Page 144 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

return. Though the recapitulation is not an exact, note-for-note repetition of the exposition, it nonetheless presents the same musical events in the same order. The only change that regularly occurs in this restatement is the rewrit- ing of the transition, or bridge. Because the movement must end in the tonic, the bridge does not modulate to a different key as before, but stays at home in the tonic. Thus, the recapitulation imparts to the listener not only a feeling of return to familiar surroundings but also an increased sense of harmonic stabil- ity. We’ve gone on a great musical (and emotional) journey and are now back home safe and sound.
The following two elements are optional to sonata–allegro form, functioning something akin to a preface and an epilogue.
introduction
About half the mature symphonies of Haydn and Mozart have a brief intro- duction, like a curtain raiser before the real drama begins. Introductions are, without exception, slow and stately, and usually filled with ominous or puzzling chords designed to get the listener wondering what sort of musical excursion he or she is about to take.
coda
As the name coda (Italian for “tail”) indicates, this is a section added to the end of the movement to wrap things up. Like tails, codas can be long or short. Haydn and Mozart wrote relatively short codas in which a motive might simply be re- peated again and again in conjunction with repeating dominant–tonic chords. Beethoven, however, was inclined to compose lengthy codas, sometimes intro- ducing new themes even at the end of the movement. But no matter how long the coda, most will end with a final cadence in which the harmonic motion slows down to just two chords, dominant and tonic, played over and over, as if to say “the end, the end, the end, THE END.” The more these repeat, the greater the feeling of conclusion.
Hearing Sonata–Allegro Form
Why all this attention to sonata–allegro form? First, because it is absolutely central to the core repertoire of Classical music and beyond. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky, and Shostakov- ich all used it. And second, because sonata–allegro form is the most complex and difficult of the classical forms to follow. A sonata–allegro movement tends to be long, lasting anywhere from four minutes in a simple composition from the Classical period, to twenty minutes or more in a full-blown movement of the Romantic era.
How does the listener meet this musical challenge? First, be sure to memorize the diagram of sonata–allegro form given in Figure 8.4. Equal- ly important, think carefully about the four distinctive musical styles found in sonata–allegro form: thematic, transitional, developmental, and caden- tial (ending). Each has a distinctive sound. A thematic passage has a clearly recognizable melody, often a singable tune. The transition is full of motion, with
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