4.6.3: 4.6.3 Sonata Form (the first movement of a Symphony or String Quartet)

Sonata Form.

The term sonata comes from the Latin word sonare means sound, as in to create sound. It is contrasted from cantare, which means sing, or to sing.

This is important because the term sonata in the world of music first began to be used to describe any instrumental music. Recall from Chapter 1.3 that the majority of music was sung in the time periods from Ancient Greece up to the Baroque period. Composers did not regularly compose purely instrumental music until the Baroque period (it happened, but it wasn't very common).

Through the Renaissance period into the early Baroque period, the term sonata was used to describe any type of purely instrumental music. This was in contrast with cantatas, which often referred to music that was sung.

Beginning in the Baroque period, composers began writing Instrumental Sonatas---that is, a multi-movement work for an instrument and (sometimes) a keyboard accompanying them. For example, Baroque composer JS Bach wrote many sonatas for solo violin, which all consist of multiple movements in different forms and styles.

In the following era, Classical Era composers continued to write instrumental sonatas (you'll see more on instrumental sonatas as a musical genre in Chapter 5).

As time went on within the Classical Era, composers developed a specific form called Sonata Form. This became the most common type of form used for single-movement works as well as the form used for the 1st movement of a multi-movement work. It was also sometimes used as the form of the last movement as well!

In other words, the term sonata can refer to a multi-movement instrumental sonata: "I'm playing Beethoven's first piano sonata in F minor tonight." This means "I'm playing one of Beethoven's multi-movement piano works tonight."

But sonata FORM is a specific form, usually reserved for the first movement of any multi-movement work --- including symphonies, string quartets, and instrumental sonatas.

This means that the first movement of Beethoven's 4-movement piano sonata is in sonata form. The first movement of Mozart's symphonies are all in Sonata form. The same is true for the majority of every symphony, string quartet, and instrumental sonata:

"I'm playing Beethoven's first piano sonata in F minor tonight. The first movement is in sonata form!"

Annoying, right? Correct. But here in the music world, we reuse the same terminology for different things all the time.

This page explores sonata form, as the form found within the first movement of a multi-movement work. The handout below demonstrates how the music is organized. Don't be intimidated by its complexity --- the video lecture will describe this form using Mozart's famous G minor Symphony as an example.