Scan 228
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
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1The sonata form in its present developed state consists of three principal parts. For the first theme no name has been agreed upon, the name exposition being perhaps the best one. It determines the whole character of the first movement and is indeed used in naming the sonata, as the composition is commonly recognized as being the sonata of the key of the first movement, unless there is conferred upon it a special name conveying an idea of its poetical meaning, such as Pastoral or Moonlight; occasionally the name of the man to whom it is dedicated distinguishes it. In giving the title to the grand division of the sonata form next following the exposition we are again confronted by a diversity of terms. Some American theorists call it the development; their English brothers, the free fantazie; while the translation of the German term is the working-out passage. As in other instances of conflicting terms, one is as correct as another, and here each of the terms really conveys a clear idea of what the division stands for: development and working out, because in this portion of the sonata the themes of the exposition are usually the basis from which the composer works toward the third division; free fantazie, because here he is free to exercise his genius in every possible way in displaying technical skill, imagination and passion. Like the development of the plot in a novel or drama the themes are here treated as characters and placed in all possible new relationships and entanglements which were in no wise suspected when the subjects were first introduced. The composer here uses his utmost fancy without becoming fantastic, and in this part in his power, grasp, contrivance and suggestion we find the work of the master. As always where great opportunity is given there is the possibility of failure, a weakness will be discovered here if anywhere in the sonata. The third part is a repetition of part one, a recapitulation and unifying of the whole.
3The exposition is a development of the binary form before explained, each of the parts of the sonata form being somewhat modified from those of the three-part song
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