Teaching Sonata Expositions Through Their Order of Cadences

Abstract

The accepted approach to teaching sonata expositions is through their key scheme from the home key to the new key. But demonstrating this key scheme without a strong emphasis on cadences can lead to problems when students are asked to identify the sections of an exposition, since changes in key do not usually coincide with its main divisions. This article therefore proposes a system adapts the work of William E. Caplin to focus not just on the key and type of the cadences, but more importantly the order in which they may be deployed in an exposition.