ABO – Sonata Form

What does sonata form, a musical form from classical music, have to do with a novel? A Billionaire’s Odyssey is about the attempt of a divorced couple to regain their lost love. I viewed a husband and his divorced wife as separate themes in the novel. But that is what a sonata is, a playing of themes against each other to produce a resolution.

A Sonata is a musical structure popularized in the middle of the eighteenth century. It begins with an Exposition section, in which two themes are introduced, often in the pattern A, B, Aʹ, Bʹ. These themes are often in conflict with one another. A Development section follows in which the themes are developed, often through comparison, contrast, variation, and the use of secondary themes. In the Recapitulation section, the themes are restated, and conflicts are resolved. A Coda brings the piece to a conclusion. These musical sections flow from one to the next without pauses; it is up to the listener to separate them mentally if he or she cares to do so.

Truthfully, it was a bit of a struggle to force the novel into strict sonata format. My goal was to give Roland and Lillian approximately the same number of sections of text, interspersed throughout the length of the novel. Following the advice of my editor, I abandoned the attempt and restructured the novel as a sequence of simple chapters. However, look at the first chapter; it is an Exposition in A, B, A’, B’ format, where A is Roland and B is Lillian. Development, Resolution, and Coda sections follow if you care to think in those terms.

While it was a bit of a stretch to apply sonata form to a novel, it is what I had in mind as I wrote A Billionaire’s Odyssey. I will leave it to readers to decide how successful this experiment has been.

Questions:

Why shouldn’t musical forms be used for literary works? Why not also consider Theme and variations, Rondo, or Binary forms?