Somis: Sonatas for Violin and Basso continuo, Opus 3

Series: Baroque Era  Publisher: A-R Editions
Click for samples
Giovanni Battista Somis
Sonatas for Violin and Basso continuo, Opus 3

Edited by Glenn Burdette

B093 Somis: Sonatas for Violin and Basso continuo, Opus 3
978-0-89579-422-2 Full Score (1998) 9x12, xii + 58 pp.
$40.00
In stock
SKU
B093

Performance Parts (Available Separately)

B093P
Instrumental Part(s) (1998)
Set of 2 parts (vn.; b.c.)
$24.00
Giovanni Battista Somis (1686–1763), born into a family renowned for its service to the Savoyard court, became famous as a violinist, teacher, and composer. Appointed to the court orchestra at age nine, Somis was sent to Rome in 1703, where he studied with Corelli for about three years. Somis's earliest violin sonatas (opus 1 through opus 3, ca. 1717–25) are among the first of that genre in three movements and reflect his training with Corelli and the style galant indifference towards counterpoint. Lyrical melodies over walking basses arrive at frequent but irregularly spaced cadences. Movements are exclusively in the tonic key and arranged slow-fast-fast, with the weight on the middle movement, a monothematic rounded binary form. However, contrasting elements, derived ultimately from the fragmentary nature of Somis's themes, are always prominent. Some of these movements have rudimentary recapitulations, where harmonic and melodic facets seldom coincide; Somis used sequence as a developmental technique. Conceivably composed as early as 1717, opus 3 survives in a manuscript copied in Turin and dated 1725.
Sonata I
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Allegro
Sonata II
  Largo
  Allegro
  Allegro assai
Sonata III
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Allegro
Sonata IV
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Gratioso
Sonata V
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Allegro assai
Sonata VI
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Gratioso
Sonata VII
  [Adagio]
  Allegro
  Allegro
Sonata VIII
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Gratioso
Sonata IX
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Allegro
Sonata X
  Adagio—Largo
  Allegro
  Allegro
Sonata XI
  Adagio
  Allegro ma poco
  Allegro
Sonata XII
  Adagio
  Allegro
  Allegro