Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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518 SONATA
which, alone made it endurable. The times
were not quite ripe for such usages, and it is
fortunate for Paradies, who was slightly Alberti's
junior, that he should have attained to a far
better definition of structure without resorting
to such cheapening.
There are two other composers of this period
who deserve notice for maintaining, even later,
some of the dignity and nobility of style which
were now falling into neglect, together with
clearness of structure and expressiveness of
detail. These are Eolle and George Benda.
A sonata of the former's in Ei> shows a less
certain hand in the treatment of form, but at
times extraordinary gleams of musically poetic
feeling. Points in the Adagio are not unworthy
of kinship with Beethoven. It contains broad
and daring effects of modulation, and noble
richness of sentiment and expression, which,
by the side of the obvious tendencies of music
in these days, is really astonishing. The first
and last movements are in binary form of the
old type, and contain some happy and musical
strokes, though not so remarkable as the contents
of the slow movement. George Benda
was a younger and greater brother of the Franz
who has been mentioned in connection with
Violin Sonatas. He was one of the last writers
who, using the now familiar forms, still retained
some of the richness of the earlier manner.
There is in his work much in the same tone
and style as that of Emanuel Bach, but also
an earnestness and evident willingness to get
the best out of himself and to deal with things
in an original manner, such as was by this time
becoming rare. After him, composers of anything
short of first rank offer little to arrest
attention either for individuality in treatment
or earnestness of expression. The serious influences
which had raised so many of the earlier
composers to a point of memorable musical
achievement were replaced by associations of
far less genuine character, and the ease with
which something could be constructed in the
now familiar forms of sonata, seduced men into
indolent uniformity of structure and commonplace
prettiness in matter. Some attained to
evident proficiency in the use of instrumental
resource, such as Turini ; and some to a touch
of genuine though small expressiveness, as
Haessler and Grazioli ; for the rest the achievements
of Sarti, Sacchini, Schobert, Mdhul, and
the otherwise great Cherubini, in the line of
sonata, do not offer much that requires notice.
They add nothing to the process of development,
and some of them are remarkably behindhand
in relation to their time, and both what they
say and the manner of it is equally unimportant.
Midway in the crowd comes the conspicuous
form of Haydn, who raised upon the increasingly
familiar structural basis not only some fresh and
notable work of the accepted sonata character,
but the great and enduring monument of his
symphonies and quartets. The latter do not
fall within the limits of the present subject,
though they are in reality but the great instrumental
expansion of this kind of music for solo
instruments. An arbitrary restriction has been
put upon the meaning of the word Sonata, and
it is necessary here to abide by it. With Haydn
it is rather sonata-form which is important, than
the works which fall under the conventional
acceptation of the name. His sonatas are many,
but they are of exceedingly diverse value, and
very few of really great importance. As is the
case with his quartets, some, which internal
evidence would be sufficient to mark as early
attempts, are curiously innocent and elementary
and even throughout, with a few exceptions,
their proportionate value is not equal to that
of other classes of his numerous works. But
the great span of his musical activity, reaching
from the times of the Bach family till fairly on
in Beethoven's mature years, the changes in the
nature of keyed instruments, and the development
of their resources which took place during
his lifetime, make it inevitable that there should
be a marked difl"erence in the appearance and
limits of different members of the collection.
However, he is always himself, and though the
later works are wider and more richly expressed,
they represent the same mental qualities as the
earliest. At all tifnes his natural bent is in
favour of simplification, as against the old
contrapuntal modes of expression. His easy
good-humour speaks best in simple but often
ingeniously balanced tunes and subjects, and it
is but rare that he has recourse to polyphonic
expression or to the kind of idea which calls for
it. Partly on this account and partly on account
of narrowness of capacity in the instrument to
which in solo sonatas he gave most attention,
his range of technical resource is not extensive,
and he makes but little demand upon his performers.
His use of tunes and decisively outlined
subjects is one of the most important points in
relation to structure at this period. Tunes had
existed in connection with words for centuries,
and it is to their association with verses balanced
by distinct rhythmic grouping of lines, that the
sectional tune of instrumental music must ultimately
be traced. It appears not to be a genuine
instrumental product, but an importation ; and
the fact that almost all the most distinguished
composers were connected with opera establishments,
just at the time that the tune-element
became most marked in instrumental works,
supports the inference that the opera was the
means through which a popular element ultimately
passed into the great domain of abstract
music. In preceding times the definition of
subject by hard outlines and systematic conformity
to a few normal successions of harmony was
not universal ; and the adoption of tunes was
rare. In Haydn and Mozart tiie culmination of
regularity in the building of subjects is reached.