Sonata pian' e forte
{{Short description|1597 composition by Giovanni Gabrieli}}
{{italic title}}
Sonata pian' e forte was composed by Italian composer and organist Giovanni Gabrieli and published in 1597.{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Denis|author-link=Denis Arnold|title=Giovanni Gabrieli and the Music of the Venetian High Renaissance|location=London|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1979|isbn=0-19-315247-9|page={{page needed|date=August 2023}}}} This is one of the earliest known pieces of music to specify loud and quiet passages in print.{{cite magazine|last=Fenlon|first=Iain|author-link=Iain Fenlon|title=Gabrieli and St Mark's Venetian Brass Music|date=November 1990|type=review of Nimbus Records NI5236|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/gabrieli-and-st-marks-venetian-brass-music|magazine=Gramophone|access-date=29 March 2017}}Giovanni Gabrieli Opera Omnia, Richard Charteris (ed.), vol. X, p. XIII (American Institute of Musicology, 1998) (The distinction of being the first belongs to Adriano Banchieri's "Canzon undecima 'In echo' (L'organistina bella)" in 1596).{{cite book|last=Bartholomew|first=Leland Earl|title=Alessandro Rauerij's Collection of Canzoni per Sonare (Venice, 1608) Volume I – Historical and Analytical Study|date=December 1965|series=Fort Hays Studies—New Series no. 1|page=215|publisher=Fort Hays State University|doi=10.58809/HVMG1779|url=https://scholars.fhsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=fort_hays_studies_series}}{{Citation needed|reason=This source supports that Banchieri used p and f earlier than Gabrieli, but not that he was the first|date=May 2024}}
Description
The title Sonata pian’e forte refers to an instrumental piece that uses soft and loud dynamics. The piece is an example of the Venetian polychoral style, which developed in sixteenth-century northern Italy, and found particular favor at St Mark's Basilica due to architectural features of the interior.{{clarify|date=August 2023|reason=Which features?}} The term "sonata" at this time in Baroque music referred specifically to a work originally conceived for instruments, as opposed to those based on vocal works. It was most probably intended for a Catholic service at either St Mark's, Venice, or the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. It was written for eight instruments divided into two groups of four players, spatially separated: cornetto, 3 sackbuts (group 1); viola, 3 sackbuts (group 2).
Form
Gabrieli's Sonata pian ’e forte is a through-composed work, the structure of which is defined by dialogue between the two instrumental choirs. The formal division into an initial section (mm. 1–31), a longer, relatively complex middle section (mm. 31–71) and a final section (mm. 71–81) conforms to the conventions prevalent at the time.
The overall form can be represented as follows:
- Mm. 1–14: Antecedent in choir 1 (piano) / 14 measures / G Dorian
- Mm. 14–25: Consequent in choir 2 (piano) / 12 measures / G Dorian with harmonic excursions into D major (m. 17) and F major (m. 21)
- Mm. 26–31: Both choirs tutti (forte) / 6 measures / C Mixolydian
- Mm. 31–71: Antiphonal middle section (continual alternation between piano and forte) / 40 measures total, divided into 12 + 12 + 8 + 8 measures; structured into phrases of differing lengths: 4 measures ( mm. 31–34), 2 measures (mm. 37/38) or 1 measure (m. 59) / continually modulating
- Mm. 71–81: Final section (piano, then forte) / 11 measures / cadence in G Dorian
Within the each section there are frequent examples of phrase elision, such as in m. 14, where the cadence of the first choir overlaps with the entrance of the second choir. Individual phrases often begin or end on weak beats within the measure.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMSLP|work=Sonata pian e forte, Ch.175 (Gabrieli, Giovanni)|cname=Sonata pian' e forte}}
{{Portal bar|Classical music}}
{{Authority control|state=collapsed}}