Undoubtedly the most important of all musical forms to-day is the sonata, as will easily be recognized if we remember that not only the pieces which bear this name as a title, but also the numerous symphonies, overtures, concertos, and trios, quartets, quintets, and so on, are examples of this form. The symphony is simply a sonata, on a large scale, for orchestra; the overture is a similar piece for orchestra, in one movement; the concerto is, as it were, a symphony with a solo instrument emphasized or placed in the foreground; trios, quartets, quintets, etc., are sonatas for various groups of string and wind instruments. Thus it will be seen that the bulk of all instrumental music is cast in this ever available and useful form of the sonata.
At this point, however, a confusion is likely to arise from the fact that the term "sonata" is used in two senses. It means sometimes a complete piece of music in three or more distinct movements; at other times it means a scheme or plan of musical structure exemplified in one or more of these movements, usually the first. When used in this sense it is generally coupled with the word "form": this isthe way in which we shall use it here, letting "sonata-form" mean this peculiar type of musical structure, to be described in detail presently, while using "sonata" alone to name a complete composition of which one or more movements are in "sonata-form."
The sonata, as written by Philip Emanuel Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and modern composers, usually contains some movements in forms more primitive than "sonata-form," and already familiar to us. Thus the minuet, which often appears as the second or third movement of a sonata, has changed little since Mozart's day; the rondo, frequently used in the finale of a sonata, remains in all essentials as it is presented in the last diagram of Chapter VI; and the theme and variations, so far as its formal plan is concerned, has remained very much as Haydn left it, although, in common with the rondo, it has been vastly enriched in content and diversified in style by the genius of Beethoven.
The element of true novelty in sonatas is to be found, not in these primitive movements, but rather in those movements which are in "sonata-form," and which show a breadth of conception and an elaboration in development never found in simple lyric forms like the minuet. This breadth and elaboration is always the result of a germination of musical thought, such as we have already often mentioned, and by virtue of which alone a composition can take on real grandeur of proportions. The essentialsof sonata-form are (1) the presentation of two or more themes or subjects in that section known as the Exposition, and symbolized in our diagrams by the letter A; (2) the evolution of these themes, by means of melodic germination, in that section known as the Development, and symbolized by B; and (3) the restatement of the original themes, rounding out the movement symmetrically, in the section known as the Recapitulation, and symbolized again by A on account of its practical identity with the Exposition. It matters not which movement of a sonata takes this characteristic form, whether, as in the majority of cases, it is the first (whence the term "first-movement form," often used as a synonym for "sonata-form") or the slow movement, as often happens, or the finale. Wherever sonata-form exists we find this three-part sectional structure, resulting from the natural germination in the middle section of the musical ideas stated in the first, followed by their restatement in the third section.
The reader may ask at this point, in what respect such a form differs from the simple ternary form illustrated in a minuet, for example, wherein the second section usually contains some development of the theme, and the third some recapitulation. The answer is that in the sonata-form the enlargement of the proportions throughout results, first, in the substitution of complete and more or less contrasting themes, for the rather slight musical subject of a minuet, and second, in the substitution of a long and elaborate development of these themes for the rather casual and superficial modification of the subject whichforms the second section of a minuet. Moreover, in the sonata-form a novel feature is the contrast introduced by making the first section embody duality of key (first theme in tonic, second in related key) while the third section, by presenting both themes in the tonic, embodies unity of key. Nevertheless it remains true that sonata-form is, both logically and historically, a development of such simple forms as we have in the minuet, as is indicated by the name of "developed ternary form" often given to it.[22]
Sonata-form is thus but an extreme application of certain essential principles of structure exemplified in simple ways in other more primitive musical forms, and for that matter in many other departments of life. It is perhaps not over-fanciful to discover the same principles in the construction of a novel, in which we often find: first, the presentation of certain characters, more or less in antagonism; second, the development of the plot and of the characters themselves; and third, the reconciliation of the characters in thedenouement. Similarly, a sermon consists of (1) the assertion of a text or subject of discourse, (2) the illustration of its truth by examples and other elucidations of what is implied in it, and (3) a final restatement of it with the greater force made possible by its discussion. Or again, we may see striking analogies to the artistic form we are considering in such processes of nature as the budding, flowering, and death of a plant, or in human life with its youth, its period of activity, and its time of retrospect.
Sonata-form, historically speaking, first takes definite shape in the work of Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), the most distinguished of the sons of the great Sebastian Bach. Though not a man of the highest creative genius, C. P. E. Bach possessed an ingenuity and a pioneering spirit which led him to make innovations so important that Haydn and Mozart freely acknowledged their debt to him. Feeling that music in the polyphonic style had reached its full development, he was original and adventurous enough to seek new means of expression and a novel combination of features of style already familiar.
In order to understand the situation that confronted him we must put aside temporarily the impressions we have received from the Andante of Haydn and the Rondo of Mozart, since both these compositions were produced at a time when his influence had already made itself felt. He had to face the problem of writing instrumental music that should be free from the constraining influence of the dance, of polyphonic style, and of the elaborately ornamented style of operatic music. He had also to find out how to unify a long piece of instrumental music by co-ordinating all its parts. The only solution of these problems lay in inventing what might be calledpure instrumental melody:i. e., melody that was essentially expressive in the particular medium employed—the piano, the violin, the orchestra—and that was unhampered either by strict poetic or dance forms, or by the peculiar phraseology ofpolyphony. He did not, to be sure, entirely achieve this; we find evidences of both the older styles in his music. But an examination of any instrumental masterpiece of Beethoven will reveal how much he owed to the pioneer labors of C. P. E. Bach.
We must here caution the reader against the supposition that music at this particular time leaped suddenly forward. The tendencies that we have been speaking of were latent long before Philip Emanuel Bach appeared, and there was no strict line of demarcation where one kind of music stopped and another began. Organic development never progresses in that way; each phase of it begins slowly, becomes eventually operative, and dies as slowly as it began. And there were other composers working at that time on the same problems; composers who were of considerable importance then, but whose names are now forgotten.
Philip Emanuel Bach: Piano Sonata[23]in F-Minor, First Movement.
This Sonata has three movements: 1. Fast (Allegro assai); 2. Slow (Andante cantabile); 3. Slow (Andantino grazioso). The third of these is marked "attacca" to indicate that the usual pause between the movements is to be omitted. In the second and third movements the themes themselves and their treatment reveal the tentative nature of Bach's efforts. Each of these themes is over-embellished; each has something of the vagueness usual in piano music of his time, and yet there is a distinct tendencytowards definite, strophic melody such as is common in the sonatas of Haydn and Mozart.
But the first movement of this sonata of Philip Emanuel Bach's is quite remarkable. Its theme is definite, its phraseology clear and concise, and its form well rounded. In fact a comparison of the opening measures with those of the theme from Beethoven's first sonata will reveal a decided similarity. Beethoven's theme is constructed from a figure or phrase, ascending like an arpeggio higher and higher, until a climax is reached, after which the melody dies down to a pause or half cadence on the dominant chord. This is precisely what happens with the theme of Philip Emanuel Bach, although the second half of the theme is more regular than Beethoven's, the complete melody being in what might be called "verse form," each two-measure phrase corresponding to a line of verse.
More important still, however, is the quality of the melody itself. It is distinctly in the style suitable for the piano; there is no evidence of the old song melody, nor of polyphonic phraseology, nor of dance tunes. This is, in short, one of the earliest examples of pure pianoforte music, using the term in a modern sense. Another interesting point in this movement is the presence of two contrasting themes in the Exposition. "The principle of alternately stating two contrasting themes, which found its ultimate expression in the successive presentation of first and second subjects, had been familiar to the musical world as long as minuets and trios, gavottes, musettes, and the like, had been in vogue, but the process by whichthe two subjects are allowed to be interwoven with each other, or to generate, as it were, new material having its origin in something that has gone before, opened out a world of fresh possibilities to the composers of the later times, and gave them opportunities which had been altogether withheld from Bach and his contemporaries." "Oxford History of Music," Vol. IV, p. 141. The two themes constitute the material out of which the whole movement grows or germinates, so that they somewhat resemble characters in a story, and this analogy is further carried out in the quality of the themes themselves, the first being usually vigorous and to a certain degree non-lyric, while the second is lyric and more sentimental; as if one were masculine and the other feminine.
But in this movement of Philip Emanuel Bach's Sonata the second theme is hardly more than an embryo. It begins at measure 16, and occupies only ten measures, the last five of which are somewhat vague and rhapsodical. Thus its entire effect is somewhat indefinite, and if we compare it with the second theme of any modern sonata we shall realize that it is very imperfectly individualized. The second theme did not become an essential and distinct element of sonata-form until somewhat later; in Philip Emanuel Bach, and even in many movements of Haydn, it remains completely subordinate to its more important companion, the first theme. Following the second theme—at measure 26—a coda ensues. This important factor in musical form has been already referred to in our chapters on "The Rondo" and "The Variation." Itsoffice here is the same as in former examples, namely, to round out this part of the movement properly and to emphasize the close of the first section.
The exposition (A) extends through measure 34 and is concluded with a double-bar. During the period from Philip Emanuel Bach to Mozart this portion of the movement was always repeated in order to make it perfectly familiar to the listener. The development section begins immediately after the double-bar and extends to the point where the first theme returns in its original form; in this movement that point is reached at measure 66. We have already pointed out certain simple methods of generation in music, as in the Bach Gavotte discussed in Chapter IV, but we now have to consider the growth of a long section of a composition from certain germs contained in the original theme. And this brings up an important question: How do musical themes generate? In the Bach Gavotte a brief phrase of one measure duration blossoms out into a passage six measures long. This may be observed by reference to Figure XXXIV, in which (a) represents the original phrase and (b) the expansion of it.
(a.)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
(b.)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
FIGURE XXXIV.
This development, however, is hardly more than an extension of the original phrase. For the purposes of sonata-form something more radical and far reaching, something more like new creation is necessary. Without going into detail[24]we may be content with pointing out the essential principle of this more radical development. Analysis shows that it always depends on the selection of certain salient characteristics of the original themes and representation of them under new guises, or under new conditions.
Just as a novelist develops his characters by letting their fundamental peculiarities manifest themselves in all sorts of ways and among all kinds of circumstances, meanwhile paying but scant attention to their more accidental or superficial traits, so the composer of a sonata seizes upon whatever is individual in his themes—a strong rhythm, a peculiar turn of phrase, a striking bit of harmony—and repeats and insists upon it tirelessly, with whatever variation of minor details his ingenuity may suggest. An examination of this process of generation in the works of Haydn and Mozart will make these important points clear. In Figure XXXV (a), is shown a brief quotation from the beginning of the first movement of Haydn's Symphony in D-major. Although this theme has no pronounced rhythmic figures the four repeated notes in measure 3 are unusual in a simple melody of this type, and Haydn chooses them (with the first two notes in the next measure) as the first subject of his development section.
(a)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
(b)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
FIGURE XXXV.
Atbin the above quotation will be found a short passage from the beginning of the development section of the same movement. This passage illustrates the detachment of a characteristic motive in a melody, and here the use of it in various keys as a means of setting forth, as it were, its latent possibilities. Here a certain element in the theme is freed and takes on an existence of its own, and until the very end of the section we hear it over and over again in different parts of the orchestra.
(a)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
(b)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
(c)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
FIGURE XXXVI.
The methods of germination employed by Haydn in the foregoing illustration were typical of his time. Mozart commonly relies, in his development sections, on the interest provided by presenting some salient motive in a varietyof keys and with polyphonic treatment. Examples of this are to be found in Figure XXXVI, containing (a) the original motive from the first movement of his string quartet in C-major, dedicated to Haydn, and (b), (c), short excerpts from the development section of the same movement.
It will be observed that in (b), the viola imitates the first violin while the second violin and 'cello reiterate the four eighth-notes of the original motive, and that, in (c), the 'cello takes the motive, while each of the three upper parts sounds the eighth-notes, staccato; the contrasts of key should also be observed. This is a very concise and logical example of the methods of generation employed by Haydn and Mozart.
The first theme of the movement by Philip Emanuel Bach has two salient qualities: it progresses by leaps upward, and it has a peculiarly noticeable rhythm. These two properties are brought into play almost immediately. After a brief statement of the opening phrase of the theme (36-39) in the relative major key—as if to tell us what is to be the subject of this part of the movement—the composer proceeds to evolve a passage (40-44) with chords (in the right hand) in the rhythm of the theme, and against them (in the left hand) a passage containing the leaps upward. This is further varied by free changes in harmony.
The initial phrase of the first theme and a brief quotation from this passage in the development section are shown in Figure XXXVII.
This development is, however, all too short. Aftermeasure 44 the music becomes discursive, showing no longer any definite bearing on the original subject matter.
(a)
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
[PNG][[audio/mpeg]
(b)
FIGURE XXXVII
This discursiveness is a natural characteristic of the formative period in the evolution of sonata-form, before composershad learned the necessity of a close logical development throughout.
The "restatement after contrast" in sonata-form is commonly known as the "recapitulation." In the early specimens of the form the recapitulation was, except in its harmonies, almost identical with the exposition. Here the first theme is reduced to one half its original length, which is rather an unusual abbreviation. Mr. Hadow, in his "Sonata Form," lays down the following rule for this portion of the movement: "The recapitulation should not contain any noticeably fresh material; it should follow the main thought of the exposition with no important parentheses or divergences, and, when it varies, should do so in a manner which does not obscure the subjects, but only sets them in a new light."
In Figure XXXVIII is shown the foregoing plan in the form of a diagram. This should be compared with the similar diagrams in Chapter IX.