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I just read this chapter and found it very interesting. I don't know that I quite agree with everything Naveh argues, but I do very much like his approach - trying to take what we are told of the Ainulindale and analyse it from a formal perspective. And of course, since the Ainulindale is in a way a sort of blueprint for the history of Arda, in doing so one also analyses the form of the whole narrative.
At first I didn't quite buy the analogy with sonata form. If you ask me, perhaps the most crucial aspect of sonata form is that it concludes with the recapitulation of the initial themes. As Naveh himself points out, there is no such recapitulation in the Ainulindale; the music proceeds through Iluvatar's first theme, then his second, then his third, and is then stopped.
But later Naveh does make an effort to better fit sonata form to the narrative by looking for a recapitulation. One possibility in particular, which he hints at but does not discuss at length, greatly appeals to me. That is: suppose the recapitulation is the second and greater music that is prophesied to come after the end of Arda. We are told that then Iluvatar's themes 'shall be played aright'. This description could just as well be applied to the recapitulation in sonata form, when both themes of the exposition are played in the 'right' key. Naveh points out that the final chord in the Ainulindale brings to mind the climax of a development section and a grand pause before the recapitulation. Granted, for Haydn or Mozart a grand pause that lasts until the end of the world would be going a bit far, but maybe for Iluvatar it's the equivalent of just a measure of 4/4 time.
One could take this a step further. In sonata form, the exposition is traditionally repeated - that is, played through twice before moving on to the development. Sometimes a repeat is also written for the whole development and recapitulation. There is no repeat in the song of the Ainur. But isn't the whole history of Arda a repitition, in a way, of their song? Naveh seems to lean toward considering the history of Arda the recapitulation, but it seems to me rather to be the repetition of the exposition (for the themes are not yet played 'aright').
There are still significant differences between this and the usual sonata form. Most notably, there appears to be no clear distinction between the exposition and the development. Rather, it's as though those two sections were combined; for the 'strife' introduced by Melkor (which is suggestive of a development section) does not wait until after Iluvatar's three themes are introduced but rather enters during the first theme and continues through the other two. So what we have is, perhaps, not quite sonata form but a kindred form that is similar in spirit if not in detail.
What is intriguing about this is that, considering the nature of the Ainulindale, in analysing its formal structure we are also analysing the formal structure of the whole of Arda's history. One could perhaps say:
Arda Unmarred = Exposition
Arda Marred = Development
Arda Remade = Recapitulation
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