Copyright 1999, 2004 by Kim J. Teal
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Our solo flute repertoire is filled to overflowing with pieces entitled "sonata", with much of it being written approximately two to four hundred years ago. Why do so many of these pieces share the same title? What exactly is a sonata, anyway? In the following article we'll explore the history of the sonata in the Baroque and Classical periods to give you a better understanding of this music that makes up so much of the flute repertoire.

The Baroque Period (1600 - 1750)

  In the early Baroque period, the term "sonata" referred to a musical composition of several movements for a solo instrument with an accompaniment called a basso continuo (usually keyboard plus cello). If two solo instruments with basso continuo were used it, was referred to as a trio sonata. Basically, no more than two solo instruments could be used in a sonata of this time. The early sonata had about six movements, which were often arranged as thus:
 
1) Adagio or Grave: a slow, short introduction, often with dotted rhythms called notés
    inegále (unequal notes) in the French overture style, which was not always indicated
    with dotted notation
2) Allegro:  usually fast and fugal (imitative) in style
3) Adagio: slow, short and aria-like (free-form)
4) Dance: a fast, dance-like movement in triple meter
5) Adagio: another slow, short, contrasting section
6) Allegro: fast and fugal or dance-like, usually a gigue, but sometimes an allemande
    or gavotte

 As the Baroque period progressed, the sonata was categorized according to its performance function, either sacred or secular. The sonata da camera, or chamber sonata was the secular form and utilized several dance movements, whereas the sonata da chiesa or church sonata did not use any dance movements. In the middle Baroque, the sonata da camera often consisted of four or five movements, usually starting with a slow introduction followed by three or four dance movements such as allemande, gigue and sarabande. Again, the movements were often arranged with alternating tempos of slow-fast-slow-fast, etc. Some composers, however, used a three-movement arrangement of slow-fast-faster or two movements of slow and fast.  The general rule was that the greater the number of movements used, the shorter the duration of those movements and vice versa. Ornamentation of the melodic line with trills or shakes, grupettos (turns), mordents, or long and short appoggiaturas (grace notes) was left up to the performer although it was considered to be in bad taste by the time of the late Baroque to overly ornament a line. Style of articulation was governed to some extent by the type of instrument being played; for example, staccato was not considered acceptable when done on the flute or oboe according to a treatise, An Essay on Musical Expression, written in 1752 by Ch. Avison. It is interesting to note that the "staccato" dots found in music of the Baroque period were actually indications by the composer that the performer was not to play it in the style of the French notés inegále or dotted rhythms but with equal notes, strictly as written. Staccato was generally indicated by the use of wedged dots above the notes. For the flutist, this wedged dot was instead to be articulated with a "ti" syllable as opposed to the standard "di" syllable.

Sources for This Article:

Dart, Thurston (1963)                      The Interpretation of Music Dolmetsch, Arnold (1977)              The Interpretation of Music in the 17th and 18th Centuries Palisca, Claude V. (1968)                Baroque Music Pauly, Reinhard G. (1973)              Music in the Classical Period Quantz, Johann Joachim (1752)    On Playing the Flute Randel, Don Michael (1978)         The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music