Figures in a Revolution

Musically speaking (not necessarily in honied tones), a virtuoso nowadays is a performer who can play very fast and who, to the popular mind, looks generally like "Professor" Irwin Corey. Don't expect that sort of thing here. Originally, in Ita­ly, the word had a much broader applica­tion: it signified an artist or scholar who had distinguished himself in his field, and was related to virtu, a term much applied to the great men of the Italian Renaissance. 

Both words have their root in the Latin vir (man), which gives us "virile" "vir­tue," and "virago." To possess virtu meant not so much to possess goodness in a moral sense, but rather excellence, force, power. By the time of the era we are here concern­ed with, it frequently indicated simply that the musician was a soloist. 

That era was the early 17th century, a time when there was a growing division between vocally and instrumentally con­ceived musics, and perhaps more often than not the virtuoso was an instrumen­talist. There had, of course, been in­strumentalists as far back as history goes  (and doubtless much farther). But from the 13th century European music had been  thought of as primarily a group effort for voices. 

In the Renaissance there began to appear collections of pieces for individual keyboard and plectrum instruments, though these were often arrangements of madrigals, motets, and the like. Increasing­ly in the 16th century, especially in Italy, these included versions of the recent Franco-Flemish chansons, a form the Italians called canzona, often specifying that they were canzone per sonare (chan­sons for sounding-i. e. playing). By the end of the century original instrumental canzone with no direct link to any vocal work were common, and so were canzone of both sorts intended for several instruments. 

For some time noun derivatives of the Latin verb sonare--sonnade, sennet, sonada, sonata--had been used to specify instrumental music. In the 17th century sonata was the opposite of cantata-a work to be sung-though neither described any specific form, and sonata was used in­terchangeably with such terms as canzona, sinfonia, and rlcercar. But such a piece as Giovanni Gabriell's 1615 sonata per 3 violini heralded the trend toward virtuoso or virtuosi, upheld by a bass line or a continuo part. 

Obscure as they may be, the six composers represented on this record were important figures in this revolution. Biagio Marini, who died in Venice in 1663, contributed to the development of the solo sonata. The two here, taken from his op. 22, the last of his publications, show him moving toward the multi-movement trio sonata. Like Marini, the shadowy G.B. Fontata was a native of Brescia; he died in Padua around 1630. His volume of sonatas (the only music we have from him) ap­peared 11 years later. Some have said he was Marini's teacher. At least they both were pioneers in the solo sonata. 

Listen to Marini's Sonata for Violin, Violoncello and Basso Continuo

Another cipher, in terms of biographical information, is Dario Castello, who published two books of sonatas. They show the apparent influence of Montever­di, under whom he probably worked as a wind player at St. Mark's in Venice. Bar­tolomeo Montalbano (d. Venice 1651) was a bit younger. He joined the Franciscan order about the time he reached his maturi­ty, and held various monastic posts in his native Bologna and in Palermo, Sicily, where he published two books of music, one of them said to contain sinfonie, though the pieces belong to the canzona tradition. The ones for solo violin are thought to have derived from improvisations. 

Listen to Castello's Sonata Nona for Two Violins, Bassoon and Basso Continuo

G.A. Bertoli is another mystery man. Apart from the fact that he published two collections of music (1639 and 1645), we know only that he played the bassoon and lived, at least for a time, in Brescia. The 1645 volume consists of sonatas for his own instrument, and is the earliest known collection devoted to solo sonatas. The two-l Domenico Gabrielli of Bologna (1651-1690) is unrelated to the one-/ Gabrielis of Venice. This was also a time when the violin family was coming into prominence, and he was a pioneer solo cellist who probably merited being called "virtuoso" in the modern sense. 

The Tafelmusik Orchestra, represented here by some of its virtuosi, is a Canadian group, and the performers are up on their early-music-performance techniques. As a citizen of Bethlehem, PA, I am delighted to see that the group uses a Martin harpsichord.