The Basics

Following the first three introductory chapters, chapter 4 lays out the essentials of Sonata Theory’s understanding of the guidelines within which classical sonatas work. This is the chapter that summarizes the approach’s technical details and terminology: Sonata Theory in a nutshell. It begins with an overview of the five sonata types and notes that the “Type 3” or the “textbook” sonata, with exposition, development, and recapitulation, is by far the most common. It proceeds to move through each of the action zones of a typical “two-part exposition”—primary theme (P), transition (TR and medial caesura), secondary theme (S), and closing zone (C), noting the various commonly encountered, “default” options within each zone, and how each zone is vectored toward a generically expected cadence. The several issues involved with determining where secondary themes begin and end—within Sonata Theory’s view of things—are given special attention. Along with way it introduces some concepts new to this handbook, such as that of the “narrative” grouping of S (concluding cadentially with the EEC) and the thematic portions of any C that might follow: “the S/C thematic complex.” Following a close study of expositional practice, the chapter moves on, similarly, to describe standard features of developments, recapitulations, and codas. It ends with a few remarks on the Type 1 sonata and its expanded variant, which will be revisited in more detail at the end of chapter 11 and in chapter 12.