score_pag165FIGURE XIII. THEME OF MINUET, IN HAYDN’S “SURPRISE†SYMPHONY.
FIGURE XIII. THEME OF MINUET, IN HAYDN’S “SURPRISE†SYMPHONY.
But there is a considerable increase in the subtlety with which the phrases are combined, in the “modelling,†so to speak, of the melody. Greater variety is perceptible, the balance of the phrases is less obvious, while equally satisfactory. The structure, in the more extended sense, is ternary.[29]The first section of Haydn’s Minuet, just cited, ends, after eighteen measures, in the dominant key. The second section, or section of contrast, contains some passages that are markedly different from the original theme, though congruous with it, and modulates so far afield as E-flat major (the home key being G). After twenty-two measures of this digression, the section of reassertion enters with the original theme in the tonic key, lasts twenty-two measures, and ends strongly in the home key. The minuet proper, as with Bach, is followedby a similar short piece, called the trio, put in for the sake of contrast. After it the minuet recurs; and it is an interesting fact that the whole movement is thus a large example of the same device of statement, contrast, and reassertion that is exemplified in its parts. In other words, the whole minuet is a “statement,†the whole trio a “contrast,†and the repeated minuet a “reassertion.†We see here, then, the fundamental form which we described as ternary, and which may be symbolised by the letters A B A, utilized as a structural agent both in the individual parts, and in the whole of the movement. The symphonic minuet is quite obviously the child of the suite minuet, but a child approaching maturity, becoming complex and intricate in coordination.
The form generally adopted for the last movement of sonatas exemplifies a different way of utilizing the same general principles of design. As its name of “rondo†implies, it consists of a constant recurrence or “coming around†of the main thematic idea, which, as before, we may call A; but with several contrasting sections, instead of only one. The rondo type of structure may be symbolized by the letters A B A C A D A,etc. It embodies, obviously enough, a greater variety than the simpler dance form out of which it grew, and at the same time preserves unity by the repetition of the main theme. It is less perfectly coordinated, however, than the minuet; for as each episode occurs but once there is a deficiency of logic and of artistic economy; and as the principle of the form is sectional there is no intrinsic reason why it should not be prolonged indefinitely. It is, therefore, an essentially imperfect and indeterminate organism, although it is serviceable enough as the mould of a movement in which gaiety and general animation are more important than highly articulated plastic beauty.
The slow movement is of all the parts of the sonata the least uniform in structure. Often it is written in the primitive aria-form, identical with the minuet form; sometimes it is an adaptation of rondo form to the exigencies of deliberate movement and emotional eloquence; and not infrequently it is a modification of “first movement form,†or sonata form proper. Its value depends but little on its structure, and almost entirely on its expressive qualities.
Of all the movements of the sonata, as hasalready been said, the first, which comes when the listener is fresh and disposed to give minute and unflagging attention, is the most complex. First movement form, however, is but a further application of the simple principles of statement, contrast, and reassertion, and of contrast of keys, that are already operative, in an easily understood way, in the minuet, the aria, and the rondo. The first movement of a regular sonata begins with a first subject, or theme, in the tonic key, built, of course, upon a striking, individual, and memorable motif. After this has been well impressed upon the mind by a certain amount of repetition, either literal or modified, there is a formal transition to a contrasted key, generally the dominant, or, if the movement be in minor, the relative major, and a second subject enters, is in its turn well impressed upon the attention, and ends with an emphatic cadence or close in the contrasted key. This much makes up one complete section of the form. Historically, it is an outgrowth of the first part of an ordinary small ternary form, by simple magnification of the elements, and increasing definition of and contrast between them. What was at first but an inconspicuous modulation becomes a formaltransition; and what was but a cadence in the contrasting key becomes a new subject, with its own individuality and function in the organism. And thus is built up the section of statement, with quite a high degree of complexity of its own. This is sometimes called the Exposition.
Next comes the “Free Fantasia†or “Working Out,†the section of contrast, derived from the similar section in the minuet, but far longer and more intricate. In material it is a development, or manipulation, of the thematic germs stated in the exposition, by aid of all the devices for developing motifs that we have traced. Structurally, its function is to establish complete contrast, to do away with the impression of rigid system that the first section is likely to engender, and in every possible way to give variety, surprise, and interest to the musical tissue. It is accordingly absolutely free in modulation, unsystematic in arrangement, and irregular in metrical division. In it the composer gives rein to his fancy, obeys the impulse of the moment, and lets his ingenuity rather than his shaping instinct determine his progress. Yet the section of contrast is not a mere limbo of chaotic impulses. It must have its own logic, it must bea true “development,†it must be throughout obviously founded on the themes already stated. There is no part of the sonata-form in which all the composer’s strength is more taxed than the Free Fantasia; here, indeed, freedom brings its own heavy responsibility.
After the contrast comes the reassertion, or “Reprise.†Having displayed his materials in every light his imagination can suggest, and having meanwhile almost obliterated his hearer’s sense of the key of the piece, the composer now carefully prepares to gather up all his flying threads, to stamp all this baffling variety with ultimate unity. Re-entering the home key, which has gained by its long silence a new power to delight and satisfy, he restates his two subjects or themes, in their original guise, but now both in the home key. As the essayist, after all his examples and figures and metaphors, returns to a bald, emphatic, final assertion of his thesis, the composer now, after all his playing with his ideas, reinstates them in more than their primitive simplicity.[30]To give them perfect finality he even reiterates them with fresh assertiveness,seems unwilling to leave them, and insists, in his Coda or tail-piece, that we take away with us a full sense of their import. Thus restatement, emphatic and prolonged, following upon contrast and digression, completes the unity of the whole composition, and closes the cycle to our satisfaction. It is impossible to conceive a type of musical structure which should better satisfy our demand for profusion of detail together with clarity of fundamental shape, than this highly perfected product of a long evolution, sonata-form.
It must not be supposed that this wonderful scheme of design reached its maturity in any short period of time, or through the labors of a few musicians. Infinitely slow and gradual was its growth; and though the immediate followers of J. S. Bach, and especially his own son, Philip Emmanuel Bach, brought it to a condition in which its general outline was pretty well established, it was still, at the time when Haydn appeared on the scene, incapable of that free manipulation which high musical beauty requires. It was Haydn who removed the last traces of stiffness and primitive angularity from the sonata-form; it was Haydn who brought it to complete definiteness as an artistic device and stamped it with lasting individuality; and it was Haydn who at least hinted and foreshadowed those subtleties and accommodations in its treatment which, as extended by Mozart and Beethoven, perfected its capabilities and brought it to its mature estate as the most vital, elastic and beautiful of modern musical forms.