SONATA FORM EXPOSITION

when we hear a piece in Sonata form are essentially listening out for three main sections of music and those are the exposition, the development, and the recapitulation and different things happen in each of those sections and in this post we're going to have a look at this thing called the exposition.

I like to think of this Exposition section a bit right at the start of a Sonata form movement is really setting the scene for what is going to come later we'll definitely get the character of the piece established and we'll also hear most of the main melodic ideas that will be important as the piece unfolds in most announced four movements were actually introduced to two main melodies at the beginning of the piece in the exposition and these melodies have special names they are the first subject some people say the first theme but like what like first subject it just reminds us that this is kind of while it's advanced a bit like the subject of an email and alongside that first subject we have a second subject and the second subject is often contrasting in some way so it'll often be in a different key it almost always be a different key and they'll probably have a different character as well.

FIRST SUBJECT/FIRST THEME

So with the first subject of a sonata-form movement that melody that maybe starts the piece or is introduced quite near the beginning of the music will be dramatic. It might be that the second subject is very lyrical and singing and so composers tend to play their first and second subject off against each other to produce a variety of characters within what is probably going to be quite a long and expansive piece of music how are we introduced to these two subjects melodies what often they are introduced to us in the same kind of way and actually if you listen to quite a few pieces that use Sonata form you get quite used to hearing oh yeah that's the first subject.

I can recognize that and I'll just store that away because it's important to remember and then you expect the second subject to be coming along pretty soon after we've finished hearing the first subject. So our composer will often start with the first subject sometimes there might be a sort of introduction type section that could be some slow music to kind of build our expectations and our excitement but if there is anything like that will tend to start the piece off with our first subject and it'll be a clear melody. You'll probably find it's quite a memorable melody that will come back at other points in the piece.

So the composer wants you to remember that melody after the composer's finished introducing us to this first subject we tend to find that the music will modulate and that's because we need to prepare ourselves to hear the second subject for the first time.

THE SECOND SUBJECT

Now the second subject is normally in a related key to the first subject so imagine if we had a piece where the first subject was in the major we could probably predict that the second subject will be in either the dominant key or the sub-dominant key. Because, that's what tends to happen so we have this second subject that will be in a related key if it's in a minor key often the second subject is in the related major key. If the first subject was in a minor we could probably expect this second subject melody will be in C major.

Now to get us from music that was in a minor to music that is in C major we probably need some kind of connecting passage and we tend to call this the bridge passage. This is some new music that comes on after we've heard the first subject but isn't really the second subject it's just a bridge that helps us to get from the key of the first subject to the key of the second subject

So modulating from the first subject key to the second subject key which is often a related key to the first subject once we get to the end of the second subject we've kind of been introduced to these two important melodies that we're going to hear over the course of the piece and that's quite an important stage to have reached often composers especially in the Classical period choose to actually repeat that whole section all over again just so that we're completely sure that we've got the hang of those two melodies and we'll be able to recognize them when they come back later in the piece.

So now we've set the stage we've been introduced to these melodies and we've got to know them quite well and so the composer is now maybe a little bit freer to go on an experiment and develop some of these ideas a little bit further so that's exactly what we'll find in the next POST of music that's known as the development section

So that in total is our Sonata form exposition and it's one of the most brilliant ways to develop a musical argument which great composers have been using for generations I hope you enjoyed this post and there will definitely be more like this coming up as well as analyses of great pieces of classical and film music so please do subscribe if you want to see more and share this post if you liked it thanks for reading.