SONATA FORM MUSIC THEORY | SONATA ALLEGRO FORM

SONATA FORM MUSIC THEORY | SONATA ALLEGRO FORM

 Today we're going to look at the multi-movement forms of the Classical period. We have some pretty large works which are new like the symphony and some of these large works have a form built into them in the first movement and that form is called the sonata-allegro form.

SONATA-ALLEGRO FORM

 Now this is kind of confusing, it's possible that we could have a sonata form which are instrumental movements, multi-movement works and the first movement of them would also be called the Sonata Allegro.

Sonata is a term that the Italians used long ago to make people understand that it wasn't a cantata which is sung and sis ta nada in Italian means really sound but it's just a form or a type of program that means sound so these are instrumental programs and instrumental works so the Sonata Allegro is a single movement form, but it's going to be the first movement of some of those larger forms got that ok. So a Sonata Allegro is a variation of the ABA form so an ABA form is an example.

 For example twinkle twinkle little star ok you sing one line of twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder where you are and so on then the B part would be up above the sky world so high that way and then it comes back and does twinkle twinkle again that's just an ABA form probably one of our simple stock so we're going to use that form to make a form that will be the first movement of the classical symphony.

MOVEMENTS OF SONATA FORM

 The Sonata chamber music and the concerto. So let's look at some of these works that we're going to add it as the first movement. A classical symphony is new to the clerk. the Classical period it's a larger kestrel work in heightens time may be 20 minutes but by the time we get into the Romantic period we're talking about maybe 90 minutes so it's a large work. Usually in four movements and if the movements are fast slow and they add a dance as the third movement and then another fast movement the sonata is for one or two instruments can be a pretty big work or it can be a smaller work and again it's a multi movement work chamber music was very popular in the Classical period it's written

for a small group of instruments generally, a classical string quartet  is two violins a viola and a cello this is another multi-movement work so let's talk about this form this is an auto leg reform which is going to be part of all of these bigger works okay so now the Sonata Allegro  has it’s single moment ABA right so the parts of the Sonata Allegro .we saw these back in the Baroque with the fugue an exposition where you expose the theme in this case, we're going to have two theme sand they're usually going to be contrasting the development is much bigger and every kid recapitulation is a little more structured.

 Here's a little diagram if you remember in the Baroque we had just the subject and that was that was your melody in this case we're going to have two subjects and in between do you see this here that's a little bridge passage you need a bridge because you're going to change keys so you will begin in one you're when the subject enters in one key and you're going to have to find a way to easily make the second subject in another  key  so you aren't going to go from one key and go into something else easily so you have to what they call modulate to get you from one subject to the next the entrance of it and that's called the bridge and then it sort of closes up sometimes they even add a little closing section to tell you that that's the end the development is much larger and it's more structured again you have to have again you do like you did with the  fugue you know you'll turn it upside down do it backward change keys but it's just longer and larger and the recap is very much like the recap in the Baroque period except it is much longer and it has a closing and you have two subjects that have to come back and at the end you have a coda and code in Italian means tail

SONATA FORM

and the Classical period was usually used Dakota and it's a fancy ending you will think that it's going to stop maybe with this closing and it's tacked on to the end called a code of meaning tail so let's go here ok we have contrasting moods and the exposition is so important for you to hear those two themes that it's repeated two times and them are exactly the same the development and again these could be broken into all those parts that we talked about in the fugue they're called motives now or motifs and  you can change the texture make it polyphonic you can change the rhythm change the mood and again do all the things that you did in the Baroque the recapitulation the themes will turn comeback one at a time and they'll be the full you'll hear the full theme and then the work concludes so we're going to use it in the first movement of the symphony we're going to use it in the first movement of the chamber music the sonata and even in the classical concerto.

So that in total is our Sonata allegro form 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.