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Secondary development
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A secondary development, in music, is a section that appears in certain musical movements

written in sonata form. The secondary development resembles a development section in its musical
texture, but is shorter and occurs as a kind of excursion within the recapitulation section.

Charles Rosen, who has written extensively on the concept, presents the idea as follows:

The Secondary Development section appears in the great majority of late eighteenth century
works soon after the beginning of the recapitulation and often with the second phrase.
Sometimes it is only a few bars long, sometimes very extensive indeed. The purpose of this
section is to lower harmonic tension without sacrificing interest: it introduces an allusion to
the subdominant or to the related "flat" keys.[1]

The significance of the use of subdominant or similar harmony is related to Rosen's general views
on sonata form, in which the exposition section creates a sense of musical tension by moving to the
dominant key (which lies upward from the home key by one on the circle of fifths). This tension
which is "resolved" in the recapitulation by the return to the tonic.[2] The use of the subdominant in
secondary developments, a downward move from the tonic on the circle, provides a sort of
balance.[3] As Rosen says, "it is the restoration of harmonic equilibrium as well as the need for
variation that gives the Secondary Development its function."[4]

Sometimes the secondary development serves a rather mechanical structural function. In a

recapitulation, the musical material that was laid out in the exposition is restated so as to occur
entirely (or almost so) in the main key. Thus some kind of alteration is needed to keep the music in
the original key, at the spot that corresponds to the place in the exposition where the music changed
key. Many secondary developments are placed where they can serve this function.[5] Rosen
emphasizes, however, that facilitating the arrangement of keys is not the only or even primary
function of a secondary development. As evidence he notes that "the Secondary Development as
often as not returns to one of the themes of the first group, which necessitates a still further change
later in the section in order to bring the second group into the tonic."[1] As an example Rosen cites
Beethoven's "Waldstein" sonata, op. 53.

The secondary development sometimes forms a passage of great drama, even the dramatic climax
of the movement. For one such instance, see Rosen's discussion of the secondary development in
the opening movement of Haydn's string quartet in B minor, Op. 33 no. 1.[6]

Notes
1. Rosen (1988, 289)
2. For discussion see Rosen (1997, Chap. 1).

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Secondary development - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_development

3. The same is true for the "related 'flat' keys" mentioned in the quotation above, which lie even lower on
the circle than the subdominant; Rosen (1997, 24)
4. Rosen (1988, 290)
5. Secondary developments of this type occur, for instance, in Haydn's string quartet Op. 33 No. 5,
Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 49 No. 2, and Mozart's piano sonata K. 333.
6. Rosen (1997, 117-118)

References
Rosen, Charles (1988). Sonata Forms (2nd edition). W. W. Norton & Co. Ltd.
ISBN 978-0-393-30219-6.
Rosen, Charles (1997). The Classical Style, 2nd ed. Norton. ISBN 978-0-571-22812-6.

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