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Sonata, 1: Baroque
(i) Introduction.
In the 17th century title-pages often used the term sonata
generically to cover all the instrumental pieces in a volume, which
might well contain no single work actually called sonata; there are
no sonatas, for example, in Buonamentes Il quinto libro de varie
sonate, sinfonie, gagliarde, corrente, e ariette (Venice, 1629). As a
genre label, the term competed with others (especially canzone
and sinfonia, but also capriccio, concerto, fantasia, ricercar,
toccata) that were applied to individual pieces difficult to distinguish
from sonatas, even in the works of an individual composer within a
single printed volume. Only after mid-century did sonata finally
displace its competitors as the most appropriate term for such
instrumental works.
For Brossard (Dictionaire, 1703) the sonata was to all sorts of
instruments what the cantata is to the voice, and was designed
according to the composers fancy, free of the constraints
imposed by dance, text or the rules of counterpoint. Brossard
categorized sonatas as da camera or da chiesa, a division that has
informed much later commentary; however, the former term, while
it appeared on title-pages more frequently than the latter, was
rarely applied to specific sets of dance movements before Corellis
op.2 of 1685. The mature Baroque sonata did acquire a set of
more or less consistent attributes, even if copyists still wavered
between concerto and sonata for a work borrowing something
from each genre. By 1750 sonatas were independent pieces,
usually in three or four separate movements, which could be heard
not only in church and chamber, but in concert or as interval music
at the theatre, where they might be played orchestrally rather than
by the chamber ensembles for which they had originally been
written. J.G. Walthers concise definition (Musicalisches Lexicon,
1732) is accurate for his time, and indeed for much of the Baroque
period: the sonata is a piece for instruments, especially the violin,
of a serious and artful nature, in which adagios and allegros
alternate. Here the use of the term and the development of the
genre from Gabrielis Sacrae symphoniae (1597) to the galant
sonatas of Scarlatti and Telemann will be traced. But discussion
cannot be limited strictly to sonatas so called, since often enough
what are (and were) recognizably sonatas appeared under labels
referring to another genre (capriccio), or to the number of parts
(solo, quadro), or even to proper names (Cazzatis La Galeazza,
1648). The main concerns in what follows will be the origins and
stylistic development, sociocultural functions, performing practices,
dissemination and reception of the sonata and its near relatives.
(For more comprehensive lists of composers, arranged by
chronology and geography, see NewmanSBE, 4th edn.)
Sonata, 1: Baroque
(ii) Origins and early development.
Brossard (1703) noted that, while there are many kinds of sonatas,
the Italians reduce them to two types. The first is the sonata da
Chiesa, that is one proper for the Church, The second type is
the Sonata which they call da Camera, fit for the Chamber. These
are actually suites of several small pieces suitable for dancing, and
all in the same scale or key. The liturgical use of Baroque sonatas
has been well documented (see Bonta, 1969): 17th-century
ensemble canzonas and sonatas replaced the organ solos formerly
heard at Mass, and solo violin sonatas were customary at the
Elevation; from about 1690, concertos or orchestral performance of
trio sonatas might be heard instead. Moreover, 17th-century church
musicians may have adapted longer sonatas by performing
isolated sections, a practice likely to have encouraged composers
to construct independent movements.
Early collections mixing vocal and instrumental music had no need
of the chiesa and camera labels; in sacred collections, sonatas and
canzonas are usually found (Riccio), in the secular ones, dances
and variation sonatas (Marini, 1620; Turini, 1621). Even purely
instrumental collections were so clearly orientated that their uses
would have been obvious to the purchaser: in Buonamentes fifth
and sixth books (1629 and 1636, cited above) both content and
scoring suggest strongly that the former is a secular, the latter a
sacred collection (Mangsen, 1990). Merulas per chiesa e camera
(1637) was thus unusual both in its label and in mixing serious and
lighter instrumental music in one volume. Such mixed volumes, as
well as those dedicated to church or chamber, appeared
throughout the century, usually without labels indicating function.
The editions of Corellis church sonatas (opp.1 and 3) are entitled
merely Sonate a tre, whereas most editions of the chamber
sonatas are actually labelled da camera. This in itself suggests
what can be documented by other means, that serious instrumental
music, even if conceived primarily for a liturgical context, was
regularly heard elsewhere, possibly somewhat transformed: at
meetings of the various academies, as domestic chamber music, in
concert, and even in the theatre (as overture or interval music).
The occasions for which such music was best suited (and where to
store the parts) would have been obvious to the musician of the
time.
Until 1700, at least in Italy, a sonata was assumed to be serious,
and therefore suitable for church; da camera marked the special
case. Brossard implied as much when, after describing the sonata
da chiesa, he noted that these are what they [the Italians] properly
call Sonatas. Chamber sonatas usually begin with a prelude or
little Sonata, serving as an introduction to all the rest. The long
tradition of such sonata-suites in Germany, as well as the growing
use of binary movements in place of the more serious fugues
(generally associated with sacred music), may explain why Walther
(1732) included a separate entry for the church sonata (which
merely gives the German equivalent), but not for the chamber
variety; chiesa was for him the special case, camera the norm.
For the most part, the domestic and pedagogic market for
Classical sonatas was female (C.P.E. Bach issued a set of sonatas
specifically lusage des dames in 1770). Talented female
keyboard players were relatively plentiful in the second half of the
18th century; they included Katharina and Marianna Auenbrugger,
to whom Haydn dedicated his six sonatas hXVI:359 and 20 in
1780. Indeed, the social etiquette of the age virtually dictated a
certain degree of keyboard proficiency for ladies: among
aristocratic families, for instance, ability in that direction could be
important in attracting an acceptable husband. During the 1780s
several of Mozarts Viennese pupils were ladies from the higher
echelons of society (Countess Thun, Countess Rumbecke).
Somewhat lower down the scale were Theresia von Trattner (wife
of the prominent bookseller and publisher, and dedicatee of the
Fantasia and Sonata in C minor k475 and 457, published by Artaria
in 1785), Barbara von Ployer and Josepha Barbara von
Auernhammer; the last two carved out successful careers as
performers. Therese Jansen (later Mrs Bartolozzi), a pupil of
Clementi, was yet another, to whom Haydn dedicated his famous E
sonata hXVI:52 (and perhaps also hXVI:50 and 51) in 1794.
Besides its function as teaching material, the Classical sonata
found a place within the aristocratic salon, a forum that became
increasingly popular during the second half of the 18th century,
especially in France and Austria. Such salons, at which only the
upper classes were normally present, were private affairs usually
given in the homes of counts and countesses, less frequently in the
homes of court officials such as LAugier, the Viennese court
physician, one of whose meetings was attended by Charles Burney
in 1772. It is only ocasionally possible to recover any programme
details of such private gatherings, such as that at Hohen-Altheim,
the country residence of Prince Kraft Ernst von OettingenWallerstein (17481802), on 26 October 1777, when Mozart
performed his sonatas in B k281/189f and D k284/205b. The most
famous of Viennese salons was that of Countess Wilhelmine Thun,
a staunch patron of Mozarts during his early years in the capital,
who lent her fortepiano for the famous contest with Clementi before
Emperor Joseph II on 24 December 1781. Clementi later noted that
on this occasion he himself had played his Sonata in B op.24
no.2. Mozart's record of the meeting describes Clementi in less
than flattering terms, noting that he was a mere technician, whose
star passages were 3rds and 6ths. The association of Clementis
sonatas with empty technical brilliance (as in the op.2 set of 1779,
for instance) highlights a weakness that Clementi himself freely
acknowledged, and it is noteworthy that Rochlitz, reviewing
Clementis sonatas opp.33 and 37 in the Allgemeine musikalische
Zeitung in 17989, praised Clementis avoidance of exactly such
passages, something that was evidently regarded as a fingerprint
of his earlier style. According to Schindler, Beethoven owned
almost all of Clementis works (he had little by Mozart and nothing
The galant idiom, which reached its peak during the 1750s and
60s, favoured a wholly different approach towards melody, which
proceeded in short phrases of two or four bars, arranged in
symmetrical patterns and closing with balancing imperfect and
perfect (half and full) cadences along with a use of the 6-4 chord so
extensive as to be almost a clich. Characteristic of galant melody
was its tuneful, lyrical quality, dotted rhythms (sometimes inverted
as the Scotch snap), interruption of the prevailing flow by triplet
quavers, affective use of rests and long appoggiaturas, contrast of
dynamic and articulation. Textural characteristics include a marked
absence of polyphony and especially of fugal imitation, tending
instead towards a simplicity and transparency of presentation,
generally confined to two strands, one for each hand. Variety of
harmonic rhythm (a reaction against turgid and artificial late
Baroque practice as identified by Scheibe in his critique of J.S.
Bachs music) was a fingerprint of the galant style, made all the
more prominent by recourse to such accompaniment patterns as
the Alberti bass. All in all, the emerging galant idiom, found in the
work of J.C. Bach, Boccherini, Galuppi, Rutini, Sammartini and
Schobert, and in early Haydn and early Mozart, captured a
deliberately cultivated superficiality of utterance.
The high Classical style has been described by William Newman
as the peak at which the ideal and most purposeful co-ordination
of Classic style traits obtained (NewmanSCE, 3/1983, p.124).
Among its features are a clearer sense of individuality and
originality in the handling of the elements of the Classical language
than in the galant idiom. This expresses itself most obviously in
thematic terms a striking opening such as that of Haydns
hXVI:52 or Mozarts k457 although such opening gambits as the
opposition of a forte unison statement (often triadic) and a piano
chordal answer (Mozarts k309/284b and k576, for instance) is not
infrequent. Other fingerprints of the high Classical style include the
reintegration of counterpoint with periodic phrasing (Haydn,
hXVI:47; Mozart, k533, k570); audacious form schemes (as in
Mozarts k311/284c, whose exposition themes are reversed in the
recapitulation); wide-ranging tonal schemes, leading to expansion
of movement length (Haydn, hXVI:50 in C, hXVI:52; Mozart, k570;
Beethoven, op.2 no.3); use of harmonic colour (especially
chromaticism) for effect (Haydn, hXVI:20 in C minor, hXVI:52 in E ;
Mozart, k333/315c; Beethoven, op.27 no.2 one of a pair of
sonatas entitled quasi una fantasia, partly on the grounds that the
movements are designed as sections which follow on in sequence
with scarcely any break, but partly also because of recourse to
keyboard textures and idioms more closely associated with the
fantasia genre than with a sonata) and use of irregular phraselengths (Haydn, hXVI:45 in E ; Mozart, k309/284b opening
themes). Texturally, the high Classical sonata typically returns to a
more fully polyphonic norm in which counterpoint plays an
increasingly significant thematic role (Haydn,hXVI:52; Clementi,
op.40 no.1, op.50 no.1; Beethoven, op.2 no.2, op.54); elsewhere
(iv) Publishing.
(v) Performance.
Sonata, 3: 19th century after Beethoven
(i) Historical overview.
Beethoven's
sonatas
wielded
enormous
influence
on
compositional, pedagogical and performing practices throughout
the 19th century. His towering achievements in the solo and duo
sonata, as well as the string quartet and the symphony, set a
standard that few composers could hope to meet. Sonatas in
imitation of Beethoven's nevertheless abound, along with analytical
and pedagogical publications on Beethoven's own sonatas. His
sonatas featured prominently in the piano recitals that developed
as a genre from the late 1830s, with a canon of favourites
established early on (although occasionally subject to the virtuoso
embellishments that were popular before 1850). By 1861, pianists
were performing Beethoven sonatas in complete cycles, a practice
that of course survives to this day.
Austria and Germany remained especially important centres of
sonata production in the wake of Beethoven, although French and
British composers also produced large numbers. Beethoven's
influence encouraged a new appreciation of the sonata as one of
the most distinguished forms (Schumann); it thus became a staple
of piano solo and ensemble recitals alike, its increasing
significance reflecting the collective predilections of performers,
publishers, students and amateur groups, as well as their often
sophisticated audiences. In The Sonata since Beethoven (1969,
3/1983), William S. Newman claimed that the main cornerstones
of the Romantic sonata were Schubert, Schumann, Chopin and
Brahms, the last of these being the most important and central
contributor to the sonata since Beethoven. All told, he identified
some 625 European and American composers who produced
sonatas, in three overlapping phases: 180050 (during which
Dussek, Weber, Schubert and Mendelssohn were the key
practitioners); 184085, which started with an alleged decline in the
quality and quantity of sonata production, followed after a decade
by a revival of interest (a period dominated by Schumann, Chopin,
Liszt and Brahms); and finally about 18751914 (when the later
Brahms, Reger, Franck, Faur, Saint-Sans, d'Indy, Grieg,
Medtner, Rachmaninoff and MacDowell were pre-eminent).
While Newman regarded 19th-century sonatas as a conservative
facet of Romantic music history, Charles Rosen (1980) asserted
that compositional styles after 1830 were not especially suitable
for dealing with sonata form, which is largely irrelevant to the
history of 19th- and 20th-century styles, neither generating nor
being altered by them. (Richard Strauss for one complained in
1888 of a gradually ever increasing contradiction between the
musical-poetic content that I want to convey [and] the ternary
sonata form that has come down to us from the classical
composers, a form in his opinion no longer capable of conveying
implications for its form. Boulezs three piano sonatas (1946, 1947
8 and 19557) show a progression from traditional patterns (of two
movements in no.1, of four in the post-Hammerklavier no.2) to one
determinedly new. Ligetis Viola Sonata (19914), as a set of
inventions for unaccompanied soloist, as assertive statement, as
virtuoso showpiece and as a sequence of forms not beholden to
the past, fits into many of the sonatas histories.
Sonata
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