<<<<<<< back to Musical Key  Structure These notes will examine only two the five forms of musical structure:  the sectional form of the song and the sonata form with emphasis on the sonata-allegero movement. Sectional Form - the song   When describing the structure of music, critics use letters to name sections of music.  The simplest form of a song is the strophic form.  Each verse is sung to the same melody.  Its form is represented as A A A A A ….. for as many verses as are necessary.  Many old folk ballads employ the strophic form.  In the 1970’s, Canadian singer songwriter Gordon Lightfoot had great success with his ballad The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.  That composition has a strophic form.  Most hip-hop music is strophic in nature. The most enduring and successful song form is the rondo.  In this structure the main theme (that is the A part) is repeated after every thematic divergence (that would be a B or C or D part).  A very typical form would be A B A.  That is recognizable as “verse – chorus – verse”.  A very great amount of popular music modifies the form to repeat the A theme and produce this structure: A B A.  An example of this structure is Over The Rainbow from the movie The Wizard of Oz. The B part of an A B A rondo is often referred to as the chorus.  It exhibits distinctively new musical thought and development from the A part and, at least in the song form, it is typically at least eight measures long.  The lyrical purpose of the chorus is to restate the central idea of the song.  So, it often makes use of the title of the song or a memorable melodic phrase that reinforces the central message of the work. Songs may contain a “refrain”.  This is usually a two-line lyric phrase at the end of the A part.  An example is the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby:  “All the lonely people. Where do they all come from? All the lonely people.  Where do they all belong?”  The purpose of a refrain is to resolve the lyrics, melody and harmony of the A part.  It can be thought of as a kind of extended cadence even though the A part may have a clear ending.  Some songs contain a musical “bridge”.  The purpose of the bridge is to serve as a musical diversion before the return of the final chorus.  The bridge is generally only half the length of a verse.  Bridges follow the second appearance of the chorus.  The form is then A B A B C B in which C is the bridge. Composers sometimes write a short passage called a “pre-chorus” or “climb” that leads from the A part into the B part.  The lyric is usually no more than a couplet.  The effect of the climb is something like an airplane pulling out of part A (the verse) and rising up into part B (the chorus).  The great songwriting teacher, Sheila Davis puts it this way:  “A climb serves as aural foreplay to extend the song’s emotional tension by delaying the arrival of its climactic section.” The rhythm and blues song You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ is an example.

Sonata Form This form of music has dominated art music for roughly two hundred years.  When music critics and musicians use the word “sonata” it may mean an entire work of three or four distinct, and sometimes, lengthy movements.  But “sonata” also may mean the structure of the first movement of an entire sonata.  Sometimes you will hear the term “sonata allegro.”  When used in this way, the term always refers to the structure of a first movement of a sonata.  This dual meaning of the word may sound terribly confusing at first, but the context should make the meaning clear. All symphonies are sonatas written for full orchestras.  A concerto is a sonata written for a solo instrument. (Listen to Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto KV 622 as an example.)   A string quartet is a sonata written for four stringed instruments.  Even overtures to operas are typically in sonata form.  So gaining an understanding of the sonata is vital in appreciating art music. Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach is credited with being one of the first composers to write in the sonata form.  He was one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s twenty children and a great composer in his own right.  Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are widely credited with establishing the classical boundaries of the sonata form of the symphony.  Haydn takes the larger share of the credit, possibly because although he was a contemporary of Mozart he outlived him by many years.  This is not to take anything away from Mozart’s beautiful symphonic works.  But Haydn had more time to perfect the form.  It was Beethoven, however, who put soul and energy into the sonata form.  More than any composer before or since, Beethoven changed the boundaries of music.

The sonata form follows this general pattern:  Sonata Form Movement Tempo Musical Structure 1st  fast - allegro sonata-allegro form 2nd  slow  - andante or  adagio  rondo or theme and variation 3rd moderate (dance pace)-  allegro minute or scherzo 4th very fast  -  allegro presto  extended rondo or sonata-allegro form   If the sonata is only three movements, the 3rd movement in the list above is eliminated and the finale, or 4th movement, becomes the 3rd movement. During a live performance of a symphony, the orchestra stops playing when it completes a movement.  The conductor rests and musicians turn pages.  There upon follows a chorus of coughing, sneezing, throat clearing and rustling in the audience.  But no one claps.  This is a matter of courtesy to both listeners and musicians.  Applause would tear the musical fabric the composer has attempted to weave.  The sections of the sonata stand on their own merits, but they come together to create the entire piece and that should be larger in effect than all of the individual movements.  Clapping would destroy the totality of the composition. Such genteel decorum is not the case in opera.  Audiences applaud whenever they are of a mind to do so.  People may shout “Bravo!!!” for male performers and “Brava!!!” for female performers.  Opera-goers also boo if they disapprove of the performance.  Opera may have an upscale reputation and a high-ticket price, but the patrons behave quite emotionally.  On to Sonata Allegro Form >>>>>>>

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