NOTE: to hear recordings of the selections, go to http://naxosmusiclibrary.com, log in with the SFCM login name and password, and then select the Playlist "SonataExpositions" in order to access the selections in this lecture.
I. Character of the Main Theme(s)
A. Overall characteristics
1. Tends to be triadic in nature, or at least to outline the tonic triad. Tendency towards “etched” style.
2. Tends to contain all of the motives to be used in the composition (for those composers who thought motivically)
3. Tends to have clearly-etched rhythms (which ties in with the previous point about motives).
B. Examples from Mozart piano sonatas:
II. Techniques of Modulation
A. Half-cadence on V/V, with a clear break in texture.
Requires strong reference to V/V/V, otherwise it won’t work.
1. Mozart: Pf Sonata in B-Flat Major K. 333, 1-23 (score)
In the example, B-naturals begin to appear quite constantly—I’ve marked them with arrows, which introduce the necessary harmony.
2. Haydn: String Quartet Op. 50, No. 2 in C Major, 1-43 (score)
This one is really something: he begins by introducing the necessary accidental (C#) right near the beginning, heard as an accented passing tone in measure 3. He introduces the dominant by measure 12, but then returns back to the tonic at measure 19—thus conditioning us for the move that’s to happen, beginning at measure 30 and continuing onwards until measure 43. I have analyzed measures 9 – 19 as “1Ta and 1Tb”—in other words, placing a transitional theme between two statements of a P theme.
B. Half-cadence on V, following by a new theme on the dominant (bifocal close)
1. Haydn Pf Sonata H XVI:6 III—the simplest of uses
1. Mozart: Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro: here we have the standard bifocal close in one of its typical venus, an opera overture. (Incidentally, Charles Rosen has said that Haydn might have considered this technique to be ‘beneath him’, but he used it in his earlier works.) (analytic sketch)
2. Haydn: Symphony No. 1 in D Major, II. .
In the recapitulation, Haydn does, indeed, employ the material following the bifocal close transposed into the tonic without any other substantial change. However, his response to the bifocal-close problem is to bring the very arrival at the recapitulation itself into question and therefore set up an interesting pair of possibilities to the listener.
Either the recapitulation begins in measure 61 with the first really clear statement of expository thematic material in the tonic, in which case the movement is a binary sonata form. If that is the case, then the minor-key statement of the theme in measure 50 is a false recapitulation, followed by a full retransition at 57, then into the recapitulation at measure 61.
But it is possible that the recapitulation begins at measure 50, with T1 in the tonic minor. In this case, we have a standard sonata form, albeit one with an unusual opening for the recapitulation.
There is no reason to prove conclusively that one or the other scenario is the correct answer. In fact, it is the unsureness itself which gives the movement a much greater strength than it would have. To compare the effect, consider the following recording of the development-recapitulation in which some judicious computerized cut-and-paste has re-created a recapitulation that follows the path of least resistance—i.e., it opens with 1-10 as in the exposition, then moves directly to measure 61. Thus the bifocal close at measure 10 is followed by a restatement of all of the expository material in the tonic key. Then compare that to Haydn’s actual composition; the difference is dramatic. (Score of modified version available).
Modified version: score
Original version: score
3. It’s also possible to write these sort of things very badly. Consider Sammartini’s Symphony in G: in which the move to the second theme (which begins on the dominant) is nothing short of jarring.
A. Sudden move to V/vi (i.e., dominant of relative minor), and a sequence following:
1. Haydn: Symphony 92 (“
2. Haydn: Symphony 82 (“L’Ours”) 1 – 70 (analytic sketch)
B. Other harmonic motions are possible—for example, a sudden V/ii to ii; V to I; V/V to V. (This has a certain sequential feel about it.)
C. Once in a while, the second section might initiate the modulation as well as confirm it.
This is the case in Haydn String Quartet Op. 50 No. 1, in which there is a clear ending of the first section at measure 27, and then a new section beginning at measure 28 which really begins the modulation to the dominant. (score)
Incidentally, this particular quartet has had a lot of attention—the structure and harmonic writing in the first movement is challenging, and fascinating.
D. Three-Key Exposition
Key intervening between tonic and dominant—not particularly part of Haydn or Mozart’s style; introduced primarily in Beethoven.
1. Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 10 No. 3 17 – 53 (analytic sketch)
2. Brahms Symphony No. 2: from D Major, to F# Minor (although it has strong A Major overtones), to A Major and a series of second themes (one of which is the same as the F# Minor theme, but in unambiguous A Major instead.) It's worth comparing this treatment with the Haydn String Quartet Op. 76, No. 3, first movement. One of the signature features of this movement is the way the secondary theme (first heard in the "extra" key of F# Minor) is repeated at the end of the exposition as a closing theme. That's quite similar to Haydn's treatment, in which the K theme proper comes "too early", and is then heard again at the end of the movement. (analytic sketches comparing the two).
I. Character of the Secondary Theme(s)
A. Contrasting theme to the main theme
Typically, the contrasting second theme doesn’t have to carry as much harmonic weight as the primary theme; its key has been established by the preceding modulation. Given that it confirms, rather than establishes, a key, it is often much less emphatic about the tonic triad than the main theme, and can in fact be quite venturesome harmonically.
B. Same theme as the main theme
Many older textbooks seem to be unaware that the second theme may well be a restatement of the main theme, this time in the dominant key. That’s one of Haydn’s favored practices, which is sometimes referred to as monothematic sonata form—although it’s really nothing of the sort, given that there is invariably some kind of contrasting cadential theme, not to mention more than one secondary theme (of which only the first is the same as the main theme). It is not limited to Haydn, however: Mozart also made splendid use of it: here’s the last movement of Symphony 39 in E-Flat Major:
C. Use of the dominant minor instead of major
During the evolution of sonata form, it was common for the secondary theme to be stated first in the dominant minor. After a period of time, the dominant major won out—although typically the dominant minor might follow the major key. This is especially typical of Haydn’s early symphonies, but you will find it in many other composers in the 1750s and 1760s. Here’s an example by Georg Matthias Monn, an influential composer in
II. Character of the Cadential Theme
Cadential themes rarely pose much in the way of difficulty. They’re generally closing-off patterns which are triadic and cadential in nature. Very often they aren’t really ‘themes’ at all, but just figures.
III. Assignment: look at at least three expositions and determine what’s going on in the broad sense—main theme, modulation, secondary theme(s), closing themes. Look at the first movement of any three of the following works:
A. Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Op 2 No 1, Op 2 No 2, Op 2 No 3, Op 7, Op 10 No 1, Op 10 No 2, Op 13 (skip the slow introduction), Op 22, Op 28.
B. Beethoven: String Quartets Op 18
C. Haydn: String Quartets Op 55 No 1, Op 55 No 3, Op 64 No 1, Op 64 No 4
D. Mozart: Piano Sonatas K 309, 311, 310, 330, 332, 333, 457, 533, 545, 547a.
E. Brahms: Violin Sonata Op 78, Violin Sonata Op 100, Violin Sonata Op 108, Cello Sonata Op 38, Cello Sonata Op 99.