Trio sonata

The trio sonata is a genre, typically consisting of several movements  with two melody instruments and continuo. Originating in the early seventeenth-century, the trio sonata was a favorite chamber ensemble combination in the Baroque era .

Basic structure

The trio sonata typically consisted of three parts, two violins and a continuo . However, the two violins could be substituted with pairs of flutes, recorders, or oboes . The second part, the basso continuo, has two parts . First, it includes the bass line, which most commonly was provided with a bass viol, violone, violoncello, or bassoon . Second, it includes a harmony-producing instrument, such as a small organ, a harpsichord, or a theorbo . The (basso) continuo could be performed by two or more performers; a cellist to play the bass line and a harpsichordist or organist to focus on the harmonies . Because there normally are two people playing the continuo part, there are usually four players in all . This can be misleading to some as the "trio" of the trio sonata refers to the three parts and not the number of players (). 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) . The chamber sonata was considered a group of stylized dances and church sonatas were much more serious and typically arranged into a slow-fast-slow-fast sequence .

Composers, compositions and variant formats
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) .

Arcangelo Corelli

Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli was one of most influential composers of the trio sonata. The published trio sonatas by Corelli are : 
Twelve Trio-Sonatas, Op. 1 (dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden) published in Rome in 1683
Twelve Chamber Sonatas, Op. 2 (dedicated to Cardinal Panfili), published in Rome in 1685
Twelve Trio-Sonatas, Op. 3 (dedicated to Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena), published in Rome in 1689
Twelve Trio-Sonatas, Op. 4 (dedicated to Cardinal Ottoboni), published in Rome in 1694. 
An additional collection of Trio Sonatas, for two violins, cello, and organ, was published as "Op. post." in Amsterdam, in 1714 . Corelli's trios would serve as models for other composers well into the 18th century .

Johann Sebastian Bach

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 less than three instruments. An example of this is one part would be played by the violin and the other two parts could be played by a keyboard. He also experimented with playing all three parts on the organ . 

Trio sonatas by Bach include:
 Trio Sonatas for organ, BWV 525–530, combining all three parts on one instrument: typically the right hand, left hand and pedals will each take a different part thus creating the same texture as in a trio ().
 A further innovation by Bach was the trio sonatas involving a concertante (obbligato) right-hand harpsichord part in addition to the bass line, plus one melodic instrument, thus for two players . Examples are the Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1014–1019, three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord, BWV 1027–1029, and three sonatas for flute and harpsichord, BWV 1030–1032; BWV 1031 is doubtful .
 Sonata in G major for two flutes and basso continuo, BWV 1039, variant version for two flutes and basso continuo of BWV 1027 ().
 BWV 1036–1038: Trio Sonatas for basso continuo and two violins. The attribution of these works to Bach is doubtful, but all are typical of baroque chamber music ().
 The mid-18th-century manuscript D-B Mus. ms. Bach St 345 contains a Concerto (or: Trio Sonata) in C major for violin, cello and continuo, arranged from (or: earlier version of) BWV 525/1, 1032/2 and 525/3 respectively . The 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis lists this version as BWV 525a, and considers the attribution of the arrangement to Bach doubtful . Based on the New Bach Edition, the Bach Digital website gives "BWV deest" instead of the BWV number 525a for this chamber music version .

Other composers 
 Tomaso Albinoni, 12 sonatas da chiesa Op. 1, twelve balletti a tre Op. 3, six sonatas da camera as part of Op. 8, six unpublished trio sonatas Op. 11, and a further six trio sonatas without opus number in a manuscript in Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung .
 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote at least 44 trio sonatas, including one for flute, viola, and piano, said to have been given its world premiere by the Society for Forgotten Music at the New York Public Library on 30 January 1949 . His best-known work in the genre is the programmatic Trio ("Sanguineus und Melancholicus"), in C minor, composed in 1749 and published in Nuremberg in 1751, which exists in two versions: one for obbligato keyboard and violin, the other for two violins and continuo .
 William Boyce, 12 Trio Sonatas for two violins and continuo (1747) 
 Dieterich Buxtehude, Op. 1, six sonatas, and Op. 2, seven sonatas, scored for violin, viola da gamba and basso continuo. These were the only works by Buxtehude that were published during his lifetime. Though real trio texture does occur from time to time, these are really sonate a due for violin and viola da gamba, with the continuo often being a simplification of the gamba part. There are however four genuine trio sonatas by Buxtehude surviving in manuscript, two for two violins, viola da gamba and continuo in C and G major (BuxWV 266 and 271), one for two violins and continuo in F major (BuxWV 270, fragmentary), and one for viola da gamba, viola, and continuo in D major (BuxWV 267) .
 François Couperin published a number of trio sonatas: Le Parnasse, ou L’apothéose de Corelli, grande sonade en trio, for two violins and continuo (Paris, 1724); Concert instrumental sous le titre d’Apothéose composé à la mémoire immortelle de l’incomparable Monsieur de Lully, for two violins (two flutes, or other unspecified instruments), and continuo (Paris, 1725); and the collection Les nations: sonades et suites de simphonies en trio, for two violins and continuo (Paris, 1726), consisting of La Françoise [La pucelle], L’Espagnole [La visionnaire], L’impériale, and La Piemontoise [L’astrée]. In addition, two trio sonatas have survived in manuscript: La Steinquerque and La superbe, both for two violins and continuo .
 Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, a student of J.S. Bach, composed four trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo, one of which is also attributed to J. S. Bach, as BWV 1037. Two trio sonatas for flute, violin, and continuo are listed in a Breitkopf catalogue, but are now lost .
 George Frideric Handel, trio sonatas Opp. 2 and 5, all in sonata da chiesa form. The attribution to Handel of a set of trios for two oboes and continuo is false, and the authenticity of the three trios HWV 393, 394, and 395 is doubtful or uncertain. A trio sonata in F for two recorders and continuo, HWV 405, appears to be authentic .
 Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Sonates en trio pour les flûtes traversières et a bec, violon, hautbois, Op. 3  (1712) .
 Pietro Antonio Locatelli, six Trio Sonatas, Op. 5, for two violins or two traversos and continuo (1736) .
 Johann Pachelbel, Musikalische Ergötzung ("Musical Delight"), containing six suites for two violins and basso continuo, each commencing with a sonata, followed by a succession of dances. The violin parts use scordatura tuning. The sonatas are of two types. Nos. 1 and 3 are marked Allegro, and are fughettas. The remaining four are Adagio movements and are similar to French overtures, in two sections .
 Henry Purcell, Twelve sonatas of three parts, 1683, ten sonatas in four parts, 1697, but both sets are scored for two violins, bass viol, and organ or harpsichord. In terms of style, Purcell's trio sonatas are conservative, modeled on the older generation of Italians (Giovanni Legrenzi, Lelio Colista, and Giovanni Battista Vitali) rather than Corelli or Giovanni Battista Bassani .
 Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, over 25 extant trio sonatas, including two for solo organ. Others for continuo (sometimes indicated as harpsichord) and diverse combinations of flute(s), violin(s), oboes or unspecified instruments (; ; ; ;  ; ; ; )
 Georg Philipp Telemann, around 150 trio sonatas . The earliest sonatas exhibit the Corelli style most clearly, while later works anticipate the mid-century Empfindsamkeit and galant styles, or mix Italian, French, and Polish styles .
 Antonio Vivaldi, 12 trio sonatas da camera Op. 1, two trio sonatas mixed with solo sonatas in Op. 5, and thirteen unpublished trios. One further trio sonata, RV 80, in G major, for two flutes and continuo, is attributed to Vivaldi but is probably spurious .
 Jan Dismas Zelenka, , ZWV 181, composed around 1721–1722 .

References

Further reading
 Allsop, Peter. 1992. The Italian "Trio" Sonata: From Its Origins until Corelli. Oxford Monographs on Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press.  .
 Apel, Willi. 1990. Italian Violin Music of the Seventeenth Century, edited by Thomas Binkley. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. .
 Defant, Christine. 1985. Kammermusik und Stylus phantasticus: Studien zu Dietrich Buxtehudes Triosonaten. Europäische Hochschulschriften / European University Studies / Études Universitaires Européennes. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. .
 Hogwood, Christopher. 1979. The Trio Sonata. BBC Music Guides. London: British Broadcasting Corporation. .
 Kamien, Roger. 2008. Music an Appreciation, sixth brief edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill.  (annotated instructor's edition);  (student edition)
 Mangsen, Sandra. 2001. "Trio Sonata". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
 Schenk, Erich. 2005. Die Triosonate. Das Musikwerk, eine Beispielsammlung zur Musikgeschichte, Neuausgabe 20. Laaber: Laaber Verlag. .

 
Category:Musical form