Two-movement layouts also occurred and Haydn used these as late as the 1790s. There
was also the possibility in the early classical period of using four movements with a
dance movement inserted before the slow movement as in Haydn’s piano sonatas nos. 6
and 8.
Of the works that Haydn labelled ‘piano sonata’, ‘divertimento’ or ‘partita’ in Hob XIV,
seven are in two movements, 35 are in three movements and three are in four movements,
and there are several in three or four movements the authenticity of which is doubtful.
Composers such as Boccherini published sonatas for piano and obbligato instrument with
an optional third movement, in Boccherini’s case 28 cello sonatas.
Mozart’s piano sonatas were usually in three movements.
Increasingly, instrumental works were laid out in four, not three, movements, a practice
seen first in string quartets and symphonies, and reaching the sonata proper in the early
sonatas of Beethoven. Two and three movement sonatas continued to be written
throughout the classical period.
The four movement layout was by this point standard for the string quartet and
overwhelmingly the most common for the symphony. The usual order of the first
movements was:
! Allegro - in sonata form, complete with exposition, development and
recapitulation.! Slow movement - an andante, adagio or largo.! Dance movement - a minuet and trio or, later, a scherzo and trio.! Finale - faster in tempo, often in a sonata-rondo form.The four movement layout layout came to be considered the standard for a sonata and
works without four movements, or with more than four, were increasingly felt to be
exceptions and were labelled as having movements omitted or as having extra
movements. When movements appeared out of this order they would be described as
‘reversed’, for example in Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata or Ninth Symphony.
Beethoven’s output of 32 piano sonatas, his sonatas for piano and violin and for piano
and cello form a vital part of the body of music called sonatas.
Sonata cycle
In reference to a performance or recording, a ‘sonata cycle’ means the complete
performance of a set of sonatas by a single composer. A ‘Beethoven sonata cycle’ would
therefore involve a performer playing all Beethoven’s piano sonatas.