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#1
03-12-2006, 08:44 PM
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| Sonata development section I've been studying sonata form recently and I understand the basics. However, one thing I still don't quite get is the sonata development section. From what I've managed to find on it (which tends to be rather vague), it involves a great deal of modulation and instability. The problem is, I haven't been able to find any good demonstrations of just how this works in practice.  |
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#2
03-12-2006, 08:55 PM
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| references The two books by Charles Rose, "Sonata Forms" and "The Classical Style" talk about this in detail. It's possible to write a piece (sonatina) without development, just a couple of themes in differing keys, then the themes in the same key. The point is to see the themes (or sets of themes or single theme) as setting up a tonal dissonance; then the recap resolves the long scale dissonance. I the sonata, the development delays the resolution. Anything (almost) is permissible. Fugal parts, variations, themes broken into motifs and recombined, distant modulations. It's a showy part in some ways. The end of the development then leads to the big resolution of the recap. |
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#3
03-12-2006, 09:56 PM
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| What ttw said.  I have written two 1. movement sonatas for piano solo, and both are rhapsodic in form. N° 1 has just a little development of the side theme, and the rest of the development part is only loosely based upon the general ideas presented. The main and side themes are very contrasting in manner and rhythm in the exposition, while the main theme cnahges a lot to approach the side theme in rhythm in the recap. In N° 2, I have inserted an extra theme before the side theme, and this is used in a variation to introduce the recap, which doesn’t have the extra theme. One can interpret it as A-B-C in the exposition, and B-A-C in the recap, making the extra theme a part of the recap. Both analysises are equally valid.  So, the main thing is: Do whatever you want, just don’t be boring, or lazy composing. Regards |
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#4
06-12-2006, 04:09 PM
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| I would like to add a bit. The point of the sonata style conflict resolution. In the exposition, there must not only be contrast between sections, but also tension. The recap resolves this tension. (Scarlatti's sonatinas exemplfy how to do this.) The development section serves to enhance the tension, delay the resolution of tension, and even start to resolve the tension. Of course, some of this may be spread out over other parts of the piece. (Lots of pieces have a "second development" after the recap starts.) In the "classical period," much of this tension is key-related. |
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#5
08-12-2006, 04:28 PM
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| Just listen to the development section of the 1st Movement of Mozart 40th. Nuff said. |
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#6
10-12-2006, 12:32 AM
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| Now I'm interested. I wrote part of a sonata form movement. Now I have to complete the development. It's not as easy as I had hoped. I can't delete the development because the themes are not suitable for a sonatina type piece. Maybe I'll finally learn how to use the sonata principle. |
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#7
16-12-2006, 09:45 PM
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Umm. How about looking at one of the thousands of Sonatas form movements out there Shiva? Go through Mozart's or Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and listen to the Development Sections. In Schirmer Editions, the Development section is usually marked in the music. Steve |
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#8
16-12-2006, 09:50 PM
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I see a lot of posts here abour "reading" or "studying" this and that. We're talking about music here people. It is first and foremost about music. One of the biggest reason that people or students don't "get" the things they read about music is that they have no actual practical listening and study of the music in question (I'm not saying this is ttw or Shiva per se, but I'm directing this comment to readers who might be facing similar problems). Hmmm. I think I'll go back and look at Shiva's original question. Hold tight... Steve |
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#9
16-12-2006, 10:11 PM
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You know the basics: Exposition Development Recapitulation Sonata Form REALLY varies depending on the time period and even within a single composer's output. Sonatinas typically have a very small development section (not completely absent necessarily as some have mentioned). There are also "sonta form without development" or even sonta forms without second themes, or as someone else mentioned, with three themes or even an "extra" development area. The variety is amazing. Ok, what a Development section is, is basically a point of contrast after the introduction of the Themes in the Expo. Its basic purpose (beside providing contrast) is to "set us up" for the return of the original material in the Recap. It does this any number of ways: First of all, it can simply be a contrast in texture, or new material, and the absence of any indication of the original Themes makes their reappearance after the Dev stronger. Secondly, it can produce tonal instability - usually through modulations. This can be as simiple as having material in an unrelated key, or, modulating through the circle of fifths back to the home key for the Recap, to having all kinds of crazy modulations so that the feeling of any "home" key is completely obscured - again this makes the return to the tonal stability of the recap that much stronger. Thirdly, development sections will often "play with" themes, ideas, or motives from the Expo. This can be seen as a "taking apart" or "breaking down" of music and presenting it with different emphases (like focusing on just one part of a theme to draw attention to it). This becomes very fragmentary in nature, and in a sense, it causes us to "long for" the "completeness" that we heard in the original themes. Again, this sets us up so that when we do hear the original theme return, it's like hearing a complete thought after having only beed doing a word association exercise before. How you accomplish this as a composer is an entirely different matter. For instance, in some pieces, you may not need a development. Don't write one. Someone posted that they "couldn't" write a sonatina because their Themes were not suitable. No offense, but so what? Write a Sonata form without development, or write a different form altogether. Most people don't understand the function of the re-transistion, and they don't know how other things relate within the context of the whole of the form, so still, just following the pattern does not a good movement make! That's why I say you should listen to many, play them if you can, look at the score and try to figure out what's going on. Figure out what works and why. I have to say in closing that I think a little too much emphasis is placed on Sonata Form. A lot of what we're talking about here is psychological - tension, release, instability, etc. I'm sure that the effect of the Development (or more importantly the Recap) had a HUGE effect on listeners in the past. But listeners today who've never heard a Sonata will just listen through and not even notice these things we're discussing, and still enjoy the work. So in order for you to write an effective sonata form (for our other poster as well), you need to be in the mindset of the composers who wrote them. So you do need to go back and listen to the thousands of example I mentioned before before you can even begin to fully comprehend the effects that people discuss in textbooks. Hope that helps a little. Steve |
