Dictionary of Music - Birding America

388 sonata-allegro formcello and harpsichord). —trio sonata An outgrowthof the seventeenth-century solo sonata thatbecame one of the most important instrumentalforms of the baroque (1600–1750). It had threevoice-parts performed by four instruments (celloand harpsichord both played the bass; see TRIOSONATA). —unaccompanied sonata During thebaroque, a composition for a single instrument. Themost notable examples are Bach’s unaccompaniedsonatas for violin and cello. Although similar workswere written for keyboard instruments, they wererarely called sonata before 1700, the only notableexceptions being keyboard sonatas by Johann Kuhnaupublished in the 1690s. —sonata da camera(sô nä′tä dä käm′er ä) Italian: “chamber sonata.” Aterm originally identifying the place of performance(“chamber” or “court”) of a piece, but in the courseof the seventeenth century coming to mean a TRIOSONATA in the form of a kind of suite consisting ofan introduction and three to four dances. The numberof movements varied, and their order was notfixed. Such works were written by Corelli, Torelli,Veracini, and others. —sonata da chiesa (sô nä′tädä kyā′zä) Italian: “church sonata.” A term originallyidentifying the place of performance of a piece(“church”) but in the course of the seventeenthcentury coming to mean a TRIO SONATA in fourmovements, the first and third slow, the second andfourth fast.sonata-allegro formsonata da camerasonata da chiesaSee under SONATA FORM.See under SONATA.See under SONATA.sonata form A name for the structure commonlyused, since about 1750, for the first movement ofsonatas, symphonies, overtures, and chamber works(trios, quartets, quintets, and so on). For this reasonit is also known as first-movement form andsonata-allegro form (the first movement of a sonatais nearly always marked “Allegro”). However, thesame structure has been used for the final movementof sonatas, and occasionally even for the slow (second)movement. In any case, it should not be confusedwith the overall form of the classic sonata,which consists (usually) of three or four movements;see SONATA, def. 1.A movement or section in sonata form consistsof three subsections, called exposition, development,and recapitulation. In addition, there may bean introduction preceding the exposition, and a coda(end) following the recapitulation. The expositionpresents two different, contrasting themes, linked bya series of modulations (key changes) called thebridge or transition. The music moves from theme1, in the tonic (main key of the composition), totheme 2, in the dominant (or, if the main key is aminor key, in the relative key); following theme 2there may be a brief closing theme. For the first centuryor so of the classic sonata’s existence(1760–1860), the exposition was generally repeated(performed twice in succession). The developmentconsists of an expansion of any or all of the themespresented in the exposition. Whereas the expositionpresents the themes in a fairly direct way, the developmentoften pulls them to pieces, using fragmentsof melody in various combinations, rapid changes inharmony, contrapuntal treatment, and any otherdevice the composer chooses. Somehow, however,there must be a return to the tonic key, required forthe recapitulation. The recapitulation, in the tonickey, repeats the themes of the exposition in a slightlymodified way but in the same order, first theme 1and then theme 2. Theme 2, however, which will endthe recapitulation, must now appear in the tonic key;therefore the bridge material (making the keychange from tonic to dominant in the exposition) iseliminated or greatly shortened. At the end of therecapitulation there may be a coda, ranging from aconcluding phrase of a few measures to what mayvirtually amount to another development section.Over the years composers have used this generalframework with varying degrees of freedom, andthere have been exceptions to just about every ruleof the form. Nevertheless, sonata form has provedflexible enough to survive individual modifications,and twentieth-century composers such as Stravinsky,Hindemith, Bloch, and Bartók, while makingtheir own contributions, still managed to use sonataform so that it remained recognizable as such.Sonata form grew out of the rounded binaryform used for the dance movements of the baroque