Sonata form

Summary

Dominique Pagani contrasts sonata form with the fugue. The fugue develops a single theme, whereas the sonata sets two themes against each other, like the characters of a drama1. One is aggressive and resolute, the other inward and tender, and this second theme did not exist in the fugue2. Their dialectical tension requires a development that resolves the contradiction3. He sees it as the dramatic form that follows the epic and the lyric, an inner conflict in keeping with modernity. Its genius lies in managing the energy produced by contrasts. He distinguishes it from the sonata genre, which refers to a small instrumental ensemble. He gives it two births: a chronological one, with the Mannheim school, and another with Haydn's first masterpieces. Descended from the dance suite, it has three movements: two fast ones frame a slow movement, often melancholy4. In his view, Romanticism subverts it through the lied and cyclic form, and it seems incompatible with jazz.

1. 1#10.4 From Lascaux to modern music, the permanence of the political stakes in aesthetics3 Nov 2021 · 25:13
2. 2Tipsy Beethoven!6 Jul 2022 · 0:45
3. 3#6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven15 Dec 2020 · 1:37:02
4. 4Tipsy Beethoven!6 Jul 2022 · 1:28

Summary produced automatically from 11 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.