Boot

Ananth - Thank you for sharing your interpretation(s) of the various aspects of a sonata. I especially appreciate your personification of a work's individual parts; very nice. (I should've expected as much from Ann Arbor). Shadowwolf' - Thanks for the welcome. I only wish that those were actual WAV files, as those images provide visualization of dynamics-only. But thanks. All of the above responses are combining to provide a most complete and balanced picture. Thank you, one & all.

SIWI – I find your implication that I am “looking for a shortcut” offensive and rather arrogant on your part. You don’t know me. You would be well advised to curb expression of such baseless assumptions in the future. However, I thank you for the other very good information... and for the warm welcome to "Young Composers". Just as I am loath to hear one more kid, being too lazy to study and to comprehend fundamentals, declare with starry eyes, “Oh, I’m a free-form, experimental composer”, and then grind out a bunch of incomprehensible trash, my modus operandi continues to be rather to comprehend accepted “best-practice” before trying to blow-out the walls of convention. Sonataform – I thank you for your measured and considered response; it’s just what the doctor ordered (of course, you're Sonataform...)

First post - nice to have found you. I want to get this right. I want to understand the underlying, fundamental, bare bones structure of Sonata Form in it’s most basic form. Following is my current understanding of “Sonata Form” (with contextual questions inserted): EXPOSITION Consists of two sections: Section A is in the primary key of the piece - for simplicity, we’ll stick to a piece in C major. Section B is in dominant – G7 . DEVELOPMENT Explores and develops themes established in Exposition: QUESTION A. If this section is the development of themes presented in Exposition, are there also two sections in Development? QUESTION B: And while we are now developing the themes established in the Exposition, do we also stick to the same key structure as in Exposition? RECAPITUALTION A varied repetition of the Exposition, consisting of two sections: Section A is again in primary key – in our case, C major. Section B is also in C major. QUESTION C. Is Recapitulation Section A to be a variation strictly of the theme established in Exposition Section A? QUESTION D. Is Recapitulation Section B to be a variation strictly of the theme established in Exposition Section B (only now in the primary key)? I await enlightenment.