This paper begins by re-examining several of Swack’s and Schulenberg’s
conclusions. A variety of evidence suggests, for example, that the
concerto and sonata had come to be considered generically distinct by the
1710s. On title pages, concertos are rarely called “sonata,” and
sonatas are generally called “concerto” only when in larger scorings or
including devices normally restricted to orchestral genres (e.g. ritornello
form, unison writing, and “hammerstroke” gestures). Nor do conflicting
genre labels necessarily indicate copyists’ confusion as to a work’s generic
status. I also demonstrate that the Sonate auf Concertenart
was cultivated earlier and more widely than previously thought; a survey
of Telemann’s works suggests that Vivaldi’s influence on German composers
has been overstated. Interestingly, the genre enjoyed a second flowering
in France, where several composers published examples after 1730.
Far from being a postmodern invention, the mixed genre of the Sonate
auf Concertenart arose from the same aesthetic impulses that inspired
contemporaneous mixed literary genres, represented most famously by Gulliver’s
Travels (1726).
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