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more largely employed than used to be the case in the old Suite. 

 The .word Sonata is usually employed only for compositions of this 

 form for one or two instruments. If three instruments are 

 employed we speak of a trio, if four of a quartott, and so on of 

 quintetts, sextetts, octettes, and nonettes ; then we arrive at the 

 complete orcliestra where Ave find the term " Sympliony." Accord- 

 ing to their form, however, all these compositions are really 

 Sonatas. The Concerto also belongs to the Sonata form, but it 

 consists of tlirce movements only instead of four. Xeither the 

 Concerto nor the Phantasia is a modern invention. Bach and 

 Handel used these forms. In the phantasia, as the name indicates, 

 the composer to a certain extent dispensed with the strict rules of 

 composition; yet Bach in his celebrated "Chromatic Phantasia" 

 gives in its second part a fugue of such strict and measured form, 

 that the great master has never written a stricter one. The fugue 

 has been applied to vocal as well as to instrumental music. It is 

 in the fugue that Bach is unrivalled, just as Beethoven is in the 

 symphony, Schubert in the song, Shakesjieare in the drama, and 

 Wagner in the musical drama. 



Xext in time comes Mozart. He was so universal a genius 

 that lie achieved triumphs on every side, and some of his piano- 

 forte works, particularly his concertos, rank among the greatest 

 productions of their kind. His greatness lies chiefly in his operas, 

 masses, string-quartetts, and orchestral symphonies. 



Beethoven's pianoforte works form the crown and summit of 

 everything that has been written since Bach — they have not been 

 approached, much less equalled, by any subsequent composer. 

 Under Beethoven's hands the form of the sonata did not 

 essentially change. A detail Avorth mentioning is that he trans- 

 formed one of the four movements of the sonata, A'iz. — the third 

 one. This Avith Mozart and his contemporaries had usualh' been 

 a menuet, with its accompanying trio ; Beetlioven replaced it by a 

 scherzo. 



Schubert Avas born at the close of the last century. He died 

 in 1828, having barely passed his 30th year. His great musical 

 importance lies in his Avonderful achievements in the domain of 



