The Sonata Cycle

the 18th century composers left us with a large scale structure that became known as the ' Sonata Cycle". The typical sonata cycle has three or four movements The sonata cycle became popular in the early 1700s and remained very common through the late 1800s. Beethoven loved the Scherzo and Trio (fast) sonata cycles usually began and ended with fast movement tempos. that's a common and very workable approach to begin and end a composition with a bang. sometimes a sonata cycle would only have three movements, In this case, the third movement structure would usually be omitted, giving a fast-slow-fast pattern. Many of these sonata cycles, while retaining the same dramatic structure, show amazing amounts of variety from piece to piece. The average symphony has four movements. Early ones tended to have two or three. Haydn composed over 100 symphonies in his lifetime. He was Acknowledges as the 'father of the sumphony' In his extremely short lifespan, Mozart compose4d nearly 45 of symphonies, many of them still very popular. One of Beethoven's innovations was to add singers to what had been a purely instrumental form. Other innovators in the 1800s included French composer Hector Berlioz, who in 1830 composed the bizarre and remarkable "Symphonie Fantastique" the name concerto was derived from the word concertare, meaning ' to compete. The concerto is performed by an orchestra with a solo in strument " competing" for the listener's attention. If the solo instrument is a piano, the piece is called a "Piano concerto" If the solo instrument is a violin, it is called a "violin concerto" A concerto grosso is the name given to a concerto with a larger number of soloists, usually four or more. A concerto will usually have three movements, omitting the minuet/scherzo and trio movement. the typical fast-slow-fast structure was the most commonly used. the first movement used a structure similar to, but not quite a sonata form. Very often the third movement was a rondo. J.S.Bach was another Baroque musician who impacted on the concerto. Bach was the first to composed concerti for the kayboard, which for Bach was the harpsichord. When the mechanism of the piano was perfected by Cristofori, piano concerti were written. Another type of Baroque concerto, the concerto grosso was an important development. the concerto grosso differed from the standard concerto in that is had a large number of solo instruments, not just one or two. J'S.Bach composed six concerti grossi to audition for a job. The Margrave of Brandenburg didn't think too much of them and turned down Bach for the job. Modern musicians consider these "Brandenburg concerti", as t hey have been nicknamed, the best concerti grossi ever written. the concerto as a musical format was one of the popular staples of the Classical Era. the new instrument of the era, the piano, quickly became exploited in the concerto format. The cadenza is a section in the concerto where the composer has the orchestra stop playing. the soloist is given a chance to improvise on themes of the movement and display his musical ability. Today musicians very cautiously play a pre-written cadenza, but in those days a musician was expected to really make things up on the spot.