The art of music, Vol. 07 (of 14) : $b Pianoforte and chamber music
History
The art of music, Vol. 07 (of 14) : $b Pianoforte and chamber music
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
Of this perfect masterpiece we have already spoken. It is well to
recall attention to the fact, however, that the first and last
movements are of about equal length and significance. Both are in rapid
tempo and of careful and more or less close-knit workmanship; and both
are in the key of F major. The movement between them is in a different
key (D minor) and of slow tempo and wholly contrasting character.
Here, then, as regards the number and grouping of movements in the
sonata, we have in the work of the father, the model for the son
Emanuel. For so far as Emanuel Bach contributed at all to the external
structure of the pianoforte sonata, it was by adhering consistently to
this three-movement type which was later adopted by Haydn, Mozart, and,
to a great extent, Beethoven.
His consistency in this regard is indeed well worth noticing. For
between the years 1740 and 1786, when he composed and published his
numerous sets of sonatas, there was much variety of procedure among
musicians. Bach, however, rarely varied; and this, together with the
models his father left, justifies us in calling the sonata in three
movements distinctly the German type of this period.
Meanwhile composers who were more in the current of Italian music
fought shy of committing themselves to a fixed grouping of movements.
Italian instrumental music was taking a tremendous swing towards melody
and lightness. This was especially influential in shaping the triplex
form of movement; but was also affecting the general grouping. Padre
Martini (1706-84) of Bologna alone adhered to a regular, or nearly
regular, number and sequence of movements in harpsichord sonatas. His
twelve harpsichord sonatas, published in Amsterdam in 1742, but written
some years earlier, seem strangely out of place in their surroundings.
To begin with, even at this late date they are written either for organ
or for harpsichord. This alone prepares us for the general contrapuntal
style of them all. Then, though named sonatas, they are far more nearly
suites. Each is composed of five movements. The first is regularly in
sonorous prelude style, suitable to the organ. The second is regularly
an allegro in fugal style, the third usually an adagio. The fourth and
fifth are in most cases dances,--gavottes, courantes or gigues, with
sometimes an aria or a theme and variations. All the movements in one
sonata are in the same key. Only one feature resembles those of the
growing Italian harpsichord sonata: the generally light dance character
of the last or the last two movements. For what is very noticeable in
the sonatas of E. Bach is that the last movements, though cheerful in
character, are usually of equal musical significance with the first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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