Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

532 SONATA
first subject reappears at the beginning of the
second half [see pp. 510, 511]. There is one
other slightly suggestive point^—namely, the
reappearance of the introductory phrase of the
slow movement in one of the episodes of the
final Rondo. [In the second sonata we may
notice the fusion of the Scherzo and slow movement
into one.]
Certain traits in his treatment of form, such
as the bold digressions of key at the very outset
of a movement, and the novel effects of transition
in the subjects themselves, have already
been described in the article Form. It is only
necessary here to point out that Brahms seems
most characteristically to illustrate the tendency
in modernmusic which has been styled 'intellectual
ism' ; which is definable as elaborate development
of all the opportunities and suggestions
offered by figures, harmonic successions, or other
follows, as at (b).
(a) Pianoforte.
(6) Violin.
a^s^^^^B^
u^^^^^
Under the same head of Intellectualism is sometimes
erroneously included that broad and liberal
range of harmony which characterises the best
composers of the day. This may doubtless
call for intellectual effort in those who are
unfamiliar with the progress of art, or of inexpansive
powers of appreciation, but in the
composer it does not imply intellectual purpose,
but only the natural step onwards from the
progressions of harmony which are familiar to
those which are original. With composers of
second rank such freedom is often experimental,
and destructive to the general balance and
proportion of the structure, but with Brahms
it appears to be a special study to bring everything
into perfect and sure proportion, so that
the classical idea of instrumental music may be
still maintained in pure severity, notwithstanding
the greater extension and greater variety
of range in the harmonic motion of the various
portions of the movement. In fact Brahms
appears to take his stand on the possibility of
producing new instrumental works of real artistic
valiie on the classical principles of abstract
music, without either condescending to the
popular device of a programme, or accepting
the admissibility of a modification of the sonataform
to suit the impulse or apparent requirements
of a poetical or dramatic principle.
A sonata which bears more obviously on the
direction of modern art in the poetic sense is
that of Sterndale Bennett, called 'The Maid
essential features of subjects or accessories, so
as to make various portions of the work appear
to grow progressively out of one another. This of Orleans.' This is an example of programmemusic
in its purest simplicity. Each of the
sometimes takes the form of thematic development,
and sometimes that of reviving the figures four movements has a quotation to explain
of one subject in the material or accompaniment its purpose, and in the slow movement the
of another, the object being to obtain new second section has an additional one. Nevertheless
the movements are simple adaptations of the
aspects of close and direct logical coherence and
consistency. Beethoven is the prototype of usual forms, the first standing for an introduction,
the second representing the usual binary
this phase of modern music, and the examples
of it in his later instrumental works are of the allegro, the third a slow movement in condensed
finest description. There are several examples binary form, and the last a rondo. There is'
which illustrate this tendency in the F minor but little attempt at using any structural means,
Quintet. One of the most obvious is the case such as original distribution of subject-matter,
in which the cadence concluding a paragraph to enforce the poetic idea ; so the whole can
is formulated, as in the following example at only be taken as an illustration o£ a poem in
(a), the phrase being immediately taken up by sonata form. But this nevertheless has some
a different instrument and embodied as a most importance, as showing the acceptance of the
significant feature in the accessory subject which aptitude of sonata-form for such purposes by a
composer who was by no means in full sympathy
with the lengths to which Schumann was prepared
to carry the romantic theories.
Among other recent composers who treat
a poetic fashion, we may name
sonata-form in
Raft' and Rubinstein. The works of the former
are always admirable in the treatment of the
instruments, and both composers frequently
present subjects of considerable fascination ;
but neither have that weight or concentration
in structural development which would demand
detailed consideration. Poetic treatment is
commonly supposed to absolve the composer
from the necessity of attending to the structural
elements ; but this is clearly a misconception.
Genuine beauty in subjects may go far to atone
for deficiency and irrelevancy in the development,
but at best it is only a partial atonement,
and those only are genuine masterpieces in which
the form, be it ever so original, is just as clear
and convincing in the end as the ideas of which
it is the outcome.
The whole process of the development of the
Sonata as an art-form, from its crudest beginnings
to its highest culmination, took nearly