The Trio Sonata in the Baroque Period Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Trio Sonata in the Baroque Period - Essay ExampleTrio Sonata is an instrumental member consisting of two, three, or four successive movements of different character, which has one or more melody parts, with only one player to a part i.e., einfach as against Matthesons stark, for dual per functionance of the parts Cf. SBE 25. Depending on the number of concertante, melody parts that it has, a sonata is described as being solo, due, tr, etc. Clearly, in no bring of instrumental music is there a better opportunity than in the sonata to depict feelings without the aid of words. The symphony and the overture has a more fixed character. The form of a concerto seems designed more to give a skilled player a chance to be heard against the background of many instruments than to implement the portrayal of violent emotions. Aside from these forms and the dances, which also have their special characters, there remains only the form of the sonata, which assumes any or all characters and every kind of expression. By means of the sonata the composer can hope to uncover a monologue through tones of melancholy, grief, sorrow, tenderness, or delight and joy or maintain a sensitive dialogue solely through impassioned tones of standardized or different qualities or simply depict emotions that are violent, impetuous, and sharply contrasted, or light, gentle, fluent, and pleasing. To be sure, even the weakest composers have such goals in the making of sonatas, among the weakest being the Italians and those who imitate them. The sonatas of the present-day Italians are characterized by a bustle of sounds succeeding each other arbitrarily without any other purpose than to gratify the insensitive ear of the layman, and by sudden, fantastic transitions from the animated to the mournful, from the pathetic to the flirtatious, without our getting what the composer wants to say. And if the performance of these sonatas engages the fancy of a few hotheads, the heart and imagination of every listener of taste or understanding will appease remain completely untouched. A large number of easy and hard keyboard i.e., clavichord sonatas by our Hamburg Emanuel Bach show how character and expression can be brought to the sonata. The majority of these are so communicative sprechend that one believes himself to perceive not tones but a distinct speech, which sets and keeps in motion our imagination and feelings. Unquestionably, to create such sonatas requires such(prenominal) genius and knowledge, and an especially adaptable and alert sensibility. But they also