Sonata form is a musical form characterized by tonal movement and consisting of at least an exposition, a development and a recapitulation. Sonata form is used in most first movements of sonatas and symphonies.

Contents 1 Defining 'sonata form' 1.1 Definition as a formal model 2 Outline of sonata form 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Exposition 2.3 Development 2.4 Recapitulation 2.5 Coda 3 Variations on the standard schema 3.1 Monothematic expositions 3.2 Modulation to keys other than the dominant 3.3 Expositions with more than two key areas 3.4 Modulations within the first subject group 4 Sonata form in concerti 5 The history of sonata form 6 Sonata form and other musical forms 7 Theory of sonata form 8 Musical criticism and sonata form 9 Notes 10 References 11 See also

Defining 'sonata form'

According to the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, sonata form is "the most important principle of musical form, or formal type, from the Classical period well into the 20th century". The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an Encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians ^[1] As a formal model it is usually best exemplified in the first movements of multi-movement works from this period, whether orchestral or chamber, and has thus been referred to frequently as "first-movement form" or "sonata-allegro form" (since the first movement in a three- or four-movement cycle will typically be in allegro tempo). However, as what Grove, following Charles Rosen, calls a "principle" - a typical approach to shaping a large piece of instrumental music - it can be seen to be active in a much greater variety of pieces and genres, from minuet to concerto to sonata-rondo. It also carries with it expressive and stylistic connotations: "sonata style", for D. F. Tovey as for other theorists of his time, was characterised by drama, dynamism, and a "psychological" approach to theme and expression. Sir Donald Francis Tovey (17 July 1875 &ndash 10 July 1940 was a British musical analyst, musicologist, writer on Music, Composer ^[2]

Although the term sonata often refers to a piece in sonata form, it is essential to separate the two. Usage of sonata The Baroque applied the term sonata to a variety of works though most works in the Baroque Period were fugues and toccatas As the title for a single-movement piece of instrumental music (from the Italian "sonare", to sound (of an instrument), opposed to the cantata, from "cantare" meaning to sing), "sonata" covers many pieces from the Baroque and mid-18th century that are not "in sonata form". A cantata (derived from the Italian word 'cantare' meaning 'to sing' is a vocal composition with an instrumental Accompaniment and often Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc Conversely, in the late 18th century or "Classical" period, the title "sonata" is typically given to a work composed of three or four movements. Nonetheless, this multi-movement sequence is not what is meant by sonata form, which refers to the structure of an individual movement.

The definition of sonata form in terms of musical elements sits uneasily between two historical eras. Although the late 18th century witnessed the most exemplary achievements in the form, above all from Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, compositional theory of the time did not use the term "sonata form". The most extensive contemporary description of the sonata-form type of movement was given by the theorist H. C. Koch in 1793: like earlier German theorists, and unlike the descriptions of the form we are used to today, he defined it in terms of the movement's plan of modulation and principal cadences, without saying a great deal about the treatment of themes. Seen in this way, sonata form was closest to binary form, out of which it in fact developed. This article is about the musical form See Binary numeral system for the mathematical term ^[3] The model of the form which is usually taught today is more thematically differentiated, and goes back to A. B. Marx's description of the late 1830s. Friedrich Heinrich Adolf Bernhard Marx ( Halle, Germany, 15 March 1795 – Berlin, 17 May, 1866) was a German This model was derived from study and criticism of Beethoven's piano sonatas; however, coming as it did after Beethoven's death, and long after the heyday of the form as used by composers, it already had a slightly abstract and retrospective character. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. Since it still has wide currency and provides the theorist with a range of indispensable analytical terms, however, it demands summary.

Definition as a formal model

A sonata-allegro movement is divided into sections. It may begin with an introduction, which is generally slower than the main movement, and then proceeds to the exposition. The exposition presents the primary thematic material for the movement: one or two theme groups, often in contrasting styles and in opposing keys, bridged by a transition. In Music, a theme is the initial or primary Melody. The Encyclopédie Fasquelle (Michel 1958–61 defines a theme as follows "Any In Music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways The exposition typically concludes with a closing theme, a codetta, or both. Coda ( Italian for "tail" from the Latin cauda, see below is a term used in Music in a number of different senses primarily to designate The exposition is followed by the development where the harmonic and textural possibilities of the thematic material are explored, and which then transitions to the recapitulation where the thematic material returns in the tonic key. The movement may conclude with a coda, beyond the final cadence of the recapitulation. Coda ( Italian for "tail" from the Latin cauda, see below is a term used in Music in a number of different senses primarily to designate In Western Musical theory, a harmonic cadence (Latin cadentia, "a falling" is a formula of two chords that conclude

The term 'sonata form' is controversial, and arguably quite misleading, implying that there was a set template to which classical and romantic composers aspired. In fact, 'sonata form' is more of a model developed for musical analysis, and should be viewed as such. Although the descriptions on this page could be considered an adequate analysis of many first-movement structures, there are enough variations to warrant the plural in 'Sonata forms',^[4] Charles Rosen's thoughtful study of the term and its usage. In the classical period, these variations include (but are not limited to) a monothematic exposition, where the same material is presented in different keys (used extensively by Haydn), a 'third subject group' in a different key to the other two (used by Schubert and Brahms), the second subject group recapitulation in the 'wrong' key (often the subdominant, as in Mozart's C major piano sonata KV. 545, and Schubert's third symphony) and an extended coda section in which typically developmental, rather than concluding, processes are pursued (found in most of Beethoven's middle-period works, such as his third symphony). Through the romantic period, formal distortions and variations become so widespread (Mahler, Elgar and Sibelius, among others, are cited and studied by James Hepokoski) that 'sonata form' as it is outlined here is not adequate to describe the complex musical structures that it is often applied to. James Hepokoski earned his Masters and PhD in Music History from Harvard University and has been professor at the Yale Department of Music since 1999

In the context of the many late Baroque extended binary forms that bear similarities to sonata form, sonata form can be distinguished by the following three characteristics:^[5]

• a separate development section including a retransition
• the simultaneous return of the first subject group and the tonic
• a full (or close to full) recapitulation of the second subject group

Outline of sonata form

The standard description of the sonata form is as follows:

Introduction

Main article: Introduction (music)

The Introduction section is optional, or may be reduced to a minimum. Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. Retransition, in the Sonata form, is the last part of the development section before the recapitulation that leads to the tonic of the main In Music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. If it is extended, it is generally slower than the main section, and frequently focuses on the dominant key. It may or may not contain material which is later stated in the exposition. The introduction increases the weight of the movement, and also permits the composer to begin the exposition with a theme that would be too light to start on its own, as in Haydn's Symphony No. 103 ("Drumroll"). The Symphony No 103 in E-flat major (Hoboken 1/103 is the eleventh of the twelve so-called London Symphonies written by Joseph Haydn. Usually, but not always, the introduction is excluded from the exposition repeat.

Occasionally the material of introduction reappears in its original tempo later in the movement. Often, this occurs as late as the coda, as in Mozart's String Quintet K. 593, Haydn's Drumroll Symphony, or Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. 8 ("Pathétique"). Ludwig van Beethoven 's Piano Sonata No 8 in C minor op 13 commonly known as Pathétique was published in 1799, though written the year before when

Exposition

Main article: Exposition (music)

The primary thematic material for the movement is presented in the Exposition. In Musical form and analysis, exposition is the initial presentation of the thematic material of a Musical composition, movement, This section can be further divided into several sections. The same section in most sonata form movements has prominent harmonic and thematic parallelisms (although in some works from the nineteenth century and onward, some of these parallelisms are subject to considerable exceptions), which include:

• First subject group – this consists of one or more themes, all of them in the home key (also called the tonic). So if the piece is in C major, all of the music in the first group will be in C major.
• Transition – in this section the composer modulates from the key of the first subject to the key of the second. However, many classical-period works move straight from 1st to 2nd subject groups without any transition.
• Second subject group – one or more themes in a different key from the first group. If the first group is in a major key, the second group will usually be in the dominant. In Music, the dominant is the Fifth degree of the scale. For example in the C Major scale (white keys on a piano starting with C the In pieces in a major key this will be the perfect fifth higher; if the original key is C major, for example, the key of the music of the second group will be G major. If the first group is in a minor key, the second group will generally be in the relative major, so that if the original key is C minor, the second group will be in E flat major. The material of the second group is often different in rhythm or mood from that of the first group (frequently, it is more lyrical).
• Codetta – the purpose of this is to bring the exposition section to a close with a perfect cadence in the same key as the second group. Often the codetta contains a sequence of themes, each of which arrives at a perfect authentic cadence. The whole of the exposition may then be repeated. Often the last measure or measures of the exposition are slightly different between the repeats, one to point back to the tonic, where the exposition began, and the second to point towards the development.

Development

Main article: Development (music)

The development generally starts in the same key as the exposition ended, and may move through many different keys during its course. In European classical music, musical development is a process by which a musical Idea is communicated in the course of a composition. It will usually consist of one or more themes from the exposition altered and occasionally juxtaposed and may include new material or themes – though exactly what is acceptable practice is a famous point of contention. Alterations include taking material through distant keys, breaking down of themes and sequencing of motifs, and so forth.

The development varies greatly in length from piece to piece, sometimes being relatively short compared to the exposition (e. g. the first movement of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K 525/I by Mozart) and in other cases quite long and detailed (e. The Serenade No 13 for strings in G major, K 525 more commonly known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik ("a small serenade" -- rendered more literally g. the first movement of the "Eroica" Symphony by Beethoven). The Symphony No 3 in E flat major ( Op 55 by Ludwig van Beethoven (known as the Eroica which is Italian for "heroic" Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. However, it almost always shows a greater degree of tonal, harmonic and rhythmic instability than the other sections. Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of At the end, the music will return to the dominant key in preparation of the recapitulation. The transition from the development to the recapitulation is a crucial moment in the work.

The last part of the development section is called the retransition: it prepares for the return of the first subject group in the tonic, most often through a grand prolongation of the dominant seventh. Retransition, in the Sonata form, is the last part of the development section before the recapitulation that leads to the tonic of the main In Music, especially Schenkerian analysis, a prolongation creates the detail of a Musical composition by elaborating the Background structure Thus, if the key of the movement is C major, the retransition would most typically stress the dominant seventh chord on G. In addition, the character of the music would signal such a return, often becoming more frenetic (as in the case of the first movement of Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata, Op. 53). The Piano Sonata No 21 in C major, Op53 nicknamed Waldstein, is considered to be one of Beethoven 's greatest piano sonatas, as A rather notable exception to the harmonic norm of the retransition occurs in the first movement of Brahms's Piano Sonata No. Johannes Brahms ( pronounced ˈbʁaːms (May 7 1833 &ndash April 3 1897 was a German Composer 1, Op. 1. The general key of the movement is C major, and it would then follow that the retransition should stress the dominant seventh chord on G. Instead, it builds in strength over the seventh chord on C, as if the music were proceeding to F major. At the height of the musical tension, this chord triumphs with great volume and wide registral scope on the downbeat, only to take up immediately the first theme in C major – that is, without any standard harmonic preparation.

Recapitulation

Main article: Recapitulation (music)

The Recapitulation is an altered repeat of the exposition, and consists of:

• First subject group – normally given prominence as the highlight of a recapitulation, it is usually in exactly the same key and form as in the exposition. In Music theory, the recapitulation is one of the sections of a movement written in Sonata form.
• Transition – now altered so that it does not change key, but remains in the piece's home key. Often the transition is carried out by introducing novel material, a kind of brief additional development section; this is called a secondary development. A secondary development, in music is a section that appears in certain musical movements written in Sonata form.
• Second subject group and codetta – usually in roughly the same form as in the exposition, but now in the home key, which sometimes involves transformation from major to minor, or vice versa, as occurs in the first movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 (K. 550). More often, however, it may be recast in the parallel major of the home key (for example, C major when the movement is in C minor like Beethoven's Symphony No. In Music, the parallel minor or tonic minor of a particular major key is the minor key with the same tonic; similarly the parallel major Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. 5 in C Minor, op. 67/I). Key here is more important than mode (major or minor) - the recapitulation provides the needed balance even if the material's mode is changed, so long as there is no longer any key conflict. In Music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways

Exceptions to the recapitulation form include Mozart and Haydn works which often return to the second subject group when the first subject group is elaborated at length in the development.

Coda

Main article: Coda (music)

After the final cadence of the recapitulation, the movement may continue with a coda, which will contain material from the movement proper. Coda ( Italian for "tail" from the Latin cauda, see below is a term used in Music in a number of different senses primarily to designate Codas, when present, vary considerably in length, but, like introductions, are not part of the "argument" of the work. The coda will end, however, with a perfect cadence in the home key. Codas may be quite brief tailpieces, or they may be very long and elaborate. A famous example of the more extended type is the coda to the first movement of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony (no. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. 3 in E flat), although there are numerous others in Beethoven's music.

Variations on the standard schema

Monothematic expositions

It is not necessarily the case that the move to the dominant key in the exposition is marked by a new theme. Haydn in particular was fond of using the opening theme, often in a truncated or otherwise altered form, to announce the move to the dominant. Mozart, despite his prodigious melodic gift, also occasionally wrote such expositions: for instance in the Piano Sonata K. 570 or the String Quintet K. 593. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 's Piano Sonata No 17 in B flat major, K 570 (February 1789 is a sonata in three movements: The String Quintet No 5 in D major, K 593 is written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Such expositions are often called monothematic, meaning that one theme serves to establish the opposition between tonic and dominant keys. This term is misleading, since most "monothematic" works have multiple themes: most works so labeled have additional themes in the second subject group. Only on occasion (for example, in Haydn's String Quartet Op. 50 no. 1) did composers perform the tour de force of writing a complete sonata exposition with just one theme. This is a list of String quartets by Joseph Haydn, including the number they are given in Anthony van Hoboken 's catalogue of his works A more recent example is Edmund Rubbra's 2nd Symphony. Edmund Rubbra ( Charles Edmund Duncan-Rubbra) ( 23 May 1901 &ndash 14 February 1986) was a British composer

The fact that so-called monothematic expositions usually have additional themes is used by Charles Rosen to illustrate his theory that the Classical sonata form's crucial element is some sort of dramatisation of the arrival of the dominant. Using a new theme was a very common way to achieve this, but other resources such as changes in texture, salient cadences and so on were also accepted practice.

Modulation to keys other than the dominant

The key of the second subject may be something other than the dominant or the relative major (or relative minor). About halfway through his career, Beethoven began to experiment with other tonal relationships between the tonic and the second subject group. Most commonly, both in Beethoven and other composers, the mediant or submediant, rather than the dominant, is used for the second group. In Music, the mediant is the third degree of the Diatonic scale, being the "middle" note of the tonic In Music, the submediant is the sixth tonal degree of the Diatonic scale. For instance, the first movement of the "Waldstein" sonata, in C major, modulates to the mediant E major, while the opening movement of the "Hammerklavier" sonata, in B-flat major, modulates to the submediant G major. The Piano Sonata No 21 in C major, Op53 nicknamed Waldstein, is considered to be one of Beethoven 's greatest piano sonatas, as See also C minor, C-sharp minor C major (often just C or key of C) is a musical Major scale based on C Also see E minor, or E-flat major. E major is a Major scale based on E with the pitches E, Ludwig van Beethoven 's Piano Sonata No 29 in B flat major, opus 106, known as the Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier, or more simply as the Also see B-flat minor, or B major. B major or B-flat major is a Major scale based on B-flat G major (or the key of G) is a Major scale based on G with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and

Expositions with more than two key areas

Main article: Three-key exposition

The exposition need not only have two key areas. The three-key exposition is a particular kind of exposition used in Sonata form. Some composers, most notably Schubert, composed sonata forms with three or more key areas. The first movement of Schubert's Quartet in D minor, D. 810 ("Death and the Maiden"), for example, has three separate key and thematic areas, in D minor, F major, and A minor. The String Quartet in D minor was written in 1824 by Franz Schubert, just after the composer became aware of his ruined health ^[6]

Modulations within the first subject group

The first subject group need not be entirely in the tonic key. In the more complex sonata expositions there can be brief modulations to fairly remote keys, followed by reassertion of the tonic. For example, Mozart's String Quintet in C, K. 515, visits C minor, D-flat major, and D major, before finally moving to the dominant major (G major), and many works by Schubert and later composers utilized even further harmonic convolutions. The String Quintet No 3 in C major, K 515 is written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the first subject group of Schubert's Piano Sonata in B flat, D. 960, for example, the theme is presented three times, in B flat major, in G flat major, and then again in B flat major. The second subject group is even more wide ranging. It begins in F sharp minor, moves into A major, then through B flat major to F major. ^[7]

Sonata form in concerti

An important variant on traditional sonata-allegro form is found in the first movement of the Classical concerto. The term Concerto (plural concertos or concerti) usually refers to a three part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an Orchestra Here, the sonata-allegro's customary 'repeated exposition' is replaced by two different but related sections: the 'tutti exposition' and the 'solo exposition'. In the tutti exposition, the orchestra alone will normally expose all or most of the movement's themes, but without any modulation to a second subject key; this modulation will be reserved for the following solo exposition, in which the soloist will feature. This arrangement can be seen as a combination of the structural and expressive possibilities of sonata form with elements of classical concerto's ritornello form predecessor. In Baroque music, ritornello was the word for a recurring passage for Orchestra in the first or final movement of a Solo concerto or Aria

A structural feature which the special textural situation of the concerto makes possible is the 'ownership' of certain themes or materials by the solo intrument; such materials will thus not be exposed until the 'solo' exposition. Mozart was fond of deploying his themes in this way.

Towards the end of the recapitulation of a concerto movement in sonata form, there is usually a cadenza for the soloist alone. In Music, a cadenza (Italian for cadence) is generically an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists usually This has an improvisatory character (it may or may not actually be improvised), and generally serves to prolong the harmonic tension on a dominant-quality chord before the orchestra ends the piece in the tonic.

The history of sonata form

Main article: History of sonata form

The term sonata is first found in the 17th century, when instrumental music had just begun to separate itself from vocal music. This article treats the history of Sonata form in the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras Originally the term (derived from the Italian word suonare, to sound on instrument) meant a piece for playing, distinguished from cantata, a piece for singing. A cantata (derived from the Italian word 'cantare' meaning 'to sing' is a vocal composition with an instrumental Accompaniment and often At this time the term implies a binary form, usually AABB with some aspects of three part forms.

The classical era established the norms of structuring first movements and the standard layouts of multi-movement works. There was a period of a wide variety of layouts and formal structures within first movements which gradually became expected norms of composition. The practice of Haydn and Mozart, as well as other notable composers, became increasingly influential on a generation which sought to exploit the possibilities offered by the forms which Haydn and Mozart had established in their works. Gradually theory on the layout of the first movement became more and more focused on understanding the practice of Haydn, Mozart and, later, Beethoven. Their works were studied, patterns and exceptions to those patterns identified, and the boundaries of acceptable or usual practice set by the understanding of their works. The sonata form as it is described is strongly identified with the norms of the Classical period in music. The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as 1750 to 1810 Even before it had been described the form had become central to music making, absorbing or altering other formal schemas for works.

The Romantic era in music was to accept the centrality of this practice, codify the form explicitly and make instrumental music in this form central to concert and chamber composition and practice, particularly for works which were meant to be regarded as "serious" works of music. Romantic Music is a Musicological term referring to a particular period theory compositional practice and canon in European music history from about 1815 to 1910 Various controversies in the 19th century would center on exactly what the implications of "development" and sonata practice actually meant, and what the role of the classical masters was in music. Ironically, at the same time that the form was being codified (by the likes of Czerny and so forth), the composers of the day - both major and minor masters - were writing works that flagrantly violated some of the principles of the codified form. Carl Czerny (sometimes Karl; February 21 1791 &ndash July 15 1857 was an Austrian Pianist, Composer and teacher

It has continued to be influential through the subsequent history of classical music through to the modern period. The 20th century brought a wealth of scholarship that sought to found the theory of the sonata form on basic tonal laws. The 20th century would see a continued expansion of acceptable practice, leading to the formulation of ideas that there existed a "sonata principle" or "sonata idea" which unified works of the type, even if they did not explicitly mean the demands of the normative description.

Sonata form and other musical forms

Sonata form shares characteristics with both binary form and ternary form. This article is about the musical form See Binary numeral system for the mathematical term Ternary form is a structuring mechanism of a piece of music Along with several other Musical forms ternary form can also be applied to dance choreography In terms of key relationships, it is very like binary form, with a first half moving from the home key to the dominant and the second half moving back again (this is why sonata form is sometimes known as compound binary form); in other ways it is very like ternary form, being divided into three sections, the first (exposition) of a particular character, the second (development) in contrast to it, the third section (recapitulation) the same as the first.

The early binary sonatas (more than 500) by Domenico Scarlatti provide excellent examples of the transition from binary to sonata-allegro form. Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (October 26 1685 – July 23 1757 was a Neapolitan Composer who spent much of his life in Spain and Portugal. Among the many sonatas are numerous examples of the true sonata form being crafted into place. During the 18th century many other composers like Scarlatti were discovering this same musical form by experimenting at their keyboards harmonically and melodically.

Theory of sonata form

The sonata form is a guide to composers as to the schematic for their works, for interpreters to understand the grammar and meaning of a work, and for listeners to understand the significance of musical events. A host of musical details are determined by the harmonic meaning of a particular note, chord or phrase. The sonata form, because it describes the shape and hierarchy of a movement, tells performers what to emphasize and how to shape phrases of music. Its theory begins with the description, in the 1700s, of schematics for works, and was codified in the early 19th century. This codified form is still used in the pedagogy of the sonata form.

In the 20th century, emphasis moved from the study of themes and keys to how harmony changed through the course of a work and the importance of cadences and transitions in establishing a sense of "closeness" and "distance in a sonata". The work of Heinrich Schenker and his ideas about "foreground", "middleground" and "background" became enormously influential in the teaching of composition and interpretation. Heinrich Schenker ( June 19, 1868 - January 13, 1935) was a Music theorist best known for his approach to Musical analysis Schenker believed that inevitability was the key hallmark of a successful composer, and that therefore works in sonata form should demonstrate an inevitable logic.

In the simplest example, playing of a cadence should be in relationship to the importance of that cadence in the overall form of the work. In Western Musical theory, a harmonic cadence (Latin cadentia, "a falling" is a formula of two chords that conclude More important cadences are emphasized by pauses, dynamics, sustaining and so on. False or deceptive cadences are given some of the characteristics of a real cadence, and then this impression is undercut by going forward more quickly. For this reason changes in performance practice bring changes to the understanding of the relative importance of various aspects of the sonata form. In the Classical era, the importance of sections and cadences and underlying harmonic progressions gives way to an emphasis on themes. The clarity of strongly differentiated major and minor sections gives way to a more equivocal sense of key and mode. These changes produce changes in performance practice: when sections are clear, then there is less need to emphasize the points of articulation. When they are less clear, greater importance is placed on varying the tempo during the course of the music to give "shape" to the music.

Over the last half-century a critical tradition of examining scores, autographs, annotations and the historical record has changed, sometimes subtly, occasionally dramatically, the way the sonata form is viewed. It has led to changes in how works are edited; for example, the phrasing of Beethoven's piano works has undergone a shift to longer and longer phrases which are not always in step with the cadences and other formal markers of the sections of the underlying form. Compare the recordings of Schnabel, from the beginning of modern recording, with those of Barenboim and then Pratt shows a distinct shift in how the structure of the sonata form is presented to the listener over time. Artur Schnabel ( April 17, 1882 &ndash August 15, 1951) was an Austrian classical Pianist, who also composed Daniel Barenboim (born November 15, 1942) is a pianist and conductor. Awadagin Pratt is a concert pianist born March 6 1966 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

For composers, the sonata form is like the plot of a play or movie script, describing when the crucial plot points are, and the kinds of material that should be used to connect them into a coherent and orderly whole. At different times the sonata form has been taken to be quite rigid, and at other times a freer interpretation has been generally considered permissible.

In the theory of sonata form it is often asserted that other movements stand in relation to the sonata-allegro form, either, per Charles Rosen that they are really "sonata forms", plural - or as Edward T. Cone asserts, that the sonata-allegro is the ideal to which other movement structures "aspire". Edward Toner Cone (May 4 1917-October 23 2004 was an American music theorist and composer This is particularly seen to be the case with other movement forms which commonly occur in works thought of as sonatas. As a sign of this the word "sonata" is sometimes prepended to the name of the form, particularly in the case of the "sonata-rondo" form. Slow movements, in particular, are seen as being similar to sonata-allegro form, with differences in phrasing and less emphasis on the development.

Conversely Schoenberg and other theorists who used his ideas as a point of departure see the theme and variations as having an underlying role in the construction of formal music, calling the process continuing variation, and argue from this idea that the sonata-allegro form is a means of structuring the continuing variation process. Arnold Schoenberg ( pronounced ˈʃøːnbɛrk (13 September 1874 &ndash 13 July 1951 was an Austrian and later American Composer, associated with Variation form Variation form include Ground bass, Passacaglia, Chaconne, and theme and variations Theorists of this school include Erwin Ratz and William E. Erwin Ratz (1898 - 1973 was an Austrian Musicologist and music theorist. Caplin.

Subsections of works are sometimes analyzed as being in sonata form, particularly single movement works, such as the Konzertstück in F minor of Carl Maria von Weber. Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber ( 18 December 1786 in Eutin, Holstein, Germany - 5 June 1826 in London

From the 1950s onwards, Hans Keller developed a 'two-dimensional' method of analysis which explicitly considered form and structure from the point of view of listener expectations. Hans Keller (1919-1985 was an Austrian -born British Musician and Writer who made significant contributions to Musicology and In his work, Sonata-Allegro was a well-implied 'background form' against whose various detailed features composers could compose their individual 'foregounds'; the 'meaningful contradiction' of expected background by unexpectable foreground was seen as generating the expressive content. In Keller's writings this model is applied in detail to Schoenberg's 12-note works as well as the classical tonal repertoire. Recently two other musicologists, James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, have presented (without reference to Keller) an analysis of the Sonata-Allegro form and the Sonata Cycle in terms of genre expectations, and categorized both the sonata-allegro movement and the sonata cycle by the compositional choices made to respect or depart from conventions. James Hepokoski earned his Masters and PhD in Music History from Harvard University and has been professor at the Yale Department of Music since 1999 Their study focuses on the normative period of sonata practice, namely the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and their close contemporaries, projecting this practice forward to development of the sonata-allegro form into the 19th and 20th centuries.

Musical criticism and sonata form

Main article: Criticism and sonata form

Owing to its centrality to classical music, the sonata form has been a topic of interest to musical critics ever since its origin. This article describes the history of musical criticism as applied to Sonata form. Contentious opinions include those of prominent critics including Eduard Hanslick, who praised the form for its intelligibility; Charles Rosen; and Susan McClary, who criticized the form as reinforcing misogyny. Eduard Hanslick ( September 11, 1825 – August 6, 1904) was a Bohemian Austrian writer on music Charles Rosen (born May 5 1927 is an American Pianist and music theorist. Susan McClary (born 2 October 1946) is a Musicologist considered to be a significant figure in the " New Musicology " Misogyny (mɪˈsɒdʒɪni is hatred (or contemptof women Misogyny is parallel to Misandry — the hatred of men

Notes

References

• William E. Caplin A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-514399-X
• James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-514640-9
• William S. Newman Sonata in the Classic Era (A History of the Sonata Idea) ISBN 0-393-00623-9
• William S. James Hepokoski earned his Masters and PhD in Music History from Harvard University and has been professor at the Yale Department of Music since 1999 William Stein Newman ( April 6, 1912 &ndash April 27, 2000) was an American Musicologist. Newman The sonata in the Baroque Era ISBN 0-393-00622-0
• William S. Newman The sonata in the Classic Era ISBN 0-393-95286-X
• William S. Newman The sonata since Beethoven ISBN 0-393-95290-8
• William S. Newman Beethoven on Beethoven: Playing His Piano Music His Way ISBN 0-393-30719-0
• Charles Rosen (1988) Sonata Forms, 2nd ed. Charles Rosen (born May 5 1927 is an American Pianist and music theorist. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-02658-2
• Charles Rosen (1997) The Classical Style. 2nd ed. . New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-31712-9
• Charles Rosen The Romantic Generation ISBN 0-674-77934-7
• Arnold Schoenberg Harmonielehre
• Heinrich Schenker Free Composition
• Felix Salzer Structural Hearing Volumes I & II
• Stanley Sadie ed, The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. Arnold Schoenberg ( pronounced ˈʃøːnbɛrk (13 September 1874 &ndash 13 July 1951 was an Austrian and later American Composer, associated with Heinrich Schenker ( June 19, 1868 - January 13, 1935) was a Music theorist best known for his approach to Musical analysis Felix Salzer ( June 13, 1904 &ndash August 12, 1986) was an Austrian American music theorist, musicologist Stanley Sadie CBE ( October 30 1930 - March 21 2005) was a leading British musicologist, music critic and editor

See also

• Closely related key
• Sonata rondo form

In Music, a closely related key is one sharing many common tones with the original key Sonata rondo form was a form of musical organization often used during the Classical music era.

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