IV
We now arrive at an epoch in chamber music where for the first time we meet with works that are today deemed worthy of performance for their purely musical value. The beginning of this era is marked by the name of Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713). Corelli’s music is simple and expressive in style and is distinguished by a peculiarly ascetic and spiritual quality suggestive of the church. It is plastic and concise in thought and dignified and noble in utterance. Corelli was not a pioneer. It was his mission to synthesize into a more logical and graceful whole the musical effects discovered by his many predecessors, and his highly individual genius enabled him to do this with a distinction which makes his name a landmark in the progress of the art of music. In analyzing Corelli’s compositions we find graceful harmonies, fluent modulations and pleasingly regular, well-balanced phrase structures. His musical ideas, especially in the adagio movements, have dignity, grace and lucidity. His allegros, although not lacking in dignity, do not stand on the high artistic level of his slow movements.
Corelli’s earliest chamber works are included in a collection of XII Sonate a tre, due violini e violone col Basso per l’organo, op. 1 (1683). In these church-sonatas his strong individuality is already apparent, although Bassani’s influence is clearly recognizable. Some passages lack beauty and are not very pleasing to the ear. The sonatas consist of four movements, as follows: adagio, allegro, adagio, allegro. Sometimes the first slow movement is replaced by an allegro, and the second movement is in a related key. The seventh sonata has only three movements: allegro, adagio and allegro.
The next series, XII Sonate a camera a tre, due violini e violone e cembalo, op. 2 (1685), consists of idealized dances with a prelude (largo or adagio). The third sonata of this collection has the following movements: Prelude (largo), Allemande (allegro), adagio (of free invention), and Allemande. The twelfth sonata has a Ciaccona and a longer allegro movement. Corelli’s talent appears to better advantage in his Sonate da chiesa a 3 (1689) and in Sonate da camera a 3 (1694) which in form are similar to his previous sonatas. Most of them are in the suite form; some consist of movements of abstract nature, some show a combination of different forms.
The period of chamber music composition inaugurated by Corelli lasted until about the middle of the eighteenth century. It is characterized by a mixture of contemporary and older monodic and polyphonic styles, with a strong tendency toward independent, individual part writing. In this period Corelli’s pupils and imitators produced valuable works, though they could not surpass their master. Among his more prominent pupils may be mentioned F. Geminiani (1680-1782) and P. A. Locatelli (1690-1764). Geminiani’s works (sonatas for two violins and 'cello, and sonatas for two violins and bass) possess neither individuality nor enduring merit, but they claim attention for the careful marking of dynamic nuances. In Locatelli’s sonatas for two violins and cembalo, the virtuoso element is too strong to make them good examples of pure ensemble writing. The same may be said of Torelli’s (d. 1708) Concerti da camera for two violins and bass, Sinfonie for two, three and four instruments, Balletti da camera for three violins and bass, Sinfonie a 3, Conzerti a 4, Conzerti musicali a 4, and Caprici musicali per camera, for violin, viola and archlute. Torelli helped to fuse the Sonata da camera with the Sonata da chiesa and is notable as the first to use the term concerto. In general the violinist-composers of the period preferred to cultivate solo sonatas and concertos which would demonstrate the virtuosity of the performers. The elevation of chamber music through serious and pure ensemble writing was not at all their aim. This was notably the case with F. M. Veracini (1685-1750), a pupil and cousin of Antonio Veracini, and with T. Antonio Vitali—Sonate da chiesa for violin and 'cello (1693), Sonate for two violins and bass, Conzerto di Sonate a violino e violoncello e cembalo (1701).
The most prominent and gifted of Corelli’s immediate successors was Antonio Vivaldi (died 1743). His early compositions were ‘wild and irregular,’ but later, under the influence of Corelli’s pure style, he acquired an ‘elegant manner of writing’ that was often entirely free from contrapuntal phraseology. His works (Sinfonie, Sonate, etc.) became the models of his time and exercised a strong influence even upon Bach. On the whole, however, he pandered chiefly to the prevailing passion for virtuosity. His sonatas are written in three movements. The opening movement still lacks the ‘song-like’ second theme of the modern sonata-movement, and its first theme is long, consisting of several brief, slightly-developed motives. His second movements closely resemble the preludes of his fellow-composers.
Up to the time of Haydn and Boccherini we find very few important works in ensemble chamber music. The solo sonata was chiefly cultivated and from it the sonata form really was developed. So we find that the instrumental compositions of Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) are not of much value (sonata for two flutes, two violins and continuo, sonatas for flute, sonatas for three flutes and continuo). His Sonate a quattro (string-quartets of archaic style) in which tediously developed figures are the principal movements and only the little ‘brisk minuettos’ have a certain modernity, are below the artistic standard established by Corelli. Much the same may be said of François Couperin’s (1668-1733) trio sonatas entitled La Parnasse ou l’apothéose de Corelli, and other trios for two violins and bass, and Pièces de viole, published in 1724-26.
The two great composers, John Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel, also produced more valuable works in the form of solo sonatas, suites, and concertos than in ensembles. Bach’s concertos are often classified as chamber music and indeed the grouping of the solo instruments of his Brandenburg concertos resembles chamber music combinations. In his trio sonatas for two violins and thorough-bass, or for flute, violin and thorough-bass, Bach employed the three movement form of Vivaldi. Handel[61] cultivated the four and five movement form of Corelli.
Much of Handel’s chamber music is in point of view of form strikingly in advance of his time. Many of his sonatas contain movements which, within a comparatively brief compass, follow strictly the general outlines of the sonata form. The second movements of two of his solo sonatas, in A and D, and of the sonata in C minor for flute and violin, are good instances.
In tracing the evolution of modern principles in chamber music we have mentioned only those composers who were of striking importance in the development of the genre. It did not seem practical to divide the field to be covered into periods, since up to Corelli no works were sufficiently original or individual to establish a new school or new style. In the works between Gabrieli’s first attempts in the field of chamber music and those of Corelli, Bach and Handel, we recognize the elementary principles of modern form, harmony, thematic development and instrumentation. It is this phase of the development of chamber music that prepared the way for Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, the greatest masters of pure instrumental music.
E. K.
FOOTNOTES:
[59] Distinction between church music and chamber music, as far as can be ascertained, was first made by Nic. Vicentino in 1555 in a work entitled L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna. The term chamber music had its origin in the practice of rich citizens and princes who regularly kept in their service musicians to provide private concerts in their chambers (camera) for the delectation of their friends. The musicians thus employed were given the title of chamber musicians, or chamber singers. The official title of chamber musician—suonatore di violino da camera—was probably used for the first time by Carlo Farina (1627) in the service of the court at Dresden.
[60] It was G. B. Vitali whom Henry Purcell (1658-1695) ‘faithfully endeavored to imitate’ in his ‘Sonatas of three parts: two violins and bass: to the Organ or Harpsichord.’ Purcell’s twelve sonatas show power, originality, and inspiration, and are not lacking in emotional content of considerable warmth.
[61] Trio sonatas for two oboes and bassoons (1693), Chamber duets (1711), Trio sonatas for two violins (or two oboes or two flutes) and bassoon (1732), Sonatas or Trios (1737), four Chamber Duets (1741), two Chamber Duos, Chamber Duets (1745).
CHAPTER XV
THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE STRING QUARTET
The four-part habit of writing in instrumental forms—Pioneers of the string quartet proper: Richter, Boccherini and Haydn; Haydn’s early quartets—The Viennese era of the string quartet; Haydn’s Sonnen quartets; his ‘Russian’ quartets; his later quartets—W. A. Mozart; Sammartini’s influence; Mozart’s early (Italian) quartets; Viennese influences; Mozart’s Viennese quartets—His last quartets and their harmonic innovations.
The greater part of the vocal music of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was written in four parts, masses and motets as well as chansons. Only the madrigal was normally in five. After the middle of the sixteenth century, however, composers inclined to increase the number of parts, until four-part writing became rare.
During the seventeenth century, while the art of instrumental music was growing rapidly, composers centred their attention either on groups of several instruments, which we may call primitive orchestras, or on one or two solo instruments supported by the figured bass of the harpsichord. Therefore, about the middle of the eighteenth century, when sonatas and symphonies took on their modern form, instrumental compositions were usually for orchestra, or for a trio, or for a solo instrument with harpsichord accompaniment. But besides these there were many works of indistinct form and name; and not a few of these were written in four parts. Hardly before 1750 can such sonatas or symphonies a quattro be considered string quartets in the present meaning of the word. They are planned and executed in an orchestral manner.