title: Algerian Civil War

text: These massacres continued through the end of 1998, changing the nature of the political situation considerably. The areas south and east of Algiers, which had voted strongly for FIS in 1991, were hit particularly hard; the Rais and Bentalha massacres in particular shocked worldwide observers. Pregnant women were sliced open, children were hacked to pieces or dashed against walls, men's limbs were hacked off one by one, and, as the attackers retreated, they would kidnap young women to keep as sex slaves. Although this quotation by Nesroullah Yous, a survivor of Bentalha, may be an exaggeration, it expresses the apparent mood of the attackers:


title: Algerian Civil War

text: We have the whole night to rape your women and children, drink your blood. Even if you escape today, we'll come back tomorrow to finish you off! We're here to send you to your God!


title: Algerian Civil War

text: The GIA's responsibility for these massacres remains disputed. In a communique its amir Antar Zouabri claimed credit for both Rais and Bentalha, calling the killings an "offering to God" and declaring impious the victims and all Algerians who had not joined its ranks. By declaring that "except for those who are with us, all others are apostates and deserving of death," it had adopted a "takfirist" ideology. In some cases, it has been suggested that the GIA were motivated to commit a massacre by a village's joining the Patriot program, which they saw as evidence of disloyalty; in others, that rivalry with other groups (e.g., Mustapha Kartali's breakaway faction) played a part. Its policy of massacring civilians was cited by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat as one of the main reasons it split off from the GIA.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: However, according to reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch army barracks were stationed within a few hundred meters of the villages, yet did nothing to stop the killings. At about the same time, a number of people claiming to be defectors from the Algerian security services (such as Habib Souaidia), having fled to Western countries, alleged that the security services had themselves committed some of the massacres.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: In contrast, Algerians such as Zazi Sadou, have collected testimonies by survivors that their attackers were unmasked and were recognised as local radicals – in one case even an elected member of the FIS. Roger Kaplan, writing in "The Atlantic Monthly", dismissed insinuations of Government involvement in the massacres; However, as Youcef Bouandel notes; "Regardless of the explanations one may have regarding the violence, the authorities' credibility has been tarnished by its non-assistance to endangered civilian villagers being massacred in the vicinity of military barracks. " Another explanation is the "deeply ingrained" tradition of "purposeful accumulation of wealth and status by means of violence", outweighing any basic national identity with feelings of solidarity, loyalty, for what was a province of the Ottoman Empire for much of its history.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: The AIS, which at this point was engaged in an all-out war with the GIA as well as the Government, found itself in an untenable position. The GIA seemed a more immediately pressing enemy, and AIS members expressed fears that the massacres—which it had condemned more than once—would be blamed on them. On 21 September 1997, the AIS' head, Madani Mezrag, ordered a unilateral and unconditional ceasefire starting 1 October, in order to "unveil the enemy that hides behind these abominable massacres." The AIS thus largely took itself out of the political equation, reducing the fighting to a struggle between the Government, the GIA, and the various splinter groups that were increasingly breaking away from the GIA. Ali Benhadjar's FIS-loyalist Islamic League for Da'wa and Jihad (LIDD), formed in February 1997, allied itself with the AIS and observed the same ceasefire. Over the next three years, the AIS would gradually negotiate an amnesty for its members.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: After receiving much international pressure to act, the EU sent two delegations, one of them led by Mário Soares, to visit Algeria and investigate the massacres in the first half of 1998; their reports condemned the Islamist armed groups.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: The GIA's policy of massacring civilians had already caused a split among its commanders, with some rejecting the policy; on 14 September 1998, this disagreement was formalized with the formation of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), based in the mountains west of Kabylie and led by Hassan Hattab. Massacres continued throughout 1998 attributed to "armed groups that had formerly belonged to the GIA", some engaged in banditry, other settling scores with the patriots or others, some enlisting in the services of landowners to frighten illegal occupants away. Eventually towns soon became safer, although massacres continued in rural areas.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: On 11 September, President Zéroual surprised observers by announcing his resignation. New elections were arranged, and on 15 April 1999, the army-backed ex-independence-fighter Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president with, according to the authorities, 74% of the votes. All the other candidates had withdrawn from the election shortly before, citing fraud concerns. Bouteflika continued negotiations with the AIS, and on 5 June the AIS agreed, in principle, to disband. Bouteflika followed up this success for the Government by pardoning a number of Islamist prisoners convicted of minor offenses and pushing the Civil Harmony Act through Parliament, a law allowing Islamist fighters not guilty of murder or rape to escape all prosecution if they turn themselves in.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: This law was finally approved by referendum on 16 September 1999, and a number of fighters, including Mustapha Kartali, took advantage of it to give themselves up and resume normal life—sometimes angering those who had suffered at the hands of the guerrillas. FIS leadership expressed dissatisfaction with the results, feeling that the AIS had stopped fighting without solving any of the issues; but their main voice outside of prison, Abdelkader Hachani, was assassinated on 22 November. Violence declined, though not stopping altogether, and a sense of normality started returning to Algeria.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: The AIS fully disbanded after 11 January 2000, having negotiated a special amnesty with the Government. The GIA, torn by splits and desertions and denounced by all sides even in the Islamist movement, was slowly destroyed by army operations over the next few years; by the time of Antar Zouabri's death in early 2002, it was effectively incapacitated. The Government's efforts were given a boost in the aftermath of 11 September 2001 attacks; United States sympathy for Algeria's government increased, and was expressed concretely through such actions as the freezing of GIA and GSPC assets and the supply of infrared goggles to the army.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: With the GIA's decline, the GSPC was left as the most active rebel group, with about 300 fighters in 2003. It continued a campaign of assassinations of police and army personnel in its area, and also managed to expand into the Sahara, broadening the conflict into the insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present). Its southern division, led by Amari Saifi (nicknamed "Abderrezak el-Para", the "paratrooper"), kidnapped a number of German tourists in 2003, before being forced to flee to sparsely populated areas of Mali, and later Niger and Chad, where he was captured. By late 2003, the group's founder had been supplanted by the even more radical Nabil Sahraoui, who announced his open support for al-Qaeda, thus strengthening government ties between the U.S. and Algeria. He was reportedly killed shortly afterwards, and was succeeded by Abou Mossaab Abdelouadoud in 2004.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: The release of FIS leaders Madani and Belhadj in 2003 had no observable effect on the situation, illustrating a newfound governmental confidence which would be deepened by the 2004 presidential election, in which Bouteflika was reelected by 85% with support from two major parties and one faction of the third major party. The vote was seen as confirming strong popular support for Bouteflika's policy towards the guerrillas and the successful termination of large-scale violence.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: In September 2005 a national referendum was held on an amnesty proposal by Bouteflika's government, similar to the 1999 law, to end legal proceedings against individuals who were no longer fighting, and to provide compensation to families of people killed by Government forces. The controversial Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation was declared to have won with 97% support, and with 80% of participation. The conditions of the campaign in Algeria were criticized in the French press, in particular in "Le Monde" and "L'Humanité".


title: Algerian Civil War

text: Lawyer Ali Merabet, for example, founder of "Somoud", an NGO which represents the families of the disappeared, was opposed to the Charter which would "force the victims to grant forgiveness". He remains doubtful that the time of the FIS has truly ended and notes that while people no longer support them, the project of the FIS – which he denies is Islamic – still exists and remains a threat.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: The proposal was implemented by Presidential decree in February 2006, and adopted on 29 September 2006. Particularly controversial was its provision of immunity against prosecution to surrendered ex-guerrillas (for all but the worst crimes) and Army personnel (for any action "safeguarding the nation".) According to Algerian paper "El Khabar", over 400 GSPC guerrillas surrendered under its terms. Estimates of the rebels size in 2005 ranged from 300 to 1000. The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) has opposed the amnesty.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: While the fighting died down a state of emergency remained in place, only being lifted in February 2011 due to renewed protests amidst the ongoing Arab Spring.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: Bouteflika said in 1999 that 100,000 people had died by that time and in a speech on 25 February 2005, spoke of a round figure of 150,000 people killed in the war. Fouad Ajami argues the toll could be as high as 200,000, and that it is in the government's interest to minimize casualties. These figures, not broken down into government forces, insurgents and civilians, are commonly cited as the war's death toll. However this estimate may be too high. A 2008 study found about 26,000 people killed, through combat operations, massacres, bombings and assassinations, alongside 18,000 people, 'disappeared' and presumed killed in secret. This would give a total death toll of around 44,000 people. This is out of a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: Throughout the war children were recruited frequently by the armed groups fighting the government. A government-allied militia—the Legitimate Defence Groups (LDG)—also used children, according to some reports. Although the rules for joining the LDG were the same as the army, in which only adults were recruited (by conscription) the LDG applied no safeguards to ensure that children could not join up. The extent of child recruitment during the war remains unknown.


title: Algerian Civil War

text: Factors that prevented Algeria from following in the path of Saudi Arabia and Iran into an Islamic state include minority groups (army rank and file, veterans of the War of Independence, the secular middle class) that threw their support with the government, and Islamist supporters that lost faith with the Salafi Jihadis. Unlike in Iran, the army rank and file stayed on the side of the government. Veterans of the War of Independence known as the "revolutionary family" felt its privileges directly tied to the government and supported the regime. Also unlike in Iran, the secular middle class remained firmly in support of the government. Branded as "sons of France" by the jihadis, they feared an Islamist takeover far more than they hated the corruption and ineptitude of the FLN government. The part of the middle class who supported the FIS supported the jihad against the government at first. However, living in GIA-controlled areas, cut off by the security forces, they suffered from extortion from less-than-disciplined young jihadis demanding "Zakat". Business owners abandoned the GIA to support first the AIS and eventually the government-approved Islamist Hamas or Movement of Society for Peace party. The young urban poor themselves whose 1988 October Riots had initiated reforms and put an end to one-party rule, was "crushed as a political factor".


title: Algerian Civil War

text: At least at first, the "unspeakable atrocities" and enormous loss of life on behalf of a military defeat "drastically weakened Islamism as a whole" throughout the Muslim world, and led to much time and energy being spent by Islamists distancing themselves from extremism. In Algeria the war left the public "with a deep fear of instability" according to Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud. The country was one of the few in the Arab world not to participate in the Arab Spring.


title: Condensation

text: Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor to liquid water when in contact with a liquid or solid surface or cloud condensation nuclei within the atmosphere. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition.


title: Condensation

text: Condensation is initiated by the formation of atomic/molecular clusters of that species within its gaseous volume—like rain drop or snow flake formation within clouds—or at the contact between such gaseous phase and a liquid or solid surface. In clouds, this can be catalyzed by water-nucleating proteins, produced by atmospheric microbes, which are capable of binding gaseous or liquid water molecules.


title: Condensation

text: Condensation commonly occurs when a vapor is cooled and/or compressed to its saturation limit when the molecular density in the gas phase reaches its maximal threshold. Vapor cooling and compressing equipment that collects condensed liquids is called a "condenser".


title: Condensation

text: Psychrometry measures the rates of condensation through evaporation into the air moisture at various atmospheric pressures and temperatures. Water is the product of its vapor condensation—condensation is the process of such phase conversion.


title: Condensation

text: Condensation is a crucial component of distillation, an important laboratory and industrial chemistry application.


title: Condensation

text: Because condensation is a naturally occurring phenomenon, it can often be used to generate water in large quantities for human use. Many structures are made solely for the purpose of collecting water from condensation, such as air wells and fog fences. Such systems can often be used to retain soil moisture in areas where active desertification is occurring—so much so that some organizations educate people living in affected areas about water condensers to help them deal effectively with the situation.


title: Condensation

text: It is also a crucial process in forming particle tracks in a cloud chamber. In this case, ions produced by an incident particle act as nucleation centers for the condensation of the vapor producing the visible "cloud" trails.


title: Condensation

text: Commercial applications of condensation, by consumers as well as industry, include power generation, water desalination, thermal management, refrigeration, and air conditioning.


title: Condensation

text: Numerous living beings use water made accessible by condensation. A few examples of these are the Australian thorny devil, the darkling beetles of the Namibian coast, and the coast redwoods of the West Coast of the United States.


title: Condensation

text: Condensation in building construction is an unwanted phenomenon as it may cause dampness, mold health issues, wood rot, corrosion, weakening of mortar and masonry walls, and energy penalties due to increased heat transfer. To alleviate these issues, the indoor air humidity needs to be lowered, or air ventilation in the building needs to be improved. This can be done in a number of ways, for example opening windows, turning on extractor fans, using dehumidifiers, drying clothes outside and covering pots and pans whilst cooking. Air conditioning or ventilation systems can be installed that help remove moisture from the air, and move air throughout a building. The amount of water vapor that can be stored in the air can be increased simply by increasing the temperature. However, this can be a double edged sword as most condensation in the home occurs when warm, moisture heavy air comes into contact with a cool surface. As the air is cooled, it can no longer hold as much water vapor. This leads to deposition of water on the cool surface. This is very apparent when central heating is used in combination with single glazed windows in winter.


title: Condensation

text: Interstructure condensation may be caused by thermal bridges, insufficient or lacking insulation, damp proofing or insulated glazing.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the United States. In keeping with its founding principles and unlike any other senior military college in the United States, VMI enrolls cadets only and awards bachelor's degrees exclusively. VMI offers its cadets strict military discipline combined with a physically and academically demanding environment. The institute grants degrees in 14 disciplines in engineering, science, and the liberal arts.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: While Abraham Lincoln first called VMI "The West Point of the South" because of its role during the American Civil War, the nickname has remained because VMI has produced more Army generals than any ROTC program in the United States. Despite the nickname, VMI differs from the federal military service academies in many regards. For example, as of 2019, VMI had a total enrollment of 1,722 cadets (as compared to 4,500 at the Academies) making it one of the smallest NCAA Division I schools in the United States. Additionally, today (as in the 1800s) all VMI cadets sleep on cots and live closely together in a more spartan and austere barracks environment than at the Service Academies. All VMI cadets must participate in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) of the United States Armed Forces programs, but are afforded the flexibility of pursuing civilian endeavors or accepting an officer's commission in the active or reserve components of one of the six U.S. military branches upon graduation.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI's alumni include a secretary of state, secretary of defense, secretary of the Army, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, 7 Medal of Honor recipients, 13 Rhodes Scholars, Pulitzer Prize winners, an Academy Award winner, an Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner, a martyr recognized by the Episcopal Church, senators and representatives, governors, lieutenant governors, a Supreme Court justice, numerous college and university presidents, many business leaders (presidents and CEOs) and over 290 general and flag officers across all US service branches and several other countries.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The Board of Visitors is the supervisory board of the Virginia Military Institute. Although the Governor is "ex officio" the commander-in-chief of the institute, and no one may be declared a graduate without his signature, he delegates to the board the responsibility for developing the institute's policy. The board appoints the superintendent and approves appointment of members of the faculty and staff on the recommendation of the superintendent. The board may make bylaws and regulations for their own government and the management of the affairs of the institute, and while the institute is exempt from the Administrative Process Act in accordance with Va. Code (which exempts educational institutions operated by the Commonwealth), some of its regulations are codified at 8VAC 100. The Executive Committee conducts the business of the board during recesses.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The board has 17 members, including "ex officio" the adjutant general of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Regular members are appointed by the governor for a four-year term and may be reappointed once. Of the sixteen appointed members, twelve must be alumni of the institute, eight of whom must be residents of Virginia and four must be non-residents; and the remaining four members must be non-alumni Virginia residents. The Executive Committee consists of the board's president, three vice presidents, and one non-alumnus at large, and is appointed by the board at each annual meeting.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Under the militia bill (the Virginia Code of 1860) officers of the institute were recognized as part of the military establishment of the state, and the governor had authority to issue commissions to them in accordance with institute regulations. Current law makes provision for officers of the Virginia Militia to be subject to orders of the governor. The cadets are a military corps (the Corps of Cadets) under the command of the superintendent and under the administration of the Commandant of Cadets, and constitute the guard of the institute.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In the years after the War of 1812, the Commonwealth of Virginia built and maintained several arsenals to store weapons intended for use by the state militia in the event of invasion or slave revolt. One of them was placed in Lexington. Residents came to resent the presence of the soldiers, whom they saw as drunken and undisciplined. In 1826, one guard beat another to death. Townspeople wanted to keep the arsenal, but sought a new way of guarding it, so as to eliminate the "undesirable element." In 1834, the Franklin Society, a local literary and debate society, debated, "Would it be politic for the State to establish a military school, at the Arsenal, near Lexington, in connection with Washington College, on the plan of the West Point Academy?" They unanimously concluded that it would. Lexington attorney John Thomas Lewis Preston became the most active advocate of the proposal. In a series of three anonymous letters in the "Lexington Gazette" in 1835, he proposed replacing the arsenal guard with students living under military discipline, receiving some military education, as well as a liberal education. The school's graduates would contribute to the development of the state and, should the need arise, provide trained officers for the state's militia.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: After a public relations campaign that included Preston meeting in person with influential business, military and political figures and many open letters from prominent supporters, in 1836 the Virginia legislature passed a bill authorizing creation of a school at the Lexington arsenal, and the Governor signed the measure into law.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The organizers of the planned school formed a board of visitors, which included Preston, and the board selected Claudius Crozet as their first president. Crozet had served as an engineer in Napoleon Bonaparte's army before immigrating to the United States. In America, he served as an engineering professor at West Point, as well as state engineer in Louisiana and mathematics professor at Jefferson College in Convent, Louisiana. Crozet was also the Chief Engineer of Virginia and someone whom Thomas Jefferson referred to as, "the smartest mathematician in the United States." The board delegated to Preston the task of deciding what to call the new school, and he created the name Virginia Military Institute.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Under Crozet's direction, the board of visitors crafted VMI's program of instruction, basing it off of those of the United States Military Academy and Crozet's alma mater the École Polytechnique of Paris. So, instead of the mix of military and liberal education imagined by Preston, the board created a military and engineering school offering the most thorough engineering curriculum in America, outside of West Point.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Preston was also tasked with hiring VMI's first Superintendent. He was persuaded that West Point graduate and former Army officer Francis Henney Smith, then professor of mathematics at Hampden–Sydney College, was the most suitable candidate. Preston successfully recruited Smith, and convinced him to become the first Superintendent and Professor of Tactics.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: After Smith agreed to accept the Superintendent's position, Preston applied to join the faculty, and was hired as Professor of Languages. Classes began in 1839, and the first cadet to march a sentinel post was Private John Strange. With few exceptions, there have been sentinels posted at VMI every hour of every day of the school year since 11 November 1839.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The Class of 1842 graduated 16 cadets. Living conditions were poor until 1850 when the cornerstone of the new barracks was laid. In 1851 Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson became a member of the faculty and professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. Under Jackson, then a major, and Major William Gilham, VMI infantry and artillery units were present at the execution by hanging of John Brown at Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In a letter dated February 27, 1845, addressed to William S. Beale, VMI Class of 1843, Superintendent Francis H. Smith solicited items to create an Institute museum to inspire and educate cadets. Superintendent Smith accepted a donation of a Revolutionary War musket in 1856, thus establishing the first public museum in the Commonwealth of Virginia. On June 12, 1864, the museum was destroyed by General David Hunter, but reopened in 1870. For the first 75 years the museum was a "special collection" administered by the VMI library, a common model still in use by many colleges and universities. In the early 20th century, the collection was organized as a public resource and took the form of a modern museum. In 1970 the VMI Museum was recognized as its own department, and was professionally accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Today the VMI Museum System consists of the VMI Museum on the VMI Post, the Virginia Museum of the Civil War located at the 300-acre New Market Battlefield State Historical Park; and the Jackson House, interpreting the life of VMI Professor Thomas J. (later "Stonewall") Jackson and his household on the eve of Civil War.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI cadets and alumni played instrumental roles in the American Civil War. On 14 occasions, the Confederacy called cadets into active military engagements. VMI authorized battle streamers for each one of these engagements but chose to carry only one: the battle streamer for New Market. Many VMI Cadets were ordered to Camp Lee, at Richmond, to train recruits under General Stonewall Jackson. VMI alumni were regarded among the best officers of the South and several distinguished themselves in the Union forces as well. Fifteen graduates rose to the rank of general in the Confederate Army, and one rose to this rank in the Union Army. Just before his famous flank attack at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Jackson looked at his division and brigade commanders, noted the high number of VMI graduates and said, "The Institute will be heard from today." Three of Jackson's four division commanders at Chancellorsville, Generals James Lane, Robert Rodes, and Raleigh Colston, were VMI graduates as were more than twenty of his brigadiers and colonels.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: On 14 May 1864, the governor of Virginia once again called upon the cadets from VMI to participate in the American Civil War. After marching overnight 80 miles from Lexington to New Market, on 15 May 1864, 247 members of the VMI Corps of Cadets fought at the Battle of New Market. This event marks the only time in U.S. history wherein the student body of an operating college fought as an organized unit in pitched combat in battle (as recognized by the American Battlefield Trust). This event was the 14th time VMI Cadets were called into action during the Civil War. The VMI battalion received an institutional battle streamer for its part in the battle of New Market, one of only five American institutions to be awarded such an honor. The four other institutes are: The Citadel for the Battle of Secessionville and the Battle of Tulifinny, Florida State for the Battle of Natural Bridge, William and Mary for the Siege of Yorktown, and the University of Hawaii for the Hawaiian Islands Campaign.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: At New Market, in a matter of minutes, VMI suffered fifty-five casualties with ten cadets killed; the cadets were led into battle by the Commandant of Cadets and future VMI Superintendent Colonel Scott Shipp. Shipp was also wounded during the battle. Six of the ten fallen cadets are buried on VMI grounds behind the statue "Virginia Mourning Her Dead" by sculptor Moses Ezekiel, a VMI graduate who was also wounded in the Battle of New Market.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: General John C. Breckinridge, the commanding Southern general, held the cadets in reserve and did not use them until Union troops broke through the Confederate lines. Upon seeing the tide of battle turning in favor of the Union forces, Breckinridge stated, "Put the boys in...and may God forgive me for the order." The VMI cadets held the line and eventually pushed forward across an open muddy field, capturing a Union artillery emplacement, and securing victory for the Confederates. The Union troops were withdrawn and Confederate troops under General Breckinridge held the Shenandoah Valley.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: On 12 June 1864 Union forces, under the command of General David Hunter, shelled and burned the institute as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. The destruction was almost complete, and VMI had to temporarily hold classes at the Alms House in Richmond, Virginia. In April 1865 Richmond was evacuated due to the impending fall of Petersburg and the VMI Corps of Cadets was disbanded. The Lexington campus reopened for classes on 17 October 1865. One of the reasons that Confederate General Jubal A. Early burned the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was in retaliation for the destruction of VMI.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Following the war, Matthew Fontaine Maury, the pioneering oceanographer known as the "Pathfinder of the Seas", accepted a teaching position at VMI, holding the physics chair. Following the war, David Hunter Strother, who was chief of staff to General Hunter and had advised the destruction of the institute, served as Adjutant General of the Virginia Militia and member of the VMI Board of Visitors; in that position he promoted and worked actively for the reconstruction.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI produced many of America's commanders in World War II. The most important of these was George C. Marshall, the top U.S. Army general during the war. Marshall was the Army's first five-star general and the only career military officer ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Winston Churchill dubbed Marshall the "Architect of Victory" and "the noblest Roman of them all". The Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during the war was also a VMI graduate as were the Second U.S. Army commander, 15th U.S. Army commander, the commander of Allied Air Forces of the Southwest Pacific and various corps and division commanders in the Army and Marine Corps. China's General Sun Li-jen, known as the "Rommel of the East", was also a graduate of VMI.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: During the war, VMI participated in the War Department's Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) from 1943 to 1946. The program provided training in engineering and related subjects to enlisted men at colleges across the United States. Over 2,100 ASTP members studied at VMI during the war.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI admitted its first female student in 1995 after the U.S. Justice Department pursued a seven-year long lawsuit against the institution alleging discrimination. Although that first female student dropped out soon after matriculating, 30 female students enrolled in 1997, cementing VMI's new status as a coeducational institution.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: On 19 October 2020, following an exposé in "The Washington Post", Governor Ralph Northam and multiple other state officials wrote the VMI Board of Visitors that they had "deep concerns about the clear and appalling culture of ongoing structural racism” at VMI. They reported that they had received reports from students of a racist culture at VMI. The students reported a threat of lynching, attacks on social media, and a staff member promoting "an inaccurate and dangerous 'Lost Cause' version of Virginia's history." The letter was signed by Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, State Senate President Louise Lucas, Attorney General Mark Herring, and Chairman of the Black Caucus Lamont Bagby. Northam, a 1981 VMI alumnus, ordered a state-led investigation.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Six days later, on 26 October 2020, Superintendent Gen. J.H. Binford Peay tendered his resignation, saying in his resignation letter that he'd been told that Governor Northam and other state legislators had "lost confidence in my leadership" and "desired my resignation". Three days later, the VMI Board of Visitors voted unanimously to remove from campus the statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, a former VMI professor, and create a building and naming committee. The school reaffirmed the statue's removal in December and began plans to relocated it to a Civil War museum located on a battlefield where a number of VMI cadets and alumni were killed or wounded.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In October, the board also announced several diversity-related decisions: a diversity officer would be appointed, a diversity and inclusion committee would be created, and diversity initiatives created to include a focus on gender and the adoption of a diversity hiring plan. Nine months later, a report into racial intolerance charged by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia was delivered. The independent report concluded that VMI "maintained and allowed a racist and sexist culture that, until recently, it had no appetite to address." The authors, employed by the law firm Barnes & Thornburg, also accused the institution's leadership, including its governing board, with an "unwillingness to change or even question its practices."


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Since 1839, VMI has had fifteen superintendents. Francis H. Smith was the first and the longest serving, filling the position for 50 years. Twelve of the fifteen superintendents were graduates of VMI.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The VMI campus covers , 12 of which are designated as the Virginia Military Institute Historic District, a designated National Historic Landmark District. The campus is referred to as the "Post," a tradition that reflects the school's military focus and the uniformed service of its alumni. A training area of several hundred additional acres is located near the post. All cadets are housed on campus in a large five-story building, called the "barracks." The Old Barracks, which has been separately designated a National Historic Landmark, stands on the site of the old arsenal. This is the structure that received most of the damage when Union forces shelled and burned the institute in June 1864. The new wing of the barracks ("New Barracks") was completed in 1949. The two wings surround two quadrangles connected by a sally port. All rooms open onto porch-like stoops facing one of the quadrangles. A third barracks wing was completed, with cadets moving in officially spring semester 2009. Four of the five arched entries into the barracks are named for George Washington, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, George C. Marshall '01 and Jonathan Daniels '61. Next to the Barracks are offices and meeting areas for VMI clubs and organizations, the cadet visitors center and lounge, a snack bar, and a Follett Corporation-operated bookstore.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI's "Vision 2039" capital campaign raised more than $275 million from alumni and supporters in three years. The money is going to expand The Barracks to house 1,500 cadets, renovate and modernize the academic buildings. VMI is spending another $200 million to build the VMI Center for Leadership and Ethics, to be used by cadets, Washington and Lee University students, and other U.S. and international students. The funding will also support "study abroad" programs, including joint ventures with Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England and many other universities.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In October 2020, VMI Board of Visitors announced that the institute will relocate a statue of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, a Confederate general and slave owner, from the front of the historic barracks to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park. It was taken from view in December 2020.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI offers 14 major and 23 minor areas of study, grouped into engineering, liberal arts, humanities, and the sciences. The engineering department has concentrations in three areas: civil and environmental engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. Most classes are taught by full-time professors, 99 percent of whom hold terminal degrees.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Within four months of graduation, an average of 97 percent of VMI graduates are either serving in the military, employed, or admitted to graduate or professional schools.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: As of 2010, VMI had graduated 11 Rhodes Scholars since 1921. Per capita, as of 2006 VMI had graduated more Rhodes Scholars than any other state-supported college or university, and more than all the other senior military colleges combined.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In 2021 VMI ranked fourth nationally, after the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy and the United States Air Force Academy, in the "U.S. News & World Report" rankings' "Top Public Schools, National Liberal Arts Colleges" category.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Forbes' 2012 Special Report on America's Best Colleges ranked VMI in the top 25 public universities in the nation, well ahead of any other senior military college in the country. VMI was ranked 14th in the "Top 25 Publics" section, just behind the United States Military Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, and the United States Naval Academy, but ahead of the United States Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Overall, VMI ranked 115th out of the 650 colleges and universities evaluated.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Kiplinger's magazine, in its ranking of the "Best Values in Public Colleges" for 2006, made mention of the Virginia Military Institute as a "great value", although the military nature of its program excluded it from consideration as a traditional four-year college in the rankings.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: While all cadets are required to take four years of ROTC, accepting a commission in the armed forces is optional. While over 50 percent of VMI graduates are commissioned each year, the VMI Board of Visitors has set a goal of having 70 percent of VMI cadets take a commission. The VMI class of 2017 graduated 300 cadets, 172 (or 57 percent) of whom were commissioned as officers in the United States military.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI alumni include more than 285 general and flag officers, including the first five-star General of the Army, George Marshall; seven recipients of the highest U.S. military decoration, the Medal of Honor; and more than 80 recipients of the second-highest awards, the Distinguished Service Cross and Navy Cross. VMI offers ROTC programs for four U.S. military branches (Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force).


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI has graduated more Army generals than any ROTC program in the United States. The following table lists U.S. four-star generals who graduated from VMI. It does not list alumni who did not graduate from the school, such as General George S. Patton and General Sam S. Walker, and the many VMI graduates who served or still serve as four-star generals in foreign nations such as Thailand, China, and Taiwan.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Prospective cadets must be between 16 and 22 years of age. They must be unmarried, and have no legal dependents, be physically fit for enrollment in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and be graduates of an accredited secondary school or have completed an approved homeschool curriculum. The Class of 2022 at VMI had an average high school GPA of 3.70 and a mean SAT score of 1210.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Eligibility is not restricted to Virginia residents, although it is more difficult to gain an appointment as a non-resident, because VMI has a goal that no more than 45 percent of cadets come from outside Virginia. Virginia residents receive a discount in tuition, as is common at most state-sponsored schools. Total tuition, room & board, and other fees for the 2008–2009 school year was approximately $17,000 for Virginia residents and $34,000 for all others.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The first Jewish cadet, Moses Jacob Ezekiel, graduated in 1866. While at VMI, Ezekiel fought with the VMI cadets at the Battle of New Market. He became a sculptor and his works are on display at VMI. One of the first Asian cadets was Sun Li-jen, the Chinese National Revolutionary Army general, who graduated in 1927. The first African-American cadets were admitted in 1968. The first African-American regimental commander was Darren McDew, class of 1982. McDew is a retired U.S. Air Force General and former Commander, United States Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, IL. It is unknown when the first Muslim cadet graduated from VMI, but before the Iranian Revolution of 1979, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, several Persian cadets attended and graduated from VMI. Other Muslim graduates have included cadets from Bangladesh, Jordan, Indonesia, Somalia and other nations.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In 1990 the U.S. Department of Justice filed a discrimination lawsuit against VMI for its all-male admissions policy. While the court challenge was pending, a state-sponsored Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership (VWIL) was opened at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, as a parallel program for women. The VWIL continued, even after VMI's admission of women.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: After VMI won its case in U.S. District Court, the case went through several appeals until 26 June 1996, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7–1 decision in "United States v. Virginia", found that it was unconstitutional for a school supported by public funds to exclude women. (Justice Clarence Thomas recused himself, presumably because his son was attending VMI at the time). Following the ruling, VMI contemplated going private to exempt itself from the 14th Amendment, and thus avoid the ruling.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Assistant Secretary of Defense Frederick Pang, however, warned the school that the Department of Defense would withdraw ROTC programs from the school if privatization took place. As a result of this action by Pang, Congress passed a resolution on 18 November 1997 prohibiting the Department of Defense from withdrawing or diminishing any ROTC program at one of the six senior military colleges, including VMI. This escape clause provided by Congress came after the VMI Board of Visitors had already voted 9–8 to admit women; the decision was not revisited.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In 1996, VMI was forced to either end its prohibition of the admission of women, or become a private college without federal funding. VMI reluctantly became the last U.S. military college to admit women. Superintendent at the time Josiah Bunting III called this a "savage disappointment".


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In August 1997, VMI enrolled its first female cadets. The first co-ed class consisted of thirty women, who matriculated as part of the class of 2001. In order to accelerate VMI's matriculation process, several women were allowed to transfer directly from various junior colleges, such as New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI), and forgo the traditional four-year curriculum required of most. The first female cadets "walked the stage" in 1999 for graduation, although by VMI's definitions they are considered to be members of the class of 2001. Initially, these 30 women were held to the same strict physical courses and technical training as the male cadets, and even were required to shave their heads. In a July 2021 Washington Post Article, it was alleged that derision, misogyny, sexual assault were continuous issues at VMI.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Virginia Military Institute was the last public college in Virginia to integrate, first admitting black cadets in 1968, but interracial problems persisted long afterward. According to "The Washington Post", even in 2020 "Black cadets still endure[d] relentless racism [in an] atmosphere of hostility and cultural insensitivity".


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Just as cadets did nearly 200 years ago, today's cadets give up such comforts as beds, instead lying upon cots colloquially referred to as "hays". These hays are little more than foam mats that must be rolled every morning and aired every Monday. Further, cadet uniforms have changed little; the coatee worn in parades dates to the War of 1812. New cadets, known as "Rats", are not permitted to watch TV or listen to music outside of an academic setting. Living conditions are considered more austere here than other service academies.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: During the first six months at VMI, New Cadets are called "Rats," the accepted term (since the 1850s) for a New Cadet. The VMI ratline is a tough, old-fashioned indoctrination-system which dates back to the institute's founding. All "Rats" refer to their classmates, male or female, as "Brother Rats." The term "Brother Rat" is a term of endearment which lasts a lifetime amongst VMI graduates. Legend has it that when Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) students and VMI cadets drilled together in the 1830s, the students called the cadets "Rats" perhaps because of their gray uniforms. The cadets responded in kind calling the neighboring students "Minks" perhaps because many of them were from wealthy backgrounds. The purpose of the Ratline is to teach self-control, self-discipline, time-management, and followership as prerequisites for becoming a VMI cadet.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: New freshmen, known collectively as the "Rat Mass," walk along a prescribed line in barracks while maintaining an exaggerated form of attention, called "straining." This experience, called the Rat Line, is intended by the upper classes to instill camaraderie, pride, and discipline into the incoming class. Under this system, the Rats face numerous mental and physical challenges, starting with "Hell Week." During Hell Week, Rats receive basic military instruction from select upper classmen ("Cadre"); they learn to march, to clean their M14 rifle, and to wear their uniforms. During Hell Week, Rats also meet the members of various cadet-run organizations and learn the functions of each.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: At the end of the first week, each Rat is paired with a first classman (senior) who serves as their mentor for the rest of the first year. The first classman is called a "Dyke," reference to an older Southern pronunciation of "to deck out," or to get into a uniform, as one of the roles of the rat is to help prepare their "Dyke's" uniform and dress them for parades. While the Dyke watches out for the Rat and the Rat works for the Dyke in accordance with Institute policy, Cadre still enforce all rules for the Rats. The combination of the warm relationship with the Dykes and the harshness of the school system, with countless push-ups, sweat parties, and runs, is calculated to instill the required military outlook and competence on everyday tasks in the Rats.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The Ratline experience culminates with Resurrection Week ending in "Breakout," an event where the Rats are formally "welcomed" to the VMI community. After the successful completion of Breakout, Rats are officially fourth class students and no longer have to strain in the barracks or eat "square meals." Many versions of the Breakout ceremony have been conducted. In the 1950s, Rats from each company would be packed into a corner room in the barracks and brawl their way out through the upperclassmen. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s the Rats had to fight their way up to the fourth level of the barracks through three other classes of cadets determined not to let them get to the top. The stoops would often be slick with motor oil, packed with snow, glazed with ice, greased, or continuously hosed with water. The barracks stairs and rails were not able to take the abuse, so the Corps moved the breakout to a muddy hill, where Rats attempt to climb to the top by crawling on their stomachs while the upper classes block them or drag them back down. The Rats no longer breakout in the mud but instead participate in a grueling day of physical activity testing both physical endurance and teamwork.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The entire body of Rats during the Ratline is called a "Rat Mass." Since Rats are not officially fourth classmen until after Breakout, the Rat Mass is also not officially considered a graduating class until that time either. Prior to Breakout, the Rat mass is given a different style of year identifier to emphasize this difference. The year identifier starts with the year of the current graduating class (their dykes' class), followed by a "+3" to indicate the anticipated year of their own class. For example, cadets that make up the Class of 2022 were considered the "Rat Mass of 2019+3" as the members of their dykes' class graduated in 2019 and they themselves will graduate three years onward from then.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: In addition to the Ratline, VMI has other traditions that are emblematic of the school and its history including the new cadet oath ceremony, the pageantry of close-order marching, and the nightly playing of "Taps". An event second only to graduation in importance is the "Ring Figure" dance held every November. During their junior year, cadets receive class rings at a ring presentation ceremony followed by a formal dance. Most cadets get two rings, a formal ring and a combat ring; some choose to have the combat ring for everyday wear, and the formal for special occasions.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Every year, VMI honors its fallen cadets with a New Market Day parade and ceremony. These events take place on 15 May, the same day as the Battle of New Market in which VMI cadets fought in 1864 during the Civil War. During this ceremony, the roll is called for cadets who "died on the Field of Honor" and wreaths are placed on the graves of those who died during the Battle of New Market. Since 2021, this ceremony has expanded to also include VMI graduates who have died in service to the United States.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The requirement that all cadets wishing to eat dinner in the mess hall must be present for a prayer was the basis for a lawsuit in 2002 when two cadets sued VMI over the prayer said before dinner. The non-denominational prayer had been a daily fixture since the 1950s. In 2002 the Fourth Circuit ruled the prayer, during an event with mandatory attendance, at a state-funded school, violated the U.S. Constitution. When the Supreme Court declined to review the school's appeal in April 2004, the prayer tradition was stopped.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The tradition of guarding the institute is one of the longest standing and is carried out to this day. Cadets have been posted as sentinels guarding the barracks 24 hours a day, seven days a week while school is in session since the first cadet sentinel, Cadet John B. Strange, and others relieved the Virginia Militia guard team tasked with defending the Lexington Arsenal (that later became VMI) in 1839. The guard team wears the traditional school uniform and each sentinel is armed with an M14 rifle and bayonet.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI is known for its strict honor code, which is as old as the institute and was formally codified in the early 20th century. Under the VMI Honor Code, "a cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do." There is only one punishment for violating the VMI Honor Code: immediate expulsion in the form of a drumming out ceremony of dismissal, in which the entire corps is awakened by drums in barracks and the honor court to hear the formal announcement. VMI is the only military college or academy in the Nation which maintains a single-sanction Honor Code and in recent times, the dismissed cadet is removed from post before the formal announcement is made.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI currently offers over 50 school-sponsored clubs and organizations, including The Cadet, recreational activities, military organizations, musical and performance groups, religious organizations and service groups. Although VMI prohibited cadet membership in fraternal organizations starting in 1885, VMI cadets were instrumental in starting several fraternities. Alpha Tau Omega fraternity was founded by VMI cadets Otis Allan Glazebrook, Alfred Marshall, and Erskine Mayo Ross at Richmond, Virginia on 11 September 1865 while the school was closed for reconstruction.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: After the re-opening, Kappa Sigma Kappa fraternity was founded by cadets on 28 September 1867 and Sigma Nu fraternity was founded by cadets on 1 January 1869. VMI cadets formed the second chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order. In a special arrangement, graduating cadets may be nominated by Kappa Alpha Order alumni and inducted into the fraternity, becoming part of Kappa Alpha Order's Beta Commission (a commission as opposed to an active chapter). This occurs following graduation, and the newly initiated VMI alumni are accepted as brothers of the fraternity.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI fields 14 teams on the NCAA Division I level (FCS, formerly I-AA, for football). Varsity sports include baseball, basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, lacrosse, men's and women's rifle, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's track & field, and wrestling. VMI is a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon) for almost all sports, the MAAC for women's water polo, and the America East Conference for men's and women's swimming & diving. VMI formerly was a member of the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference for rifle, but began the 2016–2017 season as part of the Southern Conference. The VMI team name is the Keydets, a Southern style slang for the word "cadets".


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI has the second-smallest NCAA Division I enrollment of any FCS football college, after Presbyterian College. Approximately one-third of the Corps of Cadets plays on at least one of VMI's intercollegiate athletic teams, making it one of the most active athletic programs in the country. Of the VMI varsity athletes who complete their eligibility, 92 percent receive their VMI degrees.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI played its first football game in 1871. The one-game season was a 4–2 loss to Washington and Lee University. There are no records of a coach or any players for that game. VMI waited another twenty years, until 1891, when head coach Walter Taylor would coach the next football team. The current head football coach at VMI, Scott Wachenheim, was named the 31st head coach on 14 December 2014. The Keydets play their home games out of Alumni Memorial Field at Foster Stadium, built in 1962. VMI won the 2020 Southern Conference Football Championship, their first winning football season since 1981.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Perhaps the most famous athletic story in VMI history was the two-year run of the 1976 and 1977 basketball teams. The 1976 squad advanced within one game of the Final Four before bowing to undefeated Rutgers in the East Regional Final, and in 1977 VMI finished with 26 wins and just four losses, still a school record, and reached the "Sweet 16" round of the NCAA tournament.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: The current VMI basketball team is led by head coach Dan Earl and assistant coaches: Steve Enright and Austin Kenon. Tom Kiely is the director of Basketball Operations.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: VMI's alumni include: former governors of Virginia (Ralph Northam, Westmoreland Davis); the 25th secretary of the Army (Ryan D. McCarthy); a five-star general, secretary of state, secretary of defense, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient (George C. Marshall); Pulitzer Prize winners, 13 Rhodes Scholars, Medal of Honor recipients, an Academy Award winner, an Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner, a martyr recognized by the Episcopal Church, senators and representatives, governors, lieutenant governors, a Supreme Court justice, numerous college and university presidents, many business leaders (presidents and CEOs) and over 285 general and flag officers, including service chiefs for three of the four armed services.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: Two recent chiefs of engineers of the Army Corps of Engineers, Lieutenant Generals Carl A. Strock and Robert B. Flowers, as well as Acting Chief of Engineers Major General "Bo" Temple, were VMI Civil Engineering graduates.


title: Virginia Military Institute

text: A 2007 study by the National Association of College and University Business Officers found that VMI's $343 million endowment was the largest per-student endowment of any U.S. public college in the United States. 35.4 percent of the approximately 12,300 living alumni gave in 2006. Private support covers more than 31 percent of VMI's operating budget; state funds, 26 percent.


title: Sonata form

text: Sonata form (also "sonata-allegro form" or "first movement form") is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century (the early Classical period).


title: Sonata form

text: While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement. The teaching of sonata form in music theory rests on a standard definition and a series of hypotheses about the underlying reasons for the durability and variety of the form—a definition that arose in the second quarter of the 19th century. There is little disagreement that on the largest level, the form consists of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation; however, beneath this general structure, sonata form is difficult to pin down to a single model.


title: Sonata form

text: The standard definition focuses on the thematic and harmonic organization of tonal materials that are presented in an exposition, elaborated and contrasted in a development and then resolved harmonically and thematically in a recapitulation. In addition, the standard definition recognizes that an introduction and a coda may be present. Each of the sections is often further divided or characterized by the particular means by which it accomplishes its function in the form.


title: Sonata form

text: After its establishment, the sonata form became the most common form in the first movement of works entitled "sonata", as well as other long works of classical music, including the symphony, concerto, string quartet, and so on. Accordingly, there is a large body of theory on what unifies and distinguishes practice in the sonata form, both within and between eras. Even works that do not adhere to the standard description of a sonata form often present analogous structures or can be analyzed as elaborations or expansions of the standard description of sonata form.


title: Sonata form

text: According to the "Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", sonata form is "the most important principle of musical form, or formal type, from the Classical period well into the 20th century". As a formal model it is usually best exemplified in the first movements of multi-movement works from this period, whether orchestral or chamber, and has, thus, been referred to frequently as "first-movement form" or "sonata-allegro form" (since the typical first movement in a three- or four-movement cycle will be in allegro tempo). However, as what Grove, following Charles Rosen, calls a "principle"—a typical approach to shaping a large piece of instrumental music—it can be seen to be active in a much greater variety of pieces and genres, from minuet to concerto to sonata-rondo. It also carries with it expressive and stylistic connotations: "sonata style"—for Donald Tovey and other theorists of his time—was characterized by drama, dynamism, and a "psychological" approach to theme and expression.


title: Sonata form

text: Although the Italian term "sonata" often refers to a piece in sonata form, it is important to separate the two. As the title for a single-movement piece of instrumental music—the past participle of "suonare", "to sound", as opposed to "cantata", the past participle of "cantare", "to sing"—"sonata" covers many pieces from the Baroque and mid-18th century that are not "in sonata form". Conversely, in the late 18th century or "Classical" period, the title "sonata" is typically given to a work composed of three or four movements. Nonetheless, this multi-movement sequence is not what is meant by sonata form, which refers to the structure of an individual movement.


title: Sonata form

text: The definition of sonata form in terms of musical elements sits uneasily between two historical eras. Although the late 18th century witnessed the most exemplary achievements in the form, above all from Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a compositional theory of the time did not use the term "sonata form". Perhaps the most extensive contemporary description of the sonata-form type of movement may have been given by the theorist Heinrich Christoph Koch in 1793: like earlier German theorists and unlike many of the descriptions of the form we are used to today, he defined it in terms of the movement's plan of modulation and principal cadences, without saying a great deal about the treatment of themes. Seen in this way, sonata form was closest to binary form, out of which it probably developed.


title: Sonata form

text: The model of the form that is often taught currently tends to be more thematically differentiated. It was originally promulgated by Anton Reicha in "Traité de haute composition musicale" in 1826, by Adolf Bernhard Marx in "Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition" in 1845, and by Carl Czerny in 1848. Marx may be the originator of the term "sonata form". This model was derived from the study and criticism of Beethoven's piano sonatas.


title: Sonata form

text: A sonata-allegro movement is divided into sections. Each section is felt to perform specific functions in the musical argument.


title: Sonata form

text: The term 'sonata form' is controversial and has been called misleading by scholars and composers almost from its inception. Its originators implied that there was a set template to which Classical and Romantic composers aspired, or should aspire. However, sonata form is currently viewed as a model for musical analysis, rather than compositional practice. Although the descriptions on this page could be considered an adequate analysis of many first-movement structures, there are enough variations that theorists such as Charles Rosen have felt them to warrant the plural in 'sonata forms'.


title: Sonata form

text: Through the Romantic period, formal distortions and variations become so widespread (Mahler, Elgar and Sibelius among others are cited and studied by James Hepokoski) that 'sonata form' as it is outlined here is not adequate to describe the complex musical structures that it is often applied to.


title: Sonata form

text: In the context of the many late-Baroque extended binary forms that bear similarities to sonata form, sonata form can be distinguished by the following three characteristics:


title: Sonata form

text: The "introduction" section is optional, or may be reduced to a minimum. If it is extended, it is, in general, slower than the main section and frequently focuses on the dominant key. It may or may not contain material that is later stated in the exposition. The introduction increases the weight of the movement (such as the famous dissonant introduction to Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet, K. 465), and also permits the composer to begin the exposition with a theme that would be too light to start on its own, as in Haydn's Symphony No. 103 ("The Drumroll") and Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Winds Op. 16. The introduction usually is not included in the exposition repeat: the "Pathétique" is a possible counterexample. Much later, Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 (Op. 35) is a clear example where the introduction is also included.


title: Sonata form

text: On occasion, the material of introduction reappears in its original tempo later in the movement. Often, this occurs as late as the coda, as in Mozart's String Quintet in D major, K. 593, Haydn's "Drumroll" Symphony, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 ("Pathétique"), or Schubert's Symphony No. 9 ("Great"). Sometimes it can appear earlier: it occurs at the beginning of the development in the "Pathétique" Sonata, and at the beginning of the recapitulation of Schubert's Symphony No. 1.


title: Sonata form

text: The primary thematic material for the movement is presented in the exposition. This section can be further divided into several sections. The same section in most sonata form movements has prominent harmonic and thematic parallelisms (although in some works from the 19th century and onward, some of these parallelisms are subject to considerable exceptions), which include:


title: Sonata form

text: The exposition is commonly repeated, particularly in classical works, and more likely in solo or chamber works than for concerti. Often, though not always, the last measure or measures of the exposition are slightly different between the repeats, one to point back to the tonic, where the exposition began, and the second to point towards the development.


title: Sonata form

text: In general, the development starts in the same key as the exposition ended, and may move through many different keys during its course. It will usually consist of one or more themes from the exposition altered and on occasion juxtaposed and may include new material or themes—though exactly what is acceptable practice is a point of contention. Alterations include taking material through distant keys, breaking down of themes and sequencing of motifs, and so forth.


title: Sonata form

text: The development varies greatly in length from piece to piece and from time period to time period, sometimes being relatively short compared to the exposition (e.g., the first movement of "Eine kleine Nachtmusik") and in other cases quite long and detailed (e.g., the first movement of the "Eroica" Symphony). Developments in the Classical era are typically shorter due to how much composers of that era valued symmetry, unlike the more expressive Romantic era in which development sections gain a much greater importance. However, it almost always shows a greater degree of tonal, harmonic, and rhythmic instability than the other sections. In a few cases, usually in late Classical and early Romantic concertos, the development section consists of or ends with another exposition, often in the relative minor of the tonic key.


title: Sonata form

text: At the end, the music will usually return to the tonic key in preparation of the recapitulation. (On occasion, it will actually return to the sub-dominant key and then proceed with the same transition as in the exposition.) The transition from the development to the recapitulation is a crucial moment in the work. The last part of the development section is called the "": It prepares for the return of the first subject group in the tonic.


title: Sonata form

text: Exceptions include the first movement of Brahms's Piano Sonata No. 1. The general key of the movement is C major, and it would then follow that the retransition should stress the dominant seventh chord on G. Instead, it builds in strength over the dominant seventh chord on C, as if the music were proceeding to F major, only to take up immediately the first theme in C major. Another exception is the fourth movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 9. The home key of the movement is C major. The retransition prolongates over the dominant chord on G, but suddenly takes up the first theme in the flattened mediant E major.


title: Sonata form

text: A particularly common exception is for the dominant to be substituted with the dominant of the relative minor key: one example is the first movement of Haydn's String Quartet in E major, Op. 54 No. 3.


title: Sonata form

text: Occasionally, the retransition can begin with a false recapitulation, in which the opening material of the first theme group is presented before the development has completed. The surprise that ensues when the music continues to modulate toward the tonic can be used for either comic or dramatic effect. An example occurs in the first movement of Haydn's String Quartet in G major, Op. 76 No. 1.


title: Sonata form

text: Exceptions to the recapitulation form include Mozart and Haydn works that often begin with the second subject group when the first subject group has been elaborated at length in the development. If a theme from the second subject group has been elaborated at length in the development in a resolving key such as the tonic major or minor or the subdominant, it may also be omitted from the recapitulation. Examples include the opening movements of Mozart's piano sonata in C minor, K. 457, and Haydn's String Quartet in G major, Op. 77 No. 1.


title: Sonata form

text: After the closing cadence, the musical argument proper is said to be completed harmonically. If the movement continues, it is said to have a coda.


title: Sonata form

text: The coda is optional in Classical-era works, but became essential in many Romantic works. After the final cadence of the recapitulation, the movement may continue with a coda that will contain material from the movement proper. Codas, when present, vary considerably in length, but like introductions are not generally part of the "argument" of the work in the Classical era. Codas became increasingly important and essential parts of the sonata form in the nineteenth century. The coda often ends with a perfect authentic cadence in the original key. Codas may be quite brief tailpieces, typically in the Classical era, or they may be very long and elaborate. An example of the more extended type is the coda to the first movement of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, and an exceptionally long coda appears at the end of the finale of Beethoven's Symphony No. 8.


title: Sonata form

text: Explanations for why an extended coda is present vary. One reason may be to omit the repeat of the development and recapitulation sections found in earlier sonata forms of the 18th century. Indeed, Beethoven's extended codas often serve the purpose of further development of thematic material and resolution of ideas left unresolved earlier in the movement. Another role that these codas sometimes serve is to return to the minor mode in minor-key movements where the recapitulation proper concludes in the parallel major, as in the first movements of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 or Schumann's Piano Concerto, or rarely, to restore the home key after an off-tonic recapitulation, such as in the first movements of Brahms's Clarinet Quintet and Dvořák's Symphony No. 9.


title: Sonata form

text: It is not necessarily the case that the move to the dominant key in the exposition is marked by a new theme. Haydn in particular was fond of using the opening theme, often in a truncated or otherwise altered form, to announce the move to the dominant, as in the first movement of his Sonata Hob. XVI No. 49 in E major. Mozart also occasionally wrote such expositions: for instance in the Piano Sonata K. 570 or the String Quintet K. 593. Such expositions are often called "monothematic", meaning that one theme serves to establish the opposition between tonic and dominant keys. This term is misleading, since most "monothematic" works have multiple themes: most works so labeled have additional themes in the second subject group. Rarely, as in the fourth movement of Haydn's String Quartet in B major, Op. 50, No. 1, did composers perform the "tour de force" of writing a complete sonata exposition with just one theme. A more recent example is Edmund Rubbra's Symphony No. 2.


title: Sonata form

text: The fact that so-called monothematic expositions usually have additional themes is used by Charles Rosen to illustrate his theory that the Classical sonata form's crucial element is some sort of "dramatization" of the arrival of the dominant. Using a new theme was a very common way to achieve this, but other resources such as changes in texture, salient cadences and so on were also accepted practice.


title: Sonata form

text: In some sonata-form works, especially in the Classical period, there is no transitional material linking the subject groups. Instead, the piece moves straight from the first subject group to the second subject group via common-tone modulation. This happens in the first movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 31 and again in the third movement of his Symphony No. 34. In the exposition, the first subject group ends on a half-cadence in tonic, and the second subject group immediately follows in the dominant key (without a transition).


title: Sonata form

text: The key of the second subject may be something other than the dominant (for a major-mode sonata movement) or relative major (for a minor-key movement). A second option for minor-mode sonata form movements was to modulate to the minor dominant; this option, however, robs the sonata structure of the space of relief and comfort that a major-mode second theme would bring, and was therefore used primarily for a bleak, grim effect, as Beethoven did with some frequency.


title: Sonata form

text: About halfway through his career, Beethoven also began to experiment with other tonal relationships between the tonic and the second subject group. The most common practice, for Beethoven and many other composers from the Romantic era, was to use the mediant or submediant, rather than the dominant, for the second group. For instance, the first movement of the "Waldstein" sonata, in C major, modulates to the mediant E major, while the opening movement of the "Hammerklavier" sonata, in B major, modulates to the submediant G major, and String Quartet No. 13 in the same key modulating to the flattened submediant key of G major. Tchaikovsky also implemented this practice in the last movement of his Symphony No. 2; the movement is in C major and modulates to the flattened submediant A major. The young Chopin even experimented with expositions that do not modulate at all, in the opening movements of his Piano Sonata No. 1 (remaining in C minor throughout) and his Piano Concerto No. 1 (moving from E minor to E major).


title: Sonata form

text: Beethoven began also to use the submediant major with more frequency in minor-key sonata-form movements, as in the first movements of Symphony No. 9, Piano Sonata No. 32, and String Quartets No. 11 and No. 15. The latter case transposes the second repeat of its exposition by a fifth, starting on the minor dominant (instead of the tonic) and finishing on the major mediant (instead of the submediant). The first movement of Richard Strauss's Symphony No. 2, in F minor, modulates to the submediant D minor, as do the F minor first movements of Brahms' first clarinet sonata and piano quintet; all three works balance this downward third by moving up to the major mediant (A major) for the key of the second movement.


title: Sonata form

text: Rarely, a major-mode sonata form movement will modulate to a minor key for the second subject area, such as the mediant minor (Beethoven Sonata Op. 31/1, i), the relative minor (first movements of Beethoven Triple Concerto and Brahms Piano Trio No. 1) or even the minor dominant (Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, i). In such cases, the second theme will often return initially in the tonic minor in the recapitulation, with the major mode restored later on.


title: Sonata form

text: During the late Romantic period, it was also possible to modulate to remote tonal areas to represent divisions of the octave. In the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, the first subject group is in the tonic F minor but modulates to G minor and then to B major for the second subject group. The recapitulation begins in D minor and modulates to F major, and goes back to the parallel F minor for the coda.


title: Sonata form

text: Also in the late Romantic period, it was possible for a minor-key sonata form movement to modulate to the major dominant, as in the first movements of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 and Brahms' Symphony No. 4. Another possibility for minor-key sonata form movements was to modulate to the mediant minor, as in the first movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 1; the second subject group starts in the relative E major and then goes to the parallel mediant E minor.


title: Sonata form

text: The exposition need not only have two key areas. Some composers, most notably Schubert, composed sonata forms with three or more key areas. The first movement of Schubert's Quartet in D minor, D. 810 ("Death and the Maiden"), for example, has three separate key and thematic areas, in D minor, F major, and A minor. Similarly, Chopin's Piano Concerto in F minor uses F minor, A major, and C minor in its first movement's exposition. In both cases, the transition is i–III–v, an elaboration of the minor schema of either using i–III or i–v. This is by no means the only scheme, however: the opening movement of Schubert's Violin Sonata in G minor, D. 408, uses the scheme i–III–VI, and the opening movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 2 in B major, D. 125, uses the scheme I–IV–V. An extreme example is the finale to Schubert's Symphony No. 6, D. 589, which has a six-key exposition (C major, A major, F major, A major, E, and G major), with a new theme for each key.


title: Sonata form

text: The first subject group need not be entirely in the tonic key. In the more complex sonata expositions there can be brief modulations to fairly remote keys, followed by reassertion of the tonic. For example, Mozart's String Quintet in C, K. 515, visits C minor and D major as chromaticism within the C major first subject group, before finally moving to D major, the dominant of the dominant major (G major), preparing the second subject group in the dominant. Many works by Schubert and later composers utilized even further harmonic convolutions. In the first subject group of Schubert's Piano Sonata in B, D. 960, for example, the theme is presented three times, in B major, in G major, and then again in B major. The second subject group is even more wide-ranging. It begins in F minor, moves into A major, then through B major to F major.


title: Sonata form

text: In the recapitulation section, the key of the first subject group may be in a key other than tonic, most often in the subdominant, known as a "subdominant recapitulation". In some pieces by Haydn and Mozart, such as Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C, K. 545, or the finale of his String Quartet No. 14 in G, K. 387, the first subject group will be in the subdominant and then modulate back to tonic for the second subject group and coda. Schubert was a prominent user of the subdominant recapitulation; it appears for example in the opening movements of his Symphonies No. 2 and No. 5, as well as those of his piano sonatas D 279, D 459, D 537, D 575, as well as the finale of D 664. Sometimes this effect is also used for false reprises in the "wrong key" that are soon followed by the actual recapitulation in the tonic, such as in the first movement of Haydn's quartet Op. 76 No. 1 in G (false reprise in the subdominant), or the finale of Schubert's piano sonata in A, D 959 (false reprise in the major submediant). A special case is the recapitulation that begins in the tonic minor, for example in the slow movement of Haydn's quartet Op. 76 No. 4 in E, or the opening movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 47 in G major. In the Classical period, the subdominant is the only possible substitute for the tonic at this position (because any other key would need resolution and would have to be introduced as a false reprise in the development), but with the erosion of the distinction between the sharp and flat directions and the blurring of tonal areas true recapitulations beginning in other keys became possible after around 1825.


title: Sonata form

text: It is also possible for the first subject group to begin in tonic (or a key other than tonic), modulate to another key and then back to tonic for the second subject group. In the finale of the original 1872 version of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, the first subject group begins in the tonic C major, modulates to E major, then through E major, and then modulates back to tonic for the second subject group and coda. And in the last movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C major, the first subject group is in the flattened mediant E major, modulates to the subdominant F major and then back to tonic for the second subject group and coda. It is also possible to have the second subject group in a key other than tonic while the first subject group is in the home key. For instance in the first movement of Richard Strauss's Symphony No. 2 in F minor, the recapitulation begins with the first subject group in tonic but modulates to the mediant A major for the second subject group before modulating back to F minor for the coda. Another example is the first movement of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9. The recapitulation begins in the tonic E minor for the first subject group, but the second subject group modulates to G-sharp minor, then through A-flat major before modulating back to the tonic key for the coda. Romantic works even exhibit progressive tonality in sonata form: for example, the second movement 'Quasi-Faust' from Charles-Valentin Alkan's "Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges'" is in D minor, and while the exposition travels from D to the major subdominant G major, the recapitulation begins again in D minor and ends in the relative major F major, and stays there till the end of the movement. Such a scheme may have been constructed to conform with the programmatic nature of the movement, but also fits well with the Romantic penchant for beginning a work at maximum tension and decreasing the tension afterwards, so that the point of ultimate stability is not reached until the last possible moment. (Furthermore, the identification of a minor key with its relative major is common in the Romantic period, supplanting the earlier Classical identification of a minor key with its parallel major.)


title: Sonata form

text: In some pieces in sonata form, in the recapitulation, the first subject group is omitted, leaving only the second subject group, like the second movement of Haydn's Sonata Hob. XVI/35, as well as the opening movements of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 and No. 3. It is also possible for the first subject group to be slightly different in comparison of the exposition, like the fourth movement of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9. Another example occurs in the finale of Mozart's string quartet K. 387, where the opening of the first subject group is cut, and in the quintet K. 515, where a later portion of the first subject group is cut. On the other hand, it is also possible for the subject groups to be reversed in order, like the fourth movement of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, or the first movement of Mozart's piano sonata in D major, K. 311. The second subject group's melody can be different compared to the exposition, like Haydn's Symphony No. 44. Such melodic adjustment is common in minor-key sonata forms, when the mode of the second subject needs to be changed, for example in the opening movement of Mozart's wind serenade K. 388. In rare cases, the second subject theme can be omitted, as in the finale of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major.


title: Sonata form

text: Occasionally, especially in some Romantic works, the sonata form extends only as far as the end of the exposition, at which point the piece transitions directly into the next movement instead of a development section. One example is Henryk Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor. Another example is Fritz Seitz's Violin Concertos for students, where such a truncated sonata form is used ostensibly to cut down on the first movements' length. Sometimes, the third movement of such works is the recapitulation of the first movement (one example being Franz Strauss' Horn Concerto in C Minor), making the entire work effectively a single-movement sonata.


title: Sonata form

text: Some Classical slow movements involve a different sort of truncation, in which the development section is replaced altogether by a short retransition. This occurs in the slow movements of Mozart's quartets K. 387, K. 458, K. 465, K. 575, and K. 589. It is also common in overtures, occurring for example in Mozart's overture to "Le nozze di Figaro", or Rossini's overture to "Il barbiere di Siviglia". This is distinct from a short development, such as in the opening movement of Mozart's Violin Sonata in G major, K. 379.


title: Sonata form

text: Another instance of a truncated sonata form has the development section completely omitted altogether, and the recapitulation immediately follows the exposition (even without a retransitional passage). This occurs in the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, and is known as sonatina form.


title: Sonata form

text: An important variant on traditional sonata-allegro form is found in the first movement of the Classical concerto. Here, the sonata-allegro's customary 'repeated exposition' is replaced by two different but related sections: the 'tutti exposition' and the 'solo exposition'. Prototypically the 'tutti exposition' does not feature the soloist (except, in early classical works, in a 'continuo' role), and does not contain the decisive sonata-exposition modulation to the secondary key. Only when the 'solo exposition' is under way does the solo instrument assert itself and participate in the move to (classically) the dominant or relative major. The situation is only seemingly different in the case of such late classical works as Beethoven's piano concertos No. 4 and No. 5, where the soloist is heard at the outset: as the later unfolding of those movements makes clear, the opening piano solo or early piano flourishes actually "precede" the start of the exposition proper. This device is also found in an early Mozart concerto, No. 9, as well as in many Romantic concertos, such as Grieg's A minor concerto or Brahms' B major concerto.


title: Sonata form

text: A structural feature that the special textural situation of the concerto makes possible is the 'ownership' of certain themes or materials by the solo instrument; such materials will thus not be exposed until the 'solo' exposition. Mozart was fond of deploying his themes in this way.


title: Sonata form

text: Towards the end of the recapitulation of a concerto movement in sonata form, there is usually a cadenza for the soloist alone. This has an improvisatory character (it may or may not actually be improvised), and, in general, serves to prolong the harmonic tension on a dominant-quality chord before the orchestra ends the piece in the tonic.


title: Sonata form

text: Some may decline the existence of "double exposition" - they would say the first subject theme actually extends far out from the start of the "tutti exposition" to the first subject of the "solo exposition", meaning there is only one exposition.


title: Sonata form

text: The term "sonata" is first found in the 17th century, when instrumental music had just begun to become increasingly separated from vocal music. The original meaning of the term (derived from the Italian word "suonare", to sound on instrument) referred to a piece for playing, distinguished from "cantata", a piece for singing. At this time, the term implies a binary form, usually AABB with some aspects of three part forms. Early examples of simple pre-Classical sonata forms include Pergolesi's Trio Sonata No. 3 in G major.


title: Sonata form

text: The Classical era established the norms of structuring first movements and the standard layouts of multi-movement works. There was a period of a wide variety of layouts and formal structures within first movements that gradually became expected norms of composition. The practice of Haydn and Mozart, as well as other notable composers, became increasingly influential on a generation that sought to exploit the possibilities offered by the forms that Haydn and Mozart had established in their works. In time, theory on the layout of the first movement became more and more focused on understanding the practice of Haydn, Mozart and, later, Beethoven. Their works were studied, patterns and exceptions to those patterns identified, and the boundaries of acceptable or usual practice set by the understanding of their works. The sonata form as it is described is strongly identified with the norms of the Classical period in music. Even before it had been described, the form had become central to music making, absorbing or altering other formal schemas for works. Examples include Beethoven's "Appassionata" sonata.


title: Sonata form

text: The Romantic era in music was to accept the centrality of this practice, codify the form explicitly and make instrumental music in this form central to concert and chamber composition and practice, in particular for works that were meant to be regarded as "serious" works of music. Various controversies in the 19th century would center on exactly what the implications of "development" and sonata practice actually meant, and what the role of the Classical masters was in music. It is ironic that, at the same time that the form was being codified (by the likes of Czerny and so forth), composers of the day were writing works that flagrantly violated some of the principles of the codified form.


title: Sonata form

text: It has continued to be influential through the subsequent history of classical music through to the modern period. The 20th century brought a wealth of scholarship that sought to found the theory of the sonata form on basic tonal laws. The 20th century would see a continued expansion of acceptable practice, leading to the formulation of ideas by which there existed a "sonata principle" or "sonata idea" that unified works of the type, even if they did not explicitly meet the demands of the normative description.


title: Sonata form

text: Sonata form shares characteristics with both binary form and ternary form. In terms of key relationships, it is very like binary form, with a first half moving from the home key to the dominant and the second half moving back again (this is why sonata form is sometimes known as "compound binary form"); in other ways it is very like ternary form, being divided into three sections, the first (exposition) of a particular character, the second (development) in contrast to it, the third section (recapitulation) the same as the first.


title: Sonata form

text: The early binary sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti provide excellent examples of the transition from binary to sonata-allegro form. Among the many sonatas are numerous examples of the true sonata form being crafted into place.


title: Sonata form

text: The sonata form is a guide to composers as to the schematic for their works, for interpreters to understand the grammar and meaning of a work, and for listeners to understand the significance of musical events. A host of musical details are determined by the harmonic meaning of a particular note, chord or phrase. The sonata form, because it describes the shape and hierarchy of a movement, tells performers what to emphasize, and how to shape phrases of music. Its theory begins with the description, in the 18th century, of schematics for works, and was codified in the early 19th century. This codified form is still used in the pedagogy of the sonata form.


title: Sonata form

text: In the 20th century, emphasis moved from the study of themes and keys to how harmony changed through the course of a work and the importance of cadences and transitions in establishing a sense of "closeness" and "distance" in a sonata. The work of Heinrich Schenker and his ideas about "foreground", "middleground", and "background" became enormously influential in the teaching of composition and interpretation. Schenker believed that inevitability was the key hallmark of a successful composer, and that, therefore, works in sonata form should demonstrate an inevitable logic.


title: Sonata form

text: In the simplest example, playing of a cadence should be in relationship to the importance of that cadence in the overall form of the work. More important cadences are emphasized by pauses, dynamics, sustaining and so on. False or deceptive cadences are given some of the characteristics of a real cadence, and then this impression is undercut by going forward more quickly. For this reason, changes in performance practice bring changes to the understanding of the relative importance of various aspects of the sonata form. In the Classical era, the importance of sections and cadences and underlying harmonic progressions gives way to an emphasis on themes. The clarity of strongly differentiated major and minor sections gives way to a more equivocal sense of key and mode. These changes produce changes in performance practice: when sections are clear, then there is less need to emphasize the points of articulation. When they are less clear, greater importance is placed on varying the tempo during the course of the music to give "shape" to the music.


title: Sonata form

text: Over the last half-century, a critical tradition of examining scores, autographs, annotations, and the historical record has changed, sometimes subtly, on occasion dramatically, the way the sonata form is viewed. It has led to changes in how works are edited; for example, the phrasing of Beethoven's piano works has undergone a shift to longer and longer phrases that are not always in step with the cadences and other formal markers of the sections of the underlying form. Comparing the recordings of Schnabel, from the beginning of modern recording, with those of Barenboim and then Pratt shows a distinct shift in how the structure of the sonata form is presented to the listener over time.


title: Sonata form

text: For composers, the sonata form is like the plot of a play or movie script, describing when the crucial plot points are, and the kinds of material that should be used to connect them into a coherent and orderly whole. At different times the sonata form has been taken to be quite rigid, and at other times a freer interpretation has been considered permissible.


title: Sonata form

text: In the theory of sonata form it is often asserted that other movements stand in relation to the sonata-allegro form, either, per Charles Rosen that they are really "sonata forms", plural—or as Edward T. Cone asserts, that the sonata-allegro is the ideal to which other movement structures "aspire". This is particularly seen to be the case with other movement forms that commonly occur in works thought of as sonatas. As a sign of this the word "sonata" is sometimes prepended to the name of the form, in particular in the case of the sonata rondo form. Slow movements, in particular, are seen as being similar to sonata-allegro form, with differences in phrasing and less emphasis on the development.


title: Sonata form

text: However, Schoenberg and other theorists who used his ideas as a point of departure see the theme and variations as having an underlying role in the construction of formal music, calling the process "continuing variation", and argue from this idea that the sonata-allegro form is a means of structuring the continuing variation process. Theorists of this school include Erwin Ratz and William E. Caplin.


title: Sonata form

text: Subsections of works are sometimes analyzed as being in sonata form, in particular single movement works, such as the "Konzertstück in F minor" of Carl Maria von Weber.