Question: How many people does it take to play a trio sonata?
Answer: 4

Huh?

I thought a trio meant 3! Nope! That’s because the bass line requires two players, in this case, a cello plus a keyboard instrument to fill out the harmonies (harpsichord or organ).

Here’s what Brittanica says on the subject: Trio sonata, major chamber-music genre in the Baroque era (c. 1600–c. 1750), written in three parts: two top parts played by violins or other high melody instruments, and a basso continuo part played by a cello. The trio sonata was actually performed by four instruments, since the cello was supported by a harpsichord upon which a performer improvised harmonies implied by the written parts. In performance the instrumentation of a given piece may be varied, flutes or oboes replacing violins, for example, and bassoon or viola da gamba substituting for cello. Occasionally trio sonatas were performed orchestrally. The genre’s texture of one low and two high melody instruments (hence the name trio sonata) plus a harmony instrument was highly favoured during the Baroque era, not only for the trio sonata but for other forms of orchestra and chamber music.

In fact, Sandra Mangsen wrote an article on this topic, called “The Trio Sonata in Pre-Corellian Prints: When Does 3 = 4?”

In tomorrow’s First Mondays concert at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, there will be four of us playing a trio sonata by Arcangelo Corelli. We’ll also play a movement from a trio sonata by Antonio Lotti.

Here’s the program:

1. Sonata Echo à 4 by Antonio Lotti (1667–1740)
2. Cello Suite No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
3. Sonata No. 1 (1697) by Henry Purcell (1659–1695),
   transcription for two organs* by Pierre Gouin
4. Sonata for Solo Oboe, h 562, by C.P.E. Bach (1714–1788)
5. Violin Sonata in G minor, h 542, by C.P.E. Bach
6. Trio Sonata, Op. 1, No. 3, by Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713)

Darel Stark, violin
Alex Hayashi, oboe
Aris Doike, cello
Katherine Crosier, harpsichord and organ

*Scott Fikse will be playing the second organ part

The concert will be livestreamed on the LCH Facebook page and its streaming page September 6 at 7:00 pm. If this is past your bedtime (if you live in the Central or Eastern time zones of the US, the concert will be archived on the LCH Facebook page from September 7th.

The printed program, with artist bios, can be downloaded here.

First Mondays: La Camera e la Chiesa • September 6 at 7:00 pm

By far, the most challenging piece for me (which has taken oodles of practice) is the Violin Sonata in G minor by C.P.E. Bach. It was formerly attributed to his father, Johann Sebastian, and was given BWV 1020 as its catalog number. The work is frequently played with a flute rather than a violin.

Here are the program notes from a concert James Galway played with Christopher O’Riley in 1994:

The history of this beautiful sonata is shrouded in mystery. It first came to light in an early copy bearing Bach’s name, in which it is called a violin sonata although the writing clearly shows that the composer of the music accepted certain limitations of the flute and used none of the violin’s quite different capabilities. No documentation has been discovered to support the claim that Johann Sebastian Bach composed it, and it could have been written by some gifted contemporary, perhaps even by another member of the great musical clan of Bach’s. No matter who wrote it, it is a fine work that has given great pleasure to many musicians and audiences.

Like Bach’s sonatas for violin and for viola da gamba with harpsichord, it is, in a sense, a “trio-sonata,” but a trio for only two instruments. It may be called a trio because the music is written in a three-part texture with one instrumental “voice” in the flute, another in the right hand at the keyboard, and a third in the left hand’s bass line. Three movements of the Sonata follow what was then the modern Italian sequence, fast-slow-fast. In the opening Allegro there are solo passages accompanied by a bass line that could be filled out by the keyboard player, as it would have been in the old basso continuo style, but the central
slow movement, Adagio, and the spirited Allegro finale are consistently set in trio texture.

Wish me luck!