Question

What muscial form preceded the sonata allegro form that was often considered dramatic and rewarding.

Answer 1

Considered Dramatic and Rewarding, by whom.

In the Baroque period, Handel did some da capo arias, in the ABA form, among which http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1xlYIoekE8 most of us find dramtatic and rewarding.

Bach wrote in the ABA form, da capo arias, also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_aIAPGEDvE is to me dramatic.

Bach's fugue often used a variation of the ABA form, in four parts, typically.
Here is one of his few ABA in three parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxuMO1-WWvA

Answer 2

symphonie fantastique, which depicts an artist's execution by guillotine, was written by the nineteenth century composer