theTangentSpace

Sonata form

Classical music is significantly more complex than most popular music. One thing that makes pop so accessible is it is very easy to follow the structure — usually an intro, alternating verses and choruses, a bridge, and some kind of outro. Understanding this structure keeps us grounded and makes it easier to appreciate the songwriting, rather than being confused by the changes in the music.

European classical music has more complicated structures, and the sections can be harder to hear. But there is one structure that comes up again and again. In a typical four-movement symphony or concerto, it appears in both movements I and IV. That goes for most of of Haydn’s 100+ symphonies, most of Mozart, most of Beethoven (though he pushed the structure to its limits), and many more. It’s called the sonata form, and understanding the basics makes a whole world of music more accessible.

Sonata form is in three main sections: the exposition, development, and recapitulation. The exposition introduces the key musical ideas of the piece — the themes — and is played through twice. The development section transforms and expands on the ideas in the exposition — this section can be brief or very long. Finally, the recapitulation plays the exposition again, but slightly differently.

There may also be an intro or coda section. The intro is often a whole lot of nothing really — not as memorable or tuneful as a proper theme. Haydn uses them quite a lot, but composers like Mozart and Beethoven often don’t bother. Codas are more common, and act as a kind of grand finale.

The development section is free-form, but the exposition has a pretty rigid structure. So to get our bearings we just need to be able to identify the parts of the exposition. Usually the exposition has:

  • two themes, though there can be more. The first theme is usually the most memorable part of the movement (think the “da-da-da-duhhh!” of Beethoven V). The themes are always in different keys, so they are linked by…
  • a transitional section that changes the key. Often the transition section is identifiable because it has a feeling of fast movement and instability.
  • Finally, there is a codetta section to conclude the exposition.

During the recapitulation, the themes are restated, but this time they are in the same key, and may bring in some of the ideas introduced in the development.

To summarise:

  1. Intro (maybe)
  2. Exposition:
    • Primary theme
    • Transition
    • Secondary theme (different key)
    • Codetta
  3. Exposition repeats
  4. Development section
  5. Recapitulation:
    • Primary theme
    • Transition
    • Secondary theme (same key)
    • Codetta
  6. Coda (often an extension of the codetta).

Overall, you can conceptualise this a little bit like a romance story. At the start we meet our two characters — the themes. Then some stuff happens (development). Finally, our characters are reunited in the recapitulation, and their differences are resolved.

Examples

All are first movements of a four-movement work.

Example 1: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart

YouTube link to recording

  1. No intro — straight into the primary theme
  2. Exposition:
    • Primary theme (0:00)
    • Transition section (0:35)
    • Secondary theme (0:52)
    • Codetta section (1:32)
  3. Exposition repeats (1:41)
  4. Development (3:18) (only 35 seconds!)
  5. Recapitulation:
    • Primary theme (3:53)
    • Transition section (4:24)
    • Secondary theme (4:38)
    • Codetta section (5:19)
  6. Coda (5:33)

Example 2: Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven

YouTube link to recording

Beethoven used the sonata form for the first movement of all his symphonies, but he often innovated with his own twists on the structure — enough to be original, but not incomprehensible to his audiences. I’ve highlighted some in the outline below.

  1. No intro — straight into the primary theme
  2. Exposition:
    • Primary theme (0:00)
    • Transition section (0:32)
    • Secondary theme (0:44)
    • Codetta section (1:03)
  3. Exposition repeats (1:20)
  4. Development (2:40)
  5. Recapitulation:
    • Primary theme (4:00) (this time the theme is interrupted by an unexpected oboe solo)
    • Transition section (4:24)
    • Secondary theme (4:38)
    • Codetta section (5:19)
  6. Coda (5:33) (this is so long it’s more-or-less a secondary development section — classic Beethoven)

Exercise: Haydn symphony 54

YouTube link to recording

This is a short movement, and quite a lot of it is intro. You may need to listen more than once to hear the parts (hence me selecting a short one!). Can you identify the timestamps of the different sections?

As is often the case, hearing the two themes is pretty easy, but idenfying when theme changes to transition or codetta can be a litle ambiguous — don’t worry about it: obviously a smooth passage from one section to the next is intended by the composer! You may disagree where I’ve interpreted those changes to be.

As a final clue, the exposition, development, and recap are each very close to 1 minute long.

  1. Intro — (0:00) It should be obvious when the exposition starts.
  2. Exposition:
    • Primary theme (1:35)
    • Transition section (1:56)
    • Secondary theme (2:16)
    • Codetta section (2:23)
  3. Exposition repeats (2:35)
  4. Development (3:34)
  5. Recapitulation:
    • Primary theme (4:33)
    • Transition section (5:02)
    • Secondary theme (5:25)
    • Codetta section (5:37)
  6. No coda! We just end on the codetta.

References

Most of what I understand of this comes from The Great Courses: How To Listen To And Understand Great Music by Robert Greenberg. I highly recommend this course, which spans the history of Western music, with sonata form at the heart of the course. It helps that the lecturer is very enthusiastic and entertaining. The course is quite expensive to buy on its own, but the audio-only version is available for 1 credit with certain audiobook subscriptions.