© Michel Cardin
The London Manuscript
Solo Sonata 3 in g minor
(Smith-Crawford 3)
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This sonata has no other version and is presented here in two of Weiss’s assistants’ writings. It is unique due to the absence of a final movement, the closing movement having been replaced by two minuets. It would have been in keeping with standard practice to simply borrow a gigue from another manuscript, but I think we should instead leave the work as indicated for one very important reason. The inscription after the second movement reads “Il primo minuetto da capo è poi requiescant in pace”. This instruction begins as a common musical directive but ends humorously in Church Latin with the wish of the composer to “Repeat the first minuet and rest evermore in peace.” In other words, “seek not a final movement”. As further justification, it is to be noted that there are no movements missing in any of the other sonatas in the London Manuscript, apart from no 9. We could even say that most have a fair number and that adding a movement could have been easy, this having been made elsewhere in the manuscript anyway.
The stage is set with a dramatic short Prelude, this time presenting us with the key of G minor in a way that would seem unconventional to Mattheson for whom the tonality was “without a doubt the most beautiful of tonalities, caressing with a suppleness that enables one to combine moderate nostalgia with peaceful joy”. The Allemande confirms the dramatic sentiment of the prelude. The fatalism and sadness are evocative of the two Tombeaux written by Weiss. The courante (Courr: ) is a prime example of the successful integration of melodic and harmonic structure within a lyric bel canto setting. This lyricism exists in spite of the frequently large intervals, similar to the melodic construction found in the works for unaccompanied violin and cello by J. S. Bach, a colleague of Weiss who was possibly more than one could think, influenced by this famous lute composer. The Bouree employs the technique of left-hand slurring to shape the melodic line. (The spelling here is Bouree as elsewhere in the London Manuscript (sometimes Bourée), whereas it is written more often as Bourrée in the Dresden Manuscript. Here the slurs assist the phrase flow, but only in the descending passages. To ascend melodically Weiss either removes the slurs or proceeds by ‘harmonic stepping’. The most striking examples are to be found at the very end and beginning of the piece:
The character of the Sarabande seems to remain stoic in the face of implacable melancholy. In the final measures, however, it is the melancholy that prevails with the tones slowly expiring, one after the other. The Menuet and Menuet 2do (secundo) offer a mixture of lightness and sobriety, with moments of chatter followed by periods of austerity. This serves to confirm the previous description of G minor which supposedly “reconciles a serious side with a petulant charm” However peculiar, this ending, which is clearly delineated by long musical breaths, must have seemed both an adequate and appropriate manner for the composer to end this third sonata for lute. For those concerned by the two enigmatic staves following the minuet, the explanation is quite simply that these are not part of any of the sonata movements and rather constitute an arpeggio exercise quickly drafted at the bottom of the page.
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