|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 67
A sonata by the German Rolle (1718-1785) is valuable in that
it shows a very decided second theme in the first period,
thus tending toward the development of the original simple
dance form into the more complex sonata form. The _adagio_,
however, still has the _sarabande_ characteristics, and
foreshadows many things. It contains many _words_ that later
were shaped into great poems by others. "The Erlking" of
Schubert is especially hinted at, just as the first movement
was prophetic of Beethoven. In the last movement we have the
_gigue_ rhythm again.
In France, music had become merely a court appendage, as was
the case with the other arts, and had long served as a means
for showing the divine grace with which Louis XIV or XV could
turn out his toes in the minuet. In addition to this, the
arranging of a scientific system of harmonization by Rameau
(1683-1764) (which, by the way, is the basis of most of the
treatises of harmony of the present century), caused the few
French composers who could make headway against the prevailing
Italian opera after Lully to turn their attention away from
polyphonic writing; and having, after all, but little to
express in other than the long-accustomed dance rhythms and
tunes, their music cannot be said to have made any mark in
the world. In order to show the poverty of this style, let
us take a sonata by M�hul (1763-1817). The first movement
has already a well-defined second theme, but otherwise is
a mere collection of more or less commonplace progressions.
The second part is a dance tune, pure and simple; indeed the
first part had all the characteristics of the _farandole_
(see Bizet's "l'Arlesienne"). The last part is entitled rondo,
"a round dance," and is evidently one in the literal sense of
the word. In all these sonatas the increasing use of what is
called the Alberti bass is noticeable.
To show the last link between the suite and the sonata,
reference may be made to the well-known sonata in D major by
Haydn. In this, as in those analyzed above, all the movements
are in the same key. The adagio is a _sarabande_, and the
last movement has the characteristics of the _gigue_. This,
however, is only the starting point with Haydn; later we will
consider the development of this form into what is practically
our modern sonata, which, of course, includes the symphony,
quartet, quintet, concerto, etc.
Our path of study in tracing the development of the sonata from
the suite leads us through a sterile tract of seemingly bare
desert. The compositions referred to are full of fragments,
sometimes fine in themselves, but lying wherever they happened
to fall, their sculptors having no perception of their value
one with another. Disconnected phrases, ideas never completed;
to quote Hamlet, "Words, words!" Later we find Beethoven
and Schubert constructing wonderful temples out of these
same fragments, and shaping these same words into marvellous
tone poems.
The music of the period we have been considering is well
described by Browning in "A Toccata of Galuppi's":
Yes you, like a ghostly cricket,
Creaking where a house was burned:
Dust and ashes, dead and done with,
Venice spent what Venice earned.
XV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC
Up to the time of Beethoven, music for the pianoforte consisted
mainly of programme music of the purely descriptive order, that
is to say, it was generally imitative of natural or artificial
externals. To be sure, if we go back to the old clavecinists,
and examine the sonatas of Kuhnau, sundry pieces by Couperin,
Rameau, and the Germans, Froberger, C.P.E. Bach and others,
we find the beginnings of that higher order of programme music
which deals directly with the emotions; and not only that,
but which aims at causing the hearer to go beyond the actual
sounds heard, in pursuance of a train of thought primarily
suggested by this music.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|