ABA for Minuet (A) & Trio (B), where trio has reduced instrumentation and contrast
Fast, lively, fun: Rondo, sonata-allegro, or theme & variations
Sonata–allegro pattern (or form, or procedure, or conventions)
Originally a rounded binary form with two repeated halves:
||: A B :|| ||: C A B :||
Later some repeats omitted in performance or notation
Haydn Symphony 99: I, no repeat for second half
BUT: Beethoven Symphony 5: Beethoven circles the repeat for the first half in red pencil
Sonata becomes basically ternary form by mid-19th century
Basic sonata pattern
Hybrid synthesis of contemporary practice and writing (e.g., H. C. Koch) and later theorizing (still ongoing)
SLOW INTRODUCTION (optional)
Set up the character of the piece, motives, musical “problems”
EXPOSITION
A: 1st theme group
Establish home key, main melodic ideas
Stable
Transition
Unstable, moving to dominant of new key (V/V in major, V/III in minor)
Turn the motor on
B: 2nd theme group
New key (V in major, III in minor)
Contrasting character in new key (except sometimes Haydn just repeats 1st TG)
Stable but we haven’t had a strong cadence in the new key yet
Closing theme group
Solidify the new key ending with a big PAC (=“medial caesura”)
Repeat: Establishes that we went somewhere else harmonically by the sudden shift back to main tonic, familiarizes audience with the journey taken thus far
DEVELOPMENT AND RECAPITULATION
Development
“Hello and welcome to the middle of the film”: Something that tells us we’re going somewhere new; often a recall of the opening but with a twist (e.g., minor)
Unstable, modulating, fragmenting and recombining melodic/motivic ideas
Many pieces go to a “Far Out Point”, place of maximum weirdness, distance from home
After that heading toward a dominant pedal in the original tonic
Recapitulation
Similar to exposition but all in one key
1st TG, Retransition (transition that doesn’t actually modulate), 2nd TG in tonic, Closing in tonic
Repeat (if applicable)
Sometimes followed by a coda, or extended in various ways
Concertos
Concertos after mid-18C use a double-exposition sonata form: first exposition is orchestra only and stays in tonic, second features soloist
Improvised cadenzas, ornaments, underscore
Often still remnants of ritornello patterns of Baroque concertos
Slow movements like a da capo aria for the soloist
“Sonata, what do you want from me?”
More complex instrumental form without words challenged listeners
Draw on musical associations common in opera, different characters, conflict
Hear form as a plot: introduction, problem, imbroglio (climactic plot confusion), resolution
Pretend it’s a person: the characteristic symphony
What sort of character is portrayed? Heroic, stormy, angry, jovial, etc.?
Psychological portrait or narrative
Connect it with the composer’s biography (after Beethoven)
(low priority or for insiders) Listen for the musical development of motives, keys, musical problems and processes
E.g., a conflict between two keys; a pattern where every time a certain motive enters something weird happens; a “problem note” introduced at the beginning that keeps recurring
Not a listening strategy of the time (18C)
Roman numeral analysis
Sonata form diagrams
Research papers
Listening for manifestations of Germanic/white/Western greatness