Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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510 SONATA
seems to be distinctly known, except that he
was Coi'elli's contemporary and probably junior.
He wrote operas and instrumental music. Of
the latter, several sonatas are still to be seen,
but they are, of course, not familiar, though at
one time they enjoyed a wide popularity. The
chief point about them is that in many for
violin and figured baas he follows not only the
same general outlines, but even the style of
Corelli. He adopts the four-movement plan,
with a decided canzona in the second place, a
slow movement first and third, and a quick
movement to end with, such as in one case
a Corrente. Purcell's having followed Corelli's
lead is repudiated by enthusiasts ; but at all
events the Hues of his Golden Sonata in F are
wonderfully similar. There are three slow
movements, which come first, second, and
fourth ; the third movement is actually called
a Canzona ; and the last is a quick movement
in 3-8 time, similar in style to corresponding
portions of Corelli's Sonatas. The second
movement, an Adagio, is the most expressive,
being happily devised on the principle above
referred to, of repeating a short figure in
different positions throughout the movement.
In respect of sonata-form the work is about on
a par with the average of Corelli or Biber.
The domain of the Sonata was for a long
while almost monopolised by violinists and
writers for the violin. Some of these, sjich 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 aflfettuoso 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 subjectmatter
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 fonu
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,
El>, 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 modem 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