Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/155

Rh as the Germans call it. It held a very important place in music from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, and contributed very largely to the development of the sonata form. Telemann devoted himself to this form of composition more especially at Eisenach, in 1708; and he says that nothing of all that he wrote was as much appreciated as these sonatas. "I so contrived," he says, "that the second part seemed to be the first, while the bass was a natural melody, forming, with the other parts, an appropriate harmony, which developed with each note in such a way that it seemed as though it could not be otherwise. Many sought to persuade me that I had displayed the best of my powers in these compositions."—Herr Hugo Riemann has published one of these trios in his Collegium Musicum collection. This trio, in mi B major, extracted from Telemann's Tafelmusik, is in four movements: first, affettuoso, second, vivace 3/8; third, grave; fourth, allegro 2/4. The second and fourth movements are in two parts, with repetition. The first and second movements tend to link themselves together after the fashion of the grave and fugue of the French overture. The form is still that of the sonata with a single theme, beside which a secondary design is faintly beginning to show itself. We are still close to the point where the sonata type emerges from the suite; but the themes are already modern in character; many of them, above all the themes of the grave movement, are definitely Italian: one might say Pergolesian. By his tendency to individual expression in instrumental music, Telemann influenced Johann Friedrich Fasch of Zabst, but here the disciple greatly surpassed the master.