After modulation and development, the music slides, as it were, into some phrase from the first section,[14] and allowance being made on account of difference of key (there the music was passing, or had passed from tonic; here it is returning to that key), the rest is more or less a repetition of the first section. More or less: sometimes the repetition is literal; at other times there is considerable deviation; and shortenings are frequent. With regard to style of writing for the clavier—a few canonic imitations excepted—there is no real polyphony. Most of the sonatas are in only two parts. The composer revels in rapid passages (runs, broken chords, simple and compound), wide leaps, difficult octaves, crossing of hands, and, of course, short shakes innumerable. Domenico Scarlatti was indeed one of the most renowned virtuosi on the clavier. Handel met him at Rome in 1708, and Cardinal Ottoboni persuaded them to compete with each other. We are told that upon the harpsichord the victory was doubtful, but upon the organ, Scarlatti himself confessed the superiority of his rival.[15]
Johann Kuhnau published a sonata for clavier in 1695, and this was followed up by a set of seven sonatas ("Frische Früchte") in 1696, and a few years later (1700) by the seven "Bible" Sonatas. That he was the first composer who wrote a sonata for the clavier is a point which cannot be overlooked, and in the evolution of the sonata he occupies an interesting position. In the "Frische Früchte" there is, as Dr. C.H. Parry truly remarks in his excellent article "Sonata" in Sir G. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, an awakening sense of the relation and balance of keys; but in the "Bible" Sonatas the form and order of the movements is entirely determined by the Bible stories. As specimens of programme-music they are altogether remarkable, and will, later on, be described in detail; they do not, however, come within the regular line of development. It was, of course, natural that such a new departure should attract the notice of John Sebastian Bach, who was Kuhnau's immediate successor as cantor of St. Thomas' School, Leipzig, and Spitta, in his life of Bach, refers to that composer's Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo, and reminds us that "Kuhnau as well as so many others had some influence on Bach." Of course, among the "so many others," Froberger's name—as we shall see later on from Kuhnau's preface—deserves a prominent place. In addition to what Kuhnau says, Mattheson has recorded that "Froberger could depict whole histories on the clavier, giving a representation of the persons present and taking part in them, with all their natural characters." When writing the Capriccio above named, Spitta believes that Bach was specially influenced by the last of the "Bible" Sonatas (we may perhaps add that Spitta tells us that Bach was intimately acquainted with Kuhnau). He indeed says: "We might doubt the early origin of the Capriccio if its evident 'dependence' on Kuhnau did not solve the mystery." Then, again, in a Sonata in D by Bach, published in the Bach Gesellschaft edition, Spitta calls attention to the opening subject in D, and does not hesitate to declare that "it is constructed on the pattern of a particular part of the story of Jacob's marriage" (the 3rd of the "Bible" Sonatas). His description of the Bach sonata would, doubtless, have attracted more notice but for the fact that copies of the Kuhnau sonatas were extremely rare; they were, we believe, never reprinted since the commencement of the eighteenth century. The first two have now been published by Messrs Novello & Co. The Kuhnau influence on Bach seems, however, to have been of short duration; for, after these juvenile attempts, as Spitta observes, "he never again returned to this branch of music in the whole course of a long artistic career extending over nearly fifty years." The fugue form absorbed nearly the whole attention of that master; and the idea of programme-music remained in abeyance until Beethoven revived it a century later.[16] Emanuel Bach inherited some of his father's genius, and he may instinctively have felt the utter hopelessness of following directly in his footsteps. J.S. Bach had exhausted the possibilities of the fugue form. It was perhaps fortunate for Emanuel Bach that, while still young, he left his father's house. After residing for a few years at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, he entered the service of Frederick the Great; and at the court of that monarch he came, at any rate, directly under Italian influence.
An interesting link between Kuhnau and E. Bach is Mattheson, who published at Hamburg in 1713 a sonata dedicated to the one who can best play it (derjenigen Persohn gewidmet, die sie am besten spielen wird). The work itself not being available, the following description of it by J. Faisst (Caecilia, vol. 25, p. 157) may prove interesting:—"It (i.e. the sonata) consists of only one movement, which, considering its evidently intentional wealth of technique, might be named a Toccata. But in form this one movement clearly belongs to the sonata order, and, in fact, holds a middle place between the tendencies towards sonata-form (the term taken in the narrower sense of form of one single movement) noticeable in Kuhnau, and the more developed shape which this form has assumed within recent times. We have here three sections. In the opening one, the theme, after its first exposition in the key of G, forms the basis of various passages, and then appears in the key of the dominant, followed again by passages of larger extent and richer contents; finally, in abbreviated form, it reappears in the tonic. The second section commences in the parallel key, E minor, with passages which recall those of the first section, and continues with the theme in the same key; afterwards theme and passages are developed through the keys of A minor, C major, G major, D major and B minor; in the last, in which the theme occurs, there is a full close. As third section the first is taken Da Capo." It is evident from a remark made by Mattheson in his Der volkommene Capellmeister, which appeared at Hamburg in 1739, that some of the sonatas written during the transition period, between Corelli and E. Bach, are lost, or, at any rate, have not been discovered.[17] Mattheson says: "During the last years successful attempts have been made to write sonatas for the clavier (formerly they were for violins or instruments of that kind); still, up to now, they have not the right form, and are capable of being touched (i.e. played) rather than of touching: they aim at the movement of fingers rather than of hearts."[18]
A little later than Mattheson (i.e. in 1721), Pier Giuseppo Sandoni, husband of the famous vocalist Cuzzoni, published at London "Sonate per il Cembalo," dedicated to the Duchess of Pembroke. No. 1, in D minor, has three movements, an Allemande, Largo, and Giga Presto; they are all short, and in two sections; and, as a rule, the writing is in two parts. No. 2, in F, opens with an Allegro of peculiar form. It has four sections, each of which is repeated; the first (seven bars) modulates to the key of C, closing thus—
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The second section (also consisting of seven bars) soon modulates to D minor, closing in that key in a manner similar to the first. The third section (ten bars) consists of modulation and slight development, and closes in A minor. The fourth section (fifteen bars) passes by means of broken chords (in imitation of the last bar of the previous section) through various keys, ending in the same fashion as the first section, only, by way probably of intensification at the end, there are seven instead of four quaver chords; the section, of course, ends in F. This movement in the matter of form offers an interesting link between Kuhnau and E. Bach. The second movement is a minuet, with variations; it certainly has a beginning, but seems endless. The 3rd Sonata, in A, resembles No. 1 in form, also in grouping of movements.
And in addition to the sonata of Mattheson, the Sei Sonatine per Violino e Cembalo, di Georgio Philippo Telemann, published at Amsterdam in 1721, will give us an approximate idea of the clavier sonata between Kuhnau and Emanuel Bach. Each number, by the way, is headed—title-page notwithstanding—a sonata. No. 1, in A major, consists of four movements, Adagio, Allegro, Largo, Allegro, and all the four are in binary form. The second is naturally the most important; the others are very short and simple. In this Allegro, besides the allusion in the dominant key to the theme at the opening of the second section there is a return to it, after modulation, in the principal key. Some of the other sonatas are longer, but No. 1 represents, roughly, the other five as to form and contents. No. 6, in F, by the way, has only three movements: Vivace, Cantabile, and Presto.