reinterpretation. I supplement Schmalfeldt’s Hegelian perspective with concepts drawn from Goethe’s botanical studies to propose a type of becoming that is not limited to retrospective reinterpretation but instead embraces gradual thematic transformations that can function either progressively or retrogressively. Using Fanny Hensel’s piano sonatas as case studies, I explain how the two categories of progressive and retrogressive metamorphosis are fitting metaphors to describe gradual thematic transformations within Romantic-era composers’ works that resist formal prototypes.