
Sonata-Allegro Form: Mozart and Beethoven
Craig Wright's Yale course Listening to Music turns to musical form, starting with the verse-chorus structure common in pop songs, using 'N Sync as an example, before moving into classical form. Wright covers ternary form and then builds a detailed account of sonata-allegro form, explaining exposition, development, and recapitulation along with harmonic ideas like the relationship between relative major and minor keys. He works through two extended examples: the first movement of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and the opening movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, pointing out where each composer states, develops, and returns to thematic material. The lecture is chaptered by topic and example, moving from pop music analogy to close listening of two canonical classical works, giving students a concrete framework for hearing structure in instrumental music.