The Instrumental Music of Giovanni Legrenzi: La Cetra: Sonate A Due Tre E Quattro Stromenti Libro Quattro. Opus 10 (1673) (Harvard Publications in Music)

One of the pivotal figures in Italian Baroque music, Giovanni Legrenzi worked in Bergamo, Ferrara, and Venice, and closed his career as maestro di cappella at San Marco. He composed in nearly all genres then cultivated: opera, oratorio, cantata, sacred music, and music for instrumental ensemble. Both Bach and Handel borrowed his themes for their own compositions. This second volume of Legrenzi's instrumental works provides a critical edition of the contents of his La Cetra, Opus 10 (1673) and is designed for both performer and scholar. It comprises 18 sonatas, all of which can be classified as church sonatas. They are composed for various combinations of stringed instruments, six each for two, three and four instruments. Among the sonatas for four instruments are two that are playable in two different keys and either on viols o come piace. Several others reveal an interesting connection between Venetian opera and the sonata form. Bonta completes the volume with a discussion of 17th-century performance practice.