Sonata da chiesa (Italian: "church sonata") is a 17th-century genre of musical composition for one or more melody instruments and is regarded an antecedent of later forms of 18th century instrumental music.[1] It generally comprises four movements, typically a largoprelude followed by a fugalallegro, an expressive slow movement, and an allegro finale, although there are also many variations of this pattern.[2]
During the 17th century, church services were increasingly accompanied by music for ensembles rather than solo organ, with canzonas and sonatas regularly substituted for the Proper during Mass and Vespers.[3] Many of these works, however, were not written explicitly as liturgical music and were often performed as concert pieces for entertainment. The term sonata da chiesa was originally used in its literal meaning of "church music", but later came to be used figuratively to contrast this genre of composition with the sonata da camera, which literally meant "chamber music", but generally comprised a suite of dances.[4]
By the mid-18th century, however, this style of music was increasingly out of date, although Joseph Haydn, for example, did compose a few early symphonies that followed the largo–allegro–minuet–allegro pattern.[6]
↑ Kirby, F.E. (1984). "The Germanic symphony in the eighteenth century: Bridge to the romantic era". Journal of Musicological Research. 5 (1–3): 51–83. doi:10.1080/01411898408574545. ISSN0141-1896.
↑ Zaslaw, Neal, with Cowdery, William eds., The Compleat Mozart: A Guide to the Musical Works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, p. 109-112, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1990, ISBN0-393-02886-0
Carl Friedrich Abel was a German composer of the pre-Classical era. He was a renowned player of the viola da gamba, and produced significant compositions for that instrument. He was director of music at the Dresden court from 1743, and moved to London in 1759, becoming chamber-musician to Queen Charlotte in 1764. He founded a subscription concert series there with Johann Christian Bach. According to the Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel (AbelWV), he left 420 compositions, with a focus on chamber music.
Sonata, in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata, a piece sung. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance. Sonata is a vague term, with varying meanings depending on the context and time period. By the early 19th century, it came to represent a principle of composing large-scale works. It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded—alongside the fugue—as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the musical style of sonatas has changed since the Classical era, most 20th- and 21st-century sonatas still maintain the same structure.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period composer and musician, the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach.
The rondo is a musical form that contains a principal theme which alternates with one or more contrasting themes, generally called "episodes", but also occasionally referred to as "digressions" or "couplets". Some possible patterns include: ABACA, ABACAB, ABACBA, or ABACABA.
The trio sonata is a genre, typically consisting of several movements, with two melody instruments and basso continuo. It originated in the early 17th century and was a favorite chamber ensemble combination in the Baroque era.
Johann Schobert was a composer and harpsichordist. His date of birth is given variously as about 1720, about 1735, or about 1740, his place of birth as Silesia, Alsace, or Nuremberg. He died after eating poisonous mushrooms that he insisted were edible.
Trevor David Pinnock is a British harpsichordist and conductor.
Sonata form is one of the most influential ideas in the history of Western classical music. Since the establishment of the practice by composers like C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert and the codification of this practice into teaching and theory, the practice of writing works in sonata form has changed considerably.
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B♭, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The Symphony in C major by German composer Robert Schumann was published in 1847 as his Symphony No. 2, Op. 61, although it was the third symphony he had completed, counting the B-flat major symphony published as No. 1 in 1841, and the original version of his D minor symphony of 1841. It is dedicated to Oscar I, king of Sweden and Norway.
Sonata da camera is a 17th-century genre of musical composition for one or more melody instruments and basso continuo. It generally comprises a suite of several small pieces in the same mode or key that are suitable for dancing. A significant number of such works were produced during the mid- to late- 17th century by composers in Germany, including Heinrich Biber, Dietrich Becker, and Johannes Schenck. But the term sonata da camera came into use in Italy during the late 17th century, when the works of composers such as Arcangelo Corelli contributed to the popularity of both the sonata da camera and sonata da chiesa.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began his series of preserved piano concertos with four that he wrote in Salzburg at the age of 11 : K. 37 and 39–41. The autographs, all held by the Jagiellonian Library, Kraków, are dated by his father as having been completed in April and July of 1767. Although these works were long considered to be original, they are now known to be pasticcios of sonatas by various German composers. The works on which the concertos are based were largely published in Paris, and presumably Mozart and his family became acquainted with them or their composers during their visit to Paris in 1763–64.
The Symphony No. 52 in C minor is one of the last Sturm und Drang symphonies composed by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn while the composer was in residence at Esterházy in 1771 or 1772.
A solo concerto is a musical form which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by an orchestra. Traditionally, there are three movements in a solo concerto, consisting of a fast section, a slow and lyrical section, and then another fast section. However, there are many examples of concertos that do not conform to this plan.
A musical hoax is a piece of music composed by an individual who intentionally misattributes it to someone else.
An organ concerto is an orchestral piece of music in which a pipe organ soloist is accompanied by an an orchestra, although some works exist with the name "concerto" which are for organ alone.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's first four sonatas for keyboard and violin, K. 6–9 are among his earliest works, composed between 1762 and 1764. They encompass several of Mozart's firsts as a composer: for example, his first works incorporating the violin, his first works with more than a single instrument, his first works in more than one movement and his first works in sonata form. In fact, previous to this, all his works had been short solo-pieces for the harpsichord.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed six sonatas for keyboard with accompaniment of violin and cello, K. 10–15, in late 1764 in London during the Mozart family's grand tour of Europe. Queen Charlotte commissioned them on 25 October, and the works were dedicated to her on 18 January 1765. They were published as Mozart's "Opus III" by his father Leopold at 20 Frith Street, Soho, London, where the Mozarts lived from September 1764 until after May 1765.
The six sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1014–1019 by Johann Sebastian Bach are works in trio sonata form, with the two upper parts in the harpsichord and violin over a bass line supplied by the harpsichord and an optional viola da gamba. Unlike baroque sonatas for solo instrument and continuo, where the realisation of the figured bass was left to the discretion of the performer, the keyboard part in the sonatas was almost entirely specified by Bach. They were probably mostly composed during Bach's final years in Cöthen between 1720 and 1723, before he moved to Leipzig. The extant sources for the collection span the whole of Bach's period in Leipzig, during which time he continued to make changes to the score.
The organ sonatas, BWV 525–530 by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six sonatas in trio sonata form. Each of the sonatas has three movements, with three independent parts in the two manuals and obbligato pedal. The collection was put together in Leipzig in the late 1720s and contained reworkings of prior compositions by Bach from earlier cantatas, organ works and chamber music as well as some newly composed movements. The sixth sonata, BWV 530, is the only one for which all three movements were specially composed for the collection. When played on an organ, the second manual part is often played an octave lower on the keyboard with appropriate registration. Commentators have suggested that the collection might partly have been intended for private study to perfect organ technique, some pointing out that its compass allows it to be played on a pedal clavichord. The collection of sonatas is generally regarded as one of Bach's masterpieces for organ. The sonatas are also considered to be amongst his most difficult compositions for the instrument.
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