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 Mehul (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.