At higher grades you must be able to discuss with the examiner musical features such as texture, form, style, and period of a piece of music. My own web pages to help with these parts of the test at Grade 5+ and at GCSE are available here!
Sonata form is often found in the first movement of a sonata, symphony or quartet.
Sonata form has a number of new or more important elements:
Within the exposition:
- 1st subject
- bridge
- 2nd subject
- repeat
Within the recapitulation:
- first subject
- bridge
- 2nd subject
- coda
However to the ear it may sound more like ternary form:
- exposition
- development
- recapitulation
Beethoven Sonata No 1
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F major, Opus 2 is a good example. Listen to or play the first movement now.
If you can, note down the counter time for when the new subjects appear, and the main sections start.
Beethoven Sonata No 4 in E flat, Opus 7
This is a more complex example. The second subject is quite developed in itself, containing several ideas, with their own style and sometimes key.