Sonata form
Perhaps the most extensive contemporary description of the sonata-form type of movement may have been given by the theorist Heinrich Christoph Koch in 1793: like earlier German theorists and unlike many of the descriptions of the form we are used to today, he defined it in terms of the movement's plan of modulation and principal cadences, without saying a great deal about the treatment of themes.
It was originally promulgated by Anton Reicha in Traité de haute composition musicale in 1826, by Adolf Bernhard Marx in Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition in 1845, and by Carl Czerny in 1848.
Although the descriptions on this page could be considered an adequate analysis of many first-movement structures, there are enough variations that theorists such as Charles Rosen have felt them to warrant the plural in 'sonata forms'.
Often, this occurs as late as the coda, as in Mozart's String Quintet in D major, K. 593, Haydn's "Drumroll" Symphony, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.
It will usually consist of one or more themes from the exposition altered and on occasion juxtaposed and may include new material or themes—though exactly what is acceptable practice is a point of contention.
In a few cases, usually in late Classical and early Romantic concertos, the development section consists of or ends with another exposition, often in the relative minor of the tonic key.
If a theme from the second subject group has been elaborated at length in the development in a resolving key such as the tonic major or minor or the subdominant, it may also be omitted from the recapitulation.
Examples include the opening movements of Mozart's piano sonata in C minor, K. 457, and Haydn's String Quartet in G major, Op.
Codas, when present, vary considerably in length, but like introductions are not generally part of the "argument" of the work in the Classical era.
Indeed, Beethoven's extended codas often serve the purpose of further development of thematic material and resolution of ideas left unresolved earlier in the movement.
5 or Schumann's Piano Concerto, or rarely, to restore the home key after an off-tonic recapitulation, such as in the first movements of Brahms's Clarinet Quintet and Dvořák's Symphony No.
Haydn in particular was fond of using the opening theme, often in a truncated or otherwise altered form, to announce the move to the dominant, as in the first movement of his Sonata Hob.
The fact that so-called monothematic expositions usually have additional themes is used by Charles Rosen to illustrate his theory that the Classical sonata form's crucial element is some sort of dramatization of the arrival of the dominant.
[citation needed] Using a new theme was a very common way to achieve this, but other resources such as changes in texture, salient cadences and so on were also accepted practice.
Sometimes this effect is also used for false reprises in the "wrong key" that are soon followed by the actual recapitulation in the tonic, such as in the first movement of Haydn's quartet Op.
A special case is the recapitulation that begins in the tonic minor, for example in the slow movement of Haydn's quartet Op.
Such melodic adjustment is common in minor-key sonata forms, when the mode of the second subject needs to be changed, for example in the opening movement of Mozart's wind serenade K. 388.
Occasionally, especially in some Romantic works, the sonata form extends only as far as the end of the exposition, at which point the piece transitions directly into the next movement instead of a development section.
Another example is Fritz Seitz's Violin Concertos for students, where such a truncated sonata form is used ostensibly to cut down on the first movements' length.
Some Classical slow movements involve a different sort of truncation, in which the development section is replaced altogether by a short retransition.
Another instance of a truncated sonata form has the development section completely omitted altogether, and the recapitulation immediately follows the exposition (even without a retransitional passage).
Prototypically the 'tutti exposition' does not feature the soloist (except, in early classical works, in a 'continuo' role), and does not contain the decisive sonata-exposition modulation to the secondary key.
Only when the 'solo exposition' is under way does the solo instrument assert itself and participate in the move to (classically) the dominant or relative major.
This has an improvisatory character (it may or may not actually be improvised), and, in general, serves to prolong the harmonic tension on a dominant-quality chord before the orchestra ends the piece in the tonic.
Various controversies in the 19th century would center on exactly what the implications of "development" and sonata practice actually meant, and what the role of the Classical masters was in music.
The 20th century brought a wealth of scholarship that sought to found the theory of the sonata form on basic tonal laws.
In the 20th century, emphasis moved from the study of themes and keys to how harmony changed through the course of a work and the importance of cadences and transitions in establishing a sense of "closeness" and "distance" in a sonata.
The work of Heinrich Schenker and his ideas about "foreground", "middleground", and "background" became enormously influential in the teaching of composition and interpretation.
Over the last half-century, a critical tradition of examining scores, autographs, annotations, and the historical record has changed, sometimes subtly, on occasion dramatically, the way the sonata form is viewed.
From the 1950s onward, Hans Keller developed a 'two-dimensional' method of analysis that explicitly considered form and structure from the point of view of listener expectations.
