Tiersot, J.

Sonata form and the symphony described by a

contemporary of Haydn
pp. 316-319

selected and annot. by Piero Weiss ..., (1984) Music in the Western World : a history in documents Schirmer u.a.

Staff and students of Durham University are reminded that copyright subsists in this extract and the work from which it was
taken. This Digital Copy has been made under the terms of a CLA licence which allows you to:

• access and download a copy;

• print out a copy;

Please note that this material is for use ONLY by students registered on the course of study as stated in the section
below. All other staff and students are only entitled to browse the material and should not download and/or print out
a copy.

This Digital Copy and any digital or printed copy supplied to or made by you under the terms of this Licence are for use in
connection with this Course of Study. You may retain such copies after the end of the course, but strictly for your own
personal use.

All copies (including electronic copies) shall include this Copyright Notice and shall be destroyed and/or deleted if and
when required by Durham University.

Except as provided for by copyright law, no further copying, storage or distribution (including by e-mail) is permitted
without the consent of the copyright holder.

The author (which term includes artists and other visual creators) has moral rights in the work and neither staff nor students
may cause, or permit, the distortion, mutilation or other modification of the work, or any other derogatory treatment of it,
which would be prejudicial to the honour or reputation of the author.

Course of Study: MUSI1261/r1043304 - Historical Studies 1

Title: Music in the Western World : a history in documents
Name of Author: selected and annot. by Piero Weiss ...
Name of Publisher: Schirmer u.a.
316 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

fectly simple, was masterly; and we never heard a more charming effect
than was produced by the trio to the minuet-It was HAYDN; what can
we, what need we say more?

The "Military" Symphony (no. 100) was first performed on 31 March 1794, and
again on April7. It became Haydn's most popular symphony, thanks to the effect
created by the second movement:

Another new Symphony, by Haydn, was performed for the second time;
and the middle movement was again received with absolute shouts of
applause. Encore! encore! encore! resounded from every seat: the La-
dies themselves could not forbear. It is the advancing to battle; and the
march of men, the sounding of the charge, the thundering of the onset,
the clash of arms, the groans of the wounded, and what may well be
called the hellish roar of war increased to a climax of horrid sublimity!
which, if others can conceive, he alone can execute; at least he alone
hitherto has effected these wonders.
H. C. Robbins Landon, llaydu: Chrouicle and Works, Ill: Jlaydu in Eugland (Blooming-
ton, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1976), 32-35, 49-50, 150, 241, 247.

88
Sonata Form and the Symphony
Described by a Contemporary of Haydn

Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829) was a German-born,

German-trained musician who plied his trade as organist and chapel master in
England from 1782 until his de<1th. He was also the author of a number of re-
spectable technical treatises in the language of his adopted country. These cul-
minated in 1799 with An Essay on Practical Musical Composition, which gives
detailed instructions for composition in the older strict forms (fugue, canon) and
somewhat more general ones for the more modern symphony, sonata, and con-
certo. At the beginning of our excerpt, Kollmann addresses himself to what today
is generally referred to as "sonata form" -i.e., the form of "long movements"
(typically, but not exclusively, the first) in symphonies and sonatas. In keeping
with the views of his time, he sees the sonata form as a kind of expanded two-part
("binary") form and describes it solely according to its modulations. Later writ-
ers (beginning with Carl Czerny in the nineteenth century) have viewed
the form as a three-part C'ternary") design to be described accordinl! to thP
So11ata Form a11d the Sympho11y Described bu a Co11temporaru of llaud11 317

progress of its themes (the familiar complex of Bithematic Exposition- Develop-

ment-Hecapitulation). The nineteenth-century view has always made it neces-
sary to regard some of the ripest Classical symphonies (Haydn's "London,"
Beethoven's "Eroica") as somehow irregular or deviant, which is not the case if
the older description is applied. Kollmann in fact tells us he has been influenced
directly, in his description of form in general and of symphonies in particular, by
the example of Haydn's late works, so recently presented to London audiences
(see the preceding selection).

~fodulation of a Piece

In its outlines, a long movement is generally divided into tu;o sections.

The first, when the piece is in major, ends in the fifth of the scale [i.e.,
the dominant], and the second in the key; hut when the piece is in
minor, the first section generally ends in the third of the scale [i.e.,
the relative major], and the second in the key. These two sections are ei-
ther separated by a double bar or repeat, or not distinguished by any par-
ticular mark; which latter commonly is the case in concertos or those
pieces which would become too long by a repetition. But though pieces
are not calculated for a repetition, the above distinction of two sections is
required in them, if they shall create an expectation at the beginning,
and give a satisfaction at the end; without which they cannot be truly en-
tertaining.
In regard to other particulars, the said two sections admit, besides a
regular setting out, and a return, three sorts of elaboration, all of which
may be distributed in the following manner, viz.:
Each section, may be divided into two subsections; which in the
whole makes four subsections.
The first subsection must contain the setting out from the key towards
its fifth in major, or third in minor; and it may end with the chord of the
key note or its fifth, but the latter is better. The second subsection
comprehends a first sort of elaboration, consisting of a more natural mod-
ulation than that of the third subsection; it may be confined to the fifth or
third of the key only, or also touch on some related, or even non-related
keys if only no formal digression is made to any key but the said fifth in
major, or third in minor. The third subsection or beginning of the second
section, comprehends a second sort of elaboration, consisting of digres-
sions to all those keys and modes which shall he introduced besides that
of the fifth (or third); and being the place for those abrupt modulations,
or enharmonic changes, which the piece admits or requires. The fourth
subsection contains the return to the key, with a third sort of elaboration,
similar to that of the first subsection.
The above is the plan of modulation, which will he found attended to
in most sonatas, symphonies, and concertos, as well as elaborate airs and
choruses, of all great Composers, because it is the most reasonable one_
318 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

and the most adapted to the nature of our attention, and our feeling,
hitherto known. But it may be varied almost to the infinite. For, the dif-
ferent sections and subsections of a piece may be of any reasonable vari-
ety of length, and the said sorts of modulation and elaboration may be
diversified without end, as it also appears from the composition of great
Composers, and will require no demonstration.
In pieces of three and more movements, the first and last should be
set in the same key, to preserve the impression of one and the same
piece, but they may be different in mode [i.e., minor and major], the
same as in those of two movements. And the one or more movements be-
tween the first and last, may be set in any variety of related keys and
modes; which a judicious fancy can suggest. Fine examples of pieces of
four movements are most of Haydn's Symphonies.

Of Free Symphonies

Under this denomination I comprehend all those Symphonies which

have no prescribed [i.e., programmatic] Character; though I have said
before that every .Musical Piece ought to have some general character.
They may be used either to precede a Concert or Theatrical Piece
like an Overture, or to fill up some intervals between the said pieces; or
also on any other occasion.
They may be written of any reasonable Length, like Sonatas, and con-
sist of the same Number and Variety of ;.\lor.:ernents as Sonatas, from
which they differ chiefly in that they are calculated to be performed by
more than one Performer to each part, that is, by an Orchestra. But
Haydn's Symphonies generally consist of four .Movements, viz: an
Allegro; an Adagio; a Menuetto; and a Presto; or some other :Movement
similar to these. In most of his latter Symphonies that Author also
begins with a short Adagio before the first Allegro, which serves to
prepare the hearers for the piece to which it is an introduction, and
heightens the effect of its beginning. Here I refer to Haydn's twelve
Symphonies lately published by ~1r. Salomon.
\Vhen a Symphony is to be written for an Orchestra, there ought to he
considered: first, the construction of its Subjects [i.e., themes]; se-
condly, the distribution of its Harmony between the different in-
struments.
If a Symphony for an Orchestra shall not he imperfect, its principal
Subjects ought to be of such a nature, that all Instruments can execute
them, or at least join in them in the principal Key. If this role is not at-
tended to, a Symphony cannot answer the purpose of employing the
whole Orchestra to advantage; andllaydn will be found very particular
in attending to this rule, for the subjects of most of his best Symphonies
are not only calculated for the Horn and Trumpet, but even for the Kettle
 A ,\lusical Episode of the French Re~.;o/ution 319

Drums, of which the beginning of No. I of the twelve mentioned above

[i.e., Symphony no. 97 in C major], may serve for an Example.
Augustus F. C. Kollmann, Au Essay 011 Practical Musical Compositio11 (London, 1799), .5-7,
16-17.

89
A Musical Episode of the French Revolution

The effects of the French Hevolution on European music were as vast and im-
measurable as its effects on European life generally. Its most immediate and
measurable effects form part of French, and more particularly Parisian, musical
history. For example, when the Royal Guard became the National Guard, its
musicians found themselves unprovided for by the new statutes; after various
vicissitudes, and after merging with the erstwhile Royal School of Singing and
Declamation, they became the faculty of a new, municipal "free music school";
the National Convention made it a government institution in 1793 and renamed
it "Conservatoire" in 179.5. Thus one of France's most famous and important
musical institutions was a direct offspring of the Revolution. Understandably, its
members were among the most ardent supporters of the new order. And since
music, in turn, had an impact on the course of events, it is fair to say that Gossec,
Lesueur, ~lehul, and the rest of the composer-teachers of that early National In-
stitute of r..lusic fought in the front ranks on the side of liberty and equality. An
instance of this follows. At the height of the Heign of Terror, Robes pierre (in op-
position to both the extreme atheist position and orthodox Catholicism) es-
tablished by decree the cult of the Supreme Being and appointed 20 Prairial,
year II (i.e., 8 June 1794), as the day on which the first Festival of the Supreme
Being would be celebrated. The painter Jacques Louis David, entrusted with the
arrangements, decided that twenty-four hundred representatives of the various
Parisian "sections" should sing atop an artificial "mountain" and that "the whole
people" should join in the singing. There was to he a new hymn as well as the
"~larseillaise" decked out with a new, appropriate text. \Vho but the members of
the Institute of~~ usie could be entrusted with the task of teaching half of Paris to
sing the new music? The Institute (whose director, Bernard Sarrette, had nor-
rowly escaped the guillotine a couple of months earlier) hastened to offer its ser-
vices to the dread Committee of Public Safety in the terms given below. And on
19 Prairial, from 7 to "well after 10" at night, France's most distinguished com-
posers were seen in every "section" of the city, violin or Hute in hand, teaching
the people of Paris to sing in tune. The Festival of the Supreme Being proved to
be the most impressive, if not the most spontaneous, of the French Revolution's
manv nuhlie ceremonies.