William S. Newman

The Sonata in the Classic Era is the second (and much the bulkiest) of the four volumes projected in "A History of the Sonata Idea". It covers the crucial period of about eighty-five years from the first real flowering of the solo keyboard sonata, starting shortly before 1740, to the last sonatas of Beethoven and Clementi, completed shortly after 1820. In political history the corresponding period includes the long reigns, both starting in 1740, of Frederick the Great in Berlin and Maria Theresa in Vienna; the widespread conflicts known as the War of the Austrian Succession, from 1740 to 1748, and the Seven Years' War, from 1756 to 1763; and the entire convulsive cycle created by the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Congress of Vienna, from 1789 to 1815. In cultural history the same period includes the Enlightenment in France and elsewhere, with its pursuit of "freedom, reason, and humanitarianism," as well as the ensuing, more localized Sturm und Drang in Germany, with its rebellion against accepted eighteenth-century standards, especially French literary standards.

This volume, like its predecessor, is planned in two parts. Part I offers a summary, over-all view of the Classic sonata, organised in terms of its meanings, uses, spread, settings, and forms. Part II, which is over four times as long, supplies the evidence for that over-all view in a detailed survey of the individual composers and their works. This latter survey is organised by centers or schools, then by regions or countries during the pre-, high-, and late-Classic Era, and, when necessary, by further considerations such as instrumental medium or national origin. In Part II each composer normally is put in the music centre where he did his main sonata composing, regardless of whether this was the place where he was born or trained. In that way he appears where he is most likely to have met and influenced other sonata composers, if not necessarily where he himself was most influenced. At best, this policy makes for an authentic grouping by schools and styles that could hardly be improved through any artificial grouping contrived from our present vantage point. It also helps to establish significant ties and continuity in a survey that might otherwise be limited largely to reference uses.… (meer)