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

Sonate auf Concertenart, p. 21
Movement 2 of TWV 43:d2 opens with a substantial passage for the full ensemble, in
which all parts participate in the motivic work. After a cadence in the tonic, there follows an
episode in which the two violins exchange new, somewhat more lively, leaping and running
figuration, leading to a partial restatement of the opening section in the relative major. The
process repeats itself two or three more times. One of the work's two manuscript sources
designates it a concerto, leaving no question that it was regarded as such by at least one reliable
eighteenth-century witness: none less than the composer Christoph Graupner. 62
The same might be said for each of the concertos in Telemann's Six concerts et six suites
(Hamburg, 1734), which are playable both as trios with continuo and as duos for flute and
obbligato keyboard. Concert no. 5 in B minor, TWV 42:h1, has become something of an
archetype for the Sonate auf Concertenart, having served as an example in analyses by Swack,
63
Zohn, and Dreyfus (ex. 3). The latter finds that here "the identities of Telemann's ritornellos and
episodes are . . . too close for comfort"; that is, they are insufficiently distinct in style. But this
could not be said of many other examples by the composer, including the fourth movement of
Concert no. 6 from the same set (TWV 42:a2), which ingeniously combines elements of fugue,
ritornello design, and Sonata mit zwei Themata (see below). In most cases, however, any apparent
distinction between "tutti" and "solo" roles for two upper parts dissolves in the course of a given
movement. What, then, justified the generic identification as a concert?
64 65
The presence of one quasi-ritornello form within each of these works--or within the earlier
concerto TWV 43:d2--seems a relatively weak distinguishing feature when the complete
four-movement design of each is taken into consideration. The overall design and style are not
otherwise very different from those of some of Telemann's other concertos and sonatas. For
example, in the early quartet TWV 43:G5 the second movement is not a ritornello form but a
so-called concertante fugue with soloistic episodes. Its last movement employs some of the
phraseology of a ritornello form, including an opening tutti followed by exchanges of material
between the two violins, as occurs in some concerto movements--but it is a sonata form (i.e., a
62
Zohn "The Ensemble Sonatas," speaks of this movement as a sort of double concerto
(with two solo violin parts).
63
Swack, "On the Origins," 387-9; Zohn, "The Ensemble Sonatas," 474-5; and Dreyfus,
Bach and the Patterns, 112-6.
64
As Swack argues in the case of the first movement of Telemann's B-minor Concert ("On
the Origins," 387-9). Zohn and Dreyfus both analyze the latter, revealing substantially different
views of what constitutes a "ritornello formation" (Dreyfus's term, Bach and the Patterns, table
4.2 [p. 115]; cf. Zohn, "The Ensemble Sonatas," pp. 474-5).
65 There seems no reason to suppose that the French word concert carried implications
other than the Italian concerto.