Music Composition DUMmIES

Classical Forms ............................................................................................

Before the Renaissance period, most Western music was composed for reli-

gious purposes or for people to dance to, and because people didn’t always

want to learn a new dance to go along with a new kind of music, the rhythm

and ideas behind folk music stayed pretty constant and unchanging. The con-

cept of form wasn’t really recognized until the height of the classical era —

from around 1700 to 1850 — when composers began actively trying to create

new forms to break convention and to wow the competition and audiences

alike.

Classical music is chock-full of forms. We don’t have room to go into them all

in detail, but here is a look at a few of them.

The sonata ..........................................................................................

The sonata(also called the sonata-allegro form) was the most popular form

used by instrumental composers from the mid 1700s all the way up until the

beginning of the 20th century. The sonata is considered to be the first true

break from the Church music that had earmarked Western music from the

Medieval to the Baroque periods. Ludwig van Beethoven and J. S. Bach are

two of the most popular composers to use this format, with Beethoven having

written literally dozens of pieces of music in sonata style.

Sonatas are based on the song, or ABA, form. The first A is the exposition,

which presents the main theme of the song, as well as two or three other

minor themes. A good example of the sonata form is Beethoven’s Piano

Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, also known as the “Moonlight” Sonata

(Figure 13-3).

The second part, or B part, of a sonata is called the development. The devel-

opment often sounds like it belongs in an entirely different piece of music

altogether—it is usually in a different key and may have a different time

signature than the exposition (Figure 13-4).

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Figure 13-3:

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Beethoven’s

“Moonlight

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starts the

A part.

148 Part III: Harmony and Structure