PREFACE


This little volume is entitled "The Pianoforte Sonata: its Origin and
Development." Some of the early sonatas mentioned in it were, however,
written for instruments of the jack or tangent kind. Even Beethoven's
sonatas up to Op. 27, inclusive, were published for "Clavicembalo o
Pianoforte." The Germans have the convenient generic term "Clavier,"
which includes the old and the new instruments with hammer action;
hence, they speak of a _Clavier Sonate_ written, say, by Kuhnau, in
the seventeenth, or of one by Brahms in the nineteenth, century.

The term "Piano e Forte" is, however, to be found in letters of a
musical instrument maker named Paliarino, written, as we learn from
the valuable article "Pianoforte," contributed by Mr. Hipkins to Sir
George Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_, already in the
year 1598, and addressed to Alfonso II., Duke of Modena. The earliest
sonata for a keyed instrument mentioned in this volume was published
in 1695; and to avoid what seems an unnecessary distinction, I have
used the term "Pianoforte Sonata" for that sonata and for some other
works which followed, and which are usually and properly termed
"Harpsichord Sonatas."

I have to acknowledge kind assistance received from Mr. A.W. Hutton,
Mr. F.G. Edwards, and Mr. E. Van der Straeten. And I also beg to thank
Mr. W. Barclay Squire and Mr. A. Hughes-Hughes for courteous help at
the British Museum; likewise Dr. Kopfermann, chief librarian of the