lor is an element which must not be forgotten.
The "sonata-piece," as the principal movement of the sonata has been
called, is one of the great typical forms in music. Its greatness lies
in the latitude it permits the composer and the practically unlimited
field it gives for the illustration of musical beauty, contrast,
sweetness, and musical strength in a single composition. In this
respect it binds up in itself some of the most valuable possibilities
of the entire art of modern composition. In order to understand what
we are to have in the sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, some of
the peculiarities of the form need first to be noticed.
The sonata-piece consists practically of three chapters, of which the
third is substantially a repetition of the first, with a few not very
important modifications. The first chapter contains from two to four
different melodic subjects, of which one comes as principal, and is
substantially of a thematic character. The second is almost invariably
a lyric subject. In the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven some very
lovely melodies will be found in this position. Between the first and
second subjects modulating periods may appear; and after the second
there is a concluding subject, which brings up to a close at the double
bar, upon the dominant of the principal key. In the older practice
there is a repeat sign at this point, and the whole of the first part
is gone over again. In modern practice this repeat is often
disregarded, since the memory of musical ideas appears more lasting in
our day than formerly. After the double bar comes the great
characteristic opportunity of this form of art-music, in what the
Germans call a working out (Durchfuehrungssatz), in which the composer
makes a free fantasia upon any or all of the material introduced in the
first division of the work, already described. This working out is
often mere play, rarely rising to a seriousness at all approaching that
of fugue; still, a clever composer manages to afford many attractive
features in this part of a sonata, and still more in the larger
opportunities of symphony.
Haydn is entitled to the credit of having given the sonata-piece its
main characteristics of form. In this respect it follows the
suggestion of the older "binary form," in which sarabands, gavottes,
and the like were written by Bach. All of these, being composed upon a
single melodic idea, necessarily had to develop this idea by m
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