Presentation

Giovanni Antonio Leone's Sonate di violino a voce sola, libro primo, opera terza, were published in 1652 in Rome by Vitale Mascardi. Very little is known about the life of the composer. Since almost the entirety of his production is lost, the only useful document is the dedication on the book. Going by it, Leone must have enjoyed the favour and protection of Cardinal G.B. Pallotta in Rome, where he composed and played vocal and instrumental concerts promoted by the same Catrdinal in the Church of Lauretana Vergine. He must have been very famous at the time because in 1625 one of his motets, Domine, Dominus noster, for Soprano, Bass and thorough bass was published in the collection entitled Sacri affetti con testi da diversi eccellentissimi autori by Francesco Sammaruco. This collection included pieces by Frescobaldi and Monteverdi. Leoni had many students, and his compositions were well-known, thanks to the circulation of his manuscripts, which sometimes ended up by being usurped by other people. This is the main reason why Leoni decided to publish his Sonate per violino a voce sol. The chronological cataloguing may suggest that two more publications had already been produced, but unfortunately this is the sole work we now possess. It is extremely important because it proves to be the first collection in the history of music entirely for violin and thorough bass. His predecessors are: Giovanni Antonio Bertoli from Brescia, who in 1645 published his Composizioni musicali… fatte per sonare col fagotto solo - the first collection for a solo instrument (even if it actually consists of nine sonatas for bassoon and thorough bass or for various instuments) -, and Marco Uccellini from Modena, who in 1649 published his Sonate over Canzoni da farsi à Violino Solo, & Basso Continuo, op. V (the last Sonata is, however, for two violins). It follows that Leoni's collection is the very first for violin and thorough bass. Why Leoni decided to publish this collection is clearly stated in his dedication (where he mentions his having felt obliged to publish some old Sonate and "…molte di esse da me composte a posta"), and in his immediately following "A chi legge". This huge publication is made up of a musical score and of a separate part for the violin. It includes 31 Sonate, composed upon ecclesiastical tones, with the surpising exception of the fairly common fifth and seventh tones. Leoni's Sonata is characterized by two basic principles: firstly, a single uninterrupted movement; secondly, almost all of them are divided into three sections (bynary, ternary, binary). Only four sonatas do not folow this scheme. With some exceptions, both dynamic and temporal marks are missing. From a formal point of view, the part of the violin consists in a long extension of not really virtuous figures. In effect, the shortest note is the semiquaver, and there are no trilli nor groppi written in full, but only marked with a "t". From a technical point of view, it never goes beyond the first position. On the whole, we have a series of written diminutions, often hardly intuitive, which the performer could express by fully showing his own musical skill. On the contrary, the so-called affetuosi passages were to be performed in a moving way. The stylistic analysis is extremely interesting, particularly when we come to the imitation: in Leoni's work, the part of the violin imitates itself. The thorough bass has exclusively a rhythmic-harmonic function. It is not always consistent with the melodic requirements of the violin. On the contrary, the uneven course of the vocal melody causing a continual harminic change - requiring a different harmony from the bass's - suggests that the bass part was not particularly relevant. This extremely daring harmony, characterized by sudden changes to distant tonalities, is traceable also in the coeval violin and organ player Michelangelo Rossi's Toccate e Correnti d'intavolatura d'organo e cimbalo, published in 1657 in Rome. It cannot be excluded that Leoni and Rossi - born in Genoa, but working in Rome - now and then collaborated. In fact, the compositional weirdness of Toccate has much in common with Leoni's Sonate.

Sonata III del primo tono Sonata IX del secondo tono
Sonata XXI del quarto tono Sonata XXIV del sesto tono
Sonata XXVIII del'ottavo tono Sonata XXXII del terzo tono

Other authors

Marco Uccellini : Sonate over Canzoni da farsi á Violino Solo, & Basso Continuo - opera V - Venezia 1649