65: Rondo (rondeau) form

The next form I want to talk about is the Rondo. You may not know it by name, but I guarantee you’ve heard a Rondo, because I guarantee you’ve heard this piece at least once before: Rondo Alla Turca- Mozart - YouTube. (It's interesting far beyond its use as an exemplar of rondo form, so for sure it'll get its own article in the future explaining why.)

What makes a rondo (sometimes “rondeau” as in French—like in this case, also quite famous: Henry Purcell: Rondeau from Abdelazer (Z570), Voices of Music; performed on original instruments 4K) a rondo is the repetition of an idea surrounded by others.

Usually, the form of a rondo is something like ABACABA; it’s both (usually) symmetrical (ABA on either side of a C: ABACABA) and (usually) the A theme is the one that repeats the most often (ABACABA—4 As, compared to only 2 Bs and 1 C.)

But in the case of the Mozart, it’s not actually A that repeats over and over, but B, so it looks more like ABCBAB'D: the opening minor section; the second theme in major; an exploration of C# and F# minors that briefly passes through A major, in a flurry of sixteenths; the major theme again; the opening theme again; the major theme in broken octaves; and a short coda.

We get major theme this a few times:

Instead of the minor A theme being the core of the rondo, and we even get it in broken octaves right before the final coda, like this:

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