Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

SONATA 511
next thing to complete modern binary form.
It only needed to expand the opening passage
into a first subject, and the figures of the
Cadence into a second subject, to attain that
type which became almost universal in sonatas
till Haydn's time, and with some second-rate
composers, like Eeichardt, later. The movements
which are described as binaiy must be therefore
divided into two distinct classes:— that in
which the first subject reappears in the complementary
key at the beginning of the second
half, which is the almost universal type of
earlier times ; and that in which it appears in
the latter part of the movement, after the
working-out portion, which is the later type.
The experiments in Corelli and Tartini, and
othei-s who are close to these types, are endless.
Sometimes there are tentative strokes near to
tlie later form ; sometimes there is an inverted
order reproducing the second portion of the
movement first. Sometimes the first subject
makes its appearance at both points, but then,
may be, there is no balance of keys in the first
half, and so forth. The variety is extraordinary,
and it is most interesting to watch the manner
in which some types by degrees 5)reponderate,
sometimes by combining with one another,
sometimes by gradual transformation, some
nearer and more decisively like the types which
are generally adopted in modem times as fittest.
on at
The later type was not decisively fixed
any particular point, for many early composers
touched it once or twice at the same period
that they were writing movements in more
elementary forms. The point of actual achievement
of a step in art is not marked by an
isolated instance, but by decisive preponderance,
and by the systematic adoption which shows
at least an instinctive realisation of its value
and importance.
These writers of violin sonatsis were just
touching on the clear realisation of harmonic
form as accepted in modem times, and they
sometimes adopted the later type, though rarely,
and that obscurely ; they mastered the earlier
type, and used it freely ; and they also used the
intermediate type which combines the two, in
which the principal or first subject makes its
appearance both at the beginning of the first
half and near the end, where a modem would
expect it. As a sort of embryonic suggestion
of this, the Tempo di Gavotta, in the eighth
Sonata of Corelli's Opera Seconda, is significant.
Complete examples are—the last movement of
Tartini's fourth Sonata of Opus 1, and the last
movement of that in D minor above referred to ;
the last movement of Geminiani'a Sonata in C
minor ; the main portion, excluding the Coda,
of the Corrente in Vivaldi's Sonata in A major ;
the last movement of a Sonata of Nardini's, in
D major ; and two Capriccios in Bt> and C, by
Franz Benda, quoted in F. David's Hohe
'
Schule,' etc.
The four-movement type of violin sonata was
not invariably adopted, though it preponderates
so conspicuously. There is a set of twelve
sonatas by Locatelli, for instance, not so fine
as that in F. David's collection, which are
nearly all on an original three-movement plan,
concluding with an ' Aria ' and variations on a
ground-bass. Some of Tartini's are also in three
movements, and a set of six by Nardini are also
in three, but always beginning with a slow movement,
and therefore, though almost of the same
date, not really approaching the distribution
commonly adopted by Haydn for Clavier Sonatas.
In fact the old Violin Sonata is in many respects
a distinct genus, which maintained its individuality
alongside the gradually stereotyped Clavier
Sonata, and only ceased when that type obtained
possession of fie field, and the violin was reintroduced,
at first as it were furtively, as an
accompaniment to the pianoforte. The general
characteristics of this school of writers for the
violin, were nobility of style and richness of
feeling, an astomshing masteiy of the instrument,
and a rapidly-growing facility in dealing
with structure in respect of subject, key, modulation,
and development ; and what is most vital,
though less obvious, a perceptible growth in the
art of expression and a progress towards the
definition of ideas. As a set-ofif there are occasional
traces of pedantic manners, and occasional
crudities both of structme and expression, derived
probably from the associations of the old
music which they had so lately left behind them.
At the cro^vn of the edifice are the Sonatas of
J. S. Bach. Of sonatas in general he appears
not to have held to any decisive opinion. He
wrote many for various instruments, and for
various combinations of instruments. For
clavier, for violin alone, for flute, %'iolin, and
clavier, for viol da gamba and clavier, and so
on ; but in most of these the outlines are not
decisively distinct from Suites. In some cases
the works are described as 'Sonatas or Suites,'
and in at least one case the introduction to a
church cantata is called a Sonata. Some instrumental
works which are called Sonatas only,
might quite as well be called Suites, as they
consist of a prelude and a set of dance-tunes.
Others are heterogeneous. From this it appears
that he had not satisfied himself on what lines
to attack the Sonata in any sense approaching
the modem idea. With the Violin Sonatas it
was otherwise ; and in the group of six for violin
and clavier he follows almost invariably the main
outlines which are characteristic of the Italian
school descended from Corelli, and all but one
are on the four -movement plan, having slow
movements first and third, and quick movements
second and fourth. The sixth Sonata only differs
from the rest by having an additional quick
movement at the beginning. Not only this
but the second movements keep decisively the
formal lineaments of the ancient type of free