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9780521762540 - The Sonata - Cambridge Introductions to Music - By Thomas Schmidt-Beste
Frontmatter/Prelims

Cambridge Introductions to Music: The Sonata

What is a sonata? Literally translated, it simply means ‘instrumental piece’. It is the epitome of instrumental music, and is certainly the oldest and most enduring form of ‘pure’ and independent instrumental composition, beginning around 1600 and lasting to the present day. Thomas Schmidt-Beste analyses key aspects of the genre including form, scoring and its social context – who composed, played and listened to sonatas? In giving a comprehensive overview of all forms of music which were called ‘sonatas’ at some point in musical history, this book is more about change than about consistency – an ensemble sonata by Gabrieli appears to share little with a Beethoven sonata, or a trio sonata by Corelli with one of Boulez's piano sonatas, apart from the generic designation. However, common features do emerge, and the look across the centuries – never before addressed in English in a single-volume survey – opens up new and significant perspectives.

Thomas Schmidt-Beste is Professor and Head of Music at Bangor University, North Wales.

Cambridge Introductions to Music

‘Cambridge University Press is to be congratulated for formulating the idea of an “Introductions to Music” series.’ Nicholas Jones, The Musical Times

Each book in this series focuses on a topic fundamental to the study of music at undergraduate and graduate level. The introductions will also appeal to readers who want to broaden their understanding of the music they enjoy.

Books in the series

Gregorian Chant David Hiley

Serialism Arnold Whittall

The Sonata Thomas Schmidt-Beste

The Song Cycle Laura Tunbridge

The Sonata

Cambridge Introductions to Music

Thomas Schmidt-Beste

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521756310

© Cambridge University Press 2011

Original edition Die Sonate. Geschichte - Formen - Ästhetik (BVK 1155) by Thomas Schmidt-Beste

© 2006 Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle GmbH & Co. KG Licensed edition with permission from Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel - Basel - London - New York - Praha www.baerenreiter.com

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2011
Reprinted 2011

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Schmidt-Beste, Thomas.
The sonata / Thomas Schmidt-Beste.
p. cm. – (Cambridge introductions to music)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-76254-0 (hardback)
1. Sonata. 2. Sonata form. I. Title. II. Series.
ML1156.S54 2011
784.18′3 – dc22 2010048128

ISBN 978-0-521-76254-0 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-75631-0 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

List of musical examples
 viii
List of tables
 xi
Preface
 xii
Chapter 1     Definitions
 1
1.1           Sonata and canzona
 3
1.2           Sonata and sinfonia
 7
1.3           Sonata and concerto
 9
1.4           Sonata and suite/partita
 10
1.5           The sonata and free instrumental genres: toccata – ricercar – capriccio – fantasia
 12
1.6           Summary: instrumentation, form, texture or function?
 15
Chapter 2     Form
 20
2.1           The ‘free’ sonata in the seventeenth century
 20
2.2           Corelli and his legacy
 34
2.2.1         The sonata da chiesa
 36
2.2.2         The sonata da camera
 41
2.2.3         Corelli's followers in the eighteenth century
 47
2.2.4         Regional traditions
 51
2.3           Sonata cycles and ‘sonata form’ after 1750
 53
2.3.1         Fast movements: ‘sonata form’ and related categories
 54
2.3.1.1       From dance form to sonata form
 55
2.3.1.2       Terminology
 61
2.3.1.3       The exposition
 63
2.3.1.4       The development
 76
2.3.1.5       The recapitulation
 82
2.3.1.6       The re-entry
 84
2.3.1.7       The transition
 86
2.3.1.8       The recapitulation as a result of events in the exposition and development
 87
2.3.1.9       Extra options: slow introduction and coda
 88
2.3.2         Sonata form – bipartite or tripartite?
 90
2.3.3         Slow movements
 91
2.3.4         Minuet and scherzo
 95
2.3.5         Finales
 97
2.4           Beethoven's sonatas – consummating or transcending Classical form?
 100
2.4.1         Construction of themes and their elaboration
 103
2.4.1.1       Types of theme
 103
2.4.1.2       Thematic contrast and thematic derivation
 105
2.4.1.3       Elaboration and transformation of themes and motives
 105
2.4.2         Slow introduction and coda
 107
2.4.3         Manipulations of the tonal process
 108
2.4.3.1       Major-key recapitulation in minor-key movements
 108
2.4.3.2       Third relations versus fifth relations
 110
2.4.4         New slow-movement types
 111
2.4.5         The upgrading of the dance movement
 113
2.4.6         Final movements
 115
2.4.7         Camouflaging the formal structure
 115
2.5           The cycle
 117
2.5.1         Sequence and combination of movements
 117
2.5.2         Tonal structures
 119
2.5.3         Transitions
 121
2.5.4         Motivic unity and quotations
 122
2.6           The sonata after Beethoven
 126
2.6.1         Franz Schubert
 128
2.6.2         Sonata composition after c. 1830
135
2.6.2.1       Motivic unity – motivic derivation – developing variation
 140
2.6.2.2       Quotation
 147
2.6.2.3       Tonal structure
 149
2.6.2.4       Integration on multiple levels: Schumann's Piano Sonata, Op. 11
 150
2.6.2.5       The amalgamation of the sonata cycle with sonata form: Franz Liszt's B minor Sonata
 151
2.7           Sonata composition in the twentieth century
 157
2.7.1         The sonata in the nineteenth-century tradition
 158
2.7.2         The neo-classicist and historicist sonata
 163
2.7.3         The sonata as generic ‘piece for instrument(s)’
 165
2.7.4         The eclectic sonata
 168
Chapter 3     Functions and aesthetics
 173
3.1           Locations and occasions
 173
3.2           Target groups: professionals, connoisseurs and amateurs
 177
3.3           Learned style
 179
3.4           Virtuosity
 182
3.5           Sonata form as an aesthetic paradigm
 186
3.6           Absolute music? On meaning and programmaticism
 188
Chapter 4     Scoring and texture
 193
4.1           Developments in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
 194
4.1.1         Number of instruments
 194
4.1.1.1       The ensemble sonata
 194
4.1.1.2       The sonata for small ensemble
 195
4.1.2         Nature and formation of the ensemble
 200
4.1.3         The scoring of the bass part
 204
4.1.4         Other instruments
 205
4.2           The paradigm shift of c. 1750
208
4.3           The age of the piano sonata
 210
4.3.1         Beethoven, Clementi and the nineteenth century
 215
4.3.2         The piano sonata in the twentieth century
 219
4.4           Piano and others
 220
4.4.1         Melody instrument with piano or piano with melody instrument?
 220
4.4.2         The duo sonata in the nineteenth century as the ‘anti-virtuosic’ sonata
 225
4.4.3         Other instruments
 228
4.4.4         Developments in the twentieth century
 230
4.5           The sonata for unaccompanied solo instrument
 231
4.6           The organ sonata
 233
Notes
 236
Select bibliography
 243
Index
 250

Musical examples

Ex. 1.1Giovanni Gabrieli, 'Canzon septimi toni' in eight parts, from Sacrae symphoniae (Venice, 1597), bars 1–11 (only first choir shown here)
4
Ex. 1.2Giovanni Gabrieli, 'Sonata XXI con tre violini', from Canzoni et sonate (Venice, 1615), bars 1–13
6
Ex. 2.1Claudio Monteverdi, ‘O viva fiamma’, for two sopranos and b.c., from Concerto: Madrigali libro settimo (Venice, 1619), bars 1–19
24
Ex. 2.2Giovanni Paolo Cima, ‘Sonata à 3’ for violin, cornetto, violone and b.c., from Concerti ecclesiastici (Milan, 1610), bars 1–20
25
Ex. 2.3Giovanni Legrenzi, Sonata ‘La Col’Alta’, from Sonate à due e tre, Op. 2 (Venice, 1655), bars 1–20, 37–44, 61–72
31
Ex. 2.4Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Sonate notturne, Op. 7 No. 4, second movement, bars 1–9
50
Ex. 2.5Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata in C major (K159), bars 1–43
 59
Ex. 2.6Arcangelo Corelli, Trio Sonata, Op. 3 No. 2, head motives of all four movements in the first violin
 122
Ex. 2.7Beethoven, Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 (‘Pathétique’) – themes of the slow introduction and of the three movements
 124
Ex. 2.8Franz Schubert, Piano Sonata in B flat major, D960, second movement, bars 41–4
 132
Ex. 2.9Franz Schubert, Piano Sonata in D major, D850, second movement, bars 1–4 and 84–8
 132
Ex. 2.10Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Piano Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 81, first movement, bars 1–26
 137
Ex. 2.11Frédéric Chopin, Piano Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 35
 142
Ex. 2.12César Franck, Violin Sonata in A major
 146
Ex. 2.13aLudwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata in B flat major, Op. 106 (‘Hammerklavier’), first movement, bars 1–4
 148
Ex. 2.13bFelix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Piano Sonata in B flat major, Op. 106 (1827), first movement, bars 1–4
 148
Ex. 2.13cJohannes Brahms, Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 1 (1853), first movement, bars 1–4
 148
Ex. 2.14Franz Liszt, Piano Sonata in B minor: transformation of motive c
 155
Ex. 2.15Aleksandr Skryabin, Piano Sonata No. 10
 160
Ex. 2.16Pierre Boulez, Third Piano Sonata, ‘Constellation-Miroir’, first part (‘Constellation’) (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1963 [ue13293b])
 166
Ex. 4.1Marco Uccellini, ‘Sonata ottava’, bars 1–17, from Sonate over canzoni da farsi a violino solo e basso continuo opera quinta (Venice, 1549)
198
Ex. 4.2Baldassare Galuppi, Sonata in A major, first movement, bars 1–6, and second movement, bars 1–10
 213
Ex. 4.3Muzio Clementi, Piano Sonata in B flat major, Op. 2 No. 6, first movement, bars 1–11
 217
Ex. 4.4aJohannes Brahms, Third Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 5, first movement, bars 1–8
 227
Ex. 4.4bJohannes Brahms, First Sonata for Piano and Cello in E minor, Op. 38, first movement, bars 1–8
 227
Ex. 4.5Joseph Joachim, Lindenrauschen, bars 1–8, from 3 Stücke, Op. 5 (Leipzig, 1855)
229


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