These are only a few signs, but I have explained them just to show you how very necessary they can be both to practice and performance, and I think it well for all beginners in music to study certain bits just for the purpose of learning how to interpret such signs quickly at sight. An interesting half-hour's practice might be expended any day, I think, in this direction. I once knew a very ardent little student who always gave twenty minutes a day to what she called "rules." They were the study of sight reading, the learning of signs and reading music accordingly, the formation of chords, and the practice of making harmonic changes. I think it was a very useful part of her practicing. She often looks back to it now, thankful that she then accustomed herself to thinking in her music.
Now, as I suppose you know, besides these dynamic signs, there are many terms used to indicate both the time and the character of the music to be played. You see them on every piece of music. Many of these are necessarily parts of long works like symphonies and sonatas; but of them, when so used, I hope I may tell you at some other time. I speak of them now in their general significance. Take the constantly used allegro. It always looks to me just what it means—brightness and gayety. Literally, it means cheerful. Now, as a matter of time, when you see allegro, you may know that you ought to play it between andante time and presto time.
Sometimes composers have simply called a piece an "allegro," just as Milton called his famous poem "L'Allegro." You will find it often modified by some other word, like allegro assai or con brio, meaning a quick allegro; and if you go to a large concert, and have some knowledge of the music to be played, you may be surprised to find that the orchestra will take the allegro rather more slowly than you would if you were playing at home. But this is a sort of unwritten rule which governs performers in a large hall. To me the word written beside my music as I turn the page seems to mean some fair and smiling country, peace and plenty, joyful content, the gay look of youth, and the sweetness of a gentle life. Try to play some allegro movement, thinking of these happy things, and see if your fingers do not move more readily.
The term andante used only to be employed in its most literal sense, which means going, and they then put other words with it, but now it is only used to mean going slowly. Beethoven has written many pieces just known as andantes. The word is constantly used to express a slow and solemn movement, but adagio means something even more stately and pathetic. Presto means a quick, sudden movement; it comes in often as a change from a richer, fuller sound. Scherzo, a term you will constantly see, literally means a jest, but it is employed to designate a humorous or lively movement.
These are, as you must know, only a few of the many terms employed in music, but I have given you their significations chiefly because they have to do with the arrangement of the sonata and the symphony.
Some day I shall hope to tell you a great deal about famous sonatas and symphonies, and concertos also, but here I can only give you some of the rules which have to be employed in their composition. All this, I am sure, ought to be very thoroughly understood by any one who plays a sonata or wishes to fully enjoy listening to one.
Originally the sonata consisted of slow, solemn movements when it was for church music, and of one or two only when it was for secular music, but the form in which we have it now is called the modern sonata, and must consist of four movements.
First comes an allegro. This has two of what are called themes, or subjects, one in the tonic or key-note, the other in what is called the dominant. This is the fifth note above the key-note. For example, should the first theme of an allegro be written in C, the second would have to be in G. It is called dominant, because the key of any passage can not be accurately known unless it has this note for root. Should the first theme of the sonata be written in the minor key, then the second would have to be in the relative major.
The second movement of the sonata is the andante. This has usually one theme or subject, and it is in a key which relates in some way to the tonic or leading key. I give you these rules simply, but they are worth remembering as first steps to much deeper study.
The third movement is a minuet or scherzo (this was introduced by Beethoven). The fourth movement is again an allegro, or presto, or rondo. Here we go back to the original key, but there is only one theme, and this is often gone over and over in various ways. Now, then, with these rules to govern them, musicians are allowed certain licenses, so that occasionally you will find a sonata written not quite in this form. Schubert, a wonderful composer, often disregarded rules in his sonatas, and occasionally Beethoven did the same. To Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven we owe the sonata as we have it now, and for beginners I should recommend Haydn and Mozart as the simplest reading and best music to begin upon.