Three Composers of the Sonata Form

CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH was the third son of Johann Sebastian, and was born at Weimar, March 14, 1714. He was precocious, showed unusual intellectual ability, and though his father taught him music, as a matter of course, he nevertheless planned for him a very different career from that of a musician. He sent him to the Thomas School in Leipzig, and afterwards to the university of the same city, and still later to that at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, to study law. Emanuel thus became a highly educated and cultivated man, and when, in 1737, he determined to relinquish the law for music, he was not only an excellent musician, but a man of such breadth and universality of culture as ensured him a wide influence among men not especially connected with his chosen profession.

He began his career as a professional musician in Berlin, where he became a great favorite with Frederick the Great. That monarch gave him a special court appointment as chamber-musician and harpsichordist, and being an amateur flute player, he made it Bach's special duty to accompany his solos at his private concerts. Bach held this post until the Seven Years War broke out, in 1757, when he went to Hamburg, became an organist and church music director, and remained there, as musician and composer, until his death in 1788. He wrote large quantities of harpsichord music, some of it with orchestral accompaniment, church music, orchestral music, oratorios, songs, etc., and an important instruction book, '1 On the true manner of playing the clavichord," which contained his own and the best of his father's ideas on technic, style and interpretation.

Personally he was kind and polite, and he was always beloved and respected for his personal character, his industry, his ability and attainments as critic, teacher, composer and conductor. His special significance as composer in the history of pianoforte music, lies in the fact, that in his works the decisive step from the polyphonic to the monophonic style was taken.

In Sebastian Bach, the Fugue had reached its climax. No advance was possible, either in the development of the polyphonic forms, or in their adaptation to the expression of a new content. Progress was now to be made in a wholly new direction. The germs of the monophonic style had existed for more than a century, and this style had even been considerably developed. Short forms had been developed, more or less unconsciously, "Sonatas" had been written, and enough had already been done, so that, as soon as it had clearly become impossible to do anything more, in the strict polyphonic style, than imitate Sebastian Bach, the channel into which the musical impulse was now to be turned became perfectly clear. The monophonic style was to be cultivated, and to become predominant, and, first of all, the form of it was to be developed, the principles of orderly succession of melodic members were to be discovered and established; the means of securing Unity, of enhancing interest by means of Variety and Contrast, and of satisfying the sense of order, symmetry and proportion, were to become familiar by gradual experience, by theory and practice.

Natural constitution, acquired culture and surrounding circumstances combined to make Emanuel Bach a leader in this new direction. He was not a genius of the highest rank. There was nothing gigantic or colossal about his aims, his ideas, his imagination, his intellectual powers, his emotional capacities or his religious experiences. The reign of the giants had closed with Sebastian Bach and Haendel. To them were to succeed a race of more commonplace musicians, who had, nevertheless, their own special and important work to do.

Emanuel Bach was simply a highly cultivated man, of respectable abilities, a well-trained and accomplished musician, who sought to compose and play in a tasteful, elegant and pleasing style. There seems to have been a sudden reaction in the public mind, against the style of music which Sebastian Bach cultivated, and of which he was the most distinguished representative. After his death, his works fell into speedy oblivion. For almost a century they slumbered, before the world again began to realize what a mighty genius had worked in the old Leipzig cantor, and to seek diligently for the treasures he had left behind, a precious bequest to posterity.

The public seemed tired of the severity of the fugal style; they shunned the bracing intellectual exertion needed for its intelligent comprehension, and preferred music which should give immediate pleasure, without requiring much mental strain on the part of the hearer. Thus it naturally happened that the popular musicians of this generation cultivated the simpler forms of the monophonic style. Into this they imported such ideas of thematic treatment as they could transfer from the older schools of free polyphony. They made it the medium of such expression as they were capable of, and developed and enlarged the small forms according to their intellectual ability. But above all, taste, elegance, were the watchwords.

Emanuel Bach's most important work was in the form he gave the sonata. The sonatas of Scarlatti had been in one movement only, and though this movement was not yet a " Sonata-Form," or " First movement " form, in the modern sense, it was the germ of it. Its plan was, in general, as follows: It was in two divisions. Division I contained the "ex. position" of the sonata. It consisted of several groups of phrases, which perhaps ought to be called periods, since they were commonly separated by more or less decisive cadences, and were generally characterized by different motives. The leading motive of the first period was commonly the most important, being, in fact, a principal subject, all other motives being subordinate and accessory. After this subject had been announced, in the principal key, new motives were introduced, and modulation began, pointing toward a new key in which the division was to close. This key was generally that of the Dominant, if the principal key was major, or if it was minor, then the new key was commonly that of the Relative Major, or sometimes the minor key of the Dominant.

The periods succeeding the first were simply a series of modulatory phrases, often spun out to considerable length, and digressing into a considerable number of more or less closely related keys, before the goal was finally reached. The division was then brought to a close by an extended cadence. There are but very few cases where one of the subordinate motives stands in such a relation to the principal one, and to the others, that it can be fairly called a Second Subject. There is an example of this in No. 7 of Kohler's selections from Scarlatti's sonatas (r2 Fugues and Sonatas, Section 3 of the Classical High School for pianists, published by Julius Schuberth & Co., Leipzig). This second subject is lyric, Very well contrasted with the principal subject, and the form of the sonata approximates that of Emanuel Bach. But this is an exceptional case, and seems to be the result of accident rather than of design. Still, it shows the direction in which the form of monophonic music was tending.

The second division of the Scarlatti sonata commonly had a plan closely analogous to that of the first division. It started with the principal subject, in the key in which the first division closed, or in some other key not too remote from the original tonic, then introduced the subordinate motives in much the same order as they occurred in the first division, and modulated back to the principal key, in which the sonata began, closing in this key, with an extended cadence. The style of these sonatas was commonly partly monophonic and partly free polyphony. The periods, if periods they must be called, seldom had any definite symmetrical balance of antecedent and consequent. They were irregular as to the number of measures or of phrases, and the composer's sense of symmetry and proportion, though evidently present, seems to have been undeveloped, and to be working blindly, groping its way toward a clearness of form which was not yet attainable.

In these respects, Scarlatti's sonatas were closely analogous to many of the larger dance forms in the suites of his contemporaries, Bach and Haendel. Indeed, the forms of these dances are not distinguishable from that of the so-called 11 sonatas " in question, and Dr. Hans von Buelow, in his selection of eighteen pieces by Scarlatti (No. 277 of the edition of C. F. Peters, in Leipzig); has given the names of dances of the period to a number of these " sonatas " (with entire propriety, so far as the form and character of the pieces are concerned), for the purpose of making them more attractive. In these writers there are many small dance forms which are as regular and symmetrical in the construction and balance of their periods as any to be found in the works of Haydn or Mozart. This was due, probably, to their being founded on vocal forms fitted to the ballad stanza, which served as the germ for the development of the monophonic forms. But these larger forms were still more influenced by the elaborate style of the free polyphonic forms, such as the prelude and toccata, than by that of the smaller lyric forms, and partook of the indefiniteness of that style. The lyric and symmetrically formal element was slowly pushing forward into prominence, but had not yet given signs of becoming predominant.

Emanuel Bath's 11 Sonata-Forms," which he used in the first and last movements of his sonatas, were very much on the same plan as those of Scarlatti, and of many of the pieces in the suites of Sebastian Bath and Haendel. But his periods are often much more symmetrical than any of those to be found in the previous works alluded to, and there is a much more marked balance of antecedent and consequent. They constitute a distinct advance in clearness of perception of the requirements of Form. They seldom or never contain a well- marked second subject, and the only further advance is in the point that their style is most decidedly monophonic. Imitation there is, and thematic treatment, but the free polyphony or mixed style which had prevailed in the preceding generation in almost all but the smallest and simplest forms, had now given place to a style as decidedly and purely monophonic as that of a Mozart Sonata.

Besides this, Emanuel Bach wrote sonatas in three movements, of which the first and third were "sonata-forms," and the middle one was a lyric slow movement, contrasted with the others in key and in character. This form was adopted from him by Haydn and Mozart, and their sonatas differ from his only in the greater development of the separate movements.

Let us now recapitulate. The modern sonata has four essential characteristics:

1. It has at least three movements.
2. These movements are contrasted with one another, in key and in character, some being rapid and lively, others slow and tender.
3. One, at least, of these movements is a "sonataform."
4. The movements are all monophonic, some predominantly thematic and some lyric.

f these characteristic features, none were wholly new in Emanuel Bach's time.

Sebastian Bach had written suites in six or seven movements; but these were all in the same key. Moreover, some of them were in free polyphony. His Partitas were simply small suites. He wrote " Sonatas " for the organ in three movements, the first and third being allegros and the middle one an adagio or an andante, but these were all strictly polyphonic. He also wrote sonatas for the harpsichord, but these differed from his suites only in admitting fugues and other forms which were not dance-forms. Finally, he had written concertos in three movements, the first and last being allegros and the middle one an andante or adagio, in a style as closely approaching monophony as did the sonatas of Scarlatti. These probably served Emanuel Bach as models for his sonatas. But the three movements of these concertos were all in the same key. Haendel had written suites which resembled the sonatas of Bach. They had sometimes fewer, sometimes more movements. Of these, one was often a fugue. They were generally all in the same key. Of Scarlatti's sonatas, enough has been said.

It will be seen that no one characteristic feature of the sonata was original with Emanuel Bach, nor did he even develop the " Sonata-Form " much further than his predecessors. What he did do that had not been done before was this: He combined all the essential characteristics of the sonata in numerous compositions of such merit that they became models for his contemporaries and his immediate successors. He brought the exclusively monophonic sonata into vogue; he contributed toward its development in the direction of clearness and symmetry; he adopted the principle of contrast in key as well as in character, in the three movements of which his sonatas were composed ; in short, he established the plan of the sonata, determined the direction in which it was to develop, and, by his influence and example, gave the most powerful impulse to that development.

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN was born April 1, 1732, in the little Austrian village of Rohrau. His father was a wheelwright. His mother, before her marriage, was a cook in a noble family. They were honest, industrious, pious people, fond of music, but wholly untrained in it. Little Joseph used to sing with them their simple songs, in a beautiful, clear, childish soprano. His father saw in him evidences of musical talent, and as there was no opportunity for his proper training at home, he was removed to school at Hainburg, some four leagues from home, at the early age of six. Here a relative of his, named Frankh, became his teacher. The boy was thoroughly well taught, proved an apt pupil, and learned to sing well and to play different instruments.

At the age of eight, Reutter, court-composer and conductor at St. Stephen's church, Vienna, being at Hainburg on a visit, heard him sing, and at once offered him a place in his choir. So the boy went to Vienna, sang in the cathedral choir, continued his musical studies, and also those of the school curriculum. His music lessons did not include instruction in Harmony or Composition, but so strong was his natural bent in this direction that he constantly practiced it by himself, working hard and spoiling vast quantities of music-paper. Five years after he went to Vienna, his voice began to change, and being of no further use as a singer, he was soon dismissed to shift for himself. He struggled on, amidst poverty and hardship, practiced the violin and harpsichord, gave lessons for his daily bread, and assiduously devoted himself to the study and practice of composition.

He soon made the acquaintance of some of Emanuel Bach's sonatas, was greatly interested in them, and thenceforth they became his models. Bach afterwards declared that Haydn alone thoroughly understood his style. He procured all the theoretical works he could lay hands on, mastered their contents, and gradually exercised himself in every species of composition. He wrote masses, operas, string-quartets, and, by dint of hard work, speedily attained certainty and facility of technic, and independence and originality of style.

He began to make friends. A wealthy amateur named von Fuernberg invited him to his house, gave him opportunities to hear good performances of chamber music, and encouraged him to write his first string quartet. His lessons increased, and his price was raised. His compositions found sale among wealthy lovers of music. In 1759 he became conductor of a small but good orchestra in the employ of Count Morzin, and wrote his first symphony for it in the same year. There was at that time no musical public. Artists were obliged to depend solely on the patronage of the wealthy. Haydn's salary as conductor was two hundred florins (about one hundred dollars). Of course living was cheap.

He determined to marry, and in 1760, Maria Anna Keller, daughter of a wigmaker, who had been his pupil, became his wife. She was three years older than he, had a bad temper, had no sympathy whatever with his aims as an artist, and was every way unsuited to be the companion of such a man. She made his- domestic life miserable till their separation, a few years before her death in 1800.

Count Morzin was obliged to dismiss his orchestra soon after this, and in 1761, Haydn entered the service of Prince Esterhazy, at Eisenstadt, his country seat in Hungary, as conductor of an orchestra of only sixteen members. But they were good players, and he was at once stimulated to do his best in composing for them. This orchestra had a chorus and solo singers associated with it for service in church and at concerts, and Werner, Haydn's predecessor, now an old man, remained for a time in charge of the church music. The orchestra was gradually increased, concerts were frequent, rehearsals were required daily, and Haydn had enough to do, with conducting and providing new compositions. Here he remained for nearly thirty years, and composed a vast amount of music, symphonies, chamber music, harpsichord and pianoforte music, church music, songs, operettas, etc., until the orchestra was finally disbanded. He then returned to Vienna, but was immediately invited to London, by Salomon, the English publisher. Thither he went, in the winter of 179o-r. Before this, he had become acquainted with Mozart, had formed the highest opinion of his genius, and the two had become warm friends.

In London he was received with the greatest enthusiasm. He composed six symphonies for Salomon's concerts, conducted them at the pianoforte, and afterwards gave other -concerts, all of which were extremely successful. He remained about a year and a half, and then returned to Vienna. Early in 1794, he again went to London under a similar engagement, and succeeded even more brilliantly in all respects. He earned fame and money, and returned home in 1795, comfortably independent. He still retained the title of conductor to Prince Esterhazy, and the orchestra was now revived. He continued to compose for it several years. His reputation was greatly increased by his oratorios, " The Creation," first given April 29, 1798, and "The Seasons," composed the following year. This was the last of his important works. He died May 31, 1809.

Haydn was a small, short man, very dark, with dark gray eyes. In disposition he was cheerful and even tempered, and though he was sensitive, and unhappy in his domestic affairs, his music gives no evidence that his mental equanimity was ever greatly disturbed. He was very devout, very diligent in his work, and commanded universal respect. He composed very carefully and deliberately, attaching the utmost , importance to the working out of his themes, aiming always to develop each idea naturally, evolving from it, as from a germ, a work whose prime characteristic should be organic unity. He was indeed precise and careful, but he was no pedantic follower of rules. Whatever sounded well or answered the ends he had in view, he was content to write down, regardless of grammatical rules as laid down by the theorists of his time. He was a genuine creator, and his fund of invention seemed inexhaustible. "The Creation," the child of his old age, equals in freshness of melodic invention any work of his youth or prime, and retains its charm to this day.

As might be expected from his position as leader of an orchestra, and composer for this and for concerts of chamber music, it is in the two departments of the symphony and the string quartet, that his originality exerted the strongest and most far-reaching influence. His numerous compositions in these fields were so superior in form and style to anything that preceded them, that they drove them all into oblivion, became models for succeeding composers, and gained for Haydn the rightful title of "the father of instrumental music." But in the field of pianoforte music his influence was hardly less marked. Accepting the form of the sonata as established by Emanuel Bach, he enlarged all its movements and developed in the "sonata-form " that clear and definite order of period and period groups which made it strictly and in the fullest sense classical. In his sonata-forms, there is a "first subject," often carried out into a period-group of considerable length, a transition period or period group, then a "second subject," equally extensive, a transition and a conclusion. The second division begins with an elaboration of the ideas of the first division, followed by a repetition of that division. The student may examine them for himself in the very cheap but excellent complete edition of his sonatas published by C. F. Peters, in Leipzig; or the selection of ten celebrated sonatas, published by the same house, may serve as characteristic specimens of his form and style.

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, born at Salzburg, January 27, 1756, was the son of Leopold Mozart, an intelligent, well-educated and every way superior musician, in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg. He was extremely precocious, began to manifest remarkable love for music when only three years old, soon learned to play the harpsichord and the violin, and even began to compose. He had the most delicate ear, was extremely quick and intelligent, learned by intuition everything pertaining to music, and in short, showed the most unmistakable evidences of possessing the innate gift of genius. Withal he was amiable in disposition, perfectly teachable, tenderly attached to his family and to all who were kind to him, and so profited by all the instruction he received. His sister, Maria Anna, two years older than he, was also very talented, so much so that their father thought it worth while to make concert tours with the two children to exhibit their remarkable gifts to the various noblemen, whose patronage, in those days, was the only support of artists.

The first of these tours was undertaken when Wolfgang was only six years of age. They went to Munich, dad 'afterwards to Vienna, where Wolfgang genius excited the liveliest interest and admiration in the Emperor and in all his court. The Empress petted him, and with the frankness of a warm-hearted child, wholly ignorant of distinctions of rank, and of the restraints of court etiquette, he jumped up into her lap, threw his arms around her neck and kissed her, doubtless to the great amusement of the courtiers. The next year they went to Paris, where four of his sonatas for pianoforte and violin were published, and afterward to London, where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm by the king, the royal family, the nobility, the musicians, and the public. His powers of improvisation excited the greatest astonishment and admiration. Musicians delighted to put him to the severest tests, from which he invariably came off triumphant. In 1765 they started for home, giving concerts by the way in Holland, Paris, Switzerland, and various German cities.

After these tours, he continued diligently to study and compose at Salzburg, under his father's direction. He went also to Vienna, and in 1769 his father began with him a tour of the Italian cities, both to enlarge his musical experience, and to extend his reputation. The tour was every way successful. The boy learned much, and his genius was everywhere admired and respected. At Bologna he met the celebrated Padre Martini, who gave him lessons in fugue and strict counterpoint. He composed a good deal in Italy, among other things, an opera, and several symphonies.

After their return to Salzburg, in 1771, study and composition went on with even greater vigor. The boy's invention was exhaustless. Melodies rose in his imagination like water in a boiling spring, and in all that pertained to the development and technical treatment of his ideas, there seemed no limit to his capabilities. He wrote church music, chamber music, symphonies, harpsichord music, operas, all with no apparent effort, and with the utmost rapidity. He was indeed an artist "by the grace of God." These early compositions were, indeed, of little permanent value, but his powers were maturing by exercise, and he was gathering materials and gaining in experience daily. In spite of the universal admiration of his gifts and attainments, his father found it impossible to obtain for him a court appointment. He was, indeed, vice-conductor to the Archbishop of Salzburg, but without a salary, and his relations to his patron were by no means pleasant. So, at the age of twenty-one, he severed this connection, and .started with his mother for Paris. But there the time and circumstances proved unfavorable, and soon his mother died there.

He returned to Salzburg, and accepted the place of organist and concert-meister to the court and cathedral. But he found it impossible to live with the Archbishop. The troubles culminated in Vienna, whither Mozart had been summoned in March, 1781, his master being there on a visit. This dignified prelate was very fond of lording it over those in his service. He made his court composer eat with the servants, addressed him in terms of vile abuse, and finally, being displeased with him, for no discoverable reason, ordered him to leave the house. Mozart left, and never had anything to do with him afterward. To the honor of the Emperor, and of the Viennese nobility, be it said that they all hated this detestable despiser of genius, and treated him with contempt.

On the 16th of August, 1782, Mozart married Constanze Weber, third daughter of Fridolin Weber, a prompter and copyist, whose acquaintance Wolfgang had made sometime before, in Mannheim, but who was now living in Vienna. The marriage was a happy one, but Constanze was a poor manager, and Mozart was careless in money matters, so that they were constantly in financial embarrassment from their marriage until Mozart's death. The Emperor and the nobility might very easily have made the life of the great composer an easy one, as regards money matters. Why this was not done is a mystery, since they seemed to appreciate the fact that his was a genius such as is sent into the world but seldom, but certain it is that he was unable to obtain a conductor's appointment, or any other lucrative position. Men greatly his inferior were preferred to him, and he earned a precarious livelihood by giving lessons, playing at concerts, and the sale of his compositions.

Among the most important of his works were his operas, of which he wrote many for Vienna, Prague, and other cities. The greatest of these are "Don Juan," "Figaro's Wedding," and "The Magic Flute;" next to these, "The Abduction from the Seraglio," "Idomeneus," "Titus" and "Cosi fan tutte." He also wrote many symphonies, which were an advance on Haydn's in the extent of their development, and in greater fullness and richness of the instrumentation. His chamber music also surpassed all that had been written by his predecessors. He wrote with the greatest ease and produced immense quantities of music, but the constant strain, added to his anxieties about money matters and to the drain on his vitality made by the constant excitements of his life, sapped his strength. He died December 5, 1791, poor and in debt, and was buried in the common pauper's grave, in the churchyard of St. Mary. Thus was sacrificed to the niggardliness of titled fools a man worth more to the world than whole countries full of emperors, counts and dukes.

If figure, Mozart was short and small; he had a prominent nose, and was not remarkable for being either good looking or the reverse. In disposition he was amiable and kind, very vivacious and fond of society, and very fond of his friends, who loved him in return. Between him and Haydn there existed a warm friendship. Mozart always acknowledged his obligations to his older fellow composer, and spoke of his works with great admiration and respect. On his part, Haydn cordially recognized Mozart's genius. In 1785, on hearing some of Mozart's quartets, he said to Leopold Mozart, "I declare to you before God, as a man of honor, that your son is the greatest composer that I know, either personally or by reputation; he has taste, and beyond that the most consummate knowledge of the art of composition."

As a composer, Mozart was remarkable, first of all for spontaneity and fertility of invention, and next, perhaps, for sensuous beauty of melody and harmony and warmth of color in modulation and instrumentation. In his best operas he also achieved much in the way of truthful dramatic characterization. In his pianoforte sonatas and concertos, which more immediately concern us in this history, he made decided advances on Haydn in the development of Form. His greatest compositions in this kind were laid out on a broader scale than any of Haydn's; they were perfect in Unity, and admirable in Symmetry and Proportion. They were not remarkable for strong contrasts, but contrast is not of the essential nature of the classical. Variety there was, an inexhaustible freshness of ideas and of treatment, and repose, which is of the very essence of the strictly classical, of which he and Haydn were the foremost representatives. With Mozart, the Sonata, considered as an Art-Form, reached its culmination. He had developed it to its logical limits, and thenceforth little or no advance was to be made upon his work, so far as form was concerned. The great composers who immediately succeeded him adopted his forms at first. They afterward struck out new paths for themselves, but the new development was not in the direction of elaborate forms, but of a new content, and of the adaptation of forms to the embodiment of this content.