The Sonate auf Concertenart: A Postmodern Invention? David ...

Sonate auf Concertenart, p. 15
would hardly be surprised if Scheibe failed to reflect views of twenty or more years earlier, when
40
at least some of Bach's sonatas and concertos were probably first written. Indeed, if we compare
sonatas and concertos by members of Scheibe's generation with those of Bach's, we discover
indications that the two genres had grown significantly more differentiated by that date, each
tending toward greater consistency with respect to such matters as scoring, sequence of
movements, and internal formal design of each movement. Thus, by 1740 C. P. E. Bach was
consistently using much the same formal scheme for each movement of a concerto or sonata;
similar consistency cannot be found in the earlier works of his father, Vivaldi, or others of their
generation. This suggests a certain hardening of once free formal procedures into structural
routines. 41
It is commonly assumed that J. S. Bach's use of such designs stemmed from his
42
arrangements of Vivaldian concertos. But so-called concertante fugues can also be found in
many sonatas by Telemann, Zelenka, and others written at about the same time, and comparable
designs occur in Bach's own early keyboard fugues (notably BWV 579 and 950, on themes by
43
Corelli and Albinoni, respectively). If one requires specific models for these works, the fugues in
book's 840 pages of text. For a valuable study of the philosophical views underlying the writings
of both Gottsched and Scheibe--together with a frank estimation of Scheibe's relative strength as a
critical thinker--see Joachim Birke, Christian Wolffs Metaphysik und die zeitgenössische
Literatur- und Musiktheorie: Gottsched, Scheibe, Mizler (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1966). That
Gottsched's genre theory followed from "Wolff's optimistic belief in universal ahistorical
categories" is argued in John David Pizer, The Historical Perspective in German Genre Theory:
Its Development From Gottsched to Hegel (Stuttgart: Hans-Dieter Heinz Akademischer Verlag,
1985), 19-45.
40
Scheibe probably would have failed to reflect older views even if he did in fact write the
relevant portion of his work in consultation with Telemann--a recurring suggestion (see, e.g.,
Zohn, "The Ensemble Sonatas," 440) for which, however, there is no evidence.
41
On Emanuel Bach's concertos, see my "C. P. E. Bach Through the 1740s: The Growth
of a Style," in C. P. E. Bach Studies, ed. Stephen L. Clark (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988),
217-18. The few instrumental compositions of Scheibe accessible to me seem to bear this out; I
have been able to consult--through recordings only--two flute concertos from the Raben
collection at Aalholm Hall, Denmark, and the III sonate per il cembalo obligato e flauto traverso
o violino concertato, op. 1 (Nürnberg: Haffner, ca. 1750).
42
Williams, The Organ Music, discusses ritornello or concerto-like forms not only in
Bach's concerto transcriptions (BWV 592-6) but also in the sonatas (BWV 525-30) and various
praeludia, toccatas, and chorale settings, the common theme being skepticism that any one type of
composition furnished models for these works.
43 Williams, The Organ Music, discusses ritornello or concerto-like forms not only in
Bach's concerto transcriptions (BWV 592-6) but also in the sonatas (BWV 525-30) and various