.

THE SONATINE FORM.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE LARGER FORMS .-- The Sonatine form is the smaller variety of two practically kindred designs, known collectively as the Sonata-allegro forms.

In order to obtain a clear conception of its relation to the latter, and also to the Rondo-forms, it is necessary to subject the entire group of so-called "higher" forms to a brief comparison.
The larger, broader, or "higher" designs of musical composition are divided into two classes: the three _Rondo-forms_, and the two _Sonata-allegro forms_.

The latter constitute the superior of the two classes, for the following reasons:-- In the first place, the rondos rest upon a narrower thematic basis, centering in one single theme--the Principal one--about which the other themes revolve.

Further, their most salient structural feature is nothing more significant than simple _alternation_ (of the Principal theme with its one or more Subordinates) the Principal theme recurs after each digression with a persistence that lends a certain one-sidedness to the form,--only excepting in the Third (and highest) Rondo-form, which, by virtue of its broad Recapitulation of the first Division, approaches most nearly the rank of the Sonata-allegro design, as will be seen.
In the Sonata-allegro forms, on the other hand, the leading purpose is _to unite two co-ordinate themes upon an equal footing_; one is to appear as often as the other; and the two themes _together_ constitute the thematic basis of the design.