MAIN CONTENTS

Introduction

Text of the Study (pdf)

Audio Files

 

Appendices

A. The Torellian Periods

B. Torelli's Works

C. Paganelli & Giegling catalogue listings

D. Speculative Chronology

 

Contact

 

 

Torelli's 1TS Works - problems of chronology

 

 

 

         This table helps illustrate why dating these pieces has defied the attempts of scholars. After decades of debate, no consensus has ever been reached as to how, or if, Torelli distinguished between his so-called Sonatas and Sinfonias, and whether this could be related to his first and second Bolognese periods. Giegling and Paganelli have both divided Torelli's works into an early and later period. Paganelli's premise was his handwriting analysis, which has gained some credence among scholars, but has been emphatically rejected by Smithers. The present author, having read Paganelli's rationale in detail and examined Torelli's 'two handwritings', concurs with Smithers.

 

Piece Full Title Period (Giegling) Hand (Paganelli) Date Range
G01 Suonata con Strom. ti è Tromba di Giuseppe Torelli. 1690. I copyist 1690 6th-16th
G02 Sinfonia con Tromba. I I c1690
(mvts III and IV same as G01)
6th-13th
G03 Sonata à 5 con Tromba. di G.e Torelli. I I and II -- 6th-15th
G04 Sinf. à 4-con Tromba, e Violini Unissoni, del Sig.r Giuseppe Torelli. 1693 I copyist 1693 6th-13th
G05 Sonata à 5 con Tromba. Torelli. I I -- 6th-13th
G06 Sonata à 5. con Tromba. Di Giuseppe Torelli. I I -- 6th-13th
G07 Sonata à 5 con Tromba. di Giuseppe Torelli. I I -- 8th-16th
G08 Sinfonia con Tromba. Torelli. I II -- 4th-13th
G09 Sinfonia Con Tromba è Violini Unissoni Di Giuseppe Torelli. I II -- 6th-13th
G10 Sinfonia con Tromba Di Giuseppe Torelli. II II -- 6th-13th
G11 Sinfonia Con Tromba. II II -- 5th-16th
G12 -- -- -- -- --
G13 Sonata à 5 con Tromba. Di G.e Torelli. -- I -- 4th-13th
G14* Sinfonia avanti l'opera con Tromba [disputed] -- I -- 6th-16th
G16 Sinfonia Con Tromba è Violini Del Sig.r Gioseppe Torellei. I I -- 8th-13th
ROGER Concerts à 5, 6 & 7. Instruments, dont il y en a in pour la trompette ou le Haubois -- print c1715 (posthumous) 4th-13th

 


 

It should be reiterated here that these numbers are in no way indicative of chronological order.

Giegling uses I to denote works 1695 or earlier, and II for works between 1696 and 1708.

Range is given in partials of the overtone series; e.g. for a D-pitched trumpet the 4th partial = d' , the 13th = a'', etc.

* The authenticity of G14, a piece not intended for performance in Bsp, remains in dispute.