The sixth concerto, in E-flat, is considered both by Jahn and Köchel to belong to the Salzburg period. It was not published, however, until long after Mozart’s death; and recently the scholarly writers, Messrs. de Wyzewa and de St. Foix, have thrown considerable doubt upon the authenticity of large parts of it. According to their theory[50] the opening tutti and the orchestral portion at the beginning of the development section are undoubtedly the work of Mozart, but of the mature Mozart of 1783 and 1784. Likewise the solo passages in all the movements seem to bear the stamp of his genius. But apart from these measures, the development of the solo ideas and the orchestral accompaniment were completed either by André, who published the work, or by Süssmayer, who was also said by Mozart’s widow to be the composer of a mass in B-flat, published by C. F. Peters as a composition of Mozart’s.
In addition mention should be made of the concertos introduced between the first and second movements of various serenades, according to the custom of the day. Most of these are of small proportions; but one, in G major (K. 250), written in Salzburg some time in July, 1776, has the plan of an independent composition.
It was the custom for a master like Schobert in Paris, or Mozart in Vienna, to ‘accompany’ the young ladies who played pianoforte or harpsichord sonatas of his composition and under his instruction with music on the violin. There are many sonatas for harpsichord published by Schobert, with a violin part ad libitum. This in the main but reinforces the chief melodic lines of the part for harpsichord or pianoforte; and works with such a violin part, ad libitum, are not at all violin sonatas in the sense of the term accepted today, i.e., sonatas in which violin and piano are woven inextricably together. They are frankly pianoforte or harpsichord sonatas with the ‘accompaniment’ of a violin.
On the other hand, we have found the violin masters like Corelli and Tartini writing sonatas for violin, with figured bass for harpsichord, lute, or even viol. Such sonatas were often called solo sonatas, as in the case of those of Handel, recently mentioned. The accompanying instrument had no function but to add harmonies, and a touch of imitation in the written bass part, here and there.
Between these two extremes lies the sonata with harpsichord obbligato, that is to say, with a harpsichord part which was not an accompaniment but an essential part of the whole. In these cases the music was generally polyphonic in character. The violin might carry one or two parts of the music, the harpsichord two or three. Very frequently, if the instruments played together no more than three parts, the composition was called a Trio. The sonatas by J. S. Bach for harpsichord and violin are of this character. Though the harpsichord carries on more of the music than the violin, both instruments are necessary to the complete rendering of the music.
Mozart must have frequently added improvised parts for the violin to many of his sonatas written expressly for the keyboard instrument. Among his earliest works one finds sonatas for clavecin with a free part for violin, for violin or flute, for violin or flute and 'cello. Oftenest the added part does little more than duplicate the melody of the part for clavecin, with here and there an imitation or a progression of thirds or sixths. But among his later works are sonatas for pianoforte with added accompaniment for violin in which the two instruments contribute something like an equal share to the music, which are the ancestors of the sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven, Brahms, and César Franck. Among the most important of these are six published in November, 1781, as opus 2. In Köchel’s Index they bear the numbers 376, 296, 377, 378, 379, and 380. The greatest of them is that in C major, K. 296, with its serious and rich opening adagio, its first allegro in Mozart’s favorite G minor, and the beautiful variations forming the last movement. Four more sonatas, of equal musical value, were published respectively in 1784, 1785, 1787, and 1788.
VII
Looking back over the eighteenth century one cannot but be impressed by the independent growth of violin music. The Italians contributed far more than all the other nationalities to this steady growth, partly because of their native love for melody and for sheer, simple beauty of sound. The intellectual broadening of forms, the intensifying of emotional expressiveness by means of rich and poignant harmonies, concerned them far less than the perfecting of a suave and wholly beautiful style which might give to the most singing of all instruments a chance to reveal its precious and almost unique qualities. This accounts for the calm, classic beauty of their music, which especially in the case of Corelli and Tartini does not suffer by changes that have since come in style and the technique of structure.
The success of the Italian violinists in every court of Europe, both as performers and as composers, was second only to the success of the great singers and the popular opera composers of the day. Their progress in their art was so steadfast and secure that other nations could hardly do more than follow their example. Hence in France and Germany one finds with few exceptions an imitation of Italian styles and forms, with a slight admixture of national characteristics, as in the piquancy of Cartier’s, the warm sentiment of Benda’s music. What one might call the pure art of violin playing and violin music, abstract in a large measure from all other branches of music, was developed to perfection by the Italian violinist-composers of the eighteenth century. Its noble traditions were brought over into more modern forms by Viotti, henceforth to blend and undergo change in a more general course of development.
Perhaps only in the case of Chopin can one point to such a pure and in a sense isolated ideal in the development of music for a single instrument, unless the organ works of Bach offer another exception. And already in the course of the eighteenth century one finds here and there violin music that has more than a special significance. The sonatas for unaccompanied violin by Bach must be regarded first as music, then as music for the violin. The style in which they were written is not a style which has grown out of the nature of the instrument. They have not served and perhaps cannot serve as a model for perfect adaptation of means to an end. Bach himself was willing to regard the ideas in them as fit for expression through other instruments. But the works of Corelli, Tartini, Nardini and Viotti are works which no other instrument than that for which they were written may pretend to present. And so beautiful is the line of melody in them, so warm the tones which they call upon, that there is scarcely need of even the harmonies of the figured bass to make them complete.