The Pianoforte Sonata Part 2

GReTRY, Belgian composer (1741-1813), wrote "Six sonates pour le clavecin" (1768), to which, unfortunately, we have not been able to gain access.

From the two collections, etc., may be gathered many facts of interest. First, as regards the number and character of movements in a sonata. Emanuel Bach kept, for the most part, to three: two fast movements, divided by a slow one.[23] In the second of his Leipzig collections (1780), there are two with only two movements (Nos. 2 and 3; a few bars connecting the two movements of No. 3). But among other composers there are many examples; in some sonatas, the first movement is a slow one; in others, both movements are quick, in which case the second one is frequently a minuet.[24] All twelve sonatas of Paradies have only two movements.

Of sonatas in three movements, some commence with a slow movement followed by two quick movements.[25] (In one instance, in E. Bach's sonatas, the 1st Collection, No. 2, in F, we even find two slow movements followed by a quick one, Andante, Larghetto, Allegro a.s.sai.) But the greater number had the usual order:--Allegro or Allegretto, Andante or Adagio, and Allegro or Presto. Thus Ha.s.se, Nichelmann, Benda, and other composers. Now in E. Bach's Wurtemberg sonatas we found all three movements were in the same key, and there are similar cases in Ha.s.se, Fried. Bach, Joh. Ernst Bach, etc.; but for the most part, the middle (slow) movement was in some nearly related key; in a sonata commencing in major--in the relative, or tonic minor, or minor under-dominant; and even (as in a sonata by Adlga.s.ser) in the upper-dominant. Joh. C.F. Bach, in one instance, selected the minor key of the upper-dominant, and there are examples of more remote keys (E. Bach, Coll. of 1780, No. 1). With sonatas commencing in minor, the key selected for the middle movement was generally the relative major of the under-dominant, or that of the tonic; sometimes even tonic major. A very extraordinary example of a remote key is to be met with in Bach's Collection of 1779, No. 3: his opening movement is B minor, but his middle one, G minor.[26]

It should be mentioned with regard to sonatas in three movements commencing in a minor key, that the last generally (in works of this period) remains and ends in minor. In modern sonatas the major is often found, at any rate before the close (see Beethoven, Op. 10, No.

1, etc.).

Balda.s.sare Galuppi, born in 1706 on the island of Burano, near Venice, was a pupil of Lotti's. Two sets of six "Sonate per il cembalo" of his were published in London. We cannot give the date, but may state that a sonata of his in ma.n.u.script bears the date 1754 (whether of copy or composition is uncertain; anyhow, the year given acts as limit). The variety in the number of the movements of the published sonatas (one has four, some have three, some two, while No. 2 of the first set has only one) points to a period of transition. This alone, apart from the freshness and charm of the music, ent.i.tles them to notice. Much of the writing is thin (only two parts), and, technically, the music far less interesting than the Scarlatti pieces.

Some of the phrases and figures, and the occasional employment of the Alberti ba.s.s, tell, however, of the new era soon about to be inaugurated by Haydn. There is one little feature in the 1st Sonata of the first set which may be mentioned. In the second section of the Adagio (a movement in binary form) of that sonata, the theme appears, as usual then, at the beginning of the second section, and, later on, reappears in the princ.i.p.al key, but it starts on the fourth, instead of the eighth quaver of the bar.

There was great variety in the order of movements. Sometimes a slow movement was followed by two quick movements;[27] and the third movement was frequently a minuet. The quick movement sometimes came in the middle (Galuppi, Sonata in B flat), sometimes at the beginning (E. Bach, Coll. 1781, No. 3), sometimes at the end (E. Bach, Coll.

1779, No. 2). Then, again, sometimes all, but frequently two of the three movements, were connected, _i.e._ the one pa.s.sed to the other without break.

So much for sonatas in two or three movements. But among the _Oeuvres melees_ there are no less than twenty which have four movements--some in the old order: slow, fast, slow, fast; others in a new order: Allegro, Andante or Adagio, Minuet, and Allegro or Presto.[28] Thus Wagenseil,[29] Houpfeld, J.E. Bach, Hengsberger, and Kehl. Sometimes (as in Seyfert and Goldberg) the Minuet came immediately after the Allegro[30] (see Beethoven chapter with regard to position of Minuet or Scherzo in his sonatas). In a sonata by Schaffrath, the opening Allegro is followed by a Fugue. Again (in Spitz, Zach, and Fischer) the following order is found: Allegro, Andante, Allegro, Minuet. In Fischer all the movements are in one key; only the Trio of the Minuet is in the tonic minor. In Spitz the Andante is in the under-dominant, the other movements being in the princ.i.p.al key. In Zach the Andante is in the minor tonic, and the third movement in the upper-dominant. It is well to notice that _in none of these four-movement sonatas are the movements connected_. The same thing is to be observed in Beethoven, with exception, perhaps, of Op. 110. In the _Oeuvres melees_ there is only one instance of a sonata in _five_ movements by Umstatt. It consists of an Allegro, Adagio (in the dominant), Fugue Allegro (in the relative of dominant), a Minuet in the princ.i.p.al key, with Trio in relative minor; and, finally, a Presto. By way of contrast, we may recall the two sonatas of Ha.s.se, in one movement, already mentioned, and also the last of Emanuel Bach's six sonatas of 1760.

The works of many of the composers named in connection with differences in the number and order of movements are forgotten; and, in some cases, indeed, their names are not even thought worthy of a place in musical dictionaries. Yet these variations are of great moment in the history of development. And this for a double reason.

First, many of the works must have been known to E. Bach, and yet he seems to have remained, up to the last, faithful to the three-movement plan. One or two of his sonatas have only two movements, none, however, has four. Secondly, the experiment of extending the number to more than three, practically pa.s.sed unheeded by Dussek, Clementi, Mozart,[31] Haydn,[32] and by all the composers of importance until Beethoven. The last-named commenced with sonatas in four movements; but, as will be seen in a later chapter, he afterwards became partial to the scheme of three movements.

Let us now consider, and quite briefly, movements in binary form; again, in this matter, some instructive facts will be gathered from the works of Bach's contemporaries. As in Scarlatti, so here we find the first of the two sections into which such a movement is divided, ending in one case[33] in the tonic, but, as a rule, in the dominant.

There is, however, an instance of the close in the under-dominant (Muthel, No. 2 of the Sonatas of 1780), and in E. Bach, in the relative minor of the under-dominant (Sonatas of 1780, No. 3, Finale).

In a minor key, the first section closed either in the key of the relative major, or that of the dominant minor[34]--much more frequently the former.

Now, in proportion as the second part of the first section grew more definite, so also did the approach to it. Everyone knows the pause so frequently to be found in Haydn and Mozart, on the dominant of the dominant, _i.e._ if the key of the piece were C--

[Music ill.u.s.tration]

It is instructive to compare the less formal methods of approaching the new key in E. Bach and his contemporary Paradies; with them it was generally by means of a half-close. It must be remembered that E. Bach frequently has a movement quite on Scarlatti lines, _i.e._ without a definite second subject;[35] also that the second subject in Bach's time was, as a rule, of secondary importance. But, curiously, in the Finale of a sonata written by Leopold Mozart (father of the great genius), after a half cadence on the dominant of the dominant, _tempo_ and measure change (from Presto two-four, to Andante three-four, the latter remaining until the end of the first section), and the same occurs in the recapitulation section; by this means the second theme was made specially prominent. In a sonata of Scarlatti's, in D, commencing

[Music ill.u.s.tration]

there is a definite second subject in, by the way, the minor key of the dominant, and it is divided from the first by two bars in common time (a descending scale and a shake on a semibreve). And then again, in No. 12 of the "Libro de XII. Sonatas Modernas para Clavicordio,"

the second subject is divided from the first by two bars of common time (the piece is in Scarlatti's favourite measure, three-eight), an ascending scale and a shake. There are clear examples of a second subject, besides E. Bach, in Eberlin, Fleischer, J.C. Bach, and J.C.F.

Bach. Yet even in Haydn's sonatas one cannot always speak of a second subject. The further history of the development of the contents of the second half of the first section shows, as it were, a struggle between two ideals. One was _kins.h.i.+p_, _i.e._ the endeavour to present the secondary matter in strong relations.h.i.+p to the opening one (the opening notes or bars of a real second subject were, indeed, frequently the same, allowance being made, of course, for difference of key); the other was _contrast_, _i.e._ the endeavour to obtain variety. Haydn was more affected by the first; Mozart by the second.

In Beethoven the two are happily combined. It is important to notice the closing bars of many first sections of the period of which we are speaking. For instance, in E. Bach, the first movement of the sonata in each of the Collections of 1781 and 1783 has a concluding theme (as in the sonata of Scarlatti, and frequently evolved from the opening theme). Though in the complementary key, it cannot count as "the second subject." It appears after the complementary key has been ushered in by one cadence, and after having apparently run its course, it has been wound up by another. Then, again, the portion between the cadences just mentioned is at times filled with a true theme, so that the concluding one, like the cave of Abraham's field of Machpelah, is in reality an appendency. _Sometimes there are several_: the enlargement of the exposition section by Beethoven, and still more modern composers, so that it contains sometimes three, and even more themes, is practically an exposition section on Scarlatti lines, only on a larger scale: the figure has become a phrase, mere connecting pa.s.sages have acquired organic meaning. The second section of Scarlatti's movement in binary form contained a few bars of development and modulation. Then a return was made to the opening key of the piece, _but never to the opening theme_; and in that key a portion more or less great, more or less varied, according to circ.u.mstances, was repeated. That return to the opening theme is, as we have already said, the landmark which divides binary from sonata form.

In sonatas of the middle of the eighteenth century the modulation section (in a major key) ended in various ways,--on the dominant chord (of the princ.i.p.al key), on the tonic chord of the relative minor, the under-dominant, or even on the tonic itself of the princ.i.p.al key. Later on, Haydn and Mozart kept, for the most part, to the dominant chord. Beethoven, on account of the distant, and often abrupt, modulations of his middle sections, generally marked the approach to the recapitulation by clear, and often prolonged, dominant harmony; sometimes, however, the return of the princ.i.p.al theme comes as a surprise. The recapitulation always remained more or less faithful to the exposition. It is interesting to note how little the character and contents of the recapitulation section have been affected in modern times by the growth of the development section. In the matter of balance the two sections of movements in binary form are more satisfactory than the two sections (two, so far as outward division is concerned) of modern sonatas. The grain of mustard-seed in the parable grew into a tree, and so, likewise, have the few bars of modulation of early days grown into an important section. However difficult to determine the exact moment at which a movement in sonata-form really ceased to be binary, there seems no doubt that that moment has now pa.s.sed. We have already noted when the change commenced.

CHAPTER II

JOHANN KUHNAU

This remarkable musician was born, April 1660,[36] at Geysing, where his grandfather, who, on account of his religious opinions, had been forced to leave Bohemia, had settled. Already in his ninth year young Kuhnau showed gifts for science and art. He had a pleasing voice, and first studied under Salomon Krugner, and afterwards under Christian Kittel,[37] organist of the Elector at Dresden. His next teachers were his brother Andreas Kuhnau, Alexander Hering,[38] and Vincenzo Albrici. In 1680 the plague broke out at Dresden, and Kuhnau returned to his parents. He then went to Zittau with a certain Erhard t.i.tius, who had been _Praefectus_ at the Kreuzschule, Dresden, and received help from the court organist, Moritz Edelmann, also from the "celebrated" Weise. A motet of Kuhnau's was given at Zittau under his direction. After the death of t.i.tius, Kuhnau resided for a time in the house of J.J. von Hartig, judge at Zittau. In 1682 he went to Leipzig, where D. Scherzer endeavoured to obtain for him the post of organist at St. Thomas'; Kuhnel, however, was appointed. The latter died in 1684, and was succeeded by Kuhnau, who in 1700 also became cantor of St. Thomas'. He devoted much of his time to jurisprudence. Among other things, he wrote a curious satire, ent.i.tled _Der musikalische Quacksalber_, published in 1700. There remain in ma.n.u.script, _Tractatus de tetrachordo_ and _Introductio ad compositionem musicalem_. Kuhnau had many pupils; we know of two who afterwards became distinguished men. The one was Christoph Graupner (1683-1760), who in 1710 became capellmeister at Darmstadt. In 1722, on the death of Kuhnau, Graupner,[39] who had been prize scholar under him, presented his testimonials, was examined, and seemed likely to become cantor as his teacher's successor. Meanwhile, however, John Sebastian Bach offered himself as candidate, and as Dr. Pepusch before Handel at Cannons in 1710, so did Graupner retire before his great rival.

Mattheson, in his _Ehren-Pforte_ (p. 410), tells us that "as a composer for the clavier, Graupner may rank as one of the best of his time." He wrote suites and sonatas for clavier. Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758 or 9), the second pupil, soon after leaving Leipzig, where he had enjoyed Kuhnau's instruction from 1701-7, went to Italy, and on his return studied for a short time with Graupner. Fasch then filled various posts, until in 1722 (the very year indeed of Kuhnau's death) he became capellmeister at Anhalt Zerbst, where he remained until his death. His son, Carl Friedrich Christian, was the founder of the Berlin _Singakademie_. In 1756 Emanuel Bach had something to do with Fasch's appointment as clavecinist to Frederick the Great. The father, who was then seventy years of age, and who, like old Sebastian Bach, lived with the fear of G.o.d before his eyes, opposed the wish of his son to enter the service of the infidel king. Emanuel, who wished the younger Fasch to come to Berlin, wrote to the father to say "that in the land over which Frederick the Great ruled, one could believe what one liked; that the king himself was certainly not religious, but on that very account esteemed everyone alike." Bach offered to take young Fasch into his house, and to preserve him as much as possible from temptation. With regard to Graupner, it would be interesting to know whether in any of his sonatas (the autographs of which are, we believe, at Darmstadt) he worked at all on Kuhnau's lines. And with regard to Fasch, one would like to know whether he ever conversed with Emanuel Bach about his father, who taught him theory, and about Johann Kuhnau, his father's renowned teacher. It is from such by-paths of history that one sometimes learns more than from statements showing how son descended from sire, and how pupils were directly influenced by their teachers.

But it is as a musician that we are now concerned with Kuhnau, and, in the first place, as the composer of the earliest known sonata for the clavier. In 1695 he published at Leipzig--

"Sieben Partien aus dem Re, Mi, Fa, oder Terzia minore eines jedweden Toni, benebenst einer _Sonata_ aus dem B. Denen Liebhabern dieses Instrumenten zu gar besondern Vergnugen aufgesetzet." That is--

Seven Part.i.tas based on the Re, Mi, Fa, or minor third of each mode, together with a Sonata in B flat, for the especial gratification of lovers of this instrument.

With respect to this sonata, Kuhnau remarks in his preface: "I have added at the end a Sonata in B flat, which will please amateurs; for why should not such things be attempted on the clavier as well as on other instruments?" In such modest fas.h.i.+on was ushered into the world the first sonata for clavier, or, at any rate, the earliest with which we are acquainted.[40]

Mattheson, in _Das neu eroffnete Orchester_ (1713), speaks about the _revival_ of clavier sonatas, so that it is not quite certain whether that B flat Sonata was actually the first.[41] During the seventeenth century, sonatas were written for various instruments, with a figured ba.s.s for the cembalo.

It will, of course, be interesting to trace the influences acting upon Kuhnau. They were of two kinds: the one, Italian; the other, German.

Corelli deserves first mention; and next, the Italian organist and composer, Vincenzo Albrici,[42] capellmeister to the Elector of Saxony from 1664-88, and afterwards organist of St. Thomas', Leipzig, who is known to have encouraged Kuhnau when young, and to have helped him to learn the Italian language. But German influence must also have been strong. Of Froberger special mention will be made later on. There was one man, Diderich Becker, who published sonatas for violins and ba.s.s already in 1668, and these, if we mistake not, must have been well known to Kuhnau. Apart from the character of the music, the t.i.tle of the work, _Musikalische Frulings Fruchte_, and the religious style of the preface, remind one of Kuhnau's "Frische Fruchte," also of his preface to the "Bible" Sonatas. It is curious to find the quaint expression "unintelligent birds" used first by Becker, and afterwards by Kuhnau.

Let us describe briefly the above-mentioned B flat Sonata. The first movement is in common time, but the composer gave it no heading. It is generally supposed (Becker, Rimbault, Pauer) to be an Allegro; _moderato_ might well be added, for the stately, Handelian-like (the anachronism must be excused) music will scarcely bear a rapid _tempo_.

The movement opens with an eight-bar phrase, closing on the dominant.

Then the music, evolved from previous material, pa.s.ses rapidly through various related keys. After this modulation section there is a cadence to F major, and in this, the dominant key, something like a new subject appears, though it is closely allied to the first. A return is soon made to the princ.i.p.al key, but there is no repet.i.tion of the opening theme. After a cadence ending on the tonic (B flat), and two coda-like bars, comes a fugal movement, still in the same key. The vigorous subject, the well-contrasted counterpoint, the interesting episodes, and many attractive details help one to forget the monotony of key so prevalent in the days in which this sonata was written.

This, and indeed other fugues of Kuhnau show strong foreshadowings of Handel and Bach; of this matter, however, more anon. The counterpoint to the third entry of the subject is evolved from the opening subject of the sonata. The third movement consists of a fine Adagio in E flat, in the key of the subdominant and in three-four time. Then follows a short Allegro in three-four time, of polyphonic character. At the close of the movement Kuhnau has written the opening chords of the first movement with the words _Da Capo_. A similar indication is to be found in one of the "Frische Fruchte" Sonatas. This repet.i.tion, also the third movement leading directly to the fourth, and the thematic connection mentioned above, would seem to show that the composer regarded the various sections of his sonata as parts of a whole.

In addition, Kuhnau wrote thirteen sonatas. The "Frische Clavier Fruchte," or "Sieben Suonaten von guter Invention u. Manier auf dem Clavier zu spielen," were published in 1696, and later editions in 1710 and 1724. In a quaint preface the composer tells us that in naming his "Fresh Fruits" "sonatas," he kept in mind all kinds of _inventiones_ and changes (Veranderungen) by which so-called sonatas are superior to mere part.i.tas. Already a century before this preface was written, Praetorius had distinguished between two cla.s.ses of instrumental music: the one, grave; the other, gay. The composer has also a word to say about the graces or ornaments, the "sugar which sweetens the fruits." In modern reprints of Kuhnau the sugar is sometimes forgotten.[43] These "Frische Fruchte" were followed by six "Bible" Sonatas in 1700. The former, both as regards form and contents, are remarkable. Kuhnau was a man of deeper thought and loftier conception than Emanuel Bach, but he was fettered by fugal forms,[44] and was fighting against them much in the same spirit in which Beethoven, a century later, fought against sonata-form, in the most general sense of that term. Beethoven was not only the more gifted, but he profited by the experiments of his predecessors, and he enjoyed the advantage of a vastly improved technique; Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, and others were the stepping-stones by which he rose to higher things. Kuhnau's attempts at sonata writing were bold, often rugged; and his experiments in programme-music, extraordinary. The latter were soon forgotten, while the clever, clear-formed sonatas of Emanuel Bach served as a gratification to the age in which he lived, and as guides to the composers who followed him. The "Frische Fruchte," standing between Corelli and Emanuel Bach, are of interest.

The fugal element is still strong; and we find, not so much the smooth style of Corelli as the vigorous style of Froberger and other composers of North Germany. In character of subject-matter and in form there is decided advance as compared with the B flat Sonata. Kuhnau still seems rather limited in figures, and therefore repeats himself;[45] then again his movements do not always show gradation of interest. Their order and number are, indeed, perplexing, and not always satisfactory. The 2nd Sonata, in D, for instance, commences with a fine Allegro, followed first by a short Adagio, commencing in the relative minor, and intermixed with short presto pa.s.sages, and then by a lively movement in six-eight time. These three would form an admirable sonata, yet the composer does not end here. There is still another short Adagio, and a concluding movement; and in spite of some fine pa.s.sages, these appendages form a decided anti-climax. Similar instances are to be found in the other sonatas.

Now for a few words concerning their form. Some of the opening movements (for instance, those of Nos. 1, 2) are practically based on fugue-form, with which, by the way, sonata-form is allied.

The first movement of No. 4, in C minor, is of interest, both in its resemblances to, and differences from, modern sonata-form. It has _four_ sections:--

_a._ Eleven bars, beginning and ending in C minor, and containing a characteristic theme.

_b._ Eleven bars, beginning in E flat (_i.e._ relative major of opening key) and closing in G minor (_i.e._ key of minor dominant). It contains a theme rhythmically allied to the princ.i.p.al theme. _This section is repeated._

_c._ Nine-and-a-half bars, opening in C minor, and pa.s.sing to, and closing in E flat. It contains imitative pa.s.sages evolved from the princ.i.p.al theme.

_d._ Exact repet.i.tion of first section, only with a close on the major chord.

The last movement of the 6th Sonata, in B flat, offers a still more striking resemblance to sonata-form; the various sections are better balanced; the middle or development section (with its close strettos) is particularly noticeable; also the recapitulation, which is not literal, as in the above example. The slow movements--occasionally very short--follow no particular plan. The fugal element is always more or less present, but some of the other movements have somewhat of a suite character; No. 6, indeed, opens with a _Ciaccona_. There is a certain formality about Kuhnau's music, and, for reasons already mentioned, he is occasionally monotonous. But there is an independent spirit running through his sonatas, and a desire to escape from the trammels of tradition which are quite refres.h.i.+ng. And there is a n.o.bility in the style and skill in the workmans.h.i.+p which remind us of the great Bach. There are, indeed, resemblances to Bach, also to Handel. Scheibe, in his _Critischer Musikus_, mentions Kuhnau, in conjunction with Keiser, Telemann, and Handel, as one of the greatest composers of the eighteenth century. The mention of Kuhnau together with Handel deserves note. The constant discoveries which are being made of Handel's indebtedness to other composers suggest the thought that perhaps Kuhnau was also laid under contribution. No one, we think, can hear the "Bible" Sonatas without coming to the conclusion that Handel was acquainted with the works of his ill.u.s.trious predecessor. We will just place side by side three pa.s.sages from the "Bible" Sonatas of Kuhnau with three from a harpsichord suite of Handel--

[Music ill.u.s.tration: "Bible" Sonata, No. 2. KUHNAU.]

[Music ill.u.s.tration: Collection I., Suite 7, Ouverture.

HANDEL.]

[Music ill.u.s.tration: "Bible" Sonata, No. 6. KUHNAU.]

[Music ill.u.s.tration: Collection I., Suite 7, Pa.s.sacaille.

HANDEL.]

[Music ill.u.s.tration: "Bible" Sonata, No. 6. KUHNAU.]

[Music ill.u.s.tration: Collection I., Suite 7, Pa.s.sacaille.

HANDEL.]