se pieces is there a definite
second subject; in none, a return to the opening theme. [Music
illustration] In No. 26 there is just a return to the first bar (see
second section, bar 11), but the previous ten bars show no modulation,
and one can scarcely speak of thematic development. After the few bars
of development and modulation, in some cases, the second section is
found to consist merely of a repetition of some part of the first
section, the key being tonic instead of dominant. This is,
practically, embryonic sonata-form. The tonic and dominant portions of
the first section are becoming differentiated; but the landmark,
_i.e._ the return to the opening theme in the second section which
divides binary from sonata form, is, in Scarlatti, non-existent. His
first sections often consist of a principal theme and passages, also
phrases indirectly connected with the opening one; sometimes of a
chain of short phrases more or less evolved from the opening thought
(see Nos. 1, 21, 29). (These and the numbers which follow refer to the
Breitkopf & Haertel edition of sixty Scarlatti sonatas.) The composer
often passes through the minor key of the dominant (in the first
section) before arriving at the major; sometimes the major is
introduced only late in the section (Nos. 7, 17, etc.), or minor
remains (No. 26). We meet with a similar proceeding in Beethoven.
Minor pieces often pass to the dominant minor, but end in major
(_i.e._, first section). In Scarlatti there is, for the most part, no
second subject, but frequently (Nos. 5, 7, 9, etc.) a concluding
phrase which can, at times, be traced to the opening theme. Sonata 6,
in F, shows a second subject of a certain independence. The best
examples are to be found in Nos. 24 and 29 (in A and E); in these the
character of the second subject differs from that of the first, and it
is also in a minor key, which offers still another contrast.

And now a word or two respecting Scarlatti's method of development. He
alters figures (Nos. 12 and 54), extends them (Nos. 9 and 54), but
often merely repeats passages on the same degrees as those of the
first section, or on different ones. He makes use of imitation (Nos. 7
and 36). Sometimes he evolves a phrase from a motive (No. 11). In No.
19 the development assumes a certain importance. It commences, not, as
in most cases, with the opening theme or figure of the first section,
but with a group of semiquaver notes which appears later in that
se