III. FROM COUPERIN TO MOZART.
This form of the rondo[18] persisted until the time of Haydn and Mozart, and our next example for analysis is from that period. During the century that elapsed between Couperin and Mozart the piano was so perfected as to displace the harpsichord. The invention of the damper pedal entirely changed the style of writing for the piano, and the necessity for filling out the melody with elaborate ornamentation no longer existed. The greater power and better action of the new instruments also afforded composers a much wider scope.
But more important still, during this century Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) had written some pianoforte works that advanced the art into a new realm. In the eighth chapter we shall study one of his pianoforte sonatas, but it may be said here that both Haydn and Mozart freely acknowledged their great debt to him. This study is postponed for the moment because he did not affect the form of the rondo.
Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809), who spent many years as Kapellmeister to Prince Esterhazy and who, in consequence, lived more or less isolated from the world, made many interesting experiments with musical forms. He may be said to be the father of the symphony and the string quartet, and several of his piano sonatas contain movements that are obviously attempts at creating new forms or combining old ones in new ways.
His ninth[19] piano sonata, for example, has for its finale a curious and interesting combination of the rondo and the variation form, while the finale to the third sonata is marked "Tempo di Minuetto." Such experiments are always to be found when we examine the work of creative minds.
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FIGURE XXIV.
Haydn's sonatas thus provide us with a link in the chain that binds Mozart to his predecessors. The foregoing quotation from Haydn's second sonata will illustrate the primitive nature of some of his rondo themes (Figure XXIV). This theme is, in effect, a jolly dance tune without pretensions to dignity, and against it is placed a conventional pattern accompaniment.
Another rondo theme from Haydn may be cited to illustrate his gentle humor.
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FIGURE XXV.
This has for its first episode, or secondary theme, the following vividly contrasting passage:
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FIGURE XXVI.
These two quotations illustrate the childlike na?et? of Haydn's nature. He is never tragic; his pieces are like delightful pictures of rural life painted by an artist who was himself country born and bred and who feels the natural charm of the simplest, commonest things. Haydn's pictures are flooded with sunlight.