sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, and
Beethoven are rarely "predictable", although this may be the case with some of
the lesser composers of sonatas in the Classical era.
In a recent work, Jeremy Siepmann makes some interesting
comments with reference to the "text-book" sonata-form structures laid down in
the codifications by Marx and Czerny. He asserts that few great composers have
adhered to "text-book" sonata form, with the result that these structures have
usually to be drawn from second-rate works.
On the one hand, this is plainly obvious in that the sonatas of Haydn, Mozart,
and Beethoven predate the definition of sonata form; they could therefore not
follow rules not yet written. On the other hand, however, Rosen has noted that
Marx's codification of sonata form was modelled on Beethoven's middle-period
works.
One can therefore conclude that some sonatas of the great composers will show a
similarity with the textbook definition, while others will not. Siepmann adds
that if Chopin had called his B flat Minor sonata "Fantasy, Scherzo, March and
Finale" he might "...have saved himself and history a lot of fruitless trouble."
There is probably much truth in this.
In another recent publication, Charles Rosen critically
examines Schumann's comments and offers some interesting ideas. He questions
whether Schumann's undoubted knowledge that the Funeral March had been written
two years earlier than the rest of the work affected his judgement of its
unity. On opus 35's unity, Rosen argues that "...the unity of tone and of
harmonic color that holds Chopin's four movements together is not only
impressive, but far surpasses the more arbitrary technique of achieving unity
by quoting literally from earlier movements in the later ones, a technique that
was popular with many of Chopin's contemporaries including...Schumann himself."
This highlights the extreme diversity of opinions on one work - from the early
notion that opus 35 lacked structural unity, to recent writings that not only
attest to the presence of unifying factors in the work, but also the subtle
manner in which they are employed.
