The Type 2 Sonata

The Type 2 sonata is a “double-rotational” (or “binary”) sonata: (1) exposition (P TR’ S / C); and (2) developmental space (P and/or TR) plus tonal resolution (S / C). The Type 2 lacks the “double return” of P and the tonic at the onset of other sonata types. For that reason Sonata Theory does not use the term “recapitulation” for Type 2s. This format was widely used in sonatas c. 1740–70, after which its use began to wane sharply, though several examples of it persist throughout the nineteenth century. Because the Type 2 has been the most frequently misunderstood sonata type (sometimes misread through ahistorical claims of a supposed “reversed recapitulation”), this chapter is devoted to building a case for the Type 2 sonata, beginning with the simplest, prototypical examples in early Mozart and then moving through more extended, complex examples from later years, including toward the end, a look at two deformational Type 2s by Mozart: K. 311/i and the Overture to La clemenza di Tito. At its conclusion the chapter lays out an argument on behalf of Sonata Theory’s case for the persistence of the Type 2 and double-rotational sonatas into the nineteenth century (these include both Type 2s and expanded Type 1 sonatas, which under some conditions are almost indistinguishable) and responds to some recent critics of the Type 2 concept for romantic works, along the way presenting an overview of Wagner’s (expanded Type 1) Overture to Tannhäuser, which in this case presents the same structural questions as those of a Type 2 sonata.