Everything you always wanted to know about the sonata, but were afraid to ask, answered at surprising length and with copious musical illustrations. Sonatas are generally thought of as being always organized into exposition, development, and recapitulation, but, writes Rosen, "...it is very dubious that a unique sonata form can be so defined even for a single decade of the late eighteenth-century," and he goes on to prove why it can't. Important reading for the serious musician.