Felix Mendelssohn · 1844 · Tonal Music
Core Mechanism
Authority redistribution through structural inversion — the soloist claims formal functions traditionally reserved for the orchestra, forcing all subsequent mechanisms to operate within this reversed power hierarchy.
Kernel Engagement
Works within the kernel’s native ground; the structural gap is present but never encountered.
Evidence
The work operates through standard tonal procedures — exposition, development, recapitulation in E minor with dominant relationships governing modulation and cadential resolution. The 'authority redistribution' is a reallocation of conventional roles within fifth-based harmonic organization, not a departure from it.
Territory
The work uses fifth-based harmonic organization as primary structural language — E minor tonic, dominant relationships governing modulation, functional harmony throughout. This is the kernel's home ground.
Constitutive depth
The work is constituted by fifth-based harmonic relationships — remove them and it ceases to be tonal music. The 'structural inversion' reallocates conventional concerto functions but doesn't generate constraints beyond those inherent in sonata form and tonal harmony.
Legibility
The fifth's operation is naturalized through mature Romantic idiom. Audiences experience the soloist's early entry and integrated cadenza as expressive choices, not as the kernel's structural work. The mechanism is invisible without analytical tools.