The Violin Sonata Becomes a Duo

Vienna around 1800, when the violin rose from accompaniment to an equal partner

Related

ClassicalSonataViolinChamber Music

Around 1800 the violin sonata stepped out of the title that made the piano the owner and the violin an assistant. On the same page, two instruments began to speak as equals.

Time and place

Vienna, around 1800. Beethoven's ten violin sonatas appeared over two decades, and the early Opus 12 still carries a title naming the keyboard first, with a violin added. By Opus 30 and the Kreutzer Sonata the two are level. In the same years pianos grew louder and violin bowing and intonation were being standardised.

What happened

The eighteenth-century violin sonata was often a keyboard sonata with a violin line that held long notes, filled harmony and occasionally took a melody. Mozart gave the violin more to do; Beethoven gave the theme to both instruments in turn, with the piano separating bass from right hand while the violin answered above, both sharing motives. Players needed real ensemble timing rather than accompaniment plus solo. The change reached the title page, where the word accompanying gradually disappeared. That shift in wording is now read as evidence of the change in status.

What changed

Chamber music gained a duo in which a pianist and a violinist could give a concert as equals. Publishers treated violin sonatas as reliable sellers, amateur players faced higher demands of ensemble, and domestic music-making shifted from solo display toward collaboration. The equality of two instruments also shaped later sonatas, with Brahms, Franck and Faure writing dialogue rather than showcase.

Listen for the turn

Begin with the opening of the First Sonata, the violin stating the theme and the piano taking it at once. Then the opening of the Eighth, where both instruments enter with the same motive offset. Finally the first movement of the Kreutzer, its slow introduction turning into an argument over one phrase. All three are ensemble recordings; follow who holds the theme and who gives way.

Related

This turn belongs to Classical; the form is at Sonata, the instrument Violin, and the scoring part of Chamber Music.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Sonata" — the accompanied sonata and Beethoven's title pages checked, not quoted
• Robin Stowell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Violin (Cambridge University Press, 1992) — repertory and performance checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.