Sonata

Sonata, a musical composition usually of three or four movements, designed chiefly for a solo instrument. Before the 17th century the overwhelming tendency of musical development had been to increase by every possible device the vocal resources of the art, a culminating point being reached in the works of Palestrina and the school of madrigal writers. Instrumental music had been represented for the most part by dance tunes which had no great formal development, whilst the early attempts at opera relied almost entirely on the vocal element for their effect. In fact, abstract music, independent of external impressions and deriving all its interest from intrinsic qualities, was up to this time unknown. Some very early sonatas, published at Venice in 1624, consisted of a single movement; but the principle of a succession of contrasted movements, as in the case of the suite, was eventually established, all existing musical forms being pressed into service to secure its fulfilment. Thus, the 'first movement' consisted of a kind of canzona, imitated from a choral form kindred to the madrigal; the declamatory recitative of the opera was the source of the 'second movement'; and the remaining portions of the sonata were founded on dance-rhythms. Its progress tended towards emancipation from originating influences, whereas the suite adhered closely to dance forms. To secure for each movement structural balance and diversity of material additional 'subjects' were introduced, and the several portions were divided into 'sections,' balanced and contrasted both as to melody and key; whilst, as to time, the alternation of quick and slow movements became a recognised principle. Corelli and other writers of his school wrote sonatas chiefly for the violin, the genius of Handel and Bach being also employed in the same field. The improvements effected in the construction of the harpsichord and clavichord at length obtained for them a due measure of attention from Domenico Scarlatti and C. P. Emanuel Bach, whose complete mastery of these instruments enabled them to write claviersonatas with the happiest effect. The subsequent efforts of Haydn and Mozart brought the form of the sonata to great perfection of elegance and symmetry, a result to which Clementi and Dussek also contributed. But the acme of development was reached by Beethoven, who infused into the somewhat mechanical forms of his predecessors the spirit of human emotion. Under him the different parts of the sonata, instead of being mere adjacent sections, became items of one complete organic whole. The progression of his thoughts constituted a work of art, a poem in sound, in which, while the idea was paramount, the form was more or less veiled, the perfection of the whole resulting from a true and just balance between the two. Weber and Schubert continued to employ the old model, but with them its rules and restraints gradually gave way before the growing importance of the idea. At a later period Schumann attempted a compromise by means of ingenious devices, and Brahms in two early pianoforte-sonatas had worked along similar lines; while notable composers of the present day are still trying to extend the limits of sonata-form in conformity with modern tendencies. See the article by Dr C. Hubert H. Parry in Grove's Dictionary of Music.