SYMPHONY SEMINAR - PREP 4

(F-09)

For Mon. Oct 5

Please read the following essays excerpts from essays about sonata form or forms:

Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms (1980), Chapter 6 (“Sonata forms”), pp. 96-126;

Eugene K. Wolf, “Sonata form” in the New Harvard Dictionary of Music (1986), 799-802;

James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory (2006), Ch. 2 (“Sonata Form as a Whole”), 14-22 and pp. 343-345 (“Five Sonata-Form Types”). You may also want to refer to pp. xxv-xxviii (“Terms and Abbreviations”).

Please listen to and study the scores of the following symphonies

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 59 in A major (Fire Symphony)

Johann Christian Bach: Symphony in Bb Op. 18 No. 2 (Overture to Lucio Silla)

W. A. Mozart: Symphony No. 1 in Eb, K. 16

You’ll find recordings on Naxos (also in the library). Scores are in the library and posted online.

Please prepare answers to two out of these three questions questions:

1. Which movements of the Haydn symphony fit into one or another of Hepokoski and Darcy’s “types”? Are there movements that do not fit well into any type? Explain why not.

2. Which movements of the J.C. Bach symphony fit into one or another of H & D’s “types”? Are there movements that do not fit well? Explain.

3. Which movements of the Mozart symphony fit into one or another of H & D’s “types”? Are there movements that do not fit well? Explain.

And answer both of these questions:

4. Does Rosen’s classification seem more suitable than H & D’s for any of the movements of the two symphonies you discussed? Why?

5. Explain how H & D’s approach differs from Wolf’s more “textbook-y” approach in the Harvard Dictionary.