CLASSICAL - Sonata Form

Sonata Form

The SYMPHONY developed during the CLASSICAL era, and has been a common form of orchestral music ever since. During the CLASSICAL era, it was usually a four movement structure, with the first movement written in SONATA FORM, as in this example. In this video, we hear the EXPOSITION and part of the development section.

The first SUBJECT is heard at the start of the clip, followed by a BRIDGE/TRANSITION passage (starting at 0.24) that modulates to the RELATIVE MAJOR for the second SUBJECT (starting 0.50 - notice the use of DESCENDING CHROMATIC figures here).

The development section starts at 1.59: in this case, the first SUBJECT  is used sequentially to pass through a number of different keys before it is treated CONTRAPUNTALLY (2.11), and then the DESCENDING SEMITONE with which it starts is used to again MODULATE through different keys (2.33).

SONATA FORM was also the normal structure of the first movements of SONATAS during this era. In the example below, the whole of the EXPOSITION is repeated before the development section is heard (the repeat starts at 2.12). 

The different parts of the form are heard as follows: first SUBJECT at the start; BRIDGE/TRANSITION passage, MODULATING to the dominant at 0.47; Second SUBJECT at 0.53; development section starts at 4.06; recapitulation starts at 5.04, with the second SUBJECT - this time in the tonic key - at 5.49.

A couple of other things to notice: the BROKEN DIMINISHED CHORD at 4.27-4.30; the dominant PEDAL, starting at 5.04, which leads into the recapitulation; the short CODA, based on a tonic PEDAL (starting at 6.57) that ends the piece.