[Music illustration]

Turini was organist of Brescia Cathedral, and in 1624 published Madrigali a una, due, tre voci, con alcune Sonate e a tre, Ven. 1624.  Between Turini, also Carlo Farina, who published violin sonatas at Dresden in 1628, and Corelli (b. 1653), who brought out his first work in 1683, one name of great importance is Giovanni Legrenzi.

In the eighth volume of Dr. Burney’s musical extracts there are two sonatas, a tre, a due violini e violone, by Legrenzi (opera ottava, 1677).  The first is in B flat.  It commences with a movement in common time entitled La Benivoglia.

[Music illustration]

An Adagio in G minor (only six bars) is followed by an Allegro in D minor, six-eight time, closing on a major chord; then eight bars common time in B flat (no heading); and, finally, a Presto (three-four) commencing in G minor and closing in B flat.  None of the movements is in binary form.

The 2nd Sonata, in D, has five short movements.  No. 1 has an opening of thirty-seven bars in common time, fugato.  There is a modulation in the ninth bar to the dominant, and, later on, a return to the opening theme and key; in the intervening space, however, in spite of modulation, the principal key is not altogether avoided.

Sonatas of various kinds by Legrenzi appeared between 1655 and 1677.  Then there were the “Varii Fiori del Giardino Musicale ouero Sonate da Camera, etc.,” of Gio.  Maria Bononcini, father of Battista Bononcini, the famous rival of Handel, published at Bologna in 1669, and the sonatas of Gio.  Battista Vitali (Bologna, 1677).  Giambatista Bassani of Bologna, although his junior by birth, was the violin master of the great Corelli.  His sonatas only appeared after those of his illustrious pupil, yet may have been composed before.  Of the twelve in Op. 5, most have many short movements; some, indeed, are so short as to be scarcely deserving of the name.

By the time of Arcangelo Corelli, who, as mentioned, published his first work (Op. 1, twelve sonatas for two violins and a bass) in 1683, sonatas answered to the definition given by Mattheson in his Das neu eroeffnete Orchester (1713), in which they are said to consist of alternate Adagio and Allegro.  J.G.  Walther, again, in his dictionary of music,[1] which appeared at Leipzig in 1732, describes a sonata as a “grave artistic composition for instruments, especially violins.”  The idea of grouping movements was already in vogue in the sixteenth century.  Morley in his Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music, printed in 1597, speaks of the desirableness of alternating Pavans and Galliards, the one being “a kind of staid musick ordained for grave dancing,” and the other “a lighter and more stirring kind of dancing.”  Contrast was obtained, too, not only by difference in the character, but also, in the measure of the music; the former was in common, the latter in triple time.