will often in the creations of his imagination show a marked pref-
erence for one theme over the other; just as, in the family group
to which the child owes its life, either the man or the woman
is likely to be the stronger character. But as there can be no
child without two parents, so the organism of the Sonata-Form
derives its vitality from the presence and interaction of two liv-
ing musical personalities, the first and second themes. The first
theme is so called because it is the one first presented and be-
cause it generally furnishes the prevailing rhythmic pulse of the
movement. Yet the second theme,—exactly as important in its
own way, is often of a greater beauty; its title of “second theme”
implying nothing of a secondary nature, but merely its position
in order of appearance. No greater step was ever taken in the
growth of musical structure than this introduction of a second
coequal theme; for the principle of duality, of action and reac-
tion between two forces, runs throughout nature both human
and physical, as is seen from the import of the terms: man and
woman, active and passive, positive and negative, heat and cold,
light and darkness. The first theme, in fact, often resembles, in
its vigor and directness, a masculine personality; while the sec-
ond theme, in grace and tenderness, resembles the feminine. As
long as music confined itself to the presentation of but one main
theme it was hampered by the same limitations which beset
the early Greek tragedians, in whose primitive plays[88] we find
but one chief actor. The introduction of a second theme can
not be attributed toany single man; indeed it resulted from
a tendency of the times, the demand of which was for more
homophonic melodies rather than for an elaborate polyphonic
treatment of a single one. Embryonic traces of a second theme
we find in D. Scarlatti (see Supplement No. 40) and in Sebas-
tian Bach himself.[89] Scarlatti,[90] in fact, was often hovering
close to the Sonata-Form and in the example just cited actually
achieved it. The systematic employment of the second-theme
principle, however, is commonly attributed to Emmanuel Bach
(1714-1788), although an undue amount of praise, by certain
German scholars, has been given his achievements to the exclu-
sion of musicians from other nations who were working along
the same lines. Any fair historical account of the development
of the Sonata-Form should recognize the Italians, Sammartini
and Galuppi; the gifted Belgian Gossec, who exercised such a
marked influence in Paris, and above all, the Bohemian Jo-
hann Stamitz (1717-1757), the leader of the famous Mannheim
ann
(Ann)
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