Tonality and Systems in the Mid- to Late-Eighteenth Century: The Classical Ideal

This chapter provides a discussion of the development of sonata form, perhaps the most important form, or, more accurately, compositional procedure, of the entire eighteenth century. It is concerned with the ways in which the system hexachord, the eleven pitch-class areas, and the Primary Chromatic Array inform sonata procedure. The chapter considers analysis that involves extensive descriptions of formal divisions and subdivisions to be essential for a complete understanding of a musical work and of its stylistic context. It also focuses on the importance of systems integration within the first movement as a primary source of development, a knowledge of which may reveal the reason behind haydn's seemingly erratic compositional choices. Yet even with his conservative tendencies, Georg Christoph Wagenseil was equally progressive as a practitioner of the style galant in Vienna, and his more modern approach to key-centered tonality and its incorporation of chromatic voice-leading certainly had an influence on later composers, most notably Haydn and the young Mozart.