Form
Sonata Form: The Tonal Plot
Sonata form is a tonal argument, not a set of labelled boxes. What matters is which key you are in, and how the music gets home again.
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Glossary
Articles
Form
Rondo Form: How Refrains and Episodes Structure a Movement
Rondo form alternates a returning refrain with contrasting episodes. Learn classical key plans, sonata-rondo hybrids, and why refrains return altered.
Counterpoint
Canon Types and Techniques: Rounds to Crab Canons
Strict and free canon, interval and time distance, inversion and crab canons: how canons work and how to write a singable one.
Form
Theme and Variations Form: Ornament to Transformation
How variation form works: the fixed theme, ornamental and character variations, and strategies from Haydn to Beethoven.
Counterpoint
Imitation and Invertible Counterpoint
Imitation makes one idea serve two lines. Invertible counterpoint makes those lines interchangeable, and the arithmetic behind it is small enough to check.