Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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534 SONATA
one more in accordanee with the modem idea,
3aoh as is typified in the olayier sonata of
Ctalnppi in four movements [see p, 514}, and
hy occasional allemaindes in the earlier sonatas.
As keyed instruments improved in vohuue and
sustiining power the central slow movement
was resomedi ; but it was necessary for some
time to make up for deficiencies in the latter
respect by filing in the slow beats with- elaborate
graces and trills, and such ornaments as the
example of opera-singers made rather toO' inviiing.
The course of the violin solo-sonata was
meanwhile distinctly maintained till its elimax,
and came tO' am abrupt end in J. S. Bach, just
as the clavier sonata was expanding into definite
importance. In fact the earliest landmarks of
importance are found in the next generation,
when a fair proportion of works of this class
Sihow the lineaments of clavier sonatas fomiliar
to a modern. Saeb are the disposition of the
three movements with the solid and dignified
allegro at the beginning, the ejipressive slow
movement in the middle, and the bright and
gay qnick movement at the end! ; which last
continued in many eases to show its dance
oragim. Erom this group the fugal element
was genfflally absent, for all the instinct of
composers was: temporarily enlisted in the work
of perfecting' the harmonic structure in thes
modern manner, and the tendency was for a
time to direct special attention to this, with
the object of attaining clear and distinct symmetry.
In. the latter part- of the 18th century
this was achieved; the several movements were
then generally oast on nearly identical lines,
with undeviating distribution of subjects, pauses,
modulations, cadences, and double bars. The
style of thonghtoonformed for awhile sufliciently
well to this discipline, and the most successful
achievements of instrumental music up' to that
time were accomplished in this manner. Extrinsically
the artistic prodnet appeared perfect
but art could not standi still at this point, and
composers soon felt themselves precluded from
putting the best and most genuine of their
thoughts into trammels produced by such regular
procedure. Moreover, the sudden and violent
changes in social arrangements which took
place at the end of the century, amd the transformation
in the ways of regarding life and its
interests and opportunities which resulted therefrom,
opened a new point of public emotion,
and introdiaeed a new qinaMty ef cosmopolitan
human interest in poetry and art. The appeal
of music in its higher manifesta>tions became
more direct and immediate ; and the progiession
of the idea became necessarily less amenable to
the control of artificialities of stractnre, and more
powerful in its tm:n of reacting upora the form.
This is wrhat lies at the root of mmih which,
for want of a moi'e exact word, is frequently
described as the poetic element, which has become
so prominent and indispensable a quality
in modem music. By this change of position
the necessities of structural balance and proportion
are not supplanted, but made legitimate
use of in a different manner from what they
previously were ; and the sonata-form, while
still satisfying the indispensable conditions
which make abstract music possible, expanded to
a fuller and more co-ordinate pitch of emotional
material. Partly under these influences, and
partly, no doubt, owing to the improvements in
keyed instruments, the Clavier Sonata, again
attained to the group of four movements, but
in a different arrangement from that of the
Violin Sonata. The slow introdnietion was
sometimes resumed, but without representing
an ingredient in the average scheme. The first
movement was usually the massive and dignified
Alkgro. The two central portions, consisting
of a highly expressive slow movement, and the
scherzo which was the legitimate descendant
of the dance movement, were ruled in their
order of succession by the qualities of the first
and last movements, and the work ended with
a movement which still generally maintained .
the qualities to be found in a last movement
of Corelli or Tartini. The tendency to unify
the whole group increased, and in so far as the
influence of intrinsic character or of the idea
became powerful itmodified the orderand quality
of the movements. For pai-ticular purposes
which approve themselves to musical feeling the
number of movements varied considerably, some
exceedingly fine and perfect sonatas having
only two, and others extending to five. Again,
it is natural that in certain moods composers
should almost resent the call to end with the
conventional light and gay movement ; and consequently
in later works, even where the nstial
form seems to be accepted, the spirit is rather
ironical than gay, and rather vehement or even
fiearoe than light-hearted. The same working
of the spirit of the age had powerful effect on the
intrinsic qualities of the Scherzo ; in which there
came to be found, along with or under the veil
of ideal dance motions, sadness and tenderness,
bitterness, humour, and many more phases of
strong feeling ; forwhich theidealdancerhythms,
when present, are made to serve as a vehicle
but in some cases also are supplanted by
different though kindred forms of expression.
In other respects the last movement moved
farther away from the conventional type, as by
the adoption of the fugal form, or by new use
of the Yariation-form in a more cont^uous and
consistent sense than in early examples. In
many cases the movements are made to pass
into one another, just as in the earlier stages
the strong lines which marked off the difierent
sections in the movements were gradually toned
down ; and by this means they came to have
less of the appearance of separate items than
limbs or divisions of a complete organism. This
is illustrated most dearly by the examples of