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Prelude Listening to Music Today
1 Melody: Musical Line
2 Rhythm and Meter: Musical Time
3 Harmony: Musical Space
4 The Organization of Musical Sounds
5 Musical Texture
6 Musical Form
7 Musical Expression: Tempo and Dynamics
8 Voices and Musical Instrument Families
9 Western Musical Instruments
10 Musical Ensembles
11 Style and Function of Music in Society
12 The Culture of the Middle Ages
13 Medieval Music
14 The Renaissance Spirit
15 Renaissance Sacred Music
16 Renaissance Secular Music
17 The Baroque Spirit
18 Vocal Music of the Baroque
19 Orchestral Music of the Baroque
20 Baroque Keyboard Music
21 The Classical Spirit
22 The Development of Classical Forms
23 The Classical Symphony
24 The Classical Concerto and Sonata
25 Classical Opera
26 The Spirit of Romanticism
27 The Romantic Miniature
28 Romantic Program Music
29 Romantic Opera
30 The Late Romantics
31 America's Emerging Musical Voice
32 The Impressionist Era
33 Main Currents in Early-Twentieth-Century Music
34 Early-Twentieth-Century Innovators
35 Nationalism and Music
36 Ragtime, Blues, and Jazz
37 New Directions
38 Contemporary Composers Look to World Music
39 Music for the Stage and Screen
40 The Many Voices of Rock
41 Some Current Trends

Chapter 24: The Classical Concerto and Sonata

Study Plan

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"I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time . . . before writing them down. . . . I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied; then, in my head . . . it grows, I hear and see the image in front of me from every angle . . . and only the labor of writing it down remains." —LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Key Points

  • The Classical concerto form has three movements, alternating fast-slow-fast.
  • The first movement, the longest and most complex, combines elements of Baroque ritornello procedure and sonata-allegro form.
  • The favored solo instruments featured in the Classical concerto were the piano, violin, and some winds (clarinet, trumpet).
  • Classical sonatas were set either for one solo instrument (the fortepiano, an early piano) or for duos (violin and piano, for example).
  • Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas are central to his output; his best-known piano work, the Moonlight Sonata, evokes the new Romantic style.

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