Sonata Form and the Problem of Second‐Theme Beginnings

Abstract

Although the second theme (ST) group is a crucial landmark in Classical sonata form, where it is usually articulated with great clarity, in many instances its beginning cannot be so easily discerned, especially in Beethoven. The problem is that no matter how powerful a single rule may be, none by itself can identify all those locations which may be considered an ST beginning. This article therefore proposes that an ST beginning depends on the presence of several musical signals, each of which contributes to its expression. These include: (1) tonic harmony of the new key, (2) beginning and end functions in the manner of one of Caplin's theme types, (3) preparation by a phrase‐ending chord, (4) the textural gap of Hepokoski and Darcy's medial caesura (MC) and, at the ST beginning itself, (5) a change in texture, (6) a change in dynamic and (7) characteristic melodic material. A sonata deformation in any of the first three signals sets off a teleological ST process, which attempts to compensate for the deficiencies of the signal. By contrast, the deformation of an absent MC gap can produce an integrated ST or, if combined with an absent preparatory chord, a spontaneous ST.

The Mendelssohn of the Eighteenth Century: Tonal Growth, Functional Fluidity and Formal Complication in the First Movement of the D Major Quartet, Op. 44 No. 1

“…In this regard, all three works confirm what Richards (2013a, pp. 3–4) has termed ‘ ST process’, in which secondary themes or entire secondary theme groups ‘may be engaged in a dynamic process which seeks to compensate for weaknesses’ in how the secondary theme has been set up.…”