ABSTRACT
This chapter documents an approach to teaching musical form that privileges principles over resulting forms. Through close reading of two Beethovenian themes (from the first and second movements of the Piano Sonata, Op. 2, No. 1), it illustrates the role of principles – repetition, variation, and contrast – in shaping and generating different kinds of thematic organization. Since the principles are the same at local and global levels, the proposed strategy has wide applicability and is not limited to tonal music.
