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Drew Michael Brennan

Sonata Form Paper

Musicianship III

Dr. Young

The most important principal of musical form, or formal type, from the Classical period well into

the 20th

Century. This form is applied to a single movement of a sonata. it does not deal with the entire

Sonata as a whole. I would like to take a moment to explain that sonata form is not strictly used in

Sonatas. There are piano concertos, overture, and symphonies that utilize this compositional technique.

Sonata form consists of three main sections, in a two-tonal structure. Sonata Form is used in the first

mvts. of most sonatas, symphonies, and chamber works (string quartets). The first part is called the

exposition. The second part is comprised of two sections, the development and the recapitulation.

The exposition is divided into two different sub categories, usually referred to as first groupor prime

and second group. The second group is typically in another key, usually the dominant. Both ofthese

groups may have many different ideas. The first or most prominent theme in the first group is typically

called the main theme or first subject. In the second group the most prominent theme is called the

second theme. The developments function is to develop the material from the exposition, while

modulating into one or a few more keys. The last part of the development prepares the recapitulation.

The recapitulation begins with a simultaneous double return, to the main theme and to the tonic. It

then restates most or all of the significant material from the exposition, whereby the second group is

transposed to the tonic.

Let us talk about the Exposition a bit. In the Exposition, if in major, the second group will almost always

be on the dominant. In minor, the second group stands in the relative major and not so much in the

dominant. The first group consists of one or more themes most often in the tonic key. The transition

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between first group and second group is typically a modulation to the dominant. This leads us

successfully to the second group. The second group typically will have ideas and themes extracted from

the first group. However, the material that is restated is in a different rhythmic pattern and or mood.

I would like to turn our attention to the development of the sonata form. Most likely the

development will begin in the same key as the second group of the exposition. The development will

most likely explore different keys and reintroduce the same themes and ideas from the exposition but it

will be modified. It is also known of some composer that in the development new themes are

introduced. The length of the development greatly varies from composer to composer, but it is almost

always unstable in terms of harmony, rhythm, and tonality.

One might find it helpful to initially make a distinction between recapitulation, in the sense of

the entire third section of a sonata-form movement or any large part thereof, and the return of a given

idea or passage, for which reprise can be employed. It is a recapitulation is an altered repeat of the

exposition, and consists of the first group, transition, and second group. Typically the first group is in the

same key as the exposition. The transition is almost like a brief development. The second group is now

in the tonic key. This may involves changes of mode from major to minor or vice versa.