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The
sonata da chiesa , whose four movements were derived from the
four sections of the canzone (yes, the earlier canzoni
had many more sections) was essentially a serious, contrapuntal work
suitable for church services despite the fast 2nd and 4th movements.
The sonata da camera, regardless of whether its first movement
was derived from a French overture, from a Venetian opera overture or
from an early sinfonia, was still largely a set of dances,
usually homophonic in style. During the course of several decades the
separate dances had become stylized, their dance rhythms had become
obscured through the addition of bits of imitation and lyric melody, and
finally, many non-dance movements had been inserted into the
sonata.
So, there is the slower more serious work contrasted against the
lighter, dance-like work. The terms distinguishing the different types
continued in use long after the essential differences had disappeared.
This leaves us with simply sonata and trio sonata in the
first half of the 18th century regarding a history of chamber music.
The Solo Sonata and
the Trio Sonata
1. One
characteristic of particular importance in relation to the sonata of the
early 18th century is that unity of tonality was no longer observed.
2. Originally all the movements of the early 17th century dance suite
had been in the same key.
3. After 1650, when it became customary to add to the suite two related
movements in the same form ( Minuet I, Minuet II da capo Minuet I
fine) the second of the two was placed in a different key,
usually the dominant.
4. In the latter half of the century this practice was extended, in the
sonata types, to other movements as well.
5. In Corelli we find 30 of his 72 sonatas and concertos have one
movement in a related key; it is usually the slow movement that is
placed in the relative minor.
6. By the turn of the century (1705 anyway) the practice was general,
and any sonata containing all movements in the same key should be viewed
as old-fashioned.
Chamber Music of the
The Late Baroque
1.
Chamber music (indeed, all music) of the early 18th century was
influenced heavily by Italians - not only because of the accomplishments
of Corelli, Vitali-
(1644-1692) (see Sonata da Chiesa #7) , and Torelli , G. - 1658-1709 a
violinist and composer of string music of high reputation considered to
have been the first composer to write a concerto ( in the sense that
Handel would have used it), but also because Italian composers
were employed in courts all over Europe. The natural Italian gift for
melody set the stage for the light homophonic textures which would
prevail for much of the pre-classic and classic periods.
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Tommaso Albinoni
1. Tommaso Albinoni (1671-1750) may be taken as representative of
Venetian composers in the early decades of the 18th century.
2. Ten sets of instrumental works occupied him up to about 1720,
after which he turned primarily to the composition of operas. (Ever
heard one?).
3. Fifty-plus sonatas have survived about equally divided between
solo and trio sonatas.
4. The earlier sets (1694 and 1704) show the formal plans, textures
and even melodic patterns made familiar in the works of Corelli -
the four-movement tempo sequence (slow-fast-slow-fast) is found more
often, and the same general types of harmonic devices (consecutive
sixth chords, series of seventh chords etc.,) are found on occasion.
Antonio Vivaldi
1. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) one of the more important composers
after Handel and Bach of the Baroque era wrote some 650 known
compositions (450 of which are concertos), including 75 chamber
works.
2. Forty-two solo and trio sonatas were published in 5 sets between
1705 and 1740. The remaining thirty or so works were left in
manuscript form.
3. The solo sonatas (53 for violin and continuo, or cello and
continuo) considerably outnumber the trio sonatas (18) illustrating
the growing tendency of composers of the late Baroque to favor the
solo over the trio sonata.
4. Whether for solo or trio setting the influence of the sonata da
camera is still strong. They consist mainly of preludes, allemandes,
sarabandes, and gigues and are so-named.
5. Characteristic of his work is his well known use of sequence and
the almost extreme consistency of style throughout his career.
Within this self-imposed limitation of style Vivaldi developed
tremendous rhythmic drive in the fast movements and pathos or
poignancy in the slow.
6. Concentration upon one melodic or rhythmic idea through long
sections gives his music an intensity and unity that are among its
most attractive features. The momentum and drive that are developed
in the best of his fast movements are equaled in the period by Bach
only, whose admiration for Vivaldi was evident in his many concerto
transcriptions of the slightly older composer.
George Frederic
Handel
1.George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) produced only a small
amount of chamber music when compared to his gigantic output of
operatic and choral works.
2. During a period of study in Italy (1706-10) he became acquainted
with the two Scarlattis and Arcangelo Corelli, and it is Corelli who
will influence his work most.
3. There are, aside from some juvenile works, his Opus 1 of 1724, a
set of fifteen solo sonatas with continuo. The instruments vary
(violin, recorder, flute or oboe). The Opus 2 of 1733 consists
of nine trio sonatas and the Opus 5 a few years later contains seven
more of similar combinations.
4. The 15 sonatas of Opus 1 are composed (for the most part) on four
movement plans and are sonatas da chiesa. Sonatas # 5,7, and 9 have
5, 5, and 7 movements respectively. The added movements in each case
have dance titles and they are less contrapuntal than the movements
around them and so show the influence of sonata da camera.
5. The sonatas of Opus 5 show more completeness as to dominant and
subdominant expositions, logical episodes, stretto, and coda - also
, in general the themes themselves contain much more melodic
interest.
6. One important point to be made is that the 4th sonata of the Opus
5 (2 violins with continuo) contains an optional part for the viola.
While the authenticity of this viola part is not strongly
established, it would effectively , if used, turn the trio
into string quartet. |
Dietrich
Buxtehude
In
1696 Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), published his 14 trio
sonatas for violin, viola da gamba, and basso continuo. Buxtehude is one
of the greatest composers in the generations before Bach A famous
organist, Italian dramatic and lyric elements coupled with German
seriousness and technical skill are to be brought together by his vivid
imagination.
1. His Opus 1 and Opus 2 (both published in 1696) are two sets of seven
sonatas each entitled Suonate a doi, violino e viola da gamba, con
cembalo.
2. In these 14 works we are faced with a form that contains elements of
the German suite of the mid 17th century, (the main distinction of which
is the adding a second pair of dances melodically related to the
first pair - a technique of unification by variation pointing, perhaps,
toward the organic quality of future Germanic compositions), the Italian
canzone of the same period, and the sonata da camera of
the 1670's.
3. All the 14 sonatas of Buxtehude are of the same type and may be
described as extremely flexible. There is no regular alternation
of fast-slow or of duple-triple, nor is there regularity of any other
sort.
4. Key relationships of various movements are likewise impossible to
classify. In Opus 2, #1, keys of Bb, D, F, g, and d, are
found; in another (Opus 1, #6 with 12 movements keys of d, Bb, c, F and
a are found.
5. Buxtehude is unique and has more kinship to his predecessors than his
followers. He is modal and tonal, he changes style radically
within movements by mixing freely, homophony, polyphony (including
fugue) within a movement, and as such is somewhat off the line
that leads from Corelli through Dall'Abaco to Haydn.
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