MUSIC | Tesserae Baroque: The Trio Sonata

Tesserae Baroque: The Trio Sonata One of the defining features of the new Baroque style was the so-called “trio sonata ideal.” In this, musical texture became stratified between a bass and two upper parts. This represented a shift from the equal polyphonic textures of the mature Renaissance style; in contrast, in the trio sonata ideal the middle of the texture is provided by the relatively simple chordal structures of the basso continuo. Nowhere is the trio sonata ideal more obviously seen than in the trio sonata, which, along with opera, was one of the defining genres of the Baroque style. This program will explore the evolution of the trio sonata throughout the Baroque period, in works by Castello, Rossi, Bach and more!