This chapter draws analogies between the ‘syntax’ of Mozart's sonatas and the rhetorical elocutio, that is, the detailed construction of sentences and the shaping of language by figurae. Elocutio (style or expression) is considered at length in all the major rhetorical texts of classical antiquity. The acquisition of good style was regarded as the pinnacle of an orator's training. At its most basic, elocutio required of an orator first, a good command of grammar and secondly, presentational ‘polish’. Cicero, regarded by his contemporaries as one of the most polished of speakers, recommended that especial care be taken to avoid ugly juxtapositions of words:

A musical equivalent of this is care in the part-writing (correct resolution of dissonances, and so forth) and in the harmonic progression (avoiding such solecisms as ‘dead’ beats, in which there is no harmonic change from a weak to a strong beat, for example). Careful regulation of these elements ‘produces a well-knit, connected style, with a smooth and even flow’ by ensuring that successive melodic and harmonic terms are connected ‘in such a way as to avoid either harsh collision or awkward hiatus’.