From the two collections, etc., may be gathered many facts of interest. First, as regards the number and character of movements in a sonata. Emanuel Bach kept, for the most part, to three: two fast movements, divided by a slow one.[23] In the second of his Leipzig collections (1780), there are two with only two movements (Nos. 2 and 3; a few bars connecting the two movements of No. 3). But among other composers there are many examples; in some sonatas, the first movement is a slow one; in others, both movements are quick, in which case the second one is frequently a minuet.[24] All twelve sonatas of Paradies have only two movements.
Of sonatas in three movements, some commence with a slow movement followed by two quick movements.[25] (In one instance, in E. Bach's sonatas, the 1st Collection, No. 2, in F, we even find two slow movements followed by a quick one, Andante, Larghetto, Allegro assai.) But the greater number had the usual order:—Allegro or Allegretto, Andante or Adagio, and Allegro or Presto. Thus Hasse, Nichelmann, Benda, and other composers. Now in E. Bach's Würtemberg sonatas we found all three movements were in the same key, and there are similar cases in Hasse, Fried. Bach, Joh. Ernst Bach, etc.; but for the most part, the middle (slow) movement was in some nearly related key; in a sonata commencing in major—in the relative, or tonic minor, or minor under-dominant; and even (as in a sonata by Adlgasser) in the upper-dominant. Joh. C.F. Bach, in one instance, selected the minor key of the upper-dominant, and there are examples of more remote keys (E. Bach, Coll. of 1780, No. 1). With sonatas commencing in minor, the key selected for the middle movement was generally the relative major of the under-dominant, or that of the tonic; sometimes even tonic major. A very extraordinary example of a remote key is to be met with in Bach's Collection of 1779, No. 3: his opening movement is B minor, but his middle one, G minor.[26]
It should be mentioned with regard to sonatas in three movements commencing in a minor key, that the last generally (in works of this period) remains and ends in minor. In modern sonatas the major is often found, at any rate before the close (see Beethoven, Op. 10, No. 1, etc.).
Baldassare Galuppi, born in 1706 on the island of Burano, near Venice, was a pupil of Lotti's. Two sets of six "Sonate per il cembalo" of his were published in London. We cannot give the date, but may state that a sonata of his in manuscript bears the date 1754 (whether of copy or composition is uncertain; anyhow, the year given acts as limit). The variety in the number of the movements of the published sonatas (one has four, some have three, some two, while No. 2 of the first set has only one) points to a period of transition. This alone, apart from the freshness and charm of the music, entitles them to notice. Much of the writing is thin (only two parts), and, technically, the music far less interesting than the Scarlatti pieces. Some of the phrases and figures, and the occasional employment of the Alberti bass, tell, however, of the new era soon about to be inaugurated by Haydn. There is one little feature in the 1st Sonata of the first set which may be mentioned. In the second section of the Adagio (a movement in binary form) of that sonata, the theme appears, as usual then, at the beginning of the second section, and, later on, reappears in the principal key, but it starts on the fourth, instead of the eighth quaver of the bar.
There was great variety in the order of movements. Sometimes a slow movement was followed by two quick movements;[27] and the third movement was frequently a minuet. The quick movement sometimes came in the middle (Galuppi, Sonata in B flat), sometimes at the beginning (E. Bach, Coll. 1781, No. 3), sometimes at the end (E. Bach, Coll. 1779, No. 2). Then, again, sometimes all, but frequently two of the three movements, were connected, i.e. the one passed to the other without break.
So much for sonatas in two or three movements. But among the Oeuvres mêlées there are no less than twenty which have four movements—some in the old order: slow, fast, slow, fast; others in a new order: Allegro, Andante or Adagio, Minuet, and Allegro or Presto.[28] Thus Wagenseil,[29] Houpfeld, J.E. Bach, Hengsberger, and Kehl. Sometimes (as in Seyfert and Goldberg) the Minuet came immediately after the Allegro[30] (see [Beethoven chapter] with regard to position of Minuet or Scherzo in his sonatas). In a sonata by Schaffrath, the opening Allegro is followed by a Fugue. Again (in Spitz, Zach, and Fischer) the following order is found: Allegro, Andante, Allegro, Minuet. In Fischer all the movements are in one key; only the Trio of the Minuet is in the tonic minor. In Spitz the Andante is in the under-dominant, the other movements being in the principal key. In Zach the Andante is in the minor tonic, and the third movement in the upper-dominant. It is well to notice that in none of these four-movement sonatas are the movements connected. The same thing is to be observed in Beethoven, with exception, perhaps, of Op. 110. In the Oeuvres mêlées there is only one instance of a sonata in five movements by Umstatt. It consists of an Allegro, Adagio (in the dominant), Fugue Allegro (in the relative of dominant), a Minuet in the principal key, with Trio in relative minor; and, finally, a Presto. By way of contrast, we may recall the two sonatas of Hasse, in one movement, already mentioned, and also the last of Emanuel Bach's six sonatas of 1760.
The works of many of the composers named in connection with differences in the number and order of movements are forgotten; and, in some cases, indeed, their names are not even thought worthy of a place in musical dictionaries. Yet these variations are of great moment in the history of development. And this for a double reason. First, many of the works must have been known to E. Bach, and yet he seems to have remained, up to the last, faithful to the three-movement plan. One or two of his sonatas have only two movements, none, however, has four. Secondly, the experiment of extending the number to more than three, practically passed unheeded by Dussek, Clementi, Mozart,[31] Haydn,[32] and by all the composers of importance until Beethoven. The last-named commenced with sonatas in four movements; but, as will be seen in a later chapter, he afterwards became partial to the scheme of three movements.
Let us now consider, and quite briefly, movements in binary form; again, in this matter, some instructive facts will be gathered from the works of Bach's contemporaries. As in Scarlatti, so here we find the first of the two sections into which such a movement is divided, ending in one case[33] in the tonic, but, as a rule, in the dominant. There is, however, an instance of the close in the under-dominant (Müthel, No. 2 of the Sonatas of 1780), and in E. Bach, in the relative minor of the under-dominant (Sonatas of 1780, No. 3, Finale). In a minor key, the first section closed either in the key of the relative major, or that of the dominant minor[34]—much more frequently the former.
Now, in proportion as the second part of the first section grew more definite, so also did the approach to it. Everyone knows the pause so frequently to be found in Haydn and Mozart, on the dominant of the dominant, i.e. if the key of the piece were C—
