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Recomposing American History

In: Historical Events

Submitted By DrClamchop
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The famous military sonata for pianoforte, The Battle of Trenton Sonata is a through-composed work by American composer James Hewitt. A contemporary of Beethoven, Hewitt was born and raised in England until moving to New York in 1792 at the age of 22. Throughout his career, James Hewitt was very active in both Boston and New York as a conductor, composer/arranger and music publisher. The story behind Hewitt’s sonata unfolded in Trenton, New Jersey on December 25th 1776 as President Washington led his Army across the Delaware River, preceding The Battle of Trenton that occurred the next day. Although a large number of the opposing Hessians escaped, within an hour of battle nearly nine hundred were captured by Washington’s Army. This was the first pivotal victory of the American Revolutionary War, boosting reenlistments into the Continental Army.
Twenty years after this event, James Hewitt published his sonata in 1797 after living as an American citizen for just over five years. The Sonata is written using numerous titled sections that correspond with the historical event: “Army in Motion”, “General Orders”, “Washington’s March”, “Defeat of Hessians”, “Yankee Doodle”, and “General Rejoicing”. Essentially, the composers goal whilst writing a military sonata was to recreate the event with music as best as possible. With regards to tempo markings and tonality, Hewitt is able to effectively match the mood of each event, for example: “Washington’s March” is marked as maestoso while “Attack” alternates into a presto tempo. The opening and closing of the piece (which depict scenes of triumph) are in D major, and he modulates to parallel and relative minor keys for darker themed sections such as “The Hessians Begging…” and “American Grief…” Although the battle is the main focus of the piece, Hewitt does not leave out other intricacies that enliven the music. The low cacophonous trills marked “cannon” or “bomb” not only serve as melodic material but also employ the performer to emulate these sudden sounds. Other instances where Hewitt uses register of the pianoforte wisely are found in “Trumpets of Victory” and “General Orders”. A lone trumpet begins and a second individual line joins halfway through, both in the treble clef to suit the sound of a trumpet. The interaction between General and Troops is depicted through a call and response rhythm that makes the higher part sound like a lone commander, and the heavy lower part sound like a responsive group. The 3 piano sonatas of op. 5 (published 1795-96) are all exemplary of Hewitt’s style of composition and follow a simplistic, “textbook” blueprint of sonata form. Each sonata contains only two movements, with a recap section that neglects the primary theme as it builds onward from the second theme instead. The second movement of his third sonata is in rondo form and the last section is based on the popular tune “Malbrook” just as he had done with the “Yankee doodle” theme in his military sonata. It is no surprise that Hewitt made use of popular melodies because of his involvement in arranging, and publishing. Also, the fact that Hewitt’s sonata is closely based on a military event makes it difficult for the piece to comply with sonata form. Because it emulates a chain of events, the motivic material has little repetition and the piece is very much through-composed. However, the modulations of this sonata are well suited to the three sonata sections: Exposition, Development, and Recapitulation. The first three pages rest entirely in the Tonic key, D major. Modulatory material begins around the “cannon/bomb” sections and continues for six pages until “Yankee Doodle” brings back D major, marking the “recap” section. This section remains almost entirely in the Tonic key with a few exception where it modulates to G and A major. There are certain points during which Hewitt takes after the compositional style of Beethoven’s Early Piano sonatas. Alberti bass and tremolo octave passages are heavily used as both a harmonic outline and melodic material as well. Dense, repeated left hand chords also outline the harmonic progression of this sonata as Beethoven frequently used in a symphonic manner. Not only are their methods of orchestration similar, but a joyful mood is captured through melodic and rhythmic material. Melodic motives are constantly secluded into short fragments and given an immediate repetition just as Haydn and Beethoven had strategically written in their sonatas. Hewitt enlivens his melodic lines with unison lines shared between the RH and LH and uses the same playful rhythms that Beethoven did, such as the dotted 8th + 16th note. During the “Canons/bombs” and “Grief of Americans…” sections, the quarter-quarter- half melodic motive is split by moving the half note down 3 octaves for the right hand to cross over and finish the melody. Beethoven frequently uses this method in his sonatas as means of imitation/interaction instead of embellishing a melody. The task of recreating a historical event through music was certainly a task that Hewitt was accustomed to, having done the same with popular melodies as an arranger. The composer retained much of his European influences but was able to absorb American culture and music into his compositional output. A great deal of Hewitt’s published works were lost, and it is for this reason that music historians believe he is misrepresented by works of lesser significance. However, his work The Battle of Trenton Sonata clearly exemplifies an element of innovation as he draws from both European and American influences in order to appropriately recreate this historical event.

Bibliography
Clarke, J. Bunker. “The Solo Piano Sonata in Early America: Hewitt to Heinrich.” American Music Vol. 2, No. 3 (1984): pp 27-46
Fischer, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Lass, Cody. "Battle of Trenton." Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, n.d. Web. <http://www.mountvernon.org/educational-resources/encyclopedia/battle-trenton>.
Nomoto, Noriaki. "Beethoven Piano Sonatas." Gate.net. N.p., 7 July 1998. Web. <http://www.gate.net/~nnomoto/beethoven/sonatas2.htm>.
Wagner, John W. “James Hewitt, 1770-1827.” The Musical Quarterly Vol. 58, No. 2 (1972): pp 259-276

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. David Hackett Fischer. Washington’s Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press (2004). 56
[ 2 ]. J. Bunker Clarke. “The Solo Piano Sonata in Early America: Hewitt to Heinrich.” American Music V2/N3 (1984): 29
[ 3 ]. John W. Wagner. James Hewitt, 1770-1827. The Musical Quarterly. 268
[ 4 ]. Nomoto
[ 5 ]. Nomoto
[ 6 ]. Wagner, 275.

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