Sonata Allegro Essay

Sonata Allegro form was a development of the classical era. It represents a more open form than many of the earlier Baroque forms such as fugues, rondeau form, etc. While there is a formula that can be applied, there was not a rigid, formal concept for the form. Rather it evolved over the classical era and beyond.

Haydn was one of the early exponents of this form. It was named "Sonata Allegro," because the final Allegro movement of a Sonata was most often created in this form. It is by no means restricted to this general rule, however. In fact there are no hard and fast rules in writing a Sonata Allegro form. However many trends can be attributed to the form, generally, Sonata Allegro form can simplistically be described as an "ABA'" form.

The B section, or "Development" follows the Exposition. It usually uses some material from the Exposition, but in a more or less radically altered way. In the A' section or "Recapitulation," the A material returns relatively intact. Each of these sections has a relatively complex internal pattern as follows: The Exposition states the main thematic elements and has its own internal form as follows: 1) A Primary key section which contains: a. the Principal or Primary Theme which is a phrase or more in length and establishes home key,