Giovanni Battista Vitali - Da Chiesa Sonatas

Da Chiesa Sonatas

Vitali’s first collection of ‘da chiesa’ sonatas, Sonate a due violini col suo Basso continuo per l'organo, Opus 2 (1667), consists of twelve short, three or four-movement works. Vitali uses a few basic movement types: the fast fugal movement in duple metre; the fast contrapuntal movement in triple metre with use of dance rhythms; and the slow homophonic movement in duple metre. Like the sonatas of his teacher Cazzati, Vitali’s Opus 2 sonatas use the model of the monothematic canzona but with some freedom and a greater inclination towards contrapuntal devices such as countersubjects, antiphonal effects and stretto.

In these sonatas the texture consists predominantly of two melodic lines, either homophonic or contrapuntal, over a supporting basso continuo line. The bass part primarily provides harmonic support, although it does occasionally participate in the contrapuntal interplay. Notable features in Opus 2 are the running or walking bass, which anticipates Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 1 (1681), and the use of chromatic themes.

Vitali’s second collection of da chiesa was Sonate a due, trè, quattro, e cinque stromenti, Opus 5 (1669). The sonatas in Opus 5 are divided into sonate a due (sonatas no. 1-5, standard trio sonatas for two violins and organ continuo), sonate a tre (sonata nos. 6-9, adding an independent violone part), sonate a quattro (sonata nos. 10 and 11, adding alto viola) and a sonata a cinque (sonata no. 12, for two violins, alto and tenor violas, violone and organ continuo). The sonatas in Opus 5 are all given individual titles, and these titles are in effect dedications to Bolognese ‘Signori’ or senators.

In Vitali’s last book, Sonate da chiesa a due violini, Opus 9 (1684), the twelve sonatas are more consistent in terms of number and type of movements than those of Opera 2 and 5. Many of the sonatas expanded to six movements which are often linked thematically. Contrapuntal textures are more complicated than those of the earlier collections. In this opus, the continuo part does not on the whole contribute thematically – the contrapuntal interplay in the fugal movements is largely confined to the two violin parts, as in the sonatas of Opus 2 and those sonatas in Opus 5 without an independent bowed bass part. Opus 9 contains more passages of chromaticism than his previous da chiesa collections.