It was undoubtedly this poetic basis that so affected the form of Beethoven’s sonatas.  The little romances by which Haydn spurred his imagination were as children’s tales compared with the deep thoughts, the tragic events, and the masterpieces of Plato, Shakespeare, and Goethe, which in Beethoven sharpened feeling and intensified thought.  The great sonatas of Beethoven are not mere cunningly-devised pieces, not mere mood-painting; they are real, living dramas.

In aiming at a higher organisation, he actually became a disorganiser.  “All things are growing or decaying,” says Herbert Spencer.  And in Beethoven, so far as sonata and sonata-form are concerned, we seem, as it were, to perceive the beginning of a period of decay.

CHAPTER VIII

TWO CONTEMPORARIES OF BEETHOVEN

I. Weber

The two greatest contemporaries of Beethoven were, undoubtedly, Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert, and both wrote pianoforte sonatas.  Many other composers of that period—­some of them possessed of considerable talent—­devoted themselves to that branch of musical literature:  Steibelt (1764-1823), Woelfl (1772-1812), J.B.  Cramer (1771-1858), J.N.  Hummel (1778-1837), F.W.M.  Kalkbrenner (1788-1849), and others.  Of these, the first three may be named sonata-makers.  The number which they produced is positively alarming; but it is some consolation to think that a knowledge of their works is not of essential importance.  Steibelt’s sonata in E flat (dedicated to Mme. Buonaparte) was given once at the Popular Concerts in 1860, and Woelfl’s “Ne plus Ultra” sonata, several times between 1859 and 1873; not one, however, of the 105 said to have been written by J.B.  Cramer has ever been heard there.[100] Most of these works justly merit the oblivion into which they have fallen; some are quite second, or even third rate; others were written merely as show pieces,[101] and are now, of course, utterly out of date; and many were written for educational purposes, or to suit popular taste (sonatas containing variations on national and favourite airs, light rondos, etc.).[102]

Cramer’s studies have achieved world-wide reputation, and, as music, they are often interesting.  Also in his sonatas are to be found many serious, well-written movements; musical taste has, however, so changed since the rise of the romantic school, that it is doubtful whether they would be now acceptable even as teaching pieces.

Hummel’s few sonatas have suffered at the hand of time; but, though the music be mechanical, and therefore cold, there is much to interest pianists in the two sonatas in F sharp minor (Op. 81) and D major (Op. 106).  These were written after the composer’s appointment at Weimar in 1820.  His two early sonatas (Op. 13, in E flat, and Op. 20, dedicated to Haydn) are not easy, yet not so difficult as the two just mentioned.