Chamber Sonatas

The Chamber Sonatas by Agostino Steffani were published in the early 1700's by the Dutch editor, Estienne Roger.
Steffani's Sonatas are usually classified as "instrumental music". Really there are elements in these pieces that make them blatantly different
from that which is currently called "instrumental." The six suites are in fact taken from overtures, from the refrains, and from the dances of
Steffani's six musical dramas. Each one of the six sonatas bears an opening quote that refers to the six titles author's theatrical operas:
Ouverture de l'Opera d'Orlando (1691), Ouverture de l'Opera Henricus Leo (1689), Ouverture de l'Opera d'Alexander (1690), Ouverture de
l'Opera Gli Rivali Concordi (1692), Ouverture de l'Opera d'Alcibiades (1693) and Ouverture de l'Opera Gli Triomphi del Fato (1695). Most
of the parts of the Sonatas have been found to be contained in each of the works cited, but some are not, probably because they refer to
the music of the dances in Steffani's six musical dramas, ballets that often were not included in the scores of the operas. Agostino Steffani
(1654 - 1728) was the composer who, more than anyone else, was responsible for the diffusion of the musical taste for musical drama and
Venetian chamber music throughout Europe and, in particular, in the German speaking countries. He had a considerable influence on
Georg Friedrich Händel, who owed him quite a bit both in terms of the music he wrote as well as in terms of his career.

View Also: Agostino Steffani

Iconography: Gianluca Corona, Ancora tu, 2008, oil on wood

back