This pathbreaking study reveals Purcell's extensive use of symmetry and reversal in his much-loved trio sonatas, and shows how these hidden structural processes make his music multilayered and appealing.
Purcell's trio sonatas are among the cornerstones of Baroque chamber music. The composer himself unassumingly described them as "a just imitation of the most famed Italian masters." However, analysis of their underlying structures reveals that Purcell's modesty hides a highly or…
Frontcover -- Contents -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Note on the Musical Examples -- Introduction -- 1 Purcell's Trio Sonatas -- 2 Harmony and Counterpoint in the Service of Rhetoric -- 3 Indiscernible Structures -- 4 Proportional Symmetry and Asymmetry -- 5 Mirror Symm…
Purcell's trio sonatas -- Harmony and counterpoint in the service of rhetoric -- Indiscernible structures -- Proportional symmetry and asymmetry -- Mirror symmetry and its implications -- Double fugue, triple fugue, and commutatio -- Ground bass
This book opens an important window to seventeenth-century compositional technique and offers further evidence of Purcell's use of advanced compositional techniques in works that aimed to be pleasurable for the amateur and excitingly thought-provoking for the professional. --fro…
Purcell's trio sonatas are among the cornerstones of Baroque chamber music. The composer himself unassumingly described them as "a just imitation of the most famed Italian masters." However, analysis of their underlying structures reveals that Purcell's modesty hides a highly or…