Godard's sonatas for solo violin--"baroque" music from the 19th century

[matesic]

It all sounds rather effortful to me, especially the nervous vibrato. In comparison I'd cite Ilya Kaler's recording of the six solo sonatas by Ysaye which I think comes close to ideal. Do three examples (of solo romantic violin sonatas composed by Francophones) make a tradition?

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Guénin's solo sonatas (with ad lib 2nd violin part; published in the 1820s) are listed as Classical at IMSLP, but maybe because of date rather than their style. Someone willing to take a performer-informed look at them and make a determination? They might fit too, if from the earlier rather than the later Romantic era...

[Double-A]

I looked at this and played some of it off the computer screen.  "Classical" is definitely the correct assignment.
Very shortly therefore:  They are duos for students as mentioned on the title page.  The ad libitum second fiddle probably for the teacher and maybe also to say:  "You don't have a second fiddler?  Buy it anyway!"

Quite pretty and charming though.  But no part of a solo violin tradition.  Sorry!

[eschiss1]

Ah well. Nothing ventured! Thanks!

[Double-A]

About this putative French solo violin tradition:

This is not an easy subject to research because of the prevalence of etudes, caprices, variations on popular themes etc.  I did some searching on IMSLP to find more evidence.  Unfortunately the search function on IMSLP is rather clumsy and additionally problematic because contributors do not always correctly categorize the entries.  Also of course:  Big as IMSLP is it is far from complete.

I went through romantic solo violin pieces and then looked at each composer with a French sounding name and checked out the entries.  Most of them are either etudes, caprices or else "methodes de violon".  Apart from a few curiosities (a volume of ways to imitate sounds on a violin for fun at a party for example) here are some contenders:

Alexandre Ropicquet, Le Divertissement, Thèmes favoris, Suite 2 (suggesting there is at least one more set of 6 "themes" around that hasn't made it onto IMSLP, published 1905)

Six themes such "Tyrolienne de Mercadante" or "Valse de Beethoven", each with a set of variations, sometimes with an introductions or a "finale".  Not too hard to play, but each set has at least one variation with serious double stopping.

Emile Sauret, Suite pour violon seul op. 87 (1907)

The suite features not a single dance movement, so I don't understand the title.  There are four movements, rather long and very hard to play, lots of notes (not as hard to play as the Ysaye I think, but as hard as the Vieuxtemps certainly).  The very beginning looks a bit like the first movement of Godard's second sonata and may be quoting him (identical rhythm).  The piece however is definitely not "neobaroque" in spite of being called a suite.

Taking all the examples we know of (the two examples above plus Vieuxtemps, Godard, the two other French composers on the "hidden violin" CD, and Ysaye) we get a "tradition" of seven rather diverse pieces or sets of pieces (Vieuxtemps, Godard, Sauret and Ysaye being multi movement works are more closely related than the others).  I ought to do the same exercise on German composers to have a "baseline" so one can see if there is something francophone about this.  But not now.

P.S.  This is pertinent to this thread in other ways:  Adolphe Herman, L'art de chanter appliqué au violon (1885).
It is in fact a compilation of short "melodies" from operas by Verdi, compiled with no accompaniment whatsoever, not even a single double stop.  A very quick way to make a publication.

[eschiss1]

Contributors/uploaders in general, btw, don't categorize the entries, strictly speaking- a for-want-of-better "tag team" does, and still not very well (I say this as one of the small group of semi-trained dedicated taggers there.) And of course it isn't complete; I used it as a guide/aide/for advice...

(Suites without dance movements are hardly a novelty-- are they? Titling is at root a matter of tradition rather than fixed rule in the arts.) (It seems as though some of Purcell's suites for example have just tempo movement headings, and at least one of Telemann's orchestral suites- this earlier than any of the composers in question.)

[matesic]

I briefly ventured up a similar avenue to Double-A but it didn't lead anywhere very suggestive. Both Godard and Ysaÿe were taught by Henri Vieuxtemps whose chief teacher was Charles de Bériot. Throughout his career de Bériot wrote plenty of Caprices and Etudes for solo violin that may not have been purely for didactic purposes. As early as the 1840's Vieuxtemps published his 6 Concert Etudes Op 16, also presumably intended for solo performance rather than merely for practice, but that leaves 30 years until Godard's first Sonata came along. He waited 20 years before publishing a second, and Ysaÿe another 20-30 years before publishing his 6 with just a couple of examples cited by Double-A to fill the gap. Incidentally Ysaÿe quotes Vieuxtemps as having said "Not runs for the sake of runs - sing, sing!"

[Double-A]

There is clearly a tradition of etudes or caprices for performance and also as study material--in France maybe more than elsewhere.  But I think that multi movement works for solo violin is a genre distinctly different from caprices--more "serious" as opposed to caprices which are more on the salon side of the spectrum. 

[eschiss1]

Well, Germany/Austria would come close (I'd say neck-and-neck but at the risk of it sounding like a pun. Surely a set of solo violin "sonatas or studies" by Andreas Romberg, e.g. is one work falling under the same header too...)

[Double-A]

Here are the results from the search for German solo violin music in the 19th century:

Andreas Romberg:  Etudes ou III Sonates pour un violon¹, op. 32 (already mentioned by Eric).
These pieces are not "neobaroque".  They are classified--correctly--as "classical" on IMSLP.  They are undated but were probably written or at least published after 1800².  Yet they all have two movements, a design one finds typically in early classics like Boccherini or Christian Bach.  However the pieces are harmonically more adventurous than those early composers.  The writing is generally homophone, double stops are used to play an accompanying line along with the melody almost throughout.  The demands on the player's technique are considerable. 

Joseph Heinrich:  Adagio für die Violine; eine Nachahmung der Harmonika mit losgeschraubtem Bogen zu spielen; also Quartett für eine Violine (published 1825; Adagio for the violin; an imitation of the harmonica to be played with the bow unscrewed [presumably with the frog detached] hence Quartet for one violin).
Otto Soldan had precursors it seems; enough said.

Friedrich Wilhelm Sörgel: Trois solos pour le violon (published approx.1820)⁴.
The three solos are Allegro moderato - Adagio - Allegro moderato.  They seem to be arranged to be played in sequence and might as well be called "sonata".  These pieces are largely in one voice; only the adagio has extended double stopped sections.  Pretty melodies but probably a bit too much passagework with the danger of getting boring.  Not "neobaroque" either.

Richard Barth:  Partita (1892, dedicated to Brahms), Ciacona (1908)
The titles already clearly indicate that Bach was the model here.  The partita has five movements:  1.  Adagio - Fuga, 2.  Allemande, 3.  Menuet I - Menuet II, 4.  Air, 5.  Gigue.  In Bach's terminology it would be a sonata-partita hybrid--Barth even the switches from Italian to French movement titles when the "partita-section" begins.  The ciacona uses rhythms and other patterns from Bach's model, but goes beyond it in virtuosity incorporating tricks like left hand pizzicato.

And there is Joachim's "Schottische Melodie".  Plus the many pieces by Reger.

So we have a series of solo violin pieces (other than etudes/caprices/cadenzas for concertos) throughout the 19th century, more often than not by "minor unsungs" (if that makes any sense; for myself I would list only Godard and Reger as "major").  If one wants to call this a "tradition" depends upon the definition of "tradition".  At any rate it appears that the challenge of writing music under such narrow constraints seems to have preserved its allure over the centuries.

To return to the Godard sonatas, the starting point of this thread:  What distinguishes them from all the other pieces that have been mentioned here (including Bach's) is how accessible they are technically.  To be sure they are not for beginners.  But I can play all of the Godard movements at near satisfactory levels while all the other works are hopeless.

1) It strikes me that a lot of non French music of the time was nonetheless published with French title pages (even by German publishers, e.g. also some works by Johann Benjamin Gross).  Anybody knows an explanation?

2) Comparison with publication dates of nearby opus numbers.

3) No. 1: Andante (sonata form) - Tempo di Minuetto; No. 2: Adagio cantabile - Allegro (free variations on an "Air de Stegmann"); No. 3: Andante (with a grave introduction feeling much like a cadenza) - Polonoise (sic).

4) On the work page in IMSLP one finds the word "hrm".  I wonder who put that there.

[eschiss1]

Me. Revision of 2 July 2012, 9:20 p.m. In the notes section.

[matesic]

Much as I respect Double-A's determined quest for a "tradition" of solo violin literature in the 18th century (my casual suggestion seems to have been thoroughly refuted) , I think he's over-generous even to admit Joseph Heinrich's Adagio for consideration. Why would anyone want to hear a violin imitate a harmonica anyway? At least Heinrich had the decency to mark it "con sordini", although how you could get more than one mute onto a violin also defeats me.

[jonfrohnen]

I remember uploading these 2 Solo pieces to IMSLP years ago, great they are recorded...too bad the recording is not very good :-(

[Double-A]

I think he's over-generous even to admit Joseph Heinrich's Adagio for consideration. Why would anyone want to hear a violin imitate a harmonica anyway? At least Heinrich had the decency to mark it "con sordini", although how you could get more than one mute onto a violin also defeats me.

I know!  But I could not not include the piece given that it is a "precursor" of Soldan's "work".  I thought putting "enough said" into that paragraph would signal sufficiently the less than serious nature of this particular contribution.
BTW:  The "sordini" may be explained by insufficient knowledge in Italian grammar (or alternatively in violin "technology"):  A companion to Schubert's moments musicales--but only in the area of foreign language skills.

On the other hand:  I know a serious piece where the violin imitates a bagpipe (unfortunately this piece is outside the remit).

[Double-A]

Searching for something unrelated I stumbled over the information that a recording exists of the sonatas by Andreas Romberg, available for download here.  The violinist is Yuri Revich.

I don't think the music is worth the purchase (unremarkable melodically, somewhat repetitive) but there are two "appetizers" on youtube.  Technically the playing is impressive; in spite of serious difficulties it sounds relaxed.  Personally I don't like his rubato which obscures rather than enhances the rhythm, especially in a movement called tempo di minute (2nd example).

Anyhow:  The snippets should suffice as a demonstration that these pieces are not at all "neobaroque".