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

Sonate auf Concertenart, p. 23
large rounded binary form). The equally early TWV 43:A4 lacks any clearly articulated
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ritornello-form movement, although the second movement does include a lengthy solo for the first
violin (mm. 37-54). The latter movement also contains recurring tutti passages that are articulated
like ritornello fragments in other works, even though they do not in fact restate the opening
theme. 67
Even works that we would identify without hesitation as concertos often fail to show
typical features of the "Vivaldian" form. This may be because they are not, in fact, "Vivaldian"
concertos. In the first quick movement of the concerto TWV 52:G2 (which J. S. Bach copied
around 1709), the two ripieno violins function as almost equal partners of the two concertato
violins, supplying countersubjects to the latter's subject entries in the fugal exposition that opens
the movement. There are brief episodes for the two soloists, but these are short and lyrical, not
virtuoso in character. The last movement has a sort of ternary form not unlike that of the first
movement in Bach's Fourth Brandenburg Concerto, where the A section incorporates solo
episodes yet (from the modern point of view) resembles a large ritornello. Here, as in the fugue,
the concertato parts are doubled by ripieni only in portions of those tutti sections that seem to
function like ritornellos. Perhaps this feature, together with the generally outgoing, virtuoso style
of the tuttis (in contrast to the "solo" episodes), was sufficient to mark the piece as a concerto.
Yet it is not very different in formal conception from a sonata in F for five parts, TWV 44:11, 68
which, however, employs more restrained violin writing and more consistently contrapuntal
textures.
TWV 52:G2 is one of many works--designated as concertos as well as sonatas--to include
a so-called concertante fugue. Although the parallel to ritornello form in such movements is
sometimes obvious (at least to us), many movements that have been designated concertato fugues
are to some degree ambiguous. For instance, the second movement (Allegro) of the quartet TWV
43:A6 for two violins, viola, and continuo, is a double fugue; the viola serves as an equal partner
in the opening exposition, but in the following episode only the two violins exchange figuration
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TWV 43:G5 is designated a concerto in Telemann: Musikalische Werke, 28, which
reportedly is based on the Dresden parts (Dl Mus. ms. 2392-Q-3). But the only title present in the
latter is the faulty designation Trio on the so-called Kapelle-Umschlag, which contains two sets
of parts, one comprising multiple doublets of all but the viola (2 x vn. 1, 2 x vn., va., 2 x "Basso,"
2 x "Bassono"). Zohn dates the earlier set to "ca. 1710-20."
67
TWV 43:A4 was consulted in Telemann: Musikalische Werke, 28; Zohn dates it "ca.
1710-20."
68
Quantz, in his copies of the parts (D Dl Mus. ms. 2392-14a), assigns the latter to
strings; they are unspecified in the score copied in part by Pisendel (Dl Mus. ms. 2392-Q-14).
Incidentally, the first allegro treats in five-part stretto a fugue subject virtually identical to that of
Bach's Fughetta BWV 901/1 in the same key (better known in its revised version as the fugue in
A� in part 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier).