ANALYZING CLASSICAL FORM

DIFFERENCES AMONG THE CLASSICAL COMPOSERS

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Rondo forms tend to be treated somewhat differently by each of the three

classical composers. Haydn, as a rule, prefers the five-part rondo form over
the sonata-rondo.Within that form, he normally writes the first couplet
as an interior theme. Mozart, on the contrary, likes to use a subordinatetheme complex for that same couplet.
Indeed, this distinction between Haydn and Mozart obviously relates
to these composers differing orientation toward slow movement forms:
the former prefers the large ternary (with its central unit being an interior
theme), while the latter cultivates the sonata without development form,
which engages transition and subordinate-theme functions.
Another composer-specific tendency concerns the tonal region of the
interior theme used as the second couplet in the five-part rondo. Here,
Haydn favors a minore , Mozart the subdominant.
As discussed before, Mozart, more than Haydn or Beethoven, eliminates
one of the refrains of the sonata-rondo form, either the third return of the
main theme at the beginning of the recapitulation or the basic structure of
the theme in the coda.
Mozart is the principal composer to employ a genuine double-region
couplet. One example by Beethoven appears in the finale of the Wind
Octet, Op. 103 (a very early work despite the late opus designation), and
the finale of his Piano Sonata in D, Op. 10, No. 3, contains a couplet that
represents a variant on the Mozartean type.
Beethovens rondo forms tend to conform to the models presented in
this chapter, though as always, this composer likes to expand the range of
usable tonal areas to those less closely related to the home key. Beethoven
also likes to play with the idea of false recapitulation within his rondos, a
stunt rarely found in Haydn and never in Mozart.

Enlargements of Rondo Form: Seven-part Rondo,

Nine-part Sonata-rondo
Both the five-part rondo and the sonata-rondo can be enlarged by adding an
additional couplet and return of the refrain. In these cases, the couplet is usually organized as an interior theme, one whose melodic-motivic material, tonal
region, and formal organization contrast with those of earlier interior themes.
When the five-part rondo is so enlarged, it becomes what might be
termed a seven-part rondo (ABACADA). It is important to note that whereas
the regular sonata-rondo also has seven parts, a genuine seven-part rondo does
not contain a couplet that can be construed as the recapitulation of an earlier
subordinate-theme complex.
A sonata-rondo can become enlarged into a nine-part sonata-rondo. In
this case, the extra refrain and couplet are inserted between couplet 2 and the
recapitulation.