There are besides these solo sonatas for violin or flute and figured bass, nine sonatas for two violins, or violin and flute with figured bass, and seven sonatas, opus 5, for two instruments, probably intended for two violins.
Among the most remarkable of J. S. Bach’s compositions are the six sonatas for violin without any accompaniment, written in Cöthen, about 1720. These works remain, and probably always will remain, unique in musical literature, not only because of their form, but because of the profound beauty of the music in them. Just how much of a violinist Bach himself was, no one knows. He was fond of playing the viola in the court band at Cöthen. It can hardly be pretended that these sonatas for violin alone are perfectly adapted to the violin. They resemble in style the organ music which was truly the whole foundation of Bach’s technique. In that same organ style, he wrote for groups of instruments, for groups of voices, for clavier and for all other combinations.
On the other hand no activity of Bach’s is more interesting, and perhaps none is more significant, than his assiduous copying and transcribing again and again of the violin works of Vivaldi, Torelli, and Albinoni. Especially his study of Vivaldi is striking. He used themes of the Italian violinists as themes for organ fugues; he transcribed the concertos of Vivaldi into concertos for one, two, three, or four harpsichords. And not only that, practically all his concertos for a solo clavier are transcriptions of his own concertos for violin.
But the polyphonic style of the sonatas for violin alone is peculiarly a German inheritance. Walter and Biber were conspicuous for the use of double stops and an approach to polyphonic style. Most remarkable of all was a pupil of the old Danish organist, Buxtehude, Nikolaus Bruhns (1665-1697), who was able to play two parts on his violin and at the same time add one or two more with his feet on the organ pedals. Though Corelli touched gently upon the polyphonic style in the movements of the first six of his solo sonatas, the polyphonic style was maintained mostly by the Germans. As Bach would write chorus, fugue, or concerto in this style, so did he write for the violin alone.
Of the six works the first three are sonatas, in the sense of the sonate da chiesa of Corelli, serious and not conspicuously rhythmical. The last three are properly suites, for they consist of dance movements. The most astonishing of all the pieces is the Chaconne, at the end of the second suite. Here Bach has woven a series of variations over a simple, yet beautiful, ground, which finds an equal only in the great Passacaglia for the organ.
The three sonatas of this set can be found transcribed, at least in part, by Bach into various other forms. The fugue from the first, in G minor, was transposed into D minor and arranged for the organ. The whole of the second sonata, in A minor, was rearranged for the harpsichord. The fugue in the third sonata for violin alone exists also as a fugue for the organ.
There are besides these sonatas for violin alone, six sonatas for harpsichord and violin, which are among the most beautiful of his compositions; and a sonata in E minor and a fugue in G minor for violin with figured bass. It is interesting to note that the six sonatas for harpsichord and violin differ from similar works by Corelli and by Handel. Here there is no affair with the figured bass; but the part for the harpsichord is elaborately constructed, and truly, from the point of view of texture, more important than that for the violin.
Bach wrote at least five concertos for one or two violins during his stay at Cöthen. One of these is included among the six concertos dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg. All of these have been rearranged for harpsichord, and apparently among the harpsichord concertos there are three which were originally for violin but have not survived in that shape. The concertos, even more than the sonatas, are not essentially violin music, but are really organ music. The style is constantly polyphonic and the violin solos hardly stand out sufficiently to add a contrasting spot of color to the whole. Bach’s great work for the violin was the set of six solo sonatas. These must indeed be reckoned, wholly apart from the instrument, as among the great masterpieces in the musical literature of the world.
Haydn’s compositions for violin, including concertos and sonatas, are hardly of considerable importance. His associations with violinists in the band at Esterhazy, and later in Vienna with amateurs such as Tost and professionals like Schuppanzigh, gave him a complete idea of the nature and the possibilities of the instrument. But the knowledge so acquired shows to best advantage in his treatment of the first and second violin parts in his string quartets, in many of which the first violin is given almost the importance of a solo instrument. Eight sonatas for harpsichord and violin have been published, but of these only four were originally conceived in the form.
The young Mozart was hardly less proficient on the violin than he was on the harpsichord, a fact not surprising in view of his father’s recognized skill as a teacher in this special branch of music. But he seems to have treated his violin with indifference and after his departure from Salzburg for Paris to have quite neglected his practice, much to his father’s concern. The most important of his compositions for the violin are the five concertos written in Salzburg in 1775. They were probably written for his own use, but just how closely in conjunction with the visit of the Archduke Maximilian to Salzburg in April of that year cannot be stated positively. Several serenades and the little opera, Il re pastore, were written for the fêtes given in honor of the same young prince. The concertos belong to the same period. In Köchel’s Index they are numbers 207, 211, 216, 218, and 219. A sixth, belonging to a somewhat later date, bears the number 268. Of these the first in B-flat was completed on April 14, 1775, the second, in D, June 14, the third, in G, September 12, the fourth, in D, in October, and the fifth, in A, quite at the end of the year.