Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

766 SYMPHONY
terien. The form of the Clavier Suite movements
was in fact too inelastic to admit of such
expansion and development as was required in
the orchestral works, and the type did not
supply the characteristic technical qualities
which would be of service in their development.
The position of Bach's Orchestral Suites was
somewhat different ; and it appears that he
himself called them Overtures. Dehn, in his
preface to the first edition printed, says that
the separate MS. parts in the Bach archives at
Hamburg, from which he took that in C, have
the distinctive characteristics of the handwriting
of John Sebastian, and have for title Ouverture
'
pour 2 Violons,' etc. ; and that another MS.,
probably copied from these, has the title ' Suite
pour Orohestre.' This throws a certain light
upon Bach's position. It is obvious that in
several departments of instrumental music he
took the French for his models rather than the
Italians. In the Suite he followed Oouperin,
and in the Overture he also followed French
models. These therefore appear as attempts
'
to develop an independent orchestral work
analogous to the Symphony, upon the basis of
a form which had the same reason for existence
and the same general purpose as the Italian
Overture, but a distinctly different general
outline. Their chief connection with the actual
development of the modern symphony lies in
the treatment of the instruments ; for all
experiments, even on different lines, if they
have a common quality or principle, must react
upon one another in those respects.
Another branch of art which had close connection
with the early symphonies was the
Concerto. Works under this name were not
by any means invariably meant to be show
pieces for solo instruments, as modern concertos
are ; and sometimes the name was used as
almost synonymous with symphony. The
earliest concertos seem to have been works in
which groups of ' solo ' and ' ripieno ' instruments
were used, chiefly to obtain contrasts of
fulness of tone. For instance, a set of six
concertos by Alessandro Scarlatti, for two
violins and violoncello, ' soli,' and two violins,
tenor, and bass, ' ripieni,' present no distinction
of style between one group and the other.
The accompanying instruments for the most
part merely double the solo parts, and leave off
either to lessen the sound here and there, or
because the passages happen to go a little higher
than usual, or to be a little difficult for the
average violin-players of that time. When the
intention is to vary the quality of sound as
well, the element of what is called instrumentation
is introduced, and this is one of the earliest
phases' of that element which can be traced in
music. The order of movements and the style
of them are generally after the manner of the
Sonate da Chiesa, and therefore do not present
any close analogy with the subject of this
article. But very soon after the time of Corelli
and Alessandro Scarlatti the form of the Italian
overture was adopted for concertos, and about
the same time they began to show traces of'
becoming show-pieces for great performers.
Allusions to the performance of concertos by
great violin -players in the churches form a
familiar feature in the musical literature of the
18th century, and the three -movement form
(to all intents exactly like that of the symphonies)
seems to have been adopted early.
This evidently points to the feet that this form
appealed to the instincts of composers generally,
as the most promising for free expression of
their musical thoughts. It may seem curious
that J. S. Bach, who followed French models
in some important departments of instrumental
music, should exclusively have followed Italian
models m this. But in reality it appears to
have been a matter of chance with him ; he
always followed the best models which came to
his hand. In this department the Italians
excelled ; and Bach therefore followed them,
and left the most important early specimens of
this kind remaining—almost all in the threemovement
fonn, which was becoming the set
order for symphonies. Setting aside those
specially imitated from Vivaldi, there are at
least twenty concertos by him for all sorts of
solo instruments and combinations of solo
instruments in this same form. It cannot
therefore be doubted that some of the development
of the symphony-form took place in this
department. But Bach never to any noticeable
extent yielded to the tendency to break the
movements up into Sections with corresponding
tunes ; and this distinguishes his work in a
very marked manner from that of the generation
of composers who followed him. His art belongs
in reality to a different stratum from that which
produced the greater forms of abstract instrumental
music. It is probable that his form
of art could not, without some modification,
have produced the great orchesti-al symphonies.
In order to get to these, composers had to go
to a different, and for some time a decidedly
lower, level. It was much the same process as
had been gone through before. After Palesti-ina
a backward move was necessary to make it
possible to arrive at the art of Bach and Handel.
After Bach men had to take up a lower line in,
order to get to Beethoven. In the latter caseit
was necessary to go through the elementary
stages of defining the various contrasting
sections of a movement, and finding that form
of harmonic treatment which admitted the great
effects of colour or varieties of tone in the mass,
as well as in the separate lines of the counterpoint.
Bach's position was so immensely high
that several generations had to pass before men
were able to follow on his lines and adopt his
principles in harmonic music. The generation
that followed him showed scarcely any trace of