[Footnote 95: “Art is not more a riot of the passions than it
is a debauch of the senses; it contains, no doubt, sensuous and
emotional elements, the importance of which there is no need to
undervalue, but it is only artistic if it subordinate them to the
paramount claims of reason.” W.H. Hadow,Studies in Modern
Music(second series), preface.]
The three main divisions of the Sonata-Form, with their essen-
tial features, are the following: (1) the Exposition, in which two
themes in different tonalities are announced for the consideration—
and, as the composer hopes, the pleasure—of the hearer. In the
works of Haydn and Mozart this contrast of key was invariably
that of Tonic and Dominant,e.g., C major and G major, or
of major and relative minor,e.g., A-flat major and F minor.
Beginning, however, with Beethoven great emphasis has been
laid onmediant relationship,e.g., C major and E major or C
major and A-flat major; and in modern composers[96] this more
stimulating change has largely superseded the former tonic and
dominant grouping,e.g., Brahms’sThird Symphony. We thus
see that the harmonic feature of the Exposition isDualityof
Key-relationship. Between these two main themes there is al-
ways a modulatory connection or Bridge Passage which, in the
time of Haydn, was generally of a very perfunctory, stereotyped
character. Wagner once sarcastically remarked that Haydn’s
transitions reminded him of the clatter of dishes between courses
at a royal feast. In Mozart we find the bridge-passage more
deftly planned, more organically connected with what precedes
and follows; but it was Beethoven who, in this portion of the
movement, first revealed its possibilities. Throughout his works
the bridge-passage is never a mere mechanical modulation or a
floundering about until the introduction of the second theme,
but is so conceived that the interest of the hearer is increas-
ingly aroused until, at the entrance of the second theme, he is
in the highest state of expectancy.[97] A bridge-passage of this
kind often has a subsidiary theme of its own, or even several
melodic phrases, and is planned as carefully as the action by
which a dramatist leads up to the entrance of his heroine. After
the second theme we generally find a closing theme to round
out the Exposition as a whole. This practice dates from Haydn
and has been much expanded by modern composers. Witness
the glorious climactic effect in César Franck’sSymphony and
in Brahms’sD major Symphony of the closing themes in the
Expositions of the first movements. For many years it was the