Baroque Instrumental Genres

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The three main types of Baroque instrumental genres are Sonatas, Concertos, and Suites. Sonata means “that which is sounded” in Italian which means that it is played on instruments. Any work played on instruments was called a Sonata. An example of a Sonata is Sonate a 1. 2. 3. E 4. Istromenti, opus 16 by Isabella Leonarda. It doesn’t usually have a designated number or order of movements, although the Trio Sonatas do have a fixed amount of movements and players. In a Trio Sonata, there are two soloists and the basso continuo. While it’s called a “Trio”, there are actually four players in total rather than three. This is because the basso continuo usually consisted of two players. They could be playing a harpsichord, organ, or lute, with a viol or a bassoon. The two soloists usually were violins. There are two types of Trio Sonatas. There is the Sonata da Camera and there is also the Sonata da Chiesa. The Sonata da Camera is a suite of dances. The Sonata da Chiesa begins with a slow movement called a …show more content…

The Concerto’s form consists of three movements that are fast, slow, and then fast again. Fast movements use ritornello which is a returning theme in the ripieno or tutti sections. The ripieno or also known as tutti is a larger ensemble. The slow movements are similar to an opera aria in which soloists could add extensive melodic embellishments. An example of this is A minor for Two Violins, op. 3 no. 8 by Vivaldi. There are a few types of concertos. There is also the Solo concerto that consists of one soloist against a ripieno ensemble. There is the Concerto Grosso that has the concertino playing against the ripieno. A great example of this is Arcangelo Corelli’s concerti grossi that feature a ripieno of strings and a basso continuo with a concertino. The concertino is a small group of soloists with their own basso continuo. Lastly there is the ripieno concerto that doesn’t feature any soloists at

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