Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century SonataElements of Sonata Theory is a comprehensive, richly detailed rethinking of the basic principles of sonata form in the decades around 1800. This foundational study draws upon the joint strengths of current music history and music theory to outline a new, up-to-date paradigm for understanding the compositional choices found in the instrumental works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries: sonatas, chamber music, symphonies, overtures, and concertos. In so doing, it also lays out the indispensable groundwork for anyone wishing to confront the later adaptations and deformations of these basic structures in the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries.Combining insightful music analysis, contemporary genre theory, and provocative hermeneutic turns, the book brims over with original ideas, bold and fresh ways of awakening the potential meanings within a familiar musical repertory. Sonata Theory grasps individual compositions-and each of the individual moments within them-as creative dialogues with an implicit conceptual background of flexible, ever-changing historical norms and patterns. These norms may be recreated as constellations "compositional defaults," any of which, however, may be stretched, strained, or overridden altogether for individualized structural or expressive purposes. This book maps out the terrain of that conceptual background, against which what actually happens-or does not happen-in any given piece may be assessed and measured.The Elements guides the reader through the standard (and less-than-standard) formatting possibilities within each compositional space in sonata form, while also emphasizing the fundamental role played by processes of large-scale circularity, or "rotation," in the crucially important ordering of musical modules over an entire movement. The book also illuminates new ways of understanding codas and introductions, of confronting the generating processes of minor-mode sonatas, and of grasping the arcs of multimovement cycles as wholes. Its final chapters provide individual studies of alternative sonata types, including "binary" sonata structures, sonata-rondos, and the "first-movement form" of Mozart's concertos. |
Contents
Contexts | 3 |
Sonata Form as a Whole Foundational Considerations | 14 |
The Medial Caesura and the TwoPart Exposition | 23 |
The Continuous Exposition | 51 |
The Primary Theme P | 65 |
The Transition TR | 93 |
The Secondary Theme S and Essential Expositional Closure EEC Initial Considerations | 117 |
SComplications EEC Deferral and Apparent Double Medial Caesuras TMB | 150 |
Sonata Types and the Type 1 Sonata | 343 |
The Type 2 Sonata | 353 |
Rondos and the Type 4 Sonata | 388 |
The Type 5 Sonata Fundamentals | 430 |
The Type 5 Sonata Mozarts Concertos R1 The Opening Ritornello | 469 |
The Type 5 Sonata Mozarts Concertos Solo and Larger Expositions Solo 1 + Ritornello 2 | 496 |
The Type 5 Sonata Mozarts Concertos Development and Recapitulation From Solo 2 through Ritornello 4 | 563 |
Appendix 1 Some Grounding Principles of Sonata Theory | 603 |
The Closing Zone C | 180 |
The Development Developmental Space | 195 |
The Recapitulation Recapitulatory Space Recapitulatory Rotation | 231 |
NonNormative Openings of the Recapitulatory Rotation Alternatives and Deformations | 255 |
Parageneric Spaces Coda and Introduction | 281 |
Sonata Form in Minor Keys | 306 |
The Three and FourMovement Sonata Cycle | 318 |
Rotation and Deformation | 611 |
| 623 | |
| 633 | |
| 639 | |
| 649 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
appear bars Beethoven’s begins binary brief cadence cadential caesura century chapter Classical close coda common complete composer compositional concept concluding considered continuation deformation developmental discussion dominant E-flat earlier early effect episode especially example expanded expected exposition final follows forte function hand happens Haydn idea implications individual initial instance interpretation larger later leads less major material measures ment minor mode module move movement Mozart’s normally normative occurs once onset opening option orchestra original pattern perhaps Piano Concerto Piano Sonata piece possible practice preceding present principle procedure produce proper Quartet recapitulation recapitulatory refer regard repeat rhetorical ritornello rondo rotation seems sense situation solo soloist sometimes sonata form sounded space structure suggest Symphony term thematic theme Theory tion tonal tonic Type typically usually varied zone