Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 6 (1927-03)

242 The Phonograph Monthly Review 315 * Beethoven’s Symphonies: One Hundred Years After By RICHARD G. APPEL I T was C. P. E. Bach who saw that a threefold form was possible. Instead of having the first theme repeated in the second part, be began to introduce a new theme and it is from this pro- cedure that envolved the custom of having two themes in the Sonata form. The development sec- tion was only an expansion of something already in use and the recapitulation with the two themes in the first original key was a natural conse- quence. If C. P. E. Bach did not achieve the reward of distinctive themes he at least paved the way for Hayden and Mozart. It was from his “Frederick” and “Wurtemberg” Sonatas that Hayden derived his education. When Hayden was dropped from the choir- school at St. Stephens’ in Vienna he was able to maintain himself by violin lessons. A friend gave him treatises of Fux and Marpurg and com- positions of Werner, Bonno, Wagenseil and C. P. E. Bach. Concentrating in these latter works he copied and analyzed them and when the op- portunity came to direct the county-house orchestra at Weinzirl, he illustrated with it the principles of design which he had learned from Bach. All musical form is the representation of pro- portion by musical and by 1780 the structural types of the sonata symphony and quartet were completely determined. Mozart learned his first lessons of musical con- struction from his father but as soon as he became acquainted with Haydn’s works there was a distinct change. Also the reaction of audiences had something to do with the form of the works. When Mozart was asked to write a symphony for the Concerts Spirituels in Paris, he was warned to lay special emphasis on the premier coup d’archet. There were to be no repeats. Not, says Hadow, because the Parisians could follow an exposition at a single hearing, but be- cause they took no interest at all in construction and cared for nothing but epigrams in the dia- logue. This shows for once the interplay of audiences and composers and that the content' of a symphony do not fall into a design in the same way that particles drawn by an electric magnet do. “Mozart found a form at hand and set himself to fill it with a most varied content of melodic invention!” He cared nothing that his construc- tion ran along familiar lines; indeed, he was writing for a generation which could not have followed a more recondite scheme.” Now Beethoven was familiar with Mozart’s sonatas and had lessons from Haydn. Without going into detail it should be evident that Bee- thoven was an individual working in a definite community with plenty of models about him. In fact he is the climax of the Viennese period in music. When he wrote he took for granted a public familiar with the essentials of musical form. He was not writing for the wild man of Borneo except as the wild man of Borneo bscame Vien- nese. This is not to say that Beethoven did not write for humanity in general. Bekker says of his symphonies, “No other work of his has so many and such vital points of contact with the wide range of human culture, or has made so deep an impression upon the artistic conscious- ness of the masses. The Symphonies are the most popular of Beethoven’s works, indeed they are the most popular of all serious instrumental music.” But it was only because Beethoven could take the general conceptions of form for granted that he could “Build fresh subtleties and new dances