Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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not only does the mind take time to be wrought
up to a fully receptive condition, unless the
beginning is most exceptionally striking, but
what comes after is likely to obliterate the
impression made by it. As a matter of fact, if
all things were equal, the portion most likely
to remain in the mind of an average listener,
is that immediately preceding the strongest
cadences or conclusions of the paragraphs of
the movement. It is true, composers do not
argue in this manner, but they feel such things
vaguely or instinctively, and generally with
more sureness and justice than the cold-blooded
argumentation of a theorist could attain to.
Many examples in other early composers besides
Corelli, emphasise this point effectively. The
earliest attempts at structural form must inevitably
present some simply explicable principle
of this sort, which is only not trivial because
it is a very significant as well as indispensable
starting-point. Corelli's commonest devices of
form are the most unsophisticated applications
of such simple reasoning. In the first place,
in many movements which are not fugal, the
opening bars are immediately repeated in another
position in the scale, simply and without
periphrasis, as if to give the listener assurance
of an idea of balance at the very outset. That
he did this to a certain extent consciously, is
obvious from his having employed the device
in at least the following Sonatas— 2, 3, 8, 9,
10, 11, of Opera 1* ; 2, 4, 7, 8, of Opera 3==^'
and 2, 4, 5, and 11, of Opera 4'"
; and Tartini
and other composers of the same school followed
his lead. This device is not, however, either
so conspicuous or so common as that of repeating
the concluding passage of the first half at the
end of the whole, or of the concluding passages
of one half or both consecutively. This, however,
was not restricted to Corelli, but is found
in the works of most composers from his time
to Scarlatti, J. S. Bach and his sons ; and it is
no extravagant hypothesis that its gradual
extension was the direct origin of the characteristic
second section and second subject of
modern sonata movements. In many cases it
is the only element of form, in the modern
sense, in Corelli's movements. In a few cases
he hit upon more complicated principles. The
Corrente in Sonata 5 of Opera 4'* is nearly a
miniature of modern binary form. The wellknown
Giga in A in the fifth Sonata of Opera
5^, has balance of key in the first half of the
movement, modulation, and something like
consistency to subject-matter at the beginning
of the second half, and due recapitulation of
principal subject-matter at the end. The last
movement of the eighth Sonata of the Opera
Terza, is within reasonable distance of rondoform,
though this form is generally as conspicuous
for its absence in early sonatas as tunes
are, and probably the one follows as a natural
consequence of the other. Of the simple primary
SONATA 509
form, consisting of corresponding beginning and
end, and contrast of some sort in the middle,
there is singularly little. The clearest example
is probably the Tempo di Gavotta, which concludes
the ninth Sonata of Opera Quinta. He
also supplies suggestions of the earliest types of
sonata form, in which both the beginnings and
endings of each half of themovement correspond
as this became an accepted principle of structure
with later composers, it will have to be co:isidered
more fully in relation to their works.
Of devices of form which belong to the great
polyphonic tribe, Corelli uses many, but with
more musical feeling than learning. His fugues
are not remarkable as fugues, and he uses contrapuntal
imitation rather as a subordinate
means of carrying on the interest, than of expounding
any wonderful device of pedantic
wisdom, as was too common in those days.
He makes good use of the ohaoonne-form, which
was a great favourite with the early composers,
and also uses the kindred device of carrying the
repetition of a short figure through the greater
part of a movement in different phases and
positions of the scale. In some cases he merely
rambles on without any perceptible aim whatever,
only keeping up an equable flow of sound
with pleasant interlaoings of easy counterpoint,
led on from moment to moment by suspensions
and occasional imitation, and here and there a
helpful^ sequence. Corelli's position as a composer
is inseparably mixed up with his position
as one of the earliest masters of his instrument.
His style of writing for it does not appear to be
so elaborate as that of other contemporaries, both
older and younger, hut he gi'asped ajust way
of expressing things with it, and for the most
part the fit things to say. The impression he
made upon musical people in all parts of the
musical world was strong, and he was long
regarded as the most delightful of composers in
his particular line ; and though the professors
of his day did not always hold him in so high
estimation, his influence upon many of his
most distinguished successors was unquestionably
powerful.
It is possible, however, that appearances are
deceptive, and that influences of which he was
only the most familiar exponent, are mistaken
for his peculiar achievement. Thus knowing
his position at the head of a great school of
violinists, which continued through several
generations down to Haydn's time, it is difficult
to disunite him from the honour of having
fixed the type of sonata which they almost
uniformly adopted. And not only this noble
and vigorous school, comprising such men as
Tartini, Vivaldi, Locatelli, Nardini, Veracini,
and outlying members like Leclair and Eust,
but men who were not specially attached to
their violins, such as Albinoni and Purcell,
and later. Bach, Handel, and Porpora, equally
adopted the type. Of Albinoni not much
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