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no other way one could hear operas, symphonies, and oratorios outside the opera house or concert room (Wesley himself made many arrangements of Handel oratorio movements). However, once transcribed, there was no reason not to exploit the tune further and make it the occasion for whatever virtuosity the purchaser was capable of. 102 Composers soon became adept at getting the greatest brilliance from the meanest technique. Very few variation sets of Wesley’s time broke the mould completely, although many succeeded through the skill and melodic instinct with which they exploited common materials. A standard procedure was to begin with a slow or rhapsodic introduction; then the theme would be followed by a series of variations, arithmetically decreasing the note-value each time and increasing the virtuosity. The penultimate variation was usually slower and highly decorated, while the last was often an extended fantasia on the tune, sometimes in a different time-signature. In England the practice was the same as on the continent, with one difference. The success of numerous publications from Playford’s Dancing Master to the Beggars Opera to Moore’s Irish Melodies had ensured a continuing vogue for folk (or folk- like) melodies, and these formed an important part of the stock in trade of the English variation-manufacturers. Haydn, Beethoven, Clementi, Pleyel, and Kozeluch all produced arrangements of or variations on British folk tunes for this market. This influence was also perceptible in the sonatas (and especially the sonatinas) 103 of native British composers: John Burton, James Hook, Matthew Camidge, and indeed Samuel Wesley himself. Whether based upon actual folk themes or not, many of these pieces irresistibly suggest the jigs and hornpipes of English country dancing, or song tunes from the ballad operas. Next to the variation-set, the rondo was the most congenial home for these 102 It is worth remembering that in doing so they were only following the practice of the first keyboard intabulations of vocal music: the idea of faithfully arranging a piece without recomposing it in the process is a relatively recent one. 103 English composers were quick to imitate Clementi’s idea of calling light commercial/educational sonatas ‘sonatinas’. 180
popular melodies. Different tunes could easily be set beside each other with a minimum of connecting material or development. Against this background of attractive, if elementary entertainment music Samuel Wesley’s rondos demonstrate a wholly unexpected complexity of texture and structural sophistication. Among all his piano music the influence of J. S. Bach is nowhere more apparent than here. ‘The Christmas Carol, varied as a Rondo’ KO 718 (1814-15) will illustrate these points. 104 The carol in question is still well known: ‘God rest ye merry, Gentlemen’—Wesley’s version is largely the same as ours, with the exception of the third line. The rondo begins by presenting the tune in a relatively unadorned manner, though even here the part-writing is not devoid of subtlety; it is in fact much more sensitive than the often rather crude harmonisations of Beethoven. Note the telling independence of the bass in bb.11-13, the contrast of the harmonic stasis in bb.9-10 with the rest of the harmonic rhythm, and the way in which the (identical) first two lines are harmonised differently. This is the first and last time it will occur in such a fashion—the movement as a whole lacks the clearly defined sectional divisions common to most rondos, and even the most important returns of the theme (bb.46-63, 79-93, and 164-178) emerge seamlessly from the texture. It is after the opening statement that the piece gets properly under way, digressing at once into a freely evolving Fortspinnung continuation. Proceeding by means of close imitation and sequence, it clearly recalls J. S. Bach; but on the other hand, neither the melodic style of bb.18-23 nor the off-beat sforzandi of bb.40-43 are at all Baroque in style. The first return of the theme occurs at b.46, slightly extended and in B minor, after which there is further imitation and free development as previously. For all its completeness, this thematic statement obtrudes itself so little that it might be better to regard it as merely part of the first episode. The theme does return in the tonic at b.79, to be followed by 104 Published along with five other rondos by Nicholas Temperley in Samuel Wesley and his Contemporaries. 181
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WRESTLING WITH THE GERMAN DEVIL: FI
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ABSTRACT ‘After’ can be taken b
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many peo
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INTRODUCTION ‘Every hearer enjoys
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esponse was: ‘the fugue is no lon
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instrumental fugues of Joseph Haydn
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world of their own. The study concl
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facts and the ‘soft technology’
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DEFINING FUGUE But what are they? W
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elow). For how many voices or parts
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indeed a complete counter-expositio
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on two pitches throughout, tonic an
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already become the historicising na
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Catholic tradition, but Albrechtsbe
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the texture as a whole coincides in
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kind experimentalism of Samuel Wesl
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The clearest sign of things to come
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Perhaps a clue can be found in the
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CHAPTER 1 THE CIRCLE OF J. S. BACH
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FINE DISTINCTIONS (1): MISATTRIBUTE
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sounding object, nothing has change
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Mendelssohn, Schumann, Spitta, Wido
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pieces are known from a single copy
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very good; and the ends of both mov
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ever, could have written it?’ 23
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incorrectly prepared suspended four
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has a number of doubtful features.
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einforces them. Its texture is impo
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of thinking over long spans.’ 44
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W. F. Bach and Krebs have always en
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the equitable distribution of his e
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slender volumes, including many pie
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In style (there is no particular th
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and it is the least comfortable bit
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voices inverted, and serve the purp
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each line in a polyphonic texture a
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If its general type is old, however
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thematic material. The subject coul
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Karl Geiringer makes an almost emba
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prolix F minor fugue, the expressiv
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Kittel, and Krebs himself. 76 Inevi
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[that] a keyboard composer can and
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Ex.1.12b shows the start of a fugue
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Egypt) did not prevent him from bei
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The very slow harmonic rhythm, howe
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If not inimitably characteristic, t
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As we saw in the first part of this
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subject is also expansive; it too c
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to expand and elaborate the surface
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The significance of this sort of st
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By the time the halfway point is re
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‘originality’—of historical p
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to follow in his father’s footste
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CHAPTER 2 J. S. BACH IN LONDON: CON
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of the mark. 4 Handel’s influence
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that would perpetuate his oratorios
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—also remained strongly Handelian
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118
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in the Overture to Alcina (1735). A
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Root-movement is quite unpredictabl
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124
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Superficially they have much in com
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situations; but his influence outla
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Page 132 and 133: ounded too closely by early Methodi
Page 134 and 135: At first the real focus of attentio
Page 136 and 137: surprisingly grammatical, confirmin
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Page 140 and 141: the subject (where again he seems n
Page 142 and 143: in Bath) recommended that Charles
Page 144 and 145: have, to a head-injury sustained in
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Page 148 and 149: The ending is rather curious: he re
Page 150 and 151: hectic week, he could choose betwee
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Page 154 and 155: even have had an informal agreement
Page 156 and 157: Unlike Handel, however, there no tu
Page 158 and 159: Throughout the nineteenth century t
Page 160 and 161: Here, however (especially once the
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Page 164 and 165: published separately over the next
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Page 168 and 169: Likewise does the fugue subject of
Page 170 and 171: A little more Bach can be seen, per
Page 172 and 173: attitudes were representative, or e
Page 174 and 175: consciously parodying his Methodist
Page 176 and 177: his nature to be exclusive about an
Page 178 and 179: elieve) in German, the compleatly w
Page 182 and 183: a stretto treatment (at one minim
Page 184 and 185: have had a rich Treat in chewing th
Page 186 and 187: admirable Musick might be played in
Page 188 and 189: At this point one might have expect
Page 190 and 191: This is soon accompanied by quaver
Page 192 and 193: The C minor entry in b.50 destabili
Page 194 and 195: WESLEY’S LAST YEARS During this p
Page 196 and 197: Wilhelm Friedemann (see chapter 1).
Page 198 and 199: describes it well: ‘The concertan
Page 200 and 201: with sixteen-part orchestra’ (Car
Page 202 and 203: would be of interest to a budding c
Page 204 and 205: wrestling with the problem of integ
Page 206 and 207: Clearly, Haydn is letting fugal thi
Page 208 and 209: By contrast, the fugue which closes
Page 210 and 211: unknown in any other Haydn fugue (a
Page 212 and 213: around b.54, homophonic quaver figu
Page 214 and 215: very little to it, which is of cour
Page 216 and 217: When Haydn wrote string quartets, t
Page 218 and 219: place, socially and musically; and
Page 220 and 221: of the minuet, both here and in man
Page 222 and 223: The distinction that Kirkendale dre
Page 224 and 225: variety of keys as well: not just I
Page 226 and 227: detail. As far as the tastes of Pri
Page 228 and 229: constructed in an entirely new mann
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Note the extent to which Haydn’s
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A clear example of this can be seen
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Haydn would write only one more fug
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At any rate, the effect of later ei
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appears not wholly to satisfy Kirke
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Junker and others were neither part
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sentimental’ (c.1814?), Haydn’s
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intensity of the debate? This is ho
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is an almost perfect instrument for
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CHAPTER 4 MOZART, FINISHED AND UNFI
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as such—at times even creating th
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thought and practice until very rec
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sonata movement sets up certain exp
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organ music: from the death of J. S
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(to us) the direct influence of J.
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and back without a sign that anythi
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is not necessarily at variance with
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conclusion is not perfectly in acco
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there can be no doubt that Mozart,
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to enclose your letter to me?’ 35
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The Dean was in a state of great ex
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‘passive’ voices; Ex.4.5 shows
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274
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276
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against itself, augmented and inver
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Andante also found favour, but part
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enewed application to this task. Wh
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for a child of twelve. The subject
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These masses mark the two poles of
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After this exposition the cadential
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is a much less dramatic tale, of ca
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happened, on October 26 1783 at Ben
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the voices. There is a single expos
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ascending, descending (or both), st
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298
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(apart from particella for wind and
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up to Mozart’s standard, the melo
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weight than Süssmayr’s say-so. B
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crisis [Lebenskrise] from which, in
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all, please few with counterpoint a
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of much that was excellent’. 3 In
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continually surpass his own creativ
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This ethical approach to music, so
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Like Mozart, Beethoven was a great
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There are a few reasonably complete
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It is, in part, a question of autho
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voice ‘Parthie’, an oboe concer
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although it is in a different key;
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which had such a similar subject (E
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328
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his early life is there a single re
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‘Metaphorically, Beethoven was al
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On the other hand, whilst there is
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of a sort that has if anything tend
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To thus posit ‘lateness’ about
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historical development; 61 all thes
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These critics were not necessarily
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could anyone have expected that Bee
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hear it more often. Well, once more
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development came the flood of ‘mu
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Sometimes, it is just noise, in the
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At times, so eccentric are his text
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eighteenth century; and however muc
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Carpani; from the time he entered E
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His opp.1bis, 5, and 6, however, (p
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360
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nineteenth century—the style of H
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364
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movement. There is no danger of irr
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time, whereas the glory of many a B
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On the other hand, the tonal range
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It is with some surprise that we he
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A canon at the fourth below, ‘we
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Clementi. In this respect the issue
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turns out to be none other than our
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None of these, in any case, remotel
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traditional form.’ 125 Weber expr
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Arioso into the rest of the movemen
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eturned by b.248. On the other hand
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grise, it nevertheless exerts consi
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century fugal writing more satisfac
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CONCLUSION ‘Like most other disci
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from Fux to Haydn to Bruckner was n
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were written for the organ. 7 While
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prelude/fugue pair. Perhaps rather
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practice is less concerned with the
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Baroque, but did so subtly, without
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periodicity and its fluctuating ton
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eauty with ‘an excess of art.’
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(op.35/1) is a model of textural co
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410
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inhospitable to fugue.’ 30 To the
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W. F. Bach, Fugue in F minor BRA 88
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Exx.2.11-13 S. Wesley, ‘4 Fugues
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Chapter 4 Mozart, finished and unfi
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ed. Joseph Joachim and Andreas Mose
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BIBLIOGRAPHY [anon.] ‘The organ r
Page 424 and 425:
Beethoven, Ludwig van, The letters
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Brown, Clive, ‘Perspectives on Be
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______ Beethoven (Oxford: Oxford Un
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zu Köln 1998, 315-321. ______ and
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Fisk, Josiah, ‘Classical music an
Page 434 and 435:
______ ‘The “Grosse Fuge”: an
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1967). Horowitz, Joseph, ‘Mozart
Page 438 and 439:
______ Fugue and fugato in Rococo a
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und ihrer frühen Rezeption’, Arc
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(1991). MacArdle, Donald W., ‘Bee
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contrappunto sopra il canto fermo (
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Nicolosi, Robert, T. S. Eliot and m
Page 448 and 449:
______ Double counterpoint and cano
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Routh, Francis, Early English organ
Page 452 and 453:
Schwarz, John I. jr, ‘Samuel and
Page 454 and 455:
______ ‘Beethoven’s ninth symph
Page 456 and 457:
Record, 90 (1960), 163-74. ______
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and Baroque’, Church, stage, and
Page 460 and 461:
Winter, Robert S., ‘Of realizatio
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