The Pianoforte Sonata Part 18

[6] 1685-1750 (Veracini is regarded as of the Corelli school, yet it should not be forgotten that his uncle, Antonio Veracini, is said to have published "Sonate a tre, due violini e violone, o arciliuto col ba.s.so continuo per l'organo" at Florence, already in 1662).

[7] 1692-1770.

[8] It is important to distinguish between _sonata_ and _sonata-form_.

The first movement of a modern sonata is usually in sonata-form; but there are sonatas (Beethoven, Op. 26, etc.) which contain no such movement. Sonata-form, as will be shown later on, has been evolved from old binary form. By _sonata_ is understood merely a group of movements; hence objection may certainly be taken to the term as applied to the one-movement pieces of Dom. Scarlatti, which are not even in sonata-form.

[9] It must be remembered that Corelli spent some time in Germany between 1680 and 1683, the latter being the year of publication of his first sonatas at Rome.

[10] In J.S. Bach's 2nd Sonata for Flauto traverso and Cembalo (third movement) there is a return to the opening theme in the second section; also in the Presto of the sonata for two violins and figured ba.s.s we have an example very similar to the "Hoboy" sonata of Handel.

[11] Krieger, by the way, studied under Bernardo Pasquini at Rome.

[12] Cf. Corelli: Corrente in 10th Sonata of Op. 2; also Allemande and Giga of the next sonata.

[13] Cf. Scarlatti: No. 10 of the sixty sonatas published by Breitkopf & Hartel.

[14] When there is clearly a second subject, that of course offers the point of return. (See Nos. 24 and 39.)

[15] See V. Schoelcher's _Life of Handel_, p. 23.

[16] See, however, chapter on the predecessors of Beethoven.

[17] See ch. iii. on Pasquini.

[18] "Seit einigen Jahren hat man angefangen, Sonaten fur's Clavier (da sie sonst nur fur Violinen u. dgl. geh.o.r.en) mit gutem Beifall zu setzen; bisher haben sie noch die rechte Gestalt nicht, und wollen mehr geruhrt werden, als ruhren, das ist, sie zielen mehr auf die Bewegung der Finger als der Herzen."

[19] The public did not support the undertaking, and the other five never appeared.

[20] The copy in the British Museum has no violin part, which was probably unimportant.

[21] Emanuel Bach's predecessor as clavecinist at the Prussian Court.

[22] This name is not in Mendel, Riemann, Grove, nor Brown. Fetis, however, mentions him as Joseph Umstadt, _maitre de chapelle_ of Count Bruhl, at Dresden, about the middle of the eighteenth century, and as composer of _Parthien_, and of six sonatas for the clavecin.

[23] See, however, the early Wurtemberg sonatas.

[24] Examples to be found in Rolle, Muthel, and Joh. Chr. Bach, etc.

[25] Gluck's six sonatas for two violins and a thorough ba.s.s, published by J. Simpson, London (probably about the time when Gluck was in London, since he is named on t.i.tle-page "Composer to the Opera"), have three movements: slow, fast, fast,--the last generally a Minuet.

[26] E. Bach did some strange things. One of his sonatas (Coll. of 1783, No. 1) has the first movement in G major, the second in G minor, and the third in E major.

[27] Galuppi, No. 4, first set: Adagio, Spiritoso, Giga Allegro.

[28] Sometimes the last movement was a Tempo di Menuetto, a Polonaise, or even a Fugue.

[29] Wagenseil's Op. 1, Sonatas with violin accompaniment. No. 4, in C, has Allegro, Minuetto, Andante, and Allegro a.s.sai.

[30] As this experiment of Seyfert and Goldberg, in connection with Beethoven, is of special interest, we may add that Goldberg has all the movements in the same key, but Seyfert has both the Trio of the Minuet, and the Andante in the under-dominant. This occurs in two of his sonatas; in both, the opening key is major.

[31] There is, however, one curious exception. The first of the two "Sonates pour le clavecin, qui peuvent se jouer avec l'Accompagnement de Violon, dediees a Madame Victoire de France, par J.G. Wolfgang Mozart de Salzbourg, age de sept ans," published at Paris as Op. 1, has _four_ movements: an Allegro in C (with, by the way, an Alberti ba.s.s from beginning to end, except at the minor chord with organ point near the close of each section, the place for the extemporised cadenza), an Andante in F (Alberti ba.s.s from beginning to end), a first and second Menuet, and an Allegro molto, of course, in C. The brief dedication to Op. 1 is signed:--"Votre tres humble, tres obeissant et tres pet.i.t Serviteur, J.G. Wolfgang Mozart."

[32] There is one exception: a sonata in G major, one of his earliest.

See chapter on Haydn and Mozart.

[33] Scheibe; a return for the moment to a practice which was once of usual occurrence.

[34] Mention has been made in this chapter of a first section in a minor piece of Scarlatti's ending in the _major_ key of the dominant.

[35] In the Sonatas of 1781, for instance, the first movement of No.

2, in F, has a definite second subject, but that is scarcely the case with the first movement of No. 3, in F minor.

[36] This is the date given by Mattheson. In some dictionaries we find 1667; this, however, seems to be an error, for that would only make Kuhnau fifteen years of age when he became candidate for the post of organist of St. Thomas'. Fetis, who gives the later date (1667), states that in 1684 Kuhnau became organist of St. Thomas', but adds: "Quoiqu'il ne ft age que de dix-sept ans."

[37] This Kittel must surely have been father or uncle of Johann Christian Kittel, Bach's last pupil.

[38] Mattheson, in his _Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte_, published at Hamburg in 1740, complains that the names of Salomon Krugner, Christian Kittel, A. Kuhnau, and Hering are not to be found in the musical dictionaries. The first and third have not, even now, a place.

[39] In a letter written by Graupner to Mattheson, the former, after mentioning that he studied the clavier and also composition under Kuhnau, says:--"Weil ich mich auch bei Kuhnau, als Notist, von selbsten ambot, u. eine gute Zeit fur ihn schrieb, gab nur solches gewunschte Gelegenheit, viel gutes zu sehen, u. wo etwa ein Zweifel enstund, um mundlichen Bericht zu bitten, wie dieses oder jenes zu verstehen?" ("As I offered myself as copyist to Kuhnau, and wrote some long time for him, such a wished-for opportunity enabled me to study much good (music), and, whenever a doubt arose to learn by word of mouth how this or that was to be understood.")

[40] In the _Dictionnaire de Musique_ by Bossard (2nd ed. 1705) no mention is made under the article "Sonata" of one for the clavier, and yet the above had been published ten years previously.

[41] See also next chapter.

[42] Nearly the whole of this composer's works are said to have been destroyed at the bombardment of Dresden in 1760.

[43] The sonata is given in _Le Tresor des Pianistes_ with the ornaments, yet even there more than a dozen have been omitted.

[44] The clavier by its very nature tended towards polyphony; the violin towards monody. And, besides, Kuhnau prided himself on the fugal character of his sonatas.

[45] Even in the later "Bible" Sonatas, figures from these sonatas recur.

[46] Cf. _The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book_, edited by J.A.

Fuller-Maitland and W. Barclay Squire (Breitkopf & Hartel).

[47] Johann Jakob Froberger died in 1667.

[48] Meyer thinks he was probably the son of Ercole Pasquini, born about 1580, and predecessor of Frescobaldi at St. Peter's.

[49] Weitzmann and other writers, in referring to the work published at Amsterdam, spell the name Paglietti; it should, however, be Polietti or Poglietti.

[50] This piece was printed from a ma.n.u.script in the British Museum, which bears no such t.i.tle. Judging, however, from the t.i.tle of the _libro prezioso_ mentioned on p. 71 [Transcriber's Note: p. 73], that name may originally have been given to it.

[51] The suite is printed in the _Pasquini-Grieco Alb.u.m_ by Messrs.

Novello.

[52] Pasquini was no doubt one of the many composers who influenced Handel. When the latter visited Italy before he came to London in 1710, he made the acquaintance of the two Scarlattis (Alessandro and Domenico), Corelli, and other famous musicians at Rome; of Lotti and Steffani at Venice; and surely at Naples he must have known Pasquini, whose name, however, is not to be found either in Schoelcher or Rockstro. Only Gasparini, who was a pupil of Pasquini's, is mentioned by the former.