Sonata pian e forte for 8 parts, C. 176 from Sacrae Symphoniae
Listening Guide
As performed on instruments from the Renaissance/Baroque transition era, directed by Bernard Fabre-Garrus at the Festival des Cathedrales in Picardie (timings below correspond to this version).
Composer: Giovanni Gabrieli
Composition: Sonata pian e forte for 8 parts, C. 176 from Sacrae Symphoniae
Date: 1597
Genre: Sonata
Form: through-composed in sections
Texture: Antiphonal instrumental work in eight parts
Performing Forces: Two "choirs" (Double instrumental quartet—8 parts) of traditional instruments—sackbuts (early trombones) and wooden cornets
What we want you to remember about this composition:
- Antiphonal call and response;
- the use of musical dynamics (louds and softs written in the individual parts);
- and contrapuntal imitation
One thing to remember about this composition:
- listen to the noted balance so the melody is heard throughout and how the instruments sound very "vocal" as from earlier time periods (the Renaissance)
- The piece's texture is the division of the forces into two alternating groups in polychoral style.
Timing
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture and form
Choir 1 introduces the first theme in a piano dynamic in a slow tempo "Hail generous one"and duple meter. Like many early sonatas and canzonas, the composition starts with a repeated-note motive. The notes and harmonies come from the Dorian mode, a predecessor to the minor scale. The composition starts in the key of G.
As the first choir cadences, the second choir begins, playing a new theme still at a piano dynamic and slow tempo. Later in the theme the repeated note motive (first heard in the first theme of the composition) returns.
Choirs 1 and 2 play together in a tutti section at a forte dynamic. The new theme features faster notes than the first two themes and the parts are more (The key moves to the Mixolydian mode, a predecessor to the major scale, and the key moves to C. )
Central antiphonal section. Choir 1 opens with a short phrase using a piano dynamics and answered by choir 2 with a different short phrase, also with a piano dynamics. This call and response continues. Some times, the phrases last for only two measures; other times they are as long as four measures. After each passage of antiphonal exchanges, there is music of three to four measures in length where the whole ensemble joins together, usually with different melodic material (e. g. 40–43). The tonal or key center shifts during this section. There is a new theme that uses dotted rhythms that starts in measure 60 (approximately 2:07 in the recording).