Sonata da camera / Sonata da chiesa

Sonata da camera

Chamber sonata

• an instrumental work of the Baroque period
• scored for one or more melody instruments and continuo
• in three or more stylized dance movements
• allemanda
• corrente
• sarabanda
• giga
• gavotta
• sometimes with a prefatory (prelude) movement
• occasional substitution of adagio or grave movement showed convergence with "chiesa" form
• Corelli's opp.2 and 4 (1685 and 1692) contain typical examples

Around 1700 the genre overlapped increasingly with the sonata da chiesa and such titles as partita, suite or ordre served to describe collections of dance movements.

Sonata da chiesa

Church sonata

• an instrumental work of the Baroque period
• scored for one or more melody instruments and continuo
• usually in four movements
• 1st movement
• usually a slow Adagio
• quadruple meter
• one continuous section or binary with each section repeated
• dotted rhythmic patterns
• much expressive dissonance
• 2nd movement
• Allegro
• often loosely fugal
• binary or one continuous section
• 3rd and 4th movements
• resemble sarabande and gigue
• binary forms
• 3rd movement often a short, modulatory, fantasy-like transition between the two fast movements
• Corelli's opp.1 and 3 (1681 and 1689) are typical examples and were largely responsible for establishing the slow-fast-slow-fast order of movements

Around 1700 the genre began overlapping with the sonata da camera (especially in the sonatas of Vivaldi and Telemann, whose movement titles mixed dance and tempo designations).  The "chiesa" form dropped the church designation and became simple "sonata".

Composers

Those who favored the four-movement form included:

• Legrenzi
• Torelli
• J. S. Bach
• Handel
• Leclair

The three-movement order of slow-fast-fast or fast-slow-fast (as in the Italian opera overture) were common in the sonatas of:

• Gluck
• Locatelli
• Tartini
• Telemann
• Quantz

(See also The Instrumental Suite)