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Haydn's sonatas show the same advance in form as his symphonies
and quartets. The older specimens of the sonata, as seen in the
works of Biber, Kuhnau, Mattheson and others, contain little more
than the germs of the modern sonata. Haydn, building on Emanuel
Bach, fixed the present form, improving so largely upon the
earlier, that we could pass from his sonatas directly to those of
Beethoven without the intervention of Mozart's as a connecting
link. Beethoven's sonatas were certainly more influenced by
Haydn's than by Mozart's. Haydn's masterpieces in this kind, like
those of Mozart and Beethoven, astonish by their order,
regularity, fluency, harmony and roundness; and by their splendid
development into full and complete growth out of the sometimes
apparently unimportant germs. [See Ernst Pauer's
Musical Forms.] Naturally his sonatas are not all masterpieces.
Of the thirty-five, some are old-fashioned and some are quite
second-rate. But, like the symphonies, they are all of historical
value as showing the development not only of the form but of the
composer's powers. One of the number is peculiar in having four
movements; another is equally peculiar--to Haydn at least--in
having only two movements. Probably in the case of the latter the
curtailment was due to practical rather than to artistic reasons.
Like Beethoven, with the two-movement sonata in C minor, Haydn
may not have had time for a third! In several of the sonatas the
part-writing strikes one as being somewhat poor and meagre; in
others there is, to the modern ear, a surfeiting indulgence in
those turns, arpeggios and other ornaments which were inseparable
from the nature of the harpsichord, with its thin tones and want
of sustaining power. If Haydn had lived to write for the richer
and more sustained sounds of the modern pianoforte, his genius
would no doubt have responded to the increased demands made upon
it, though we may doubt whether it was multiplex enough or
intellectual enough to satisfy the deeper needs of our time. As
it is, the changes which have been made in sonata form since his
day are merely changes of detail. To him is due the fixity of the
form. [See "The Pianoforte Sonata," by J. S. Shedlock: London,
1895. Mr Shedlock, by selecting for analysis some of the most
characteristic sonatas, shows Haydn in his three stages of
apprenticeship, mastery and maturity.]
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