Much of the great music of the past endures because it gives form and voice to human dramas--dramas that are played out again and again in every generation. The dramatic principle of the sonata provides a set of boundaries within which an infinity of stories may unfold. The stories may have little in common, and yet the sonata principal will provide structre, much as the way rules of order in a courtroom can a(??)--and at best help illuminate--an endless parade of ?? contents from traffic arguments to murder.