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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
THE PLAYER-PIANISTS' DEPARTMENT
[It is in every way eminently desirable that a publication
which undertakes to give so much space and so authoritative
a treatment to the great player industry, as does The Re-
view, should not neglect what is after all the real excuse
and love for
Player
ippr
the
playe
piano. Each month one musical article of general interest
will appear, together with useful hints, notes and comments.
This is in addition to the regular sub-section of the Player
Section which analyzes the monthly issues of music rolls.
Professional demonstrators, salesmen and player-pianists of
every degree will find each month on the "Player-Pianist's"
page of the Player Section much valuable information. And
the Editor of the Player Section will at all times be glad
to answer inquiries on any and all musical player matters.]
WHAT IS A SONATA?
Music-roll catalogs are not generally distin-
guished for the amount of musical information
which they convey. Though intended to serve as
an adequate guide to the selection of music, they
often fail to furnish any assistance to the unlearned
music-lover; to her or to him who wants to know
and appreciate the good things, but is debarred
through ignorance of the terminology employed.
This is an unfortunate condition of affairs and one
that might well be remedied.
For instance, every catalog of music rolls con-
tains a long list of what are called "sonatas." The
mere fact that these are published will indicate to
anybody that they must have some importance and
interest. Yet the name conveys no explanation,
and the unlearned music-lover is constrained to
figure out for himself as best he may what this
mysterious-seeming thing may be.
Nevertheless, it is a fact that just as soon as
one does get a fairly intelligent idea of what a
sonata is the veil that covers the face of artistic
music from the gaze of most people is at once rent,
and that which before was vague and obscure of
a sudden becomes clear and pellucid. For the
sonata itself is the one great fundamental form of
all art-music. The symphony, the overture, the
concerto alike are formed upon its model, while
its development has meant the parallel develop-
ment of the whole fabric of tone-art as we know
it to-day.
Naturally, therefore, it would seem to be proper
that we should know something about this corner-
stone of music. And fortunately the task of ac-
quiring that knowledge is not difficult.
The word "sonata" is Italian and signifies "to be
sounded."' It was originally applied to'any piece
written for an instrument of music instead of for
the voice. Indeed, pieces were often entitled
"sonata e cantata," meaning "to be sounded or
sung," for in the seventeenth and earlier centuries
musical composition had been but little developed
and the resources of the existing musical instru-
ments were very small.
Gradually, however, as the musicians of the late
seventeenth and early, eighteenth centuries acquired
a greater knowledge of the resources latent in the
science of harmony, they began to write with
greater fidelity to rule and at the same time with
greater expressiveness. Seeking some form of
writing which should enable them, to express their
ideas adequately, they turned to the dance tunes
and rhythms which have always been common to
civilized nations and from these evolved a form
which was a combination, more or less elaborate,
of all. For the sake of contrast forms were also
introduced, though separately, modeled after the
song tunes and rhythms equally common. Under
the skilful hands of Carl Philip Emanual Bach
and Joseph Haydn, the ideas thus suggested took
tangible shape, and gradually the "sonata" came
to be a piece written for a solo instrument, or for
two instruments together, in which certain well-
understood rules were always observed with
scrupulous fidelity and which was capable of un-
limited expansion in expressiveness and emotional
capacity.
These rules were laid down, however, only after
orchestra, for the greater breadth of theme and
the practical task of composing music adequate for
development thus made possible, and for cognate
instrumental performance had itself suggested possibilities, and you have precisely the same se-
them. The rules were made for the musk, not the quence of forms and outlines in both.
music for the rules. And it ought also to be re-
Perhaps these few words of explanation may be
membered that while the rules of sonata-form are useful in guiding some player-pianist into the very
necessary to distinguish that form and give it em- wonderful and fascinating realm of art-music,
bodiment, still the exceptions thereto are as nu- where the sonata reigns supreme and where to un-
merous as the cases of agreement.
derstand it is to understand all that has been done
Haydn and C. P. E. Bach wrote music in a day
and is being done in the art of music as distin-
when the world moved more slowly and when art
guished from the mere tickling of the so-called
was the expression of an elegant technic and a
"popular" music.
formal beauty rather than of anything like ob-
jective depiction. They sought to make things
sound lovely. They had no idea whatever of being
dramatic, of making their music suggest violent
emotions. This was to come later. And the
On "Playing" Player-Pianos.
sonata was a most natural vehicle for their art
Can a player-piano be "played"? The question
as they conceived and developed it. Briefly speak-
ing, the sonata of C. P. E. Bach, of Haydn, and seems absurd. Of course it can. If it could not be
"played" would it be a player-piano ? All very
also of Mozart, consisted of these elements:
true; but that does not answer the question. Per-
1. A first movement or piece consisting of (a)
haps we had better amplify it a little. Can a
a principal theme, (b) a passage leading into (c)
player-piano be "played" in the sense in which
a secondary theme in a closely related key, I'd)
the repetition of the above, (e) development and we ordinarily use the word "playing"? That is a
working out of the material already brought for- horse of another color altogether. And yet we are
ward by means of variation, augmentation or other not merely amusing ourselves in propounding this
devices, (f) reappearance of the principal theme, query. The matter in issue is of the greatest im-
(g) passage leading into (h) the second theme in portance. Nor is its significance diminished one
whit by the fact that the whole piano trade and
the key of the first (i) coda or closing piece.
2. A second movement written in a slow tempo, nearly all the player-pianists have apparently made
up their minds that it must be answered in the
generally of song-like nature, often a theme with
negative. The practice, if not the affirmation, of
variations.
3. A minuet, which is a dance in three-quarter the trade and the public is negative enough, heaven
time at slow tempo. Usually there is a middle sec- knows; but that does not alter the case nor dimin-
tion or trio in more lively guise, but also in three- ish the importance of the question. For if the
quarter time, after which the minuet is repeated. player-piano be not "playable" in the sense that
4. A finale, usually in the form of a rondo or other instruments are "playable," then is it already
piece in which one theme is repeated at stated in- doomed.
What Is "Playing"?
tervals, just as in the poetic form known by the
A musical instrument which confessedly did'not
same name.
With the advent of Beethoven, this form, which enable the production of music in a manner at
gave birth to the orchestral symphony also, began least authentic and which did not give, within wide
to take on less stiff and more plangent outlines. limits, personal control over interpretation would
Beethoven has written sonatas which are hardly not be a musical instrument at all. Even if that
to be recognized at all in the light of the above- personal control be given indirectly, as by a record
described structure. For instance, his famous Op. made of an artist's playing and afterwards repro-
27, No. 2, known as the Moonlight Sonata, is a duced on the instrument in question, the case is
three-movement piece. The first movement is a the same. But where no control whatever is pos-
slow, tremendously sad dirge or lament. The sec- sible within such limits as to justify the adjective
"artistic," then the defective instrument so bur-
ond movement is a charming and simple song, and
the finale is a rondo of the most tragic and emo- dened is doomed. And this brings us to the ques-
tional nature. His thirtieth sonata (Op. 100) is a tion of what exactly we mean by "playing." In
free fantasy with a set of variations written after part we have already answered it above, but some
it. His last sonata (Op. I l l ) is in two movements amplification is necessary. "Playing," in fact,
only. The first is a wonderful fantasia and the means the rendering of a piece of music in such a
second a most heavenly set of variations on a manner as to show a grasp of its meaning, a con-
theme which seems to have the very breath of the ception clarified by knowledge and impressed with
the personality of the performer. If I can render
divine.
Later composers have even more enlarged the a piece in such a way as to bring out no less than
limits of sonata form. . Everywhere the cry has the composer desired me and all others to bring
been for more freedom, greater latitude for emo- out, and at the same time inject something of my
tional expression. And yet even the most modern personality thereinto, then I am "playing." The
of sonatas is recognizable for what it claims to details of my technic or the manner in which t
be. The four sonatas of MacDowell, for instance, produce these results have nothing whatever to
though in freest of style, are perfectly recogniz- do with the question of whether I am "playing"
able. Certainly if they are not sonatas according or not. These details are important—to me—but
to Haydn, they are sonatas according to Mac- they have nothing to do with the appreciation of
Dowell. And equally so, one could not call them my efforts by those who listen to me. If I can
anything else than sonatas. The idea of leading produce results that will convince others of my
themes is present among all these modern works. authority, my grasp of the composer's intentions
The development of themes, the relation of move- and my translations of those intentions into sound,
ment to movement in the keys employed—all these then 1 am "playing." And how I do it is, in the
things are still to be recognized and still dis- last analysis, nobody's business.
A New Notion.
tinguish what are called sonatas to-day.
This is not the ordinary conception of playing.
It might be noted in conclusion that what has
been said here regarding the form and develop- The pianist thinks of playing more in terms of
ment of the sonata is exactly true for the string digit motions and the co-operation or co-ordina-
quartet, the orchestral symphony and the overture, tion of these with the ideas he may have of inter-
the latter being founded oa the first movement pretation than of the interpretation itself. Inas-
form. Allow for the greater power of the grand much as be must have an elaborate technic, he gets
A HEART TO HEART TALK