Every other school year I teach a 400 level class called String Literature Survey at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC. This class is designed for string majors to learn about sonatas from 1700 to 2000, starting with Corelli’s violin sonatas and ending with my Sonatensatz. We cover a wide range of topics, including style, technique, form, and the collaboration between composer and performer. My primary goal is for students to become well versed in the sonata genre.
The decision to focus exclusively on sonatas was intentional. While we do discuss concertos and concert pieces in passing, covering all genres in equal depth would be both overwhelming and superficial.
Building a curriculum for this class was not easy. The literature on string repertoire strongly favors the violin, yet I also teach violists and cellists. After exploring different options, I settled on a core curriculum that includes Melvin Berger’s Guide to Sonatas, Abram Loft’s Violin and Keyboard, and a selection of Henle prefaces. These materials are not treated as authoritative, but rather as points of departure for critical discussion and comparison.
Berger’s text provides a useful overview of the sonata tradition. Some of the information reflects earlier scholarly perspectives, which gives students an opportunity to evaluate how interpretive approaches and research priorities have changed over time. Berger also omits Saint Saëns and several other composers discussed in the course, which becomes a useful prompt for examining gaps in secondary literature.
Loft’s two volume set takes a detailed look at works for violin and also serves as a model for student writing about music. His overview of much of the standard violin repertoire is excellent. His treatment of certain composers, such as Saint Saëns and d’Indy, is less even from a pedagogical standpoint, however, and he does not discuss Poulenc’s Violin Sonata.
Henle prefaces vary in style and level of detail from editor to editor, but they consistently provide research oriented information that helps prepare students for graduate level work. These texts also benefit from being read alongside other analytical perspectives. For example, the preface to Brahms’s Cello Sonata, Op. 38 does not address its relationship to Bach’s Art of the Fugue, a connection noted in Berger’s overview. Using Henle materials allows students to make connections between scholarship and performance editions, which builds discernment.
When we arrive at 20th century sonatas, we turn to biographical and primary source materials. For example, we read Barbara Heyman’s biography of Samuel Barber in connection with the cello sonata. For Poulenc, we read Wilfrid Mellers’s biography, which addresses his sonatas. For Shostakovich, we consult Elizabeth Wilson’s work, and for composers such as John Corigliano and William Bolcom, we read selected writings by the composers themselves.
We conclude the course with a look at my Sonatensatz, which I wrote in 2003 and have revised several times for performance.
Students select a sonata not covered in class for their term papers. The range of possible choices is effectively limitless. In many cases, students ultimately choose a sonata for their senior recital as a direct result of taking this course.