T. A. Arne as an Inventor of Musical Form. 201 



modern sonata form. Here the second subject fully appears. 

 He was followed by Schobert, and one most learned writer 

 says that the honour of having fixed the form may fairly 

 be divided between these two composers. I think Arne's 

 name should be added. Dr. Burney, writing in 1780, says 

 Schobert published nothing till 1761. This statement has 

 been challenged, and may be incorrect, but probably Burney 

 was right to this extent, that nothing of Schobert's reached 

 England till 1761. As to C. P. E. Bach, his sonatas were 

 not published till 1766, so that when Arne produced 

 •" Artaxerxes " in all probability neither Schobert's nor 

 C. P. E. Bach's works were known to him, and certainly 

 nothing of Haydn's, who was then a young man of 28. In 

 England there was no composer of note except Boyce, and 

 he adhered to Handelian lines, and I think, therefore, it is a 

 reasonable inference to draw from these dates that Arne's 

 overture was an original conception in regard to form, 

 and a distinct creation. Three years after " Artaxerxes " 

 Arne produced " Elfrida." Here again we have the 

 modern form. The overture commences at once allegro 

 with an eight-bar subject in D minor. This is fol- 

 lowed by an episode in the tonic major of 21 bars, when 

 the first subject is repeated in the dominant minor, 

 succeeded by a further episode leading to the second subject, 

 eight bars in length, which is also in the dominant minor, 

 and as to this being a real and true second subject there 

 can be '' no possible probable manner of doubt." The figures 

 used in the preceding episodes supply (as in " Artaxerxes ") 

 the material for the customary development, leading to the 

 return to the first subject in the original key, and the subse- 

 quent reiteration of the second subject in the same key, all 

 according to modern orthodoxy. The importance of this 

 overture as a formal invention is in no wise detracted from 

 by the fact that there are two movements, an andante and a 

 martial minuet (in " Artaxerxes " these are a largJietto and 



