After modulation and development, the music slides, as it were, into some phrase from the first section,[14] and allowance being made on account of difference of key (there the music was passing, or had passed from tonic; here it is returning to that key), the rest is more or less a repetition of the first section. More or less:  sometimes the repetition is literal; at other times there is considerable deviation; and shortenings are frequent.  With regard to style of writing for the clavier—­a few canonic imitations excepted—­there is no real polyphony.  Most of the sonatas are in only two parts.  The composer revels in rapid passages (runs, broken chords, simple and compound), wide leaps, difficult octaves, crossing of hands, and, of course, short shakes innumerable.  Domenico Scarlatti was indeed one of the most renowned virtuosi on the clavier.  Handel met him at Rome in 1708, and Cardinal Ottoboni persuaded them to compete with each other.  We are told that upon the harpsichord the victory was doubtful, but upon the organ, Scarlatti himself confessed the superiority of his rival.[15]

Johann Kuhnau published a sonata for clavier in 1695, and this was followed up by a set of seven sonatas ("Frische Fruechte”) in 1696, and a few years later (1700) by the seven “Bible” Sonatas.  That he was the first composer who wrote a sonata for the clavier is a point which cannot be overlooked, and in the evolution of the sonata he occupies an interesting position.  In the “Frische Fruechte” there is, as Dr. C.H.  Parry truly remarks in his excellent article “Sonata” in Sir G. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, an awakening sense of the relation and balance of keys; but in the “Bible” Sonatas the form and order of the movements is entirely determined by the Bible stories.  As specimens of programme-music they are altogether remarkable, and will, later on, be described in detail; they do not, however, come within the regular line of development.  It was, of course, natural that such a new departure should attract the notice of John Sebastian Bach, who was Kuhnau’s immediate successor as cantor of St. Thomas’ School, Leipzig, and Spitta, in his life of Bach, refers to that composer’s Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo, and reminds us that “Kuhnau as well as so many others had some influence on Bach.”  Of course, among the “so many others,” Froberger’s name—­as we shall see later on from Kuhnau’s preface—­deserves a prominent place.  In addition to what Kuhnau says, Mattheson has recorded that “Froberger could depict whole histories on the clavier, giving a representation of the persons present and taking part in them, with all their natural characters.”  When writing the Capriccio above named, Spitta believes that Bach was specially influenced by the last of the “Bible” Sonatas (we may perhaps add that Spitta tells us that Bach was intimately acquainted with Kuhnau).  He indeed says:  “We might doubt the early