Theory and Analysis of Sonata Forms

Sonata form is the architectural backbone of Classical-era music, and this course treats it as a problem of competing theoretical lenses rather than a fixed template — you'll spend the semester reading Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven through Hepokoski-Darcy's Sonata Theory alongside Caplin's Formal Functions, arguing for one reading over another. The work is split between weekly analytical homeworks and a staged model composition where you actually write a sonata movement in 18th-century style. It's a natural next step after basic tonal harmony and form, and the analytical writing it demands sets up later work on 19th-century repertoire where these conventions start to break down.