Chapter 14

CHAPTER IX

THE SONATA-FORM AND ITS

FOUNDERS, EMMANUEL BACH

AND HAYDN

We have now set forth, with representative illustrations, all the
fundamental forms of instrumental music,i.e., the Canon, Fugue
and Invention, the Two and Three-part forms, the Rondo and
the Varied Air. Through the perfecting of these means of expres-
sion music became a living language of communication, ready
for that development which, through the genius of the Classic
and Romantic masters, it was destined to show. The essen-
tial feature of all the above forms is the emphasis laid onone
theme. This is strictly true of the polyphonic forms, the Canon,
Fugue[87] and Invention and of the Two-part form; and although
in the Three-part form we have a second theme, this is merely
for contrast and is often of rather slight import. The same com-
ment holds true of the Rondo where, notwithstanding the new
contrasting themes of the episodes, the centre of attraction is the
single main theme, to which constant recurrence is made. Obvi-
ously the Varied Air is the expansion of a single theme. But the
principal characteristic of the Sonata-Form, now to be studied,
is that we find thereintwo themesof coequal importance, which
may well be compared to the hero and heroine of a novel or the
two leading characters in a drama. It is true that a composer