SKU: HL.49004891

ISBN 9790001052085.

SKU: HL.14030247

ISBN 9788759855423. English-French.

Christian August Sinding, born in 1856, studied music in addition to his academic studies throughout his school years, taking violin with Gudbrand Bohn and music theory with L.M. Lindeman, one of the most important musicians in Christiana (later renamed Oslo). In 1874 he followed the path of his famous countryman Edvard Grieg by going to Leipzig to study. There, his violin teacher was Schradieck and his theory and composition teacher was Jadassohn. It became obvious that his major talent was for composition, so he gave up his violin studies in favor of it. Piano sonata written in 1909.

SKU: HL.251162

ISBN 9788759838617. 10.25x14.5x0.454 inches. English.

Viola Sonata No.1 by Sunleif Rasmussen (2016).

Dedicated to Jákup Lützen.

Very little is known about the two sonatas which appear here in their original keys. They were placed in the library of the Music School in Oxford at the end of the seventeenth century in a form convenient for playing (i.e.unbound). The library was catalogued by Hake between 1850 and 1855 and the sonatas were eventually bound in 1855 with other instrumental and vocal manuscripts of the same period, some of which are dated 1698.

Thesonatas are both inscribed on the title page Sonata à Violone Solo. Col Basso per l'Organo, o Cembalo. A third sonata bears the words Sonata à Violino e Violoncino … di Giovannino del Violone.Giovannino(=Little, or Young John) must have been a performer, and although the third sonata has been copied by a different hand, it is conceivable that Giovannino is a connecting link between the three. He cannot, however, beassumed to be their author.

The Violone was a six-stringed instrument with frets, and there is evidence to suggest that the Contrabasso of the same period was similar but probably a little larger; the Violoncino(=Little Violone, or Violoncello) must have been smaller. The word 'Violone' was also used as a collective term embracing all members of the Viol family, which means that the sonatas might well have been written for a tenor or abass Viol, and not necessarily a Violone as such. Indeed, when they are played on a Violone, or Double Bass the continuo bass line must be played at a lower pitch than the solo instrument, to prevent inversion of the intendedharmony. (The use of a Violone/Double Bass continuo or 16' organ tone would overcome this problem.)

The editor has added no ornaments or embellishments to the solo part as it appears in the original manuscript. It isopen to debate whether a Violone player, owing to the very nature of his instrument, would have used any but the simplest melodic decorations. Nevertheless, the performer should acquaint himself thoroughly with those seventeenthcentury traditions that