Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/571

SONATA. almost monopolised by violinists and writers for the violin. Some of these, such as Geminiani and Locatelli, were actually Corelli's pupils. They clearly followed him both in style and structural outlines, but they also began to extend and build upon them with remarkable speed. The second movement continued for long the most stationary and conventional, maintaining the Canzona type in a loose fugal manner, by the side of remarkable changes in the other movements. Of these the first began to grow into larger dimensions and clearer proportions even in Corelli's own later works, attaining to the dignity of double bars and repeats, and with his successors to a consistent and self-sufficing form. An example of this is the admirable Larghetto affettuoso with which Tartini's celebrated 'Trillo del Diavolo' commences. No one who has heard it could fail to be struck with the force of the simple device above described of making the ends of each half correspond, as the passage is made to stand out from all the rest more characteristically than usual. A similar and very good example is the introductory Largo to the Sonata in G minor, for violin and figured bass, by Locatelli, which is given in Ferdinand David's 'Hohe Schule des Violinspiels.' The subject-matter in both examples is exceedingly well handled, so that a sense of perfect consistency is maintained without concrete repetition of subjects, except, as already noticed, the closing bars of each half, which in Locatelli's Sonata are rendered less obvious through the addition of a short coda starting from a happy interrupted cadence. It is out of the question to follow the variety of aspects presented by the introductory slow movement; a fair proportion are on similar lines to the above examples, others are isolated. Their character is almost uniformly solid and large; they are often expressive, but generally in a way distinct from the character of the second slow movement, which from the first was chosen as the fittest to admit a vein of tenderer sentiment. The most important matter in the history of the Sonata at this period is the rapidity with which advance was made towards the realisation of modern harmonic and tonal principles of structure, or, in other words, the perception of the effect and significance of relations between chords and distinct keys, and consequent appearance of regularity of purpose in the distribution of both, and increased freedom of modulation. Even Corelli's own pupils show consistent form of the sonata kind with remarkable clearness. The last movement of a Sonata in C minor, by Geminiani, has a clear and emphatic subject to start with; modulation to the relative major, E♭, and special features to characterise the second section; and conclusion of the first half in that key, with repeat after the supposed orthodox manner. The second half begins with a long section corresponding to the working out or 'free fantasia' portion of a modern sonata movement, and concludes with recapitulation of the first subject and chief features of the second section in C minor; this latter part differing chiefly from modern ways by admitting a certain amount of discursiveness, which is characteristic of most of the early experiments in this form. Similar to this is the last movement of Locatelli's Sonata in G minor, the last movement of Veracini's Sonata in E minor, published at Vienna in 1714, the last movements of Tartini's Sonatas in E minor and D minor, and not a few others. It is rather curious that most of the early examples of what is sometimes called first-movement form are last movements. Most of these movements, however, in the early times, are distinguished by a peculiarity which is of some importance. It has been before referred to, but is so characteristic of the process of growth, that it will not be amiss to describe it in this place. The simple and almost homely means of producing the effect of structural balance by making the beginning and ending of each half of a movement correspond, is not so conspicuously common in its entirety as the correspondence of endings or repetition of cadence bars only; but it nevertheless is found tolerably often, and that in times before the virtue of a balance of keys in the first half of the movement had been decisively realised. When, however, this point was gained, it is clear that such a process would give, on as minute a scale as possible, the very next thing to complete modern binary form. It only needed to expand the opening passage into a first subject, and the figures of the Cadence into a second subject, to attain that type which became almost universal in sonatas till Haydn's time, and with some second-rate composers, like Reichart, later. The movements which are described as binary must be therefore divided into two distinct classes:—that in which the first subject reappears in the complementary key at the beginning of the second half, which is the almost universal type of earlier times; and that in which it appears in the latter part of the movement, after the working-out portion, which is the later type. The experiments in Corelli and Tartini, and others who are close to these types, are endless. Sometimes there are tentative strokes near to the later form; sometimes there is an inverted order reproducing the second portion of the movement first. Sometimes the first subject makes its appearance at both points, but then, may be, there is no balance of keys in the first half, and so forth. The variety is extraordinary, and it is most interesting to watch the manner in which some types by degrees preponderate, sometimes by combining with one another, sometimes by gradual transformation, come nearer and more decisively like the types which are generally adopted in modern times as fittest. The later type was not decisively fixed on at any particular point, for many early composers touched it once or twice at the same period that they were writing movements in more elementary forms. The point of actual achievement of a step in art is not marked by an isolated instance, but by decisive preponderance, and by the systematic adoption which shows at least an instinctive realisation of its value and importance.