EROICA ITALIANA

CARLO CURATOLO 

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A circle, a world, a sonata The sonata was an accidental invention, a nebulous and indistinct idea rising from unintentional origins to become a sophisticated musical genre that for many became the apex of creation in instrumental music of the most intellectual kind. Derived from the Italian sonare, the term was first used in the sixteenth century either to refer to music that was not sung (cantata) but played (sonata) by an ensemble of instruments, or to designate the “melody” of some piece of music. In this sense, the term dates back to about 1540, although it was not until the end of that century that Giovanni Gabrieli used the term Sonata to designate two of the pieces in his Sacrae Symphoniae of 1597. From there, the term became part of the Italian musical vocabulary, often associated with multi-sectioned compositions for solo instruments such as those by Biagio Marini in the early seventeenth century, and culminating in the multi-movement Sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli that became famous the world over. Sonata became the chosen name throughout Europe for instrumental compositions of one or more movement, usually for solo keyboard or a solo instrument such as the violin with basso continuo accompaniment. It became associated with foreigners such as Biber, Bach, Handel, Leclair and many others. By the second half of the eighteenth century, the Sonata became increasingly codified and became the genre that epitomised intellectualised instrumental composition. In the hands of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in particular, the piano sonata became the pinnacle of composition, the soloist’s equivalent of the symphony in many ways. The structure used in the composition of the first movement of these works became known as “sonata form”, and was usually followed by a slow movement, a minuet, and then a fast movement that was often a rondo.

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John Griffiths

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