A concerto is a piece of music written for orchestra and a soloist.

The orchestra
plays and then the soloist would come in, and then they would play together. Concertos
in the classical period were written for a wide range of soloists and sometimes for more
than one. One of Mozart’s piano concertos was written for three pianos to be played by
an emperor, his wife and daughter. A sonata is the name of a piece with typically three
sections (called movements) with the first movement being in sonata form. Sonata form
was pretty much the classical standard for writing for the sole reason that it is very easy
for the ear to follow. In sonata form, a movement starts off with an exposition. In the
exposition, all of the themes/motifs (melodies) are introduced in a simple and effective
manner. The ‘cast of characters’ don’t interact until later in the piece, but are rather
presented one by one for the listener to become familiar so they can recognize them later
on. The soloist doesn’t appear in the exposition; instead the orchestra introduces all of the
themes so that the soloist has more room to shine. The main theme is always in the tonic
(the home chord of the key signature). The main theme is presented first and has a
unique and recognizable orchestration. This means that the composer has certain
instruments play with each other in order to reach a desired texture. A flute doubled with
a violin has a distinctly soft and vivacious sound, while a bassoon doubled with an oboe
has a characteristically melancholy sound. With this taken into consideration, a composer
of the sonata would then take his themes and orchestrate them to reach the mood of his
choice. After all, at a horse race, it wouldn’t exactly be regal to hear the horn call being
played on a flute.

Connecting the themes in the exposition is not an easy task. This was one of my
roadblocks in composition. In order to connect them, one must write in between two
themes. It is a good idea not to write any material of great significance in this ‘no man’s
land’ so the listener doesn’t get too overwhelmed with material. So the themes are
gathered, orchestrated and colored, organized and connected, and then die off at the end
of the ritornello (the name for the orchestral opening, usually encompassing the entire
exposition of a concerto).

The most fun part came when I was able to develop the themes I worked so hard
to create. At about two minutes and six seconds into the concerto, my development
section begins. The piano starts by playing the main theme from the very beginning. The
orchestra comes in with the same theme and then again, until a small deviation appears
leading directly back into the main theme in the piano. The development continues all
the way through until seven minutes when I wrap it up by making things very interesting.
I took all of the themes from the exposition and had them play all at once. This is called
a ‘fugato’. A fugue is a piece based entirely off of the idea of having various themes
(called subjects) being played at the same time, however it is called a fugato when it
appears inside of a bigger piece (in this case, a concerto). This is typically a very difficult
thing to make work, but it turned out that these are very versatile themes. After the
fugato culminates, there is a downward scale in flute and bass leading right about into the
main theme for the recapitulation.
 After the chaos dies off, the recapitulation takes its place. The main theme is
restated just like the restatement of a thesis only this time the orchestra shares the
spotlight with the soloist. Typically in Mozart, there would be a bravura in the
development section (a fancy, memorable, and sometimes beautiful harmonic sequence)
that would appear again in the recapitulation. When it appears again, it usually appears in
a different register (higher or lower on the piano) to give it a different color. When the
sequence is over, a trill is generally heard by the soloist and the recapitulation comes to a
close in the same way the exposition had.

There are three sections in sonata form: the exposition, the development, and the
recapitulation. This organization is strikingly similar to that of the standard essay format
and makes it very easy for the listener to know where they are in the music at all times
based on what they are hearing. If the listener heard a piano and orchestra ‘call and
response’ section, he might think of the development section. If the listener heard a
beautiful melody being played by the soloist, he would probably think it is the bravura
and would need to listen further to deduce which appearance it is. If the listener heard an
extended orchestral passage, it is probably the exposition since there is no soloist being
heard.

The movement I wrote for my Mozart project follows strict sonata form. It has an
exposition, development, and recapitulation. I wrote a cadenza for the soloist which is
just a showy passage for piano before the end of the piece. I don’t plan on finishing the
concerto, but if I were to continue I would write a second movement (usually at a slower
tempo) as well as a third movement (finale; usually very fast). I scored the concerto for
twelve parts: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, timpani, piano, violin I, violin II, viola,
and cello/bass. Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto for example was scored for flute, clarinet,
bassoon, horn, piano and strings. I added an extra oboe and timpani part to add more
color to the orchestration.