The Pianoforte Sonata: Its Origin and DevelopmentShedlock, J. S. (John South)
History
The Pianoforte Sonata: Its Origin and Development
Shedlock, J. S. (John South)
Sonatas (Piano) -- History and criticism
The sonata in D major, composed six years later, opens with an
interesting Allegro. The second movement, in B minor, bears the
superscription "Wehklage" (Lamentation). Rust's eldest son, a talented
youth, who was studying at Halle University, was drowned in the river
Saale, 23rd March 1794. Matthisson, the "Adelaide" poet, sent to the
disconsolate father a poem entitled "Todtenkranz fuer ein Kind," to
which Rust sketched music, and on that sketch is based this pathetic
movement, which sounds like some tone-poem of the nineteenth century.
Here is the impressive coda:--
[Music illustration]
There follows a dainty, old-fashioned Minuet, and a curious movement
entitled "Schwermuth und Frohsinn" (Melancholy and Mirth);[93] though
after the "Wehklage" these make little impression.
During four years (1792-96), Rust was occupied with a sonata in C
minor and major. The work is a remarkable one. It opens with an
energetic Recitativo in C minor, interrupted for a few bars by an
Arioso Adagio in C major. Then comes a Lento in six-four time based on
the celebrated Marlbrook song, a dignified movement containing, among
other canonic imitations, one in the ninth. It leads by means of a
_stringendo_ bar to a brilliant Allegro con brio, a movement of which
both the music and the technique remind one of Beethoven's bravoura
style. A second section of the sonata commences with the recitative
phrase of the opening of the work, only in A minor. This leads to a
highly characteristic Andante, which Dr. Rust, the editor, in a
preface to the published sonata, likens to the "mighty procession" in
Lenau's _Faust_. The Finale consists of an animated Allegro, with a
clever fugato by way of episode; there is still an Allegro maestoso,
which, except for its length and the fact that it contains a middle
section, Cantabile e religioso, we should call a long coda. The whole,
evidently programme-music, is a sonata worked out somewhat on Kuhnau
lines.
Now, was Beethoven acquainted with Rust's music? Dr. Prieger, in the
pamphlet mentioned above, remarks as follows:--"During the years
1807-27 Wilhelm Karl Rust (_b._ 1787, _d._ 1855), the youngest son of
our master, was in Vienna, and had the good fortune to make the
acquaintance of Beethoven, who was pleased with his playing, and
recommended him as teacher. Among Rust's lady pupils were Baroness
Dorothea Ertmann and Maximiliane Brentano, both of whom belonged to
Beethoven's most intimate circle of friends, and had been honoured by
having works dedicated to them. The younger Rust was gifted with an
extraordinary memory, and therefore it seems more than probable that
he occasionally performed some of his father's works in that circle.
On the other hand, we have Beethoven's energetic nature holding aloof
from anything which might influence his own individuality."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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