Lelio Colista (1629–80) is considered the foremost composer of Italian trio sonatas in Rome before Corelli. In the Papal City, where he lived for most of his life, he was an acclaimed lutenist, composer, and teacher. He was part of a closely-knit professional milieu including the most appreciated instrumentalists of his generation, such as Alessandro Stradella, Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, and Carlo Mannelli. However, Colista’s trio sonatas were not published during his lifetime. No autograph has survived, and the many manuscript sources are today scattered throughout various European libraries. Their wide dissemination bears witness to the significant circulation of Colista’s trio sonatas in the last decades of the seventeenth century, particularly in England. This volume presents a critical edition of the complete output of Colista’s trio sonatas, and offers for the first time a full reassessment of the entire manuscript transmission, including all the known sources and concordances, as well as incomplete and doubtful works.

This is the first in-depth study of Italian instrumental ensemble music during the seventeenth century based on the great majority of surviving primary sources. The book provides comprehensive coverage of every major composer of Italian "trio" sonatas until Corelli, and is intended as a standard work of reference. It also attempts to undermine the mythology surrounding the development of the free sonata acquired from successive generations of historians. The musical development is placed within a broad historical perspective examining such factors as performance and function.

Edition and Preface by Javier Lupiáñez The Trio Sonata in G major was independently identified as an early Vivaldian work in 2014 by the Italian scholar, recorder player, and ensemble director Mr. Federico Maria Sardelli and by the Spanish scholar, violin player and ensemble director Mr. Javier Lupiáñez. The piece was recently cataloged as RV 820 in the Vivaldi Catalog and is the earliest known work by Vivaldi. The Trio Sonata presents a different Vivaldi to the one we are used to. It shows the young Vivaldi: On the one hand, clearly influenced by the masters of the end of 17thcentury such Corelli, Bonporti or Torelli, and on the other hand it is easy to perceive that some new and original Vivaldian ideas start to blossom in this early work. The discovery and attribution of this Sonata is very important to understand the roots of Vivaldi’s style and the change of musical taste that happened at the beginning of the 18th century.

What is a sonata? Literally translated, it simply means 'instrumental piece'. It is the epitome of instrumental music, and is certainly the oldest and most enduring form of 'pure' and independent instrumental composition, beginning around 1600 and lasting to the present day. Schmidt-Beste analyses key aspects of the genre including form, scoring and its social context - who composed, played and listened to sonatas? In giving a comprehensive overview of all forms of music which were called 'sonatas' at some point in musical history, this book is more about change than about consistency - an ensemble sonata by Gabrieli appears to share little with a Beethoven sonata, or a trio sonata by Corelli with one of Boulez's piano sonatas, apart from the generic designation. However, common features do emerge, and the look across the centuries - never before addressed in a single-volume survey - opens up new and significant perspectives.