The trio sonata is a genre, typically consisting of several movements, [1] 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. [2]
The trio sonata typically was typically written for two melody instruments (such as two violins) and basso continuo. [3] However, either of both of the melody parts could be played on the flute, recorder, oboe, or even viola da gamba. [4] The bass part, the continuo, typically involves two players. [4] One player plays the bass line on a bass instrument such as a bass viol, violone, violoncello, or bassoon. [4] The second player fills in harmonies above the bass line, using an instrument that can produce chords, such as a small organ, a harpsichord, or a theorbo. [4] These chords are normally indicated to the player by placing numbers above the bass part rather than writing out the chords in full, a style of notation called figured bass.
Because there normally are two people playing the continuo part, there are usually four players in all. [1] This accounts for the title of Henry Purcell's second collection, Ten Sonatas in Four Parts (1697); his first publication Sonnata's of III Parts (1683) likewise included separate parts for cello and keyboard. [5] From about the middle of the 17th century two distinct types of sonatas appeared: sonata da camera (chamber sonata) and sonata da chiesa (church sonata). [1] The sonata da camera was a suite of dances, while the sonata da chiesa had a typical four-movement structure of slow-fast-slow-fast.
The genre originated as instrumental adaptation of the three-part texture common in Italian vocal music in the late 16th century. The earliest published trio sonatas appeared in Venice (Salamone Rossi Il primo libro delle sinfonie e gagliarde, 1607) and in Milan (Giovanni Paolo Cima, Sonata a tre for violin, cornett and continuo in the collection Concerti ecclesiastici, 1610). [1]
Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli was one of the most influential composers of the trio sonata. The published trio sonatas by Corelli are: [6]
An additional collection of Trio Sonatas, for two violins, cello, and organ, was published as "Op. post." in Amsterdam, in 1714. [7] Corelli's trios would serve as models for other composers well into the 18th century. [8]
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach is another notable composer of the trio sonata, but he was known for shying away from the traditional structure of the sonata. He typically played the three parts with fewer than three instruments. One part could be played by a violin and the other two parts could be played by a keyboard, or all three parts could be played on the organ. [9]
Trio sonatas by Bach include:
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.
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung featuring a single performer, who may be performing completely alone or supported by an accompanying instrument such as a piano or organ, a continuo group, or the rest of a choir, orchestra, band, or other ensemble. Performing a solo is "to solo", and the performer is known as a soloist.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1734.
The year 1730 in music involved some significant events.
The title Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach refers to either of two manuscript notebooks that the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach presented to his second wife, Anna Magdalena. Keyboard music makes up most of both notebooks, and a few pieces for voice are included.
A fantasia is a musical composition with roots in improvisation. The fantasia, like the impromptu, seldom follows the textbook rules of any strict musical form.
Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel was a German composer of the Baroque era.
The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically paired with a preceding allemande, making it the second movement of the suite or the third if there is a prelude.
"Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden" is an aria from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's opera Diomedes, which was first staged on 16 November 1718. The aria is best known as "Bist du bei mir," BWV 508, a version for voice and continuo found as No. 25 in the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.
In music, a trio is any of the following:
Johann Paul von Westhoff was a German Baroque composer and violinist. One of the most important exponents of the Dresden violin school, he was among the highest ranked violinists of his day, and composed some of the earliest known music for solo violin. He worked as musician and composer as a member of Dresden's Hofkapelle (1674–1697) and at the Weimar court (1699–1705), and was also active as a teacher of contemporary languages.
Between 1858 and 1902, the Händel-Gesellschaft produced a collected 105-volume edition of the works of George Frideric Handel. Even though the collection was initiated by the society, many of the volumes were published by Friedrich Chrysander working alone. The wording on the title page of the volumes is "Georg Friedrich Händel's Werke. Ausgabe der Deutschen Händelgesellschaft" which translates as "Georg Friedrich Handel's works. Edition of the German Handel Society". Chrysander's work has been criticised, however the scale of his achievement is also praised. The collection's abbreviation of "HG" can be used to identify individual works by Handel; for example Handel's Messiah can be referred to as "HG xlv". For practical use, the HG system has been superseded by the HWV numbering system. The 105 volumes do not contain the complete works of Handel—with at least 250 of his works unpublished in the collection.
Johann Christian Schickhardt was a German composer and woodwind player.
Baroque music refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transition. The Baroque period is divided into three major phases: early, middle, and late. Overlapping in time, they are conventionally dated from 1580 to 1650, from 1630 to 1700, and from 1680 to 1750. Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, and is widely studied, performed, and listened to. The term "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl". The works of George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach are considered the pinnacle of the Baroque period. Other key composers of the Baroque era include Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Pachelbel, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Johann Hermann Schein, Heinrich Schütz, Samuel Scheidt, Dieterich Buxtehude, Gaspar Sanz, José de Nebra, Antonio Soler, Carlos Seixas and others.
Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar was a German prince, son by his second marriage of Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar. Despite his early death he is remembered as a collector and commissioner of music and as a composer, some of whose concertos were arranged for harpsichord or organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, who was court organist in Weimar at the time.
The Sonata in G major for two flutes and basso continuo, BWV 1039, is a trio sonata by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is a version, for a different instrumentation, of the Gamba Sonata, BWV 1027. The first, second and fourth movement of these sonatas also exist as a trio sonata for organ.
Bekennen will ich seinen Namen, BWV 200, is an arrangement by Johann Sebastian Bach of an aria from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's passion-oratorio Die leidende und am Creuz sterbende Liebe Jesu. He scored it for alto, two violins and continuo, possibly as part of a cantata for the feast of Purification. He probably led the first performance around 1742.
The Concerto, BWV 525a, is a trio sonata in C major for violin, cello and basso continuo, based on material otherwise found in Johann Sebastian Bach's first Organ Sonata, BWV 525, and Flute Sonata in A major, BWV 1032. The oldest extant manuscript containing the BWV 525a arrangement, D-B Mus.ms. Bach St 345, is dated to the middle of the 18th century. Although this version of Bach's sonata movements may have originated during his lifetime in the circle around him, it seems unlikely that the composer supervised, or even ordered, the manufacture of the string trio adaptation, thus the arrangement has been listed in BWV Anh. II, that is the Anhang (Anh.) of doubtful works, in the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV). Breitkopf & Härtel published BWV 525a in 1965. Digital facsimiles of 18th- and 19th-century manuscript copies of the arrangement, in which the sonata is titled "Concerto", became available in the 21st century.