Sonata rondo form
Encyclopedia
Sonata rondo form was a form of musical organization often used during the Classical music era. As the name implies, it is a blend of sonata form
and rondo form
.
Rondo form
involves the repeated use of a theme, set in the tonic
key, with episodes, each involving a new theme, intervening among the repetitions, like this:
A B A C A D A ...
Sometimes the A section could change slightly, especially at the very last time it comes back.
Usually the episodes (B, C, D, etc.) are in a different key from the tonic.
Sonata form
is usually in 3 sections. Expositon, is mainly showing the composer's ideas and the main themes. It normally ends in the relative major/minor, even though sometimes it could be in the dominant or subdominant. The Expositon could also have an introduction. The 2nd section is the Development section, this develops the expositon, by inversions, different keys..... The 3rd section is the Recapitulation, this comes back to the main theme in the tonic, in the end instead of going to a different key it goes to the tonic. At the end there could sometimes be a coda in the tonic. [A B']exp [C"]dev [A B]recap
where a single prime (') means "in the dominant" and a double prime (") means "in remote keys".
Occasionally, sonata form includes an "episodic development," which uses mostly new thematic material. Two examples are the first movements of Mozart
's piano sonata K. 330
and Beethoven's
piano sonata Op. 14, no. 1
. The episodic development is often the kind of development that is used in sonata rondo form, to which we now turn.
The simplest kind of sonata rondo form is a sonata form that repeats the opening material in the tonic as the beginning of the development section.
[A B']exp [A C"]dev [A B]recap
By adding in this extra appearance of A, the form reads off as AB'AC"AB, hence the alternation of A with "other" material that characterizes the rondo. Note that if the development is an episodic development, then C" will be new thematic material—thus increasing the resemblance of sonata rondo form to an actual rondo.
sometimes used a variant type of sonata rondo form in which the themes of the recapitulation are rearranged: the opening bars reappear quite late, after most of the music of the exposition has been recapitulated, but before the final sequence of themes ("codetta") that rounds off the section. Thus:
[A B' Codetta]exp [A C"]dev [B A Codetta]recap
Mozart's purpose was perhaps to create a sense of variety by not having the main theme return at such regular intervals. He used the form in the finales of his piano quartets and a number of his piano concertos
.
:
[A B']exp [C"]dev [A B]recap [D]coda
This longer version of sonata form has a counterpart in sonata rondo form.
If the coda is arranged to begin with the opening material, then we have yet another instance of A:
[A B']exp [A C"]dev [A B]recap [A D]coda
Thus: AB'AC"ABAD. An example is the last movement of Beethoven's "Pathetique" sonata
, Op. 13.
.
Cuthbert Girdlestone
conjectured in his "Mozart and His Piano Concertos" that the sonata rondo form derives also in part from the dances en rondeau of Jean-Philippe Rameau
, among others, by structural elaboration, possibly an innovation of Mozart's.
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
and rondo form
Rondo
Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
.
Structure
An explanation of sonata rondo form requires first some preliminary coverage of rondo form and sonata form.Rondo form
Rondo
Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
involves the repeated use of a theme, set in the tonic
Tonic (music)
In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...
key, with episodes, each involving a new theme, intervening among the repetitions, like this:
A B A C A D A ...
Sometimes the A section could change slightly, especially at the very last time it comes back.
Usually the episodes (B, C, D, etc.) are in a different key from the tonic.
Sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
is usually in 3 sections. Expositon, is mainly showing the composer's ideas and the main themes. It normally ends in the relative major/minor, even though sometimes it could be in the dominant or subdominant. The Expositon could also have an introduction. The 2nd section is the Development section, this develops the expositon, by inversions, different keys..... The 3rd section is the Recapitulation, this comes back to the main theme in the tonic, in the end instead of going to a different key it goes to the tonic. At the end there could sometimes be a coda in the tonic. [A B']exp [C"]dev [A B]recap
where a single prime (') means "in the dominant" and a double prime (") means "in remote keys".
Occasionally, sonata form includes an "episodic development," which uses mostly new thematic material. Two examples are the first movements of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's piano sonata K. 330
Piano Sonata No. 10 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, K 330 is among one of the three works in the cycle of piano sonatas K.330-332. The sonata was composed in 1783, when Mozart was twenty-seven years old...
and Beethoven's
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
piano sonata Op. 14, no. 1
Piano Sonata No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No. 1, is an early-period work by Ludwig van Beethoven, dedicated to Baroness Josefa von Braun. It was composed in 1798 and transcribed - not arranged - for string quartet by the composer in 1801 , the result containing more quartet-like passagework and...
. The episodic development is often the kind of development that is used in sonata rondo form, to which we now turn.
The simplest kind of sonata rondo form is a sonata form that repeats the opening material in the tonic as the beginning of the development section.
[A B']exp [A C"]dev [A B]recap
By adding in this extra appearance of A, the form reads off as AB'AC"AB, hence the alternation of A with "other" material that characterizes the rondo. Note that if the development is an episodic development, then C" will be new thematic material—thus increasing the resemblance of sonata rondo form to an actual rondo.
The "delayed return" variant in Mozart
MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
sometimes used a variant type of sonata rondo form in which the themes of the recapitulation are rearranged: the opening bars reappear quite late, after most of the music of the exposition has been recapitulated, but before the final sequence of themes ("codetta") that rounds off the section. Thus:
[A B' Codetta]exp [A C"]dev [B A Codetta]recap
Mozart's purpose was perhaps to create a sense of variety by not having the main theme return at such regular intervals. He used the form in the finales of his piano quartets and a number of his piano concertos
Mozart piano concertos
The Mozart piano concertos refer to the 27 concertos for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These works, many of which Mozart composed for himself to play in the Vienna concert series of 1784–86, held a special place for him; indeed, Mozart's father apparently interrupted him...
.
Codas
Often, regular sonata form includes a codaCoda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
:
[A B']exp [C"]dev [A B]recap [D]coda
This longer version of sonata form has a counterpart in sonata rondo form.
If the coda is arranged to begin with the opening material, then we have yet another instance of A:
[A B']exp [A C"]dev [A B]recap [A D]coda
Thus: AB'AC"ABAD. An example is the last movement of Beethoven's "Pathetique" sonata
Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique, was written in 1798 when the composer was 27 years old, and was published in 1799. Beethoven dedicated the work to his friend Prince Karl von Lichnowsky...
, Op. 13.
Sonata rondo form as a variant of rondo form
It is also possible to describe sonata rondo form by starting out with rondo form and describing how it is transformed to be more like sonata form. For this explanation, see rondoRondo
Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
.
Cuthbert Girdlestone
Cuthbert Girdlestone
Cuthbert Morton Girdlestone was a British musicologist and literary scholar. He was educated at Cambridge and the Sorbonne, and thereafter took up the chair in French in Armstrong College, later to be King's College in Newcastle in 1926, a position he held until 1960...
conjectured in his "Mozart and His Piano Concertos" that the sonata rondo form derives also in part from the dances en rondeau of Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
, among others, by structural elaboration, possibly an innovation of Mozart's.
Uses of the sonata rondo form
Sonata rondo form is almost exclusively used in the finales of multi-movement works. It is considered a somewhat relaxed and discursive form. Thus, it is unsuited to an opening movement (typically the musically tightest and most intellectually rigorous movement in a Classical work), and too long for a slow movement (where the slow tempo would make the full sonata-rondo formula impossible to realize in a movement of reasonable length). Here are some movements written in sonata rondo form:- BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Sixth SymphonySymphony No. 6 (Beethoven)Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony , is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, and was completed in 1808...
, last movement - Beethoven, Eighth SymphonySymphony No. 8 (Beethoven)Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1812. Beethoven fondly referred to it as "my little Symphony in F," distinguishing it from his Sixth Symphony, a longer work also in F....
, last movement - HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, "Drumroll" SymphonySymphony No. 103 (Haydn)The Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major, Hoboken 1/103, is the eleventh of the twelve so-called London Symphonies written by Joseph Haydn.This symphony is nicknamed "The Drumroll", after the long roll on the timpani with which it begins....
, last movement - MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488Piano Concerto No. 23 (Mozart)The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major is a musical composition for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was finished, according to Mozart's own catalogue, on March 2, 1786, around the time of the premiere of his opera, The Marriage of Figaro...
, last movement - SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Death and the Maiden QuartetDeath and the Maiden Quartet (Schubert)The String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, known as Death and the Maiden, by Franz Schubert, is one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire. Composed in 1824, after the composer suffered through a serious illness and realized that he was dying, it is Schubert's testament to death...
, last movement - Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K 525Eine kleine NachtmusikThe Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787. The work is more commonly known by the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The German title means "a little serenade", though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as "a little night music"...
, last movement - BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms)The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 by Johannes Brahms is a composition for solo piano with orchestral accompaniment. It is separated by a gap of 22 years from the composer's first piano concerto. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near...
, fourth (last) movement (Allegretto grazioso) - MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn)Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time...
, last movement