Chapter 15

THE SONATA-FORM

OR

FIRST-MOVEMENT

FORM

___________________________________________________________________________ A $|$ B $|$ A\’{ } Exposition $|$ Development $|$ Recapitulation __________________________$|$___________________________$|$____________________ $|$ $|$ Introduction (optional) $|$ Free treatment and $|$ First Theme, First Theme $|$ expansion, especially $|$ connecting passage Modulatory bridge-passage $|$ modulatory and rhythmic, $|$ leading to Second Theme $|$ of the themes already $|$ Second Theme (often Closing Theme $|$ presented $|$ in home-key, but (Duality of $|$ Sometimes new material $|$ not always) Key-relationship) $|$ introduced $|$ Closing Theme $|$ (Plurality of Key) $|$ Coda $|$ $|$ (Special stress $|$ $|$ laid on the main $|$ $|$ tonality. Unity of $|$ $|$ Key) __________________________$|$___________________________$|$____________________

For actual musical examples it seems best to begin with the
works of Haydn. This exclusion of Philip Emmanuel Bach is
not meant to minimize what we owe him for his preliminary
efforts in formulating the tripartite Sonata structure, with its
two themes and its Development portion. Haydn is on record as
saying that it was his study of six Sonatas of Emmanuel Bach
which laid the foundations for his own instrumental style. But
on the whole, the compositions of Emmanuel Bach are of inter-
est rather from a historical point of view than from one purely
artistic. The object of this book, furthermore, is not to give
a complete account of the evolution[103] of the Sonata-Form;
but, accepting the existence of standard works which employ
this form, to enable the student to gain a more complete appre-
ciation of those works. P.E. Bach wrote in the so-called “galant
style"[104] of the period which has, for our modern ears, too
much embellishment and too many meaningless, rhapsodic pas-
sages. He made a sincere effort to invent pure instrumental