SUNY-Fredonia School of Music

Some Notes on Sonata Forms

Some terms and concepts for review:

Form: refers to both the design and the tonal structure of a piece.

Design: the organization of melody, rhythm, cadences, timbre, texture, and tempo.

Tonal Structure: the harmonic organization of a piece.

Continuous Rounded Binary Form.

	Part One	Part Two
Design:	A	B A'	"Rounded" refers to the design: "A" material from part one returns (as "A'").
Tonal Structure:	||: I (i)--------X :||	||: X--------I (i) :||	"Continuous" refers to the tonal structure: part one ends in a key other than tonic; the harmonic progression of the first part is not complete, and must "continue" into the second part to come to completion.

Sonata Form.

		Exposition	Development	Recapitulation
Design:		PT Tr. ST CT		PT Tr. ST CT
Tonal Structure:	(Major Keys)	||: I-------V/V-----V---------:||	|| X-----------------V7	I------------V7----I----------||
Tonal Structure:	(Minor Keys)	||: i------V/III-----III--------:||	|| X-----------------V7	I------------V7----i-----------||

Abbreviations.

PT = Primary Theme or Primary Key Area, also called First Theme or First Theme Group.

Tr. = Transition.

ST = Secondary Theme or Secondary Key Area, also called Second Theme or Second Theme Group.

CT = Closing Theme or Closing Group, also called Closing Section.