Among more modern sonatas only two stand out with any prominence. One of these is by Grieg. It is in A minor, full of passion and swing. No doubt it owes its prominence to the charm of the Norwegian material out of which Grieg has made it. There are incisive rhythms that make one aware of the strength of the cello. The piano is a little too prominent in certain parts. Grieg has favored its brilliance. But nevertheless the sonata is a manly and refreshing work.
Among more modern sonatas only two stand out with any prominence. One of these is by Grieg. It is in A minor, full of passion and swing. No doubt it owes its prominence to the charm of the Norwegian material out of which Grieg has made it. There are incisive rhythms that make one aware of the strength of the cello. The piano is a little too prominent in certain parts. Grieg has favored its brilliance. But nevertheless the sonata is a manly and refreshing work.
A sonata for cello and piano in F major, opus 6, by Richard Strauss has been gratefully adopted by cellists. Musically it is neither profound nor interesting, though there is no lack of technical skill, as in the fugal parts of the first movement, and though there are some passages of great beauty. The second theme of the first movement is what one might call luscious; there is a glorious theme in the last movement contrasting with the light motives which generally predominate; and the climax of the slow movement is passionate. The pianoforte is not well handled, and there is a sameness in rhythms; but the balance between the two instruments is remarkably well kept. In the development of second theme material in the first movement there are passages in which the cello is made boldly and passionately to sing, and the use of its very low notes in the climax of the slow movement, as well as the light figures inthe last, leave no doubt as to the variety which is in spite of all possible to it.
There remains only to mention the sonata by Max Reger, opus 78, two sonatas by Emanuel Moór, one by Guy Ropartz in G minor, two by Camille Saint-Saëns, opus 32 and opus 123, as among those which make a partial success of the extremely difficult combination.
If excellent music for cello and piano is so rare, music for the viola and piano is almost entirely wanting. The two instruments do not go well together. Practically the only example of the combination in the works of the great masters is furnished by Schumann’sMärchenbilder, which are but indifferent music. York Bowen, an English composer, has considered it worthy of the sonata, and has written two for it, one in C minor and one in F major. Mr. Benjamin Dale has also written some agreeable pieces, including a suite and a fantasy.
There are relatively few works also in which the piano has been combined with wind instruments. The wind instruments which have been most employed in chamber music are the flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Occasionally there is a short bit for horn, or for English horn, and rarely something for trumpet or saxophone. No special combination of these instruments either by themselves or with the piano has obtained signal favor, and we may therefore confine ourselves to mentioning with brief notice the various works of the great masters in turn. We will include likewise here their chamber works for wind instruments without pianoforte.
Of Haydn’s works we will only mention the two trios for flute and violin and the octet for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons. Most of Mozart’sworks for wind instruments bear the mark of some occasion. There are a great many Serenades andDivertimenti, which can hardly be called representative of his best and can hardly be distinguished from each other. Among the interesting works are the concerto for flute and harp (K 299), the trio for clarinet, viola and piano (K 498), the quintet for pianoforte, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (K 452), and the quintet for clarinet and strings (K 581). The trio was composed in Vienna in August, 1786, and is conspicuous for a fine handling of the viola. The clarinet is not used at all in the lower registers, lest it interfere with the viola. Mozart considered the quintet for piano and wind instruments at the time he wrote it the best thing he had written. It was composed in March, 1784, for a public concert and was received with great applause. Jahn wrote of it that from beginning to end it was a true triumph in the art of recognizing and adapting the peculiar euphonious quality of each instrument. Doubtless it served as a model for Beethoven’s composition in the same form.
Mozart was the first among composers to recognize the beauty of the clarinet. Among his warmest friends was Anton Stadler, an excellent clarinet player, and the great clarinet quintet was composed for Stadler and is known as the Stadler quintet. The clarinet, owing to the peculiar penetrating quality, is somewhat necessarily treated as a solo instrument; but the background supplied by the strings is no mere accompaniment. The whole work shows the finest care and may well rank with the string quintets among Mozart’s greatest and most pleasing works.
Beethoven’s works for wind instruments in chamber music are not numerous. In the expression of his forceful and passionate ideas he demanded a medium of far greater technical ability than he could ask of the wind players of that day. There is an early trio for piano,flute and bassoon, written before he left Bonn; an octet in E-flat for two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns, written in 1792, but published as opus 103; and a few other early works without value; a sextet for two violins, viola, cello, and two horns, written in 1795 and not published till 1819, then as opus 81; another early sextet, opus 71, for two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns; and finally the most considerable of his compositions for an ensemble of wind instruments, the quintet in E-flat major, opus 16, for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, the septet in E-flat, opus 20, for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double-bass. The sonata in F, opus 17, for horn and piano was written in a night, according to a well-known story, for the horn player Punto—originally Stich—and can hardly be considered as more than a bit of pot-boiling.
Most of these early works were written for an occasion. Prince Maximilian Franz, in whose service Beethoven was for a time employed before he left Bonn and came to Vienna, was especially fond of wind instruments. His ‘Table-music’ was generally of this kind and he had in his employ two oboists, two clarinetists, two horn players, and two players of the bassoon. Beethoven’s early works therefore may be considered to have been written with these players in mind. He was sure of having them performed. In later years he looked with no little scorn upon many of them. Even of the septet, opus 20, he is reported to have said that there was some natural feeling in it but little art. And of the early sextet which was published in 1809 as opus 70 he wrote to his publishers that it was one of his early pieces and was, moreover, written in a night, that there was little further to say about it except that it was written by a composer who had at least produced some better works—though many men might still consider this the best. Yet it is to be observed that in nearly all of them Beethoven made the best of the possibilitiesopen to him, possibilities which were greatly restricted by the general lack of technical skill in playing wind instruments, and that all show at least a clear and logical form.
The octet, opus 103, the sextet, opus 81, the sextet, opus 71, and the quintet, opus 16, are all in the key of E-flat major, a key which is favorable to all wood-wind instruments. The octet was written, as we have said, in 1792. Beethoven rearranged it as a string quintet and in that form it was published in 1796 as opus 4. In its original form the chief rôle is taken by the oboe, especially in the slow second movement, which has the touch of a pastoral idyl. The last movement in rondo form offers the clarinets an opportunity in the first episode. A Rondino for the same combination of instruments written about the same time seems to forecast parts ofFidelio. The sextet for two horns and string quartet is little more than a duet for the horns with a string accompaniment.
We may pass over the trio for two oboes and English horn, published as opus 87, and the flute duet written for his friend Degenhart on the night of August 23, 1792. The sextet, opus 71, which Beethoven said was written in a night, is none the less written with great care. The prelude introduction and the cheerful style suggest some happy sort of serenade music. The melody (bassoon) in the adagio is of great beauty. There are, among its movements, a minuet and a lively rondo in march rhythm.
The quintet, opus 16, in which the piano is joined with four instruments may well have been suggested by Mozart’s quintet in the same form; though Beethoven was a great pianist and had already in an earlier trio and a sonata experimented in combining the pianoforte with wind instruments. The wind instruments are here treated as an independent group and the part for the piano is brilliant. There is a richness of ideas throughoutwhich raises the work above the earlier compositions for wind.
The septet in E-flat, opus 20, for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double-bass, is undoubtedly the finest of Beethoven’s works for combinations of wind instruments. It was written just before 1800 and was so full of joy and humor that those who had heard Beethoven’s other works with a hostile ear were quite won over for the time being by this. Technically it may be considered the result of all his previous experiments. It is rather in the manner of a suite. There is a slow prelude, anallegro con brio, anadagio cantabile, atempo di menuetto, which he later arranged for pianoforte and incorporated in the little sonata, opus 49, No. 1, a theme and variations, a scherzo, and a final presto, which is preceded by an introductory andante of great beauty and of more seriousness than is characteristic of the work as a whole. The success of the work is due first to the freshness of the ideas, then to the skill with which they are arranged for the difficult combination of instruments. For Beethoven has made something of charm out of the very shortcomings of the wind instruments. The short phrases, the straightforward character of all the themes and motives, and the general simplicity all show these necessarily restricted instruments at their very best.
Schubert’s octet for two violins, viola, cello, double-bass, clarinet, horn, and bassoon is among the most beautiful pieces of chamber music for the wind instruments. It is the first of Schubert’s contributions to chamber music which fully reveals his genius. Mention may also be made of the variations for flute and piano on the melody of one of his songsTrockene Blumen.
None of the great composers was more appreciative of the clarinet than Weber. It is made to sound beautifully in all his overtures, notably in that to ‘Oberon.’