Trio Sonata in C Major

This is a trio sonata inspired by Corelli, Telemann and others, featuring an alto recorder, a violin and a basso continuo group consisting of a cello and a cembalo. It follows a rather standard model, opening with a slow introductory movement full of dissonances, followed by a lively fugue-like movement, contrasted by an adagio in a minor and triple meter, and concluded by a gigue-like joyous finale. Nonetheless, it is quite short, around 5 1/2 minutes, which is in line with many early trio sonatas. One reason for this: There are no repeat signs anywhere.

For updated audio files, see my post further down.

Edited July 14, 20241 yr by Willibald

Hello @Willibald!

I think the Adagio is my favorite movement of this trio sonata.  I happen to be reading about three-voice counterpoint at the moment in my Kent Kennan Counterpoint book and I must say that your counterpoint seems to be quite accomplished!  I think the rendition could be improved drastically if you used Musesounds.  Also, regardless of the sound samples used, the clarity of your musical intention could be improved for the listener if you included some articulations.  The last movement - Allegro - especially suffers from a poor impression because everything is being played legato when I think repeated notes usually wouldn't be performed that way by real musicians.  So that at least could be made to be more idiomatic imo.  Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your feedback!

Yes, one problem of my renditions is that they simply reflect the score (except for the added basso continuo realization), but a baroque score leaves plenty of room for the musicians to add ornaments, articulations, etc.. So no musician would play it like it sounds in the mp3.

But I will try to improve the score that the audio file is based on for a more realistic feel.

Edited June 30, 20241 yr by Willibald

On 6/12/2024 at 10:08 PM, Willibald said:

This is a trio sonata inspired by Corelli, Telemann and others, featuring an alto recorder, a violin and a basso continuo group consisting of a cello and a cembalo. It follows a rather standard model, opening with a slow introductory movement full of dissonances, followed by a lively fugue-like movement, contrasted by an adagio in a minor and triple meter, and concluded by a gigue-like joyous finale. Nonetheless, it is quite short, around 5 1/2 minutes, which is in line with many early trio sonatas. One reason for this: There are no repeat signs anywhere.

I enjoyed the first one among the others.

I took up your suggestion, @PeterthePapercomPoser, and produced four new mp3s.