CHAPTER XI

MODERN SONATAS, DUET SONATAS, SONATINAS, ETC.

Some mention, however brief, must be made of various sonatas written by other contemporaries of the four composers discussed in the last chapter.  After Beethoven, the only work which, from an evolution point of view, really claims notice is one by Liszt.  All other sonatas are written on classical lines with more or less of modern colouring.  Even M. Vincent d’Indy, one of the advanced French school of composers, has written a “Petite Sonate dans la forme classique.”

Moscheles, in Germany, and Kalkbrenner, in France:  these were once names of note.  Their music is often clever and brilliant, but, to modern tastes, dry and old-fashioned; much of it, too, is superficial.

Among still more modern works may be named those of Stephen Heller, Raff, Rubinstein, Bargiel, and Grieg.  The sonatas of Heller are failures, so far as the name sonata means anything.  He was not a composer de longue haleine, and his opening and closing movements are dull and tedious; some of the middle movements—­as, for example, the two middle ones of the Sonata in C major—­are, however, charming.  Bargiel’s Sonata in C major (Op. 34) is written somewhat in “Heller” style, but it is stronger, and, consequently, more interesting than any of that composer’s.

Raff and Rubinstein both wrote pianoforte sonatas, but these do not form prominent features in their art-work.

Grieg’s one Sonata in E minor (Op. 7) is a charming, clever composition; yet as it was with Chopin, so is it with this composer:  his smallest works are his greatest.

Of duet sonatas there is little more to do than to mention the principal ones.  In the evolution of the sonata they are of little or no moment.  Some, however, are highly attractive.  It would be interesting to know who wrote the first sonata for four hands, but the point is not an easy one to settle.  Jahn, speaking of Mozart’s duets, remarks that “pianoforte music for two performers was then far from having attained the popularity which it now possesses, especially among amateurs.”  We imagine that the

Sonate a Quatre mains sur un Clavecin Compose par J.C.  Bach ——­ a Amsterdam chez J. Schnitt Marchand de Musique dans le Warmoes-straat

was one of, if not the earliest.  The part for the second clavier is printed under that of the first.  The sonata consists of only two movements:  an Allegro and a Rondo.  The general style and treatment of the two instruments reminds one of Mozart, but the music is crude in comparison.  Here is the commencement of the theme of the first movement—­

[Music illustration]

The duet sonatas of Mozart are full of charm and skill, and will ever be pleasing to young and old.  Dussek has written some delightful works, and Hummel’s Op. 92, in A flat, is certainly one of the best pieces of music he ever wrote.  Schubert’s two sonatas (B flat, Op. 30; C, Op. 140) are very different in character:  the one is smooth and agreeable; the other contains some of the noblest music ever penned by the composer.