ABSTRACT
The music A. B. Marx most consistently employs to exemplify his understanding of sonata form is that of Ludwig van Beethoven. Marx lists four types of Hauptsatz: Satzform, period form, period with free Nachsatz, and Satz-chain. For Marx, the Satzform is a form that can accommodate motivic development within its bounds. Marx's overwhelming emphasis on the exposition section of sonata form indicates the importance he invests in the complementary relationship of Hauptsatz and Seitensatz. The exposition provides Marx with a microcosm of the dynamic which obtains when initial material is understood to be both determining and incomplete. Marx's emphasis is clearly on the dynamic nature of thematic material, a standpoint aided and abetted by Beethoven's music. Marx's metaphor of gendered themes is a poetic attempt to address the complexity. It has the characteristic economy of metaphor, matching an imposing set of conditions with one more or less succinct image.
