The Trio Sonata in the Baroque Period - Essay Example

Running Head: The Trio Sonata in the Baroque Period The Trio Sonata in the Baroque Period The start of the Classic Era is blurred by the continuation of the Baroque basso continuo practice right to the end of the century. And the close of the era is still more blurred, by the absence even of such innovations in scoring and texture as those at the start1. Since history is always in transition, any division into periods, however necessary for the sake of easy reference and simplified perspective, is bound to have something of the arbitrary about it. There may be little disagreement regarding the successive peaks, as defined by the sonatas, say, of Bach and Handel in the Baroque Era, of the Viennese triumvirate formed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in the Classic Era, or of Schumann and Brahms in the Romantic Era. But where to draw the lines among the intervening men, whose music was often transitory as well as transitional, is always harder to decide. In fact, an overlapping border or fringe area of about two decades must be allowed between each pair of adjacent eras in the present project. Stylistically as well as temporally, men like Hurlebusch, D. Scarlatti, and Platti can be fitted into the late- Baroque Era at least as comfortably as into the preClassic Era. They were deferred to the present volume only because they seem more important as harbingers of that keyboard sonata flowering than as terminators of any Baroque development (William S. Newman, 1963). Trio Sonata is an instrumental piece [consisting] of two, three, or four successive movements of different character, which has one or more melody parts, with only one player to a part [i.e., "einfach" as against Mattheson's "stark," for multiple performance of the parts; Cf. SBE 25]. Depending on the number of concertante, melody parts that it has, a sonata is described as [being] solo, due, tr, etc. Clearly, in no form of instrumental music is there a better opportunity than in the sonata to depict feelings without [the aid of] words. The symphony [and] the overture has a more fixed character. The form of a concerto seems designed more to give a skilled player a chance to be heard against the background of many instruments than to implement the depiction of violent emotions. Aside from these [forms] and the dances, which also have their special characters, there remains only the form of the sonata, which assumes [any or] all characters and every [kind of] expression. By [means of] the sonata the composer can hope to produce a monologue through tones of melancholy, grief, sorrow, tenderness, or delight and joy; or maintain a sensitive dialogue solely through impassioned tones of similar or different qualities; or simply depict emotions [that are] violent, impetuous, and [sharply] contrasted, or light, gentle, fluent, and pleasing. To be sure, [even] the weakest composers have such goals in the making of sonatas, among the weakest [being] the Italians and those who imitate them. The sonatas of the present-day Italians are characterized by a bustle of sounds succeeding each other arbitrarily without any other purpose than to gratify the insensitive ear of the layman, [and] by sudden, fantastic transitions from the joyous to the mournful, from the pathetic to the flirtatious, without our getting what the composer wants [to say]. And if the performance of these [sonatas] engages the fancy of a few hotheads, the heart and imagination of every listener of taste or understanding will still remain completely untouched. A large number of easy and hard keyboard [i.e., clavichord] sonatas by our Hamburg [Emanuel] Bach show how character and expression can be brought to the sonata. The majority of these are so communicative ["sprechend"] that one believes [himself] to perceive not tones but a distinct speech, which sets and keeps in motion our imagination and feelings. Unquestionably, to create such sonatas requires much genius [and] knowledge, and an especially adaptable and alert sensibility. But they also require a highly expressive performance, which no German-Italian is conditioned to achieve, but which is often achieved by children, who become accustomed early to such sonatas. Likewise, this composer's sonatas for two concertante melody parts with bass accompaniment are truly impassioned tone dialogues. Whoever fails to experience or perceive this [quality] in these [trios] should realize that they are not always played as they should be. Among these is one printed in Nrnberg [W. 161/1] that carries on [just] such a dialogue between a Melancholicus and a Sanguineus, which [work] is so remarkable and so full of invention and character that one can regard it as a masterpiece of fine instrumental music. Embryonic composers who hope to succeed with sonatas must take those of Bach and others like them as models. For players of instruments, sonatas are the most usual and the best exercises. Moreover, there are lots of easy and hard ones for all instruments. After vocal pieces they hold first place in chamber music. And, since they require only one player to a part, they can be played in the smallest music society [or association] without much ceremony. A single artist can often entertain a whole society with a keyboard sonata better and more effectively than [can] the largest ensemble. True sonata form comes to the limits of Baroque form. The essentials of that form are it recalled, were adherence to one mood and one melodic idea per movement, in keeping with the doctrine of the affections. Many composers of the period from 1730 to 1750 were on the edge of violating that doctrine by tending toward a contrasting second theme; in so doing they were in close proximity to the Classical forms of the mid-eighteenth century. Half a dozen important composers after the 1740's still continued to write trio sonatas, but each one came closer to the style and forms we associate with the Vienna of Haydn and Mozart (William S. Newman, 1983). Manfred Bukofzer, a founding scholar in American musicology writing eight years before his colleague, called attention to his field's "self-conscious limitation to the patterns of European thought from antiquity to the present day" and added that "comparison of the Western and [other musical cultures] will ultimately give musicology a truly world-wide inclusiveness", a desideratum which was unfortunately never realized (46-47). The account of the chamber music of the period from Gabrieli to Bach, roughly from 1600 to 1750. Anyone who gathers from the music discussed that this period was a period of forerunners merely, of vapid experiments which produced no real music, has missed its real significance. Each of the composers in the line from Gabrieli through Frescobaldi, Vitali, Corelli, Purcell, Buxtehude, Dall'Abaco, Handel, and Bach has written music in the style of his times, has clothed musical truth and beauty in the aesthetic apparel of his generation 2. That we have substituted another style for the style of these composers is in itself no guarantee that ours is superior to theirs. Styles change, inevitably, as the economic, material, and psychological factors of human life change. Anyone who will take the trouble to assume the aesthetic outlook and adopt the psychology of the Baroque man will find in Baroque music a source of great satisfaction. In clarity, freedom from sentimentality, and forthrightness it stands on a level with the best music of the Classical period. In choice of melodic materials it approaches the nobility and the charm of the great Italian vocal tradition. With these elements as characteristics, the music cannot fail to serve the same purpose as music of every other age: to move human emotions and to inspire toward a richer life (John Walter Hill, 2003) Among the most obvious of the changes brought about during the Rococo decades were those which had to do with form, the nature of the forms as they existed in the late Baroque. Practically all the single movements in sonata da chiesa, sonata da camera, and trio sonata (since the period roughly from 1650) have belonged to one of the two types. Either they have been related to the fugal form which resulted from the solidification of the canzone's elements into a single movement, or they have been derived from the dance form as found in the dance suite as far back as 1600. Stylistically, of course, the two types differed from the beginning, in that contrapuntal treatment was characteristic of the fugal form, and homophonic treatment of the dance. But each type had had its own formal scheme, a scheme which had remained relatively unchanged during the seventy-five year period under discussion. Thus, the fugal type of movement had begun with a fugal exposition in the tonic key, had contained episodes and additional expositions in other, closely related keys, and had ended again in the tonic. The dance type of movement, on the other hand, had consisted of two parts separated by a double bar, each part designed to be repeated; the first part, beginning in the tonic key, had ended in the dominant, whereas the second part, continuing in the dominant, had modulated back to the tonic. Diagrammatically, the formal difference between the two types may be shown as follows: Fugal type: I-V-VI-IV-V-I Dance type: I-V:|||: V-I The melodic materials in a movement of the latter type had consisted in general of rhythmically alive phrases from four to twelve measures long, and with no noteworthy contour or melodic shape. During the course of such a movement several such phrases would be presented, would move toward the mid-point of the movement, and would end in the key of the dominant. After the mid-point, usually marked by a double bar, similar phrases would occur, and the movement would move back to the tonic key. Nowhere could one speak of a theme (defined as the vehicle for a musical thought), and only rarely was a phrase first heard at the beginning of the movement encountered again elsewhere. Thus, any symmetry in the form was confined to the harmony, with the I-V:|||:V-I pattern by far the most common.' Both before and after Gluck, adhered even more closely to Pergolesi's scheme, notably the Sammartini brothers and one of the Graun brothers. In this group of composers one occasionally finds a four-movement sonata, and often the first movement is in slow tempo with the old Baroque imitative devices much in evidence. But the sonata-form movements usually have complete recapitulations of both A and B sections, and the sections themselves are compounded of motives and short phrases, much as Pergolesi's melodies were (Curtis Price, 1992). In another group of Gluck's contemporaries and immediate predecessors, on the other hand, we find Baroque formal and aesthetic practices still very much in evidence. One such composer is Johann Fasch (1688-1758), resident in central Germany. Among quantities of excellent instrumental and church music are five trio sonatas and one sonata for four instruments; all reprinted in Collegium musicum, Nos. 8-13. The first trio sonata is for violin, viola, and bass; the others are for two violins and bass. All five are compounded of the old polyphonic and new homophonic styles. Sonatas 1 and 2 are in four and three movements, respectively; each movement is a two-voice canon accompanied by the bass. Canonic devices and less strict imitations are present in Sonatas 3 and 4, both of which contain three movements in slow-fast-slow sequence. Sonata 5, in four movements, again shows considerable contrapuntal treatment, extending as far as a complete fugue (second movement) in fast tempo, in the general style of Pergolesi. But there is an equal amount of evidence that Fasch was sympathetic to new style tendencies. Several of the fast movements are in rudimentary sonata form, whereas others, notably the final movement of Sonata 3, are complete with elaborate developments and regular recapitulations. Even in these sonata-form movements, however, Fasch inclines toward the old way of building melodies: he bases his melodic extensions on repetition or sequence of motives rather than on the introduction of new melodic phrases (Sadie, Julie Anne, 1991). The sixth Fasch work, the sonata for four instruments, is for two violins, viola, and bass without basso continuo. While it is impossible accurately to date this work, there is internal evidence that it was influenced by the Mannheim composers about 1755; hence Fasch's omission of the continuo is not among the early examples of this practice. The sonata contains four movements in slow-fast-slow- fast sequence. There is the same mixture of old and new elements; homophonic melodies give way to contrapuntal imitations, and fugal sections contain homophonic episodes. Fasch is conservative in his use of the instruments. Much of the time the viola simply proceeds in octaves with the bass or supplies missing chord notes. The two violins are of equal importance in presentation and development of the musical ideas; thus the predominant solo violin is not in evidence. Fasch stands squarely at the crossroads, and gives evidence that as late as 1755 certain Baroque practices and factors of musical expression were still very much alive (George Buelow, 1995). Another composer with the transitional outlook was George Philipp Telemann ( 1681-1767). Telemann was the director and producer of opera at Hamburg, was a colleague and friend of Handel's, and was a prolific composer of operatic, instrumental, and religious music. Among his works are about two hundred French suites for combinations of strings and wind instruments and a series of works called Tafelmusik3, literally table music, or banquet music, written about 1733. Each Tafelmusik as a whole contains five sets of movements for various groups of instruments; the sets are always arranged in the order of suite, quartet, concerto, trio, and solo, plus an orchestral conclusion. While the suite, concerto, and conclusion are orchestral, the quartet, trio, and solo are chamber music and deserve to be discussed here. The second Tafelmusik is typical and may be examined in detail. The work begins with an Overture, or suite, for oboe, trumpet, and strings; a French overture (slow-fast) is followed by four airs, each one fast and diverting and in a different meter (vivace 4/4, vivace 3/8, presto 4/4, and allegro 12/8, respectively). Next is a quartet for three flutes and basso continuo, similar to works by Dall'Abaco and Handel, for it contains the usual four movements in slow-fast-slow-fast sequence, and the same half imitative and half homophonic style. The third piece is a concerto for three solo violins and string orchestra; it is in the three-movement form (fastslow-fast) often found in other concertos of the period. Fourth is a trio sonata for flute, oboe, cello, and basso continuo; it, like the quartet, is in the traditional four-movement form, with a slow first movement, and is characterized by the same texture and style. Then a four-movement solo sonata for violin and basso continuo; the same formal structure we found in the trio and quartet, and the same style characteristics, are found here also. The work ends with a conclusion, a one-movement allegro in which the whole orchestra -- oboe, trumpet, and strings -- comes together again (Stewart Carter, 1991). There is obviously nothing new in the purpose to which this Tafelmusik set is dedicated. Dinner music had existed throughout the previous century, for example, in Schein, Banchetto musicale of 1617. Nor is there anything remotely suggesting the formal and stylistic innovations of Pergolesi's and similar works. Two other characteristics may be singled out, however, as pointing toward the future. First are the variety of instrumentation employed in this work, and the placing of large and small ensembles within the framework of one musical composition. It will be recalled that throughout a great part of the seventeenth century specific instrumentation for this or that composition was not called for. Continuo parts could be played by cello or bassoon or bass -- whichever was available. As late as Handel's trio sonatas Opera 1-5 ( 1724-1740) the phrase "for violins or flutes or oboes" gives a clue to the flexible concept of instrumentation the Baroque composer employed. During the Classical period, well into the time of Mozart, the instrumentation of the symphony and chamber music became standardized, and a more rigid regard for instrumental color became the rule. In these compositions of Telemann we see a step in that direction. A quartet had a function different from that of a trio, or a solo sonata, or even a full orchestra. In the Tafelmusik Telemann combines the existing instrumental groupings, realizing full well that each combination of instruments will carry its own unique message. And the second characteristic is found in the general mood of the music itself. There are slow and fast movements, as there were in older music also. But the slow movements here are not designed to be profoundly moving as were those of Corelli, Dall'Abaco, and Handel; nor are the fast movements cast in precise formal or fugal patterns, as was the older custom. Both the slow and the fast movements of Telemann have a common characteristic: they are meant to be enjoyable and enjoyed. The Rococo spirit of diversion is alive in these works; there is no attempt at serious utterance, no attempt to move the listener. Insofar as the music serves that ideal, it is in keeping with the spirit of Telemann's age (be it remembered that Telemann was typical of his time and that his great contemporary Bach was considered old-fashioned even in his day), and is a forerunner, in mood at least, of the serenades, nocturnes and divertimentos of Vienna (Stewart Carter, 1991). Thus, the typical trio sonata of the late Baroque period has one of the characteristics of the style galant, came the idea that one instrument was to dominate the musical structure, that the others were to be completely subordinate, both in musical significance and in style. Two more or less coequal melodies in the two violins, the alternation of melodic importance between the violins, made unavoidable when the factor of imitative writing was so prevalent, and the parallel motion of the violins in thirds and sixths -- these had all been present in the trio sonatas of the early eighteenth century4. References: 1. William S. Newman, The Sonata in the Classic Era, 3d ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963). 2. William S. Newman, The Sonata in the Baroque Era, 3d ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983). 3. John Walter Hill, Baroque Music: Music in Western Europe, 1580-1750; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005 4. Curtis Price, Early Baroque Era : From The Late 16th Century To The 1660s, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1992 5. George Buelow, ed. The Late Baroque Era : from the 1680s to 1740. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1993. 6. Stewart Carter "The String Tremolo in the 17th Century." Early Music 19 (1991): 49-60. 7. Stewart Carter "Trombone Obbligatos in Viennese Oratorios of the Baroque." Historic Brass Society Journal 2 (1990): 52-77. 8. Bukofzer, Manfred. Music in the Baroque Era, from Monteverdi to Bach. New York: Norton, 1947. 9. Sadie, Julie Anne. Companion to baroque music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1991. 10. Sadie, Stanley, ed. The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. 2nd ed. 29 vols. NY: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 2001. Read More