IMSLP Forums

I am starting to get very interested in sonata form and would like to start a discussion on it. Below are my thoughts.

I particularly like how Brahms writes in sonata form; he makes the changing over from sections less transparent than some of the other composers who proceded him. One of the things that I love Brahms for is his climatic sections right before the recapitulation. He writes a beautiful example of this in the first movements of his two String Quintets. There are composers like Tchaikovsky (please don't get me wrong, I do love Tchaikovsky), who write shallow developments which do not provide fresher thematic material. I also have noticed that Max Bruch also falls into this "spell" (eg. last movement of Symphony No. 3 and first movement of String Octet). Despite this "spell" they are cast under, they are both very talented at writing codas. One very interesting example of sonata form I found was the first movement of Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 in G major. The composer beginnings with providing an elegiac introduction in G minor right before the bird call played by the flute in the parallel major key which provides the first subject where the sonata-allegro form starts taking shape. Dvorak writes out another introduction in the same tempo as the exposition in his Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major earlier in his career, but it does not provide a contrasting mood as the one in his Eighth Symphony. Despite Max Reger's abstract melodic writing, he seems to execute sonata form well and clear-cut in the first movement of Clarinet Quintet in A major. This provides evidence to how attractive this particularly template of writing music is to composers of all generations throughout the classical and romantic period. Despite its popularity though, the Liszt-Wagner school refrained from writing in this form throughout many of their works.

Some thoughts:

I presume that you have read Sonata Forms by Rosen; also, Tovey's essay (it's in the 1911 Britannica, so that's online) on Sonata form. If not, you might want to.

You may have noticed a while ago my Featured Score of the Piano Sonatas of Brahms and Liszt in their first editions. These are the last 4 piano sonatas by any sort of major composer before the revival starting with Skrjabin and Dukas. Piano Sonatas are a great place to start talking about sonata form, because it always illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of composers.

Schubert's Wanderer-Fantasie is well-known for its breathtaking, enormous sonata form structure. The piece works both as a 4-movement sonata (Allegro, Variations/Slow Movement, Scherzo, Fugal Finale), and as a work in sonata form (Exposition, Development, Modified Recapitulation, Fugal Coda). Liszt famously expanded this in the B-minor Sonata, which is more reminiscent of sonata form than anything else; the first "movement" is a quasi-sonata form exposition, and the process of development is continuous more than anything else - try too to find a definite recapitulation. Brahms, by comparison, is simply expanding the sonata form of Beethoven.

Some of Schumann's weakest writing is in his sonata movements. Often Schumann's highly original ideas simply do not work with the continuously repetitive nature of sonata form. His piano sonatas and, even more so, symphonies often sound perfunctory because of this - obviously, he could not give up the form. The early Romantics, in fact, always had formal struggles; Schumann often did an imperfect job of making an interesting recapitulation, Berlioz has hazy forms in several works (e.g. 1st Movement of Symphonie Fantastique), even Mendelssohn struggles to make sonata form interesting. One thing that came out of this that was to show up later in Brahms and Reger became a near-signature of Mendelssohn's: the dying away of motion before the recapitulation. Whereas a classical movement in sonata form will transition seamlessly from development to recapitulation (or in the case of Gluck's Overture from Orfeo ed Euridice, far too abruptly), Mendelssohn, as in the "Italian" Symphony, lets everything drop before bringing back the first theme. This is an interesting development especially when considering the invention by Beethoven of the moment of Recapitulation (with a capital R) as the Climax of the movement.


You speak of developments; Sibelius can write in sonata form, but is frankly opposed to development. The Violin Concerto, for instance, is a work of little in the way of development (although much more than several other works, which may explain its popularity), and this may contribute to some of the shapelessness of the first movement. Brahms uses his development as a structural force, as Schoenberg was to do, and his forms are therefore tighter and more coherent. Development is inevitably tied up with the form (and that may explain why the 6th has Tchaikovsky's most musically successful sonata form movement).

A nice example of this anti-development is in the symphonies of Carl Nielsen (who I'm sure you know through the Clarinet Concerto . Nielsen appears to get gradually more frustrated with sonata form until he gives up with it, and his developments get a highly personal touch through this. A work like the 5th Symphony is modernist not only because of its not-exactly-daring harmonies, but because of its idiosyncratic approach to form. Similarly, the sonata forms of Shostakovich have their own formal designs which perhaps should not be shoved into the slot for sonata forms (e.g. Symphony No. 4, first movement).


The final and most interesting development of sonata form occurs when it is imposed upon programmatic works like symphonic poems. Liszt's Les Préludes is generally agreed upon to have a "loose" sonata structure. I would actually argue that it has a very tight sonata structure, but with extra episodes inserted in strategic places (and indeed, they themselves could form a Rossini overture-sonata-form with no development). When composers abandon formal considerations in favor of extramusical factors, the piece does lose something. One of my favorite pieces, Dvořák's The Golden Spinning Wheel is often considered to be flabby and overlong because of its triple repitition of the same passage in the middle. Had Dvořák kept in mind necessities of form, then perhaps this work would be more recognized.

Another symphonic poem (and the last topic of this rather bloated post): Skrjabin's Promethée. This is perhaps the most startling example of a composer's bending the sonata form to fit his own needs. Skrjabin here combines the romantic continuous development, sonata form, the prometheus legend and his own theosophy to make for an enormous movement full of every sort of difficulty. The fact that Skrjabin would follow a very strict sonata form structure in one of the most original works ever written is striking; he abandons in this work boundaries between symphony, concerto, and symphonic poem, between the perception of sights and sounds, between consonance and dissonance. This work is a fitting farewell to the romantic era with its huge orchestra, virtuosic writing, personal program, and of course, sonata form.

Sorry for the long post...got carried away.

It is interesting that you brought up Carl Nielsen. I have noticed that in the Clarinet Concerto, the first section (before the Poco adagio) is like one entire movement in sonata form. Everything before the cadenza is the exposition, the candenza being the development, and the material following the cadenza serving as the recapitulation.

That being stolen from the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

I particularly like when sonata form takes place in a slow movement. It adds more drive to the music rather than being static like some slow movements can be. Josef Rheinberger writes a good example of this in the second movement of his String Quintet in A minor. He even adds harmonizing textures from the development to the recapitulation which provides a greater feeling of retrospect from the exposition.

perlnerd666 wrote:Some of Schumann's weakest writing is in his sonata movements. Often Schumann's highly original ideas simply do not work with the continuously repetitive nature of sonata form. His piano sonatas and, even more so, symphonies often sound perfunctory because of this - obviously, he could not give up the form.

I noticed that in his String Quartet No. 3 in A major, the recapitulation rather interestingly starts with second theme rather than the first, probably due to the repetitive use of that perfect fifth motif which is part of the first theme that he uses throughout the introduction, exposition, and development.