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Concerto

A concerto (plural concertos, or concerti from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typical three-movement structure, a slow movement (e.g., lento or adagio) preceded and followed by fast movements (e.g. presto or allegro), became a standard from the early 18th century.

The concerto originated as a genre of vocal music in the late 16th century: the instrumental variant appeared around a century later, when Italians such as Giuseppe Torelli and Arcangelo Corelli started to publish their concertos. A few decades later, Venetian composers, such as Antonio Vivaldi, had written hundreds of violin concertos, while also producing solo concertos for other instruments such as a cello or a woodwind instrument, and concerti grossi for a group of soloists. The first keyboard concertos, such as George Frideric Handel's organ concertos and Johann Sebastian Bach's harpsichord concertos, were written around the same time.

In the second half of the 18th century, the piano became the most used keyboard instrument, and composers of the Classical Era such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven each wrote several piano concertos, and, to a lesser extent, violin concertos, and concertos for other instruments. In the Romantic Era, many composers, including Niccolò Paganini, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, continued to write solo concertos, and, more exceptionally, concertos for more than one instrument; 19th century concertos for instruments other than the piano, violin and cello remained comparatively rare however. In the first half of the 20th century, concertos were written by, among others, Maurice Ravel, Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss, Sergei Prokofiev, George Gershwin, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Joaquín Rodrigo and Béla Bartók, the latter also composing a concerto for orchestra, that is without soloist. During the 20th century concertos appeared by major composers for orchestral instruments which had been neglected in the 19th century such as the clarinet, viola and French horn.

In the second half of the 20th century and onwards into the 21st a great many composers have continued to write concertos, including Alfred Schnittke, György Ligeti, Dimitri Shostakovich, Philip Glass and James MacMillan among many others. An interesting feature of this period is the proliferation of concerti for less usual instruments, including orchestral ones such as the double bass (by composers like Eduard Tubin or Peter Maxwell Davies) and cor anglais (like those by MacMillan and Aaron Jay Kernis), but also folk instruments (such as Tubin's concerto for Balalaika, Serry's Concerto in C Major for Bassetti Accordion, or the concertos for Harmonica by Villa-Lobos and Malcolm Arnold), and even Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a concerto for a rock band.

Concertos from previous ages have remained a conspicuous part of the repertoire for concert performances and recordings. Less common has been the previously common practice of the composition of concertos by a performer to be performed personally, though the practice has continued via certain composer-performers such as Daniil Trifonov.

Genre
The Italian word concerto, meaning accord or gathering, derives from the Latin verb concertare, which indicates a competition or battle.

Baroque Era
Compositions were for the first time indicated as concertos in the title of a music print when the Concerti (Gabrieli) were published in 1587.

Concerto as a genre of vocal music
In the 17th century, sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos, as reflected by J. S. Bach's usage of the title "concerto" for many of the works that we know as cantatas. The term "concerto" was initially used to denote works that involved voices and instruments in which the instruments had independent parts—as opposed to the Renaissance common practice in which instruments that accompanied voices only doubled the voice parts. Examples of this earlier form of concerto include Giovanni Gabrieli's "In Ecclesiis" or Heinrich Schütz's "Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich".

Instrumental concerto
The concerto began to take its modern shape in the late-Baroque period, beginning with the concerto grosso form developed by Arcangelo Corelli. Corelli's concertino group was two violins, a cello and basso continuo. In J. S. Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, for example, the concertino is a flute, a violin, and a harpsichord; although the harpsichord is a featured solo instrument, it also sometimes plays with the ripieno, functioning as a continuo keyboard accompaniment.

Later, the concerto approached its modern form, in which the concertino usually reduces to a single solo instrument playing with (or against) an orchestra. The main composers of concertos of the baroque were Tommaso Albinoni, Antonio Vivaldi (e.g. published in L'estro armonico, La stravaganza, Six Violin Concertos, Op. 6, Twelve Concertos, Op. 7, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, Six Flute Concertos, Op. 10, Six Concertos, Op. 11 and Six Violin Concertos, Op. 12), Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Pietro Locatelli, Jean-Marie Leclair, Giuseppe Tartini, Francesco Geminiani and Johann Joachim Quantz. The concerto was intended as a composition typical of the Italian style of the time, and all the composers were studying how to compose in the Italian fashion (all'Italiana).

The Baroque concerto was mainly for a string instrument (violin, viola, cello, seldom viola d'amore or harp) or a wind instrument (flute, recorder, oboe, bassoon, horn, or trumpet,). Bach also wrote a concerto for two violins and orchestra. During the Baroque period, before the invention of the piano, keyboard concertos were comparatively rare, with the exception of the organ and some harpsichord concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Classical era

The concertos of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, such as C. P. E. Bach, are perhaps the best links between those of the Baroque period and those of the Classical era. It is conventional to state that the first movements of concertos from the Classical period onwards follow the structure of sonata form. Final movements are often in rondo form, as in J.S. Bach's E Major Violin Concerto.

Mozart wrote five violin concertos, all in 1775. They show a number of influences, notably Italian and Austrian. Several passages have leanings towards folk music, as manifested in Austrian serenades. Mozart also wrote the Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra. Beethoven wrote only one violin concerto that remained obscure until revealed as a masterpiece in a performance by violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim on 27 May 1844.

C.P.E. Bach's keyboard concertos contain some virtuosic solo writing. Some of them have movements that run into one another without a break, and there are frequent cross-movement thematic references. Mozart, as a child, made arrangements for keyboard and orchestra of four sonatas by now little-known composers. Then he arranged three sonata movements by Johann Christian Bach. By the time he was twenty, Mozart was able to write concerto ritornelli that gave the orchestra admirable opportunity for asserting its character in an exposition with some five or six sharply contrasted themes, before the soloist enters to elaborate on the material. Of his 27 piano concertos, the last 22 are highly appreciated. A dozen cataloged keyboard concertos are attributed to Haydn, of which only three or four are considered genuine.

C. P. E. Bach wrote five flute concertos and two oboe concertos. Mozart wrote five horn concertos, with two for flute, oboe (later rearranged for flute and known as Flute Concerto No. 2), clarinet, and bassoon, four for horn, a Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, and Exsultate, jubilate, a de facto concerto for soprano voice. They all exploit and explore the characteristics of the solo instrument(s). Haydn wrote an important trumpet concerto and a Sinfonia Concertante for violin, cello, oboe and bassoon as well as two horn concertos.

Romantic era
In the 19th century, the concerto as a vehicle for virtuosic display flourished, and concertos became increasingly complex and ambitious works. Whilst performances of typical concertos in the baroque era lasted about ten minutes, those by Beethoven could last half an hour or longer. The term concertino (composition), or the German Konzertstuck ("Concert Piece") began to be used to designate smaller pieces not considered large enough to be considered a full concerto, though the distinction has never been formalised and many Concertinos are still longer than the original Baroque concertos.

During the Romantic era the cello became increasingly used as a concerto instrument; though the violin and piano remained the most frequently used. Beethoven contributed to the repertoire of concertos for more than one soloist with a  Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra while later in the century, Brahms wrote a  Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra.

20th and 21st century
Many of the concertos written in the early 20th century belong more to the late Romantic school, hence modernistic movement. Masterpieces were written by Edward Elgar (a violin concerto and a cello concerto), Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nikolai Medtner (four and three piano concertos, respectively), Jean Sibelius (a violin concerto), Frederick Delius (a violin concerto, a cello concerto, a piano concerto and a double concerto for violin and cello), Karol Szymanowski (two violin concertos and a "Symphonie Concertante" for piano), and Richard Strauss (two horn concertos, a violin concerto, Don Quixote—a tone poem that features the cello as a soloist—and among later works, an oboe concerto).

However, in the first decades of the 20th century, several composers such as Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Bartók started experimenting with ideas that were to have far-reaching consequences for the way music is written and, in some cases, performed. Some of these innovations include a more frequent use of modality, the exploration of non-western scales, the development of atonality and neotonality, the wider acceptance of dissonances, the invention of the twelve-tone technique of composition and the use of polyrhythms and complex time signatures.

These changes also affected the concerto as a musical form. Beside more or less radical effects on musical language, they led to a redefinition of the concept of virtuosity that included new and extended instrumental techniques and a focus on previously neglected aspects of sound such as pitch, timbre and dynamics. In some cases, they also brought about a new approach to the role of soloists and their relation to the orchestra.

Two great innovators of early 20th-century music, Schoenberg and Stravinsky, both wrote violin concertos. The material in Schoenberg's concerto, like that in Berg's, is linked by the twelve-tone serial method. In the 20th century, particularly after the Second World War, the cello enjoyed an unprecedented popularity. As a result, its concertante repertoire caught up with those of the piano and the violin both in terms of quantity and quality.

The 20th century also witnessed a growth of the concertante repertoire of instruments, some of which had seldom or never been used in this capacity, and even a concerto for wordless coloratura soprano by Reinhold Glière. As a result, almost all classical instruments now have a concertante repertoire. Among the works of the prolific composer Alan Hovhaness may be noted Prayer of St. Gregory for trumpet and strings, though it is not a concerto in the usual sense of the term. In the later 20th century the concerto tradition was continued by composers such as Maxwell Davies, whose series of Strathclyde Concertos exploit some of the instruments less familiar as soloists.

In addition, the 20th century gave rise to several composers who experimented further by showcasing a variety of nontraditional orchestral instruments within the center of the orthodox concerto form. Included within this group are: Paul Hindemith (Concerto for Trautonium and String Orchestra in 1931), Andre Jolivet (Concerto of Ondes Martenot in 1947), Heitor Villa-Lobos (Concerto for Harmonica in 1956), John Serry Sr. (Concerto in C Major for Bassetti Accordion in 1966),  Astor Piazzolla (Concerto for Bandoneon, String Orchestra and Percussion, "Aconcagua" in 1979), Peter Maxwell Davies (Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra, Op. 182 in 1996),  and Tan Dun (Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra in 1998)

Other composers of this era adopted a neoclassical rejection of specific features which typically characterized the concerto form during the Baroque or Romantic periods. Several of them achieved this objective by incorporating various musical elements from the realm of jazz within the structure of the concerto. Included in this group were: Aaron Copland (Concerto for Piano, 1926), Maurice Ravel (Concerto for the Left Hand, 1929), Igor Stravinsky (Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band, 1945) and George Gershwin (Concerto in F, 1925). Still others called upon the orchestra itself to function as the primary virtuosic force within the concerto form. This approach was adopted by Bela Bartok in his Concerto for Orchestra as well by other composers of the period including: Walter Piston (1933), Zoltan Kodaly (1939), Michael Tippet (1962) and Elliott Carter (1969). Concertos with concert band include:
 * Bryant – 2007–2010
 * Foss – 2002
 * Husa – 1982
 * Jacob – 1974
 * Jager – 1982

Vocal concerto
20th century:
 * Coloratura soprano Concerto: Reinhold Glière

Single solo instrument
Baroque era:
 * Bach:
 * Italian Concerto
 * Weimar concerto transcriptions

20th century:
 * Serry's Concerto In C Major For Free Bass Accordion

Multiple instruments
Baroque era:
 * Bach's concerto for two harpsichords, BWV 1061.1
 * Telemann's concertos for four violins

20th century:
 * Webern's Concerto for Nine Instruments
 * Stravinsky's Concerto for Two Pianos

Violin concerto
Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi:
 * Nos. 3, 6, 9 and 12 of L'estro armonico
 * La stravaganza
 * Six Violin Concertos, Op. 6
 * Ten of the Twelve Concertos, Op. 7
 * Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, which includes The Four Seasons
 * Five of the Six Concertos, Op. 11
 * Six Violin Concertos, Op. 12
 * Grosso mogul
 * Bach:
 * Violin Concerto in A minor
 * Violin Concerto in E major

Classical era:
 * Mozart:
 * No. 1 in B flat major, K. 207
 * No. 2 in D major, K. 211
 * No. 3 in G major, K. 216 (Straßburg)
 * No. 4 in D major, K. 218
 * No. 5 in A major, K. 219 (Turkish)

Early Romantic traits can be found in the violin concertos of Viotti, but it is Spohr's twelve violin concertos, written between 1802 and 1827, that truly embrace the Romantic spirit with their melodic as well as their dramatic qualities.

20th century:
 * Arnold Schoenberg
 * Igor Stravinsky
 * Alban Berg
 * Bartók wrote two concertos for violin.
 * Russian composers Prokofiev and Shostakovich each wrote two concertos while Khachaturian wrote a concerto and a Concerto-Rhapsody for the instrument.
 * Hindemith's concertos hark back to the forms of the 19th century, even if the harmonic language he used was different.
 * Three violin concertos from David Diamond show the form in neoclassical style.
 * In 1950 Carlos Chávez completed a substantial Violin Concerto with an enormous central cadenza for the unaccompanied violin.
 * Dutilleux's L'Arbre des songes has proved an important addition to the repertoire and a fine example of the composer's atonal yet melodic style.
 * Other composers of major violin concertos include John Adams, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, Miguel del Aguila, Philip Glass, Cristóbal Halffter, György Ligeti, Frank Martin, Bohuslav Martinů, Carl Nielsen, Walter Piston, Alfred Schnittke, Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, John Williams and Roger Sessions.

21st century:
 * Elfman's violin concerto

Viola concerto
Baroque era:
 * Viola Concerto in G major (Telemann)

Classical era:
 * Franz Anton Hoffmeister
 * Viola Concerto in D major
 * Viola Concerto in B-flat major
 * Viola Concerto in D major, Op. 1 (Carl Stamitz)
 * Viola Concerto in E♭ major, ICZ 17 (Carl Friedrich Zelter)

20th century:
 * Viola concerto: Aho, Arnold, Bartók, del Aguila, Denisov, Gagneux, Gubaidulina, Hindemith, Kancheli, Martinů, Milhaud, Murail, Penderecki, Schnittke, Takemitsu, Walton

Cello concerto
The 'core' repertoire—performed the most of any cello concertos—are by Elgar, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Haydn, Shostakovich and Schumann, but many more concertos are performed nearly as often.

Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi's cello concertos RV 398–403, 405–414 and 416–424

Classical era:
 * Haydn wrote two cello concertos (for cello, oboes, horns, and strings), which are the most important works in that genre of the classical era.
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote three cello concertos and Luigi Boccherini wrote twelve cello concertos.

Romantic era:
 * Antonín Dvořák's cello concerto ranks among the supreme examples from the Romantic era while Robert Schumann's focuses on the lyrical qualities of the instrument.
 * The instrument was also popular with composers of the Franco-Belgian tradition: Saint-Saëns and Vieuxtemps wrote two cello concertos each and Lalo and Jongen one.
 * Tchaikovsky's contribution to the genre is a series of Variations on a Rococo Theme. He also left very fragmentary sketches of a projected Cello Concerto. Cellist Yuriy Leonovich and Tchaikovsky researcher Brett Langston published their completion of the piece in 2006.
 * Carl Reinecke, David Popper and Julius Klengel also wrote cello concertos that were popular in their time and are still played occasionally nowadays.
 * Elgar's popular concerto, while written in the early 20th century, belongs to the late romantic period stylistically.

20th century:
 * An important factor for the 20th-century cello concerto was the rise of virtuoso cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. His outstanding technique and passionate playing prompted dozens of composers to write pieces for him, first in his native Soviet Union and then abroad. Among such compositions may be listed Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto, Dmitri Shostakovich's two cello concertos, Benjamin Britten's Cello-Symphony (which emphasizes, as its title suggests, the equal importance of soloist and orchestra), Henri Dutilleux' Tout un monde lointain..., Cristóbal Halffter's two cello concertos, Witold Lutosławski's cello concerto, Dmitry Kabalevsky's two cello concertos, Aram Khachaturian's Concerto-Rhapsody, Arvo Pärt's Pro et Contra, Alfred Schnittke, André Jolivet and Krzysztof Penderecki second cello concertos, Sofia Gubaidulina's Canticles of the Sun, Luciano Berio's Ritorno degli Snovidenia, Leonard Bernstein's Three Meditations, James MacMillan's cello concerto and Olivier Messiaen's Concert à quatre (a quadruple concerto for cello, piano, oboe, flute and orchestra).
 * In addition, several important composers who were not directly influenced by Rostropovich wrote cello concertos: Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter, Carlos Chávez, Miguel del Aguila, Alexander Glazunov, Hans Werner Henze, Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, György Ligeti, Bohuslav Martinů, Darius Milhaud, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Joaquín Rodrigo, Toru Takemitsu, William Walton, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann for instance.

Double bass concerto
20th century:
 * Double bass concerto: Aho, Gagneux, Dittersdorf, Henze, Koussevitsky, Davies, Ohzawa, Rautavaara, Skalkottas, Tubin

Other bowed string instruments
20th century:
 * Viola d'amore concerto: Hindemith

Harp concerto
Baroque era:
 * Handel's Harp Concerto, HWV 294 (a.k.a. Concerto for harp or organ and orchestra, HWV 294)

Classical era:
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra
 * Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz: Harp Concertos Harp Concerto No. 5 (Krumpholz) and Harp Concerto No. 6 (Krumpholz)
 * Francesco Petrini: Harp Concertos Harp Concerto No. 1 (Petrini), Harp Concerto No. 2 (Petrini) and Harp Concerto No. 4 (Petrini)
 * Ernst Eichner's Harp Concerto in D major, Op. 9 (Eichner)
 * Jan Ladislav Dussek: Harp Concertos Harp Concerto, Op. 15 (Dussek), Harp Concerto, Op. 30 (Dussek) and Harp Concerto in B-flat major (Dussek)
 * François-Adrien Boieldieu's Harp Concerto in C major (Boieldieu)

Romantic era:
 * Nicolas-Charles Bochsa: Harp Concertos Harp Concerto, Op. 15 No. 1 (Bochsa) and Harp Concerto, Op. 295 (Bochsa)
 * Elias Parish Alvars: Harp Concertos Harp Concerto in G minor, Op. 81 (Parish Alvars) and Harp Concerto, Op. 98 (Parish Alvars)
 * Carl Reinecke's Harp Concerto, Op. 182 (Reinecke)
 * John Thomas's Harp Concerto No. 1 (Thomas)
 * Henriette Renié's Harp Concerto (Renié)

20th century:
 * Reinhold Glière's Harp Concerto
 * Joseph Jongen's Harp Concerto
 * Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto serenata
 * André Jolivet's Concerto for Harp and Chamber Orchestra (1952)
 * Darius Milhaud's Harp Concerto, Op. 323 (1953)
 * Heitor Villa-Lobos's Harp Concerto
 * Alberto Ginastera's Harp Concerto
 * Einojuhani Rautavaara's Harp Concerto (2000)

Mandolin concerto
Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto, RV 425

20th century:
 * Thile, Dorman

Guitar concerto
20th century:
 * Guitar Concerto: Arnold, E. Bernstein, Brouwer, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Hovhaness, Malmsteen, Ohana, Ponce, Rodrigo, Trigos, Villa-Lobos

Other plucked string instruments
Baroque era:
 * Lute concerto in D major (Vivaldi)

20th century:
 * Kanun Concerto: Alnar

Flute concerto
Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi:
 * Six Flute Concertos, Op. 10
 * Il gran mogol

Classical era:
 * Mozart:
 * Flute Concerto No. 1
 * Flute Concerto No. 2

20th century:
 * Western concert flute Concerto: Aho, Arnold, Chaminade, Corigliano, Davies, Denisov, Dusapin, Harman, Hétu, Ibert, Jolivet, Landowski, Nielsen, Penderecki, Piston, Rautavaara, Rodrigo, Takemitsu, J. Williams
 * Contrabass flute Concerto: McGowan
 * Piccolo Concerto: Davies, Liebermann
 * Recorder concerto: Malcolm Arnold, Richard Harvey
 * Shakuhachi Concerto: Takemitsu

Oboe concerto
Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi:
 * Two of the Twelve Concertos, Op. 7
 * One of the Six Concertos, Op. 11
 * Handel:
 * Oboe Concerto No. 1
 * Oboe Concerto No. 2
 * Oboe Concerto No. 3

Classical era:
 * Mozart: Oboe Concerto

Romantic era:
 * Vincenzo Bellini: Oboe Concerto

20th century:
 * Oboe concerto: Aho, Arnold, Bouliane, Corigliano, Davies, Denisov, Harman, MacMillan, Maderna, Martinů, Penderecki, Shchedrin, Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Zimmermann
 * Bass oboe concerto: Bryars

English horn
20th century:
 * English Horn Concerto: Bernard Hoffer, William Kraft, Nicholas Maw, Vazgen Muradian, Vincent Persichetti, Ned Rorem, Pēteris Vasks, Henk de Vlieger

Bassoon concerto
20th century:
 * Bassoon concerto: Aho, Butterworth, Davies, del Aguila, Donatoni, Eckhardt-Gramatté, Fujikura, Gubaidulina, Hétu, Jolivet, Kaipainen, Knipper, Landowski, Panufnik, Rihm, Rota, Sæverud, J. Williams
 * Contrabassoon Concerto: Aho, Erb

Clarinet concerto
20th century:
 * Clarinet concerto: Aho, Arnold, Chin, Copland, Davies, del Aguila, Denisov, Dusapin, Fairouz, Finzi, Françaix, Hartke, Hétu, Hindemith, Nielsen, Penderecki, Piston, Rautavaara, Shapey, Stravinsky, Takemitsu, Ticheli, Tomasi, J. Williams
 * Bass clarinet Concerto: Bouliane

21st century:
 * Lindberg's clarinet concerto

Saxophone concerto
20th century:
 * Soprano saxophone Concerto: Aho, Higdon, Hovhaness, Mackey, Torke, Yoshimatsu.
 * Alto saxophone Concerto: Adams, Creston, Dahl, Denisov, Dubois, Glazunov, Husa, Ibert, Koch, Larsson, Maslanka, Muczynski, Salonen, Ticheli, Tomasi, J. Williams, Worley, Yoshimatsu
 * Tenor saxophone Concerto: Bennett, Ewazen, Gould, Nicolau, Ward, Wilder.
 * Baritone saxophone Concerto: Gaines, Glaser, Haas, van Beurden

Other woodwind instruments
20th century:
 * Bagpipe: Chieftain's Salute by Graham Waterhouse

Trumpet concerto
20th century:
 * Trumpet Concerto: Aho · Arnold · Arutiunian · Böhme · Jolivet · Perry · Sandström · Ticheli · J. Williams · Zimmermann

Horn concerto
Classical era:
 * Bohemian composer Francesco Antonio Rosetti composed several solo and double horn concertos. He was a significant contributor to the genre of horn concertos in the 18th century. Most of his outstanding horn concertos were composed between 1782 and 1789 for the Bohemian duo Franz Zwierzina and Joseph Nage while at the Bavarian court of Oettingen-Wallerstein. One of his best-known works in this genre is his Horn Concerto in E flat major C49/K III:36. It consists of three movements: 1. Allegro moderato 2. Romance 3. Rondo. Many common features of the galant style are present in Rosetti's music and composing style. In his E-flat horn concerto, we hear periodic and short phrases, galant harmonic rhythm and melodic line reduction. Rosetti's influence on the 18th century composers, musicians and music was considerable. At the Bavarian court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, his music was often performed by the Wallerstein ensembles. In Paris, his compositions were performed by the best ensembles of the city, including the orchestra of the Concert Spirituel. His publishers were Le Menu et Boyer and Sieber. According to H. C. Robbins Landon (Mozart scholar), Rosetti's horn concertos might have been a model for Mozart's horn concertos.

20th century:
 * French horn Concerto: Aho, Arnold, Arutiunian, Atterberg, Bowen, Carter, Davies, Glière, Gipps, Hindemith, Hovhaness, Jacob, Knussen, Ligeti, Murail, Penderecki, Strauss, Tomasi, J. Williams

Trombone concerto
20th century:
 * Trombone Concerto: Aho, Bourgeois, David, Dusapin, Gagneux, Grøndahl, Holmboe, Larsson, Milhaud, Nyman, Olsen, Rota, Rouse, Sandström, Tomasi

Other brass instruments
20th century:
 * Cornet Concerto: Bourgeois, Corder, Ellerby, Gregson, Howarth, Tomlinson, Wright
 * Euphonium Concerto: Bach, Ball, Bourgeois, Brusick, Clarke, Cosma, Curnow, Day, Jager, De Meij, Downie Ellerby, Ewazen, Feinstein, Filas, Gaines, Gillingham, Golland, Graham, Gregson, Groslot, Hoddinott, Horovitz, Jansa, Jenkins, Lindberg, Linkola, Lisjak, Mealor, Meechan, O'Toole, Roberts, Scott, Sparke, Stevens, Wesolowski, Wilby.
 * Tuba Concerto: Aho, Arutiunian, Broughton, Gagneux, Holmboe, Vaughan Williams, J. Williams

Harpsichord concerto
Baroque era:
 * Harpsichord concertos, BWV 1052–1059 (Bach)

20th century:
 * Harpsichord Concerto: Falla, Glass, Górecki, Nyman, Martinů, Poulenc

Organ concerto
Baroque era:
 * Handel:
 * Organ concertos, Op.4
 * Organ concertos, Op.7

20th century:
 * Organ concerto: Arnold, Hanson, Harrison, Hétu, Hindemith, Jongen, MacMillan, Peeters, Poulenc, Rorem, Sowerby

Piano concerto
Classical era:
 * Mozart:
 * Three Concertos after J.C. Bach, K. 107
 * No. 1 in F major, K. 37
 * No. 2 in B♭ major, K. 39
 * No. 3 in D major, K. 40
 * No. 4 in G major, K. 41
 * No. 5 in D major, K. 175
 * No. 6 in B♭ major, K. 238
 * No. 8 in C major, K. 246 (Lützow)
 * No. 9 in E♭ major, K. 271 (Jeunehomme / Jenamy)
 * No. 11 in F major, K. 413
 * No. 12 in A major, K. 414
 * No. 13 in C major, K. 415
 * No. 14 in E♭ major, K. 449
 * No. 15 in B♭ major, K. 450
 * No. 16 in D major, K. 451
 * No. 17 in G major, K. 453
 * No. 18 in B♭ major, K. 456
 * No. 19 in F major, K. 459
 * No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
 * No. 21 in C major, K. 467
 * No. 22 in E♭ major, K. 482
 * No. 23 in A major, K. 488
 * No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
 * No. 25 in C major, K. 503
 * No. 26 in D major, K. 537 (Coronation)
 * No. 27 in B♭ major, K. 595

Romantic era:
 * Beethoven's five piano concertos increase the technical demands made on the soloist. The last two are particularly remarkable, integrating the concerto into a large symphonic structure with movements that frequently run into one another. His Piano Concerto No. 4 starts with a statement by the piano, after which the orchestra enters in a foreign key, to present what would normally be the opening tutti. The work has a lyrical character. The slow movement is a dramatic dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra. His Piano Concerto No. 5 has the basic rhythm of a Viennese military march. There is no lyrical second subject, but in its place a continuous development of the opening material.
 * The piano concertos of Cramer, Field, Düssek, Woelfl, Ries, and Hummel provide a link from the Classical concerto to the Romantic concerto.
 * Chopin wrote two piano concertos in which the orchestra is relegated to an accompanying role. Schumann, despite being a pianist-composer, wrote a piano concerto in which virtuosity is never allowed to eclipse the essential lyrical quality of the work. The gentle, expressive melody heard at the beginning on woodwind and horns (after the piano's heralding introductory chords) bears the material for most of the argument in the first movement. In fact, argument in the traditional developmental sense is replaced by a kind of variation technique in which soloist and orchestra interweave their ideas.
 * Liszt's mastery of piano technique matched that of Paganini for the violin. His concertos No. 1 and No. 2 left a deep impression on the style of piano concerto writing, influencing Rubinstein, and especially Tchaikovsky, whose First Piano Concerto's rich chordal opening is justly famous.
 * Grieg's concerto likewise begins in a striking manner after which it continues in a lyrical vein.
 * Saint-Saëns wrote five piano concertos and orchestra between 1858 and 1896, in a classical vein.
 * Brahms's First Piano Concerto in D minor (pub 1861) was the result of an immense amount of work on a mass of material originally intended for a symphony. His Second Piano Concerto in B♭ major (1881) has four movements and is written on a larger scale than any earlier concerto. Like his violin concerto, it is symphonic in proportions.
 * Fewer piano concertos were written in the late Romantic Period. But Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote four piano concertos between 1891 and 1926. His Second and Third, being the most popular of the four, went on to become among the most famous in the piano repertoire.
 * Other romantic piano concertos, like those by Kalkbrenner, Henri Herz, Moscheles and Thalberg were also very popular in the Romantic era, but not today.

20th century:
 * Maurice Ravel wrote two pianos concertos, one in G-major (1931) and the second for the left hand in D-major (date of creation1932).
 * Igor Stravinsky wrote three works for solo piano and orchestra:
 * Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
 * Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
 * Movements for Piano and Orchestra
 * Sergei Prokofiev, another Russian composer, wrote five piano concertos, which he himself performed.
 * Dmitri Shostakovich composed two piano concertos.
 * Aram Khachaturian contributed to the repertoire with a piano concerto and a Concerto-Rhapsody.
 * Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto is a well-known example of a dodecaphonic piano concerto.
 * Béla Bartók also wrote three piano concertos. Like their violin counterparts, they show the various stages in his musical development. Bartok's also rearranged his chamber piece, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, into a Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion, adding orchestral accompaniment.
 * Cristóbal Halffter wrote a prize-winning neoclassical Piano Concerto in 1953, and a second Piano Concerto in 1987–88.
 * Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a concerto for piano, though it was later reworked as a concerto for two pianos and orchestra—both versions have been recorded
 * Benjamin Britten's concerto for piano (1938) is a prominent work from his early period.
 * Piano concertos by Latin-American composers include one by Carlos Chávez, two by Alberto Ginastera, and five by Heitor Villa-Lobos.
 * György Ligeti's concerto (1988) has a synthetic quality: it mixes complex rhythms, the composer's Hungarian roots and his experiments with micropolyphony from the 1960s and 1970s.
 * Witold Lutosławski's piano concerto, completed in the same year, alternates between playfulness and mystery. It also displays a partial return to melody after the composer's aleatoric period.
 * Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin has written six piano concertos.
 * Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote three piano concertos, the third one dedicated to Vladimir Ashkenazy, who played and conducted the world première.
 * French composer Germaine Tailleferre and Czech composers Bohuslav Martinů and Vítězslava Kaprálová wrote piano concertos.

Accordion concerto
20th century:
 * Accordion concerto: Hovhaness, Sofia Gubaidulina, Toshio Hosokawa, Kalevi Aho
 * Free bass accordion Concerto: John Serry Sr.

Other keyboard instruments
20th century:
 * Bandoneón Concerto: Piazzolla
 * Clavinet concerto: Woolf
 * Yamaha GX-1: Akutagawa

Percussion instrument
20th century:
 * Percussion concerto: Aho, Dorman, Glass, Jolivet, MacMillan, Milhaud, Rautavaara, Susman
 * Timpani concerto: Aho, Druschetzky, Glass, Kraft, Rosauro
 * Xylophone concerto: Mayuzumi
 * Marimba concerto: Creston, Larsen, Milhaud, Rosauro (Concerto No.1 and No.2), Svoboda, Viñao
 * Vibraphone: Rosauro (Concerto No.1 and Concerto No.2)

Free reed aerophone
20th century:
 * Harmonica concerto: Arnold, Hovhaness, Vaughan Williams, Villa-Lobos
 * Sheng Concerto: Unsuk Chin.

Electronic musical instrument
20th century:
 * Ondes Martenot concerto: Jolivet, Rozsa
 * Theremin concerto: Aho

For multiple instruments and orchestra
In the Baroque era, two violins and one cello formed the standard concertino of a concerto grosso. In the classical era, the sinfonia concertante replaced the concerto grosso genre, although concertos for two or three soloists were still composed too. From the Romantic era works for multiple instrumental soloists and orchestra were again commonly called concerto.

Two soloists
Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi's concertos for 2 violins, for 2 cellos, for 2 mandolins, for 2 trumpets, for 2 flutes, for oboe and bassoon, for cello and bassoon (etc.)
 * Bach:
 * Concerto for Two Violins
 * Concertos for two harpsichords: BWV 1060, 1061 and 1062
 * Telemann's Concerto for Two Violas

Classical era:
 * Haydn's concerto for violin and keyboard (usually referred to as the Keyboard Concerto No. 6)
 * Mozart:
 * Piano Concerto No. 10
 * Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra
 * Salieri's double concerto for flute and oboe

Romantic era:
 * Felix Mendelssohn:
 * Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E major
 * Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A-flat major
 * Johannes Brahms's Double Concerto for violin and cello
 * Max Bruch:
 * Concerto for Clarinet, Viola, and Orchestra
 * Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

20th century:
 * Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 (soloists: piano, trumpet)
 * Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra
 * Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
 * Ralph Vaughan Williams's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
 * Elliott Carter's Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras
 * Peter Maxwell Davies's Strathclyde Concerto No. 3 for horn, trumpet and orchestra, and No. 4 for violin, viola and string orchestra

Three soloists
Baroque era:
 * Arcangelo Corelli's twelve concerti grossi, Op. 6 for two violins and cello
 * Vivaldi's concertos for 3 violins
 * Bach:
 * Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 4 (BWV 1049) and 5 (BWV 1050)
 * Concertos for three harpsichords: BWV 1063 and 1064
 * Triple Concerto, BWV 1044, for harpsichord, flute and violin

Classical era:
 * Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 7

Romantic era:
 * Beethoven's Triple Concerto for piano, violin, and cello.

21st century:
 * Smirnov's Triple Concerto No. 2

Four or more soloists
Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi:
 * L'estro armonico Nos. 1, 4, 7 and 10
 * RV 555, featuring 3 violins, an oboe, 2 recorders, 2 viole all'inglese, a chalumeau, 2 cellos, 2 harpsichords and 2 trumpets.
 * Concerto for Diverse Instruments in C major, RV 558
 * Concerto in C major, RV 559, for two oboes, two clarinets, strings and continuo
 * Bach:
 * Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1 (BWV 1046) and 2 (BWV 1047)
 * Concerto for 4 harpsichords, BWV 1065 (after a concerto for four violins by Vivaldi)

20th century:
 * Arnold Schoenberg's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra
 * Maxwell Davies's Strathclyde Concerto and No. 9 for piccolo, alto flute, cor anglais, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabassoon and string orchestra.
 * Frank Martin's Concerto for seven wind instruments, timpani, percussion, and string orchestra.
 * Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra for rock band.
 * Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto Andaluz for 4 guitars.
 * Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 3
 * Olivier Messiaen's Concert à quatre for piano, cello, oboe and flute.

Symphonic orchestra
In the 20th and 21st centuries, several composers wrote concertos for orchestra. In these works, different sections and/or instruments of the orchestra or concert band are treated at one point or another as soloists with emphasis on solo sections and/or instruments changing during the piece. Some examples include those written by:
 * Hindemith – Op. 38, 1925
 * Kodály – 1940
 * Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra – 1945
 * Lutoslawski – Concerto for Orchestra – 1954
 * Shchedrin
 * No. 1 Naughty Limericks (1963)
 * No. 2 The Chimes (1968)
 * No. 3 Old Russian Circus Music (1989)
 * No. 4 Round Dances (Khorovody) (1989)
 * No. 5 Four Russian Songs (1998)
 * Carter – 1969
 * Knussen – 1969
 * Lindberg – 2003

Dutilleux has also described his Métaboles as a concerto for orchestra.

Chamber orchestra or string orchestra
Baroque era:
 * Vivaldi's Concerto alla rustica
 * Bach's Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 (BWV 1048) and 6 (BWV 1051)

20th century:
 * Stravinsky:
 * Concerto in D
 * Dumbarton Oaks concerto

More than one orchestra
Baroque era:
 * Concerto a due cori, HWV 332–334

20th century:
 * Michael Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Concerto


text:
Talk:Concerto

Concerto types
I don't think that there are nearly enough different categories for solo instrument concerti Also consider double and triple concerti? Article was adapted from a 1911 enc.

CLEANUP: Some subheadings could improve this article (e.g. Baroc concerto, Classical concerto, 62.255.0.7 10:26, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Romantic concerto etc.)

Historical development etc.
Some good writing by C. Girdlestone, for instance - Alfred Einstein also, and others about the concerto. Girdlestone (Mozart and his Piano Concertos) points out how often the opening tutti in Mozart contains themes that are not heard in the first solo but perhaps not until the development or the coda, and how this is used as a dramatic device, among other observations on how the existence of an opening tutti allows not just breathing space but (Tovey- quoted by Girdlestone- points this out too and notes that each of the mature piano concertos has some important, and not local, feature making its relations between solo and orchestra* different from all the others) different relations between solo and orchestra in each of the piano concertos, all of these effects mostly lost (mostly - there are other effects achieved in other ways of course) when the tutti itself is dropped by the Romantic-era composer.

 * Not referring always to the 'tutti opening' but sometimes to the way the parts interact instead, of course. Obviously one point here is that the later concertos show much more independent winds... Spohr was not that far wrong in calling them symphonies for piano and orchestra, as Toch actually did call one of his piano concertos. These remarks may be more appropriate for piano concerto. Schissel : bowl listen 19:48, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

Possibly a bit more revelant to the page generally though: several of these authors perceptively locate the problem of the concerto - whether in the Baroque era or later, though not of course for those composers who chose to ignore it entirely - as being: not wasting the resources (and often salary!) of the orchestra which has been brought to accompany, while nonetheless making it clear enough that the soloist is at least first among equals if not, in fact, predominant. Descriptions of the concerto as a sonata for orchestra with solo, and specifically the first movement as a sonata movement in concerto form, meet so few cases and have so many exceptions during the classical period that it becomes positively Ptolemaic - to abuse the term and abuse the history of that period as well - to claim it as a rule. It is more accurate, relatively speaking, when applied to the purely virtuoso concerto, or to the Romantic-era concerto of Schumann and Mendelssohn (though again, not Brahms, true, who knew the function of the tutti.) Schissel : bowl listen 19:06, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Etymology of the word "concerto"
I always thought it came from the Latin verb "concertare", which is defined roughly as "to compete". Any ideas?

—Doshea3 22:43, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * No, it is a borrowed italian word. Concerto in italian means simply "a concert". Karol 21:06, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

"The Italian work "concertare" has two meanings. It means to struggle or fight' it also means to cooperate.  Both of these contrary meanings are present in a concerto, in which a solo player or a group of solo players in contrasted with an entire orchestra." - From Jermy Yudkin's text, Understanding Music, 2005.

Concerti Vs Concertos
Could anyone enlighten me as to the proper plural form of the word "concerto". I have always taken it as "concerti". However many CD's and books have "concertos". Can both be used? Can "concerti" only be used when refering to baroque concerti/concertos? I think this is important for the article as well as my personal interest. Benjaminstewart05 17:35, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Both forms are correct - concerti is the borrowed italian plural form, and concertos is the english plural form of the borrowed italian singular. I can cite Mariam-Webster as a reference. Karol 21:03, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the assistance. Benjaminstewart05 16:42, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Clean up
I agree this article is in need of rewriting from a more neutral point of view and with a clearer approach. I am happy to do this in a few days time unless someone else is already on the job? With regard to the above: I shall use the standard English plural "concertos" unless refering to "concerti grossi" Hikitsurisan 15:18, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Rewrite now completed.Hikitsurisan 09:25, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

 * I've had a quick go at copyediting the article, too. There was some stylistic awkwardness, irregular punctuation, poor exposition (with lapses of logic), and inconsistency. I've done what I can to fix some of these glitches. I think there is still some more to do, and I may come back some time to work harder at it. – Noetica 09:37, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

The form...?
Should the form of the concerto be mentioned? Lady Nimue of the Lake 05:20, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Rachmaninoff?
How come there is no significant mention on Rachmaninoff's piano concerti except for a mention of his name? There must be atleast a small mention of his 2nd piano concerto atleast. It was a significant milestone in virtuosity piano playing.--Gauravsundar 15:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Mozart concerto and sonata form
Still not at all right. Not in my opinion- or Tovey's, Girdlestone's, Thorpe-Davie's, ...

Possible draft of section to insert, and paraphrasing Thorpe-Davie and Girdlestone both.

The first movement of the classical concerto is often described as a sonata for orchestra with soloist much as the symphony in the classical period was a sonata for orchestra, for example. This is true at best in broad outline, because of the existence of the introductory "tutti" section preceding the first solo entrance of almost every Classical concerto. This sets the stage for that entrance, often presenting themes that the soloist, or the soloist in combination with the orchestra, will later elaborate. The relation between this tutti and the material that follows it - especially with Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms - is different with each work, relatively simple imitation of the tutti by the soloist in some, complicated in others, but as each concerto is a living work of art, this is to be expected. Schissel | Sound the Note! 17:40, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

HOPE THIS GAVE YOU SOME INFORMATION THANK YOU FOR READING IT. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO EDIT IT CLICK ON THE EDIT PAGE BUTTON.

20th-century (etc.) concertos
(Flute, oboe, recorder, piano trio, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, ...) trumpet, trombone, and tuba concertos also provided by Vagn Holmboe (and Bernd Alois Zimmermann also wrote one for trumpet, incorporating the spiritual "Nobody knows de trouble I see".) To name two only, but admittedly that list is not intended to be complete :) Schissel | Sound the Note! 03:56, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Constrution details and headings
Just a quick note someone posted Editing now, this is not good for an encyclopedia's look. It is better to have an article that looks like it is written badley and disjointed then that. Also where does the word come from? is also not an acceptable sub heading, as genral definetly avoid questions a subheadings. Otherwise good editing.--AresAndEnyo (talk) 15:39, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

This seems to be largely paraphrsed from Grove, allbeit inaccuratlry, e.g. Vivaldi inventing 3 movement form: 3 movement from can be found in all of Torelli's op.8 concerti grossi —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdilworth771 (talk • contribs) 17:13, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

The Concerto and the Orchestra
In a concerto, must the soloist(s) always be accompanied by an orchestra (string section, wind section etc) for it to be officially called a concerto? Can it be other instruments (guitars, keyboards etc.) that take the place of an orchestra and still qualify as a concerto? My appologies for asking such a beginners question. But I've always respected Classical music and have written some pieces that have what I consider that Concerto feel. But, there is no orchestra! Any serious input would be greatly appreciated. Ted1956 (talk) 04:34, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the definition given seems too stringent, it really excludes all Baroque concertos, before "orchestras" (as Wikipedia's page on orchestras defines it) really existed. A baroque concerto almost never has percussion, and Wikipedia defines this as an integral part of an orchestra. I think it would be more correct to say that the concerto is a musical work usually in three movements that features a small subset of instruments in an ensemble. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.54.4.21 (talk) 01:03, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Overlapping articles /lists
Someone might like to look at the overlaps between the stub article Double concerto, the section Concerto and the list at Double concerto for violin and cello (which includes a section "Other Double Concertos" eg bassoon and cello!). I'll put this at all three talk pages. PamD (talk) 23:41, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Additional citations
Why and where does this article need additional citations for verification? What references does it need and how should they be added? Hyacinth (talk) 02:39, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

 * Good question, Hyacinth.
 * An extremely high percentage of the sneering "This article is inadequate because..." notes seem to me silly. Those who can do; those who can't post stupid clutter in Wikipedia.
 * David Lloyd-Jones (talk) 14:42, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Lead too narrow
Can the lead please cover more meanings of the term, which the article already has? When Bach wrote "Concerto" on the title page of a cantata, he didn't mean a work in mostly three movements with one solo instrument. For a long time in history, "concerto" meant any concertante music. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:45, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

I added the older (17th, early 18th cent.) meaning to the lead - see what you think. Marlindale (talk) 19:45, 31 January 2016 (UTC)

Haydn?
His (late) symphonies are certainly notable, but I wonder what is the evidence that his concertos are. Marlindale (talk) 21:58, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

His violin concertos were not found on a long list by many composers, so I deleted mention of them from this article. More appreciated seem to be his concerti for cello (oboes, horns, and strings). Marlindale (talk) 19:51, 31 January 2016 (UTC)

Definition problem
I just came here to look up what a concerto was and it says "... a solo instrument is accompanied by ..." That's a self-contradiction. I can't see how an instrument can be both solo and accompanied. Can someone who knows what a concerto really is please fix it? E.g., should it be a solo lead instrument perhaps? Raichu2 (talk) 01:21, 30 September 2019 (UTC)
 * It is true that the word "solo" can, in some contexts, mean "unaccompanied", but that is not its only or even most usual sense. Check the article Solo (music).—Jerome Kohl (talk) 01:41, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Sourcing issues and inadequate lead
The inadequate lead of this article came up elsewhere, and there is a major issue with its inadequate sourcing. I added more tags accordingly, but have no time currently to address these issues. Note that the general "lack of sources" tag has been on this article for nine years (plus a lot of in-line tags indicating particular issues). If nobody volunteers to add adequate sources, it is maybe time to weed out unbalanced and/or questionable content as WP:CHALLENGEs. --Francis Schonken (talk) 14:58, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

Popular Music in the Concerto Format
The article mention's Deep Purple's "Concerto for Group and Orchestra." No objection at all. I would suggest adding "Mountain Jam" by the Allman Brothers. A very good example of the concerto format in popular music. I'd add it myself, but Wikipedia is legendary for its flashmob edit-war hijinks, so I'll leave it to anyone else with more intestinal fortitude than me. 2001:5B0:50D8:B268:7027:1C04:855E:E5D1 (talk) 23:10, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Additional Content included in the section for 20th & 21st century
Ciao fellow editors; just a quick note to indicate that I've included some additional content in the "20th & 21st Century" section with links and references to composers who featured nontraditional instruments with the orthodox concerto form 9such as Paul Hindemith, Andre Jolivet, Heitor Villa-Lobos, John Serry Sr., Astor Piazzolla, and Tan Dun. Also included are links and references for composers who incorporated elements of jazz into the traditional concerto structure (such as Aaron Copland, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky and George Gershwin) as well as others who utilized the orchestra itself as the primary virtuosic force within the concerto form (such as Bela Bartok, Walter Piston, Zoltan Kodaly, Michael Tippet and Elliott Carter). I hope it helps. Happy editing! 160.72.80.178 (talk) 22:47, 19 March 2024 (UTC)NHPL

title: Talk:Concerto


text:
Sonata

Sonata (Italian:, pl. sonate; from Latin and Italian: sonare [archaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by suonare], "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian cantare, "to sing"), a piece sung. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance. Sonata is a vague term, with varying meanings depending on the context and time period. By the early 19th century, it came to represent a principle of composing large-scale works. It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded—alongside the fugue—as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the musical style of sonatas has changed since the Classical era, most 20th- and 21st-century sonatas still maintain the same structure.

The term sonatina, pl. sonatine, the diminutive form of sonata, is often used for a short or technically easy sonata.

Instrumentation
In the Baroque period, a sonata was for one or more instruments almost always with continuo. After the Baroque period most works designated as sonatas specifically are performed by a solo instrument, most often a keyboard instrument, or by a solo instrument accompanied by a keyboard instrument.

Sonatas for a solo instrument other than keyboard have been composed, as have sonatas for other combinations of instruments.

Baroque
In the works of Arcangelo Corelli and his contemporaries, two broad classes of sonata were established, and were first described by Sébastien de Brossard in his Dictionaire de musique (third edition, Amsterdam, ca. 1710): the sonata da chiesa (that is, suitable for use in church), which was the type "rightly known as Sonatas", and the sonata da camera (proper for use at court), which consists of a prelude followed by a succession of dances, all in the same key. Although the four, five, or six movements of the sonata da chiesa are also most often in one key, one or two of the internal movements are sometimes in a contrasting tonality.

The sonata da chiesa, generally for one or two violins and basso continuo, consisted normally of a slow introduction, a loosely fugued allegro, a cantabile slow movement, and a lively finale in some binary form suggesting affinity with the dance-tunes of the suite. This scheme, however, was not very clearly defined, until the works of Arcangelo Corelli when it became the essential sonata and persisted as a tradition of Italian violin music.

The sonata da camera consisted almost entirely of idealized dance-tunes. On the other hand, the features of sonata da chiesa and sonata da camera then tended to be freely intermixed. Although nearly half of Johann Sebastian Bach's 1,100 surviving compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions are instrumental works, only about 4% are sonatas.

The term sonata is also applied to the series of over 500 works for harpsichord solo, or sometimes for other keyboard instruments, by Domenico Scarlatti, originally published under the name Essercizi per il gravicembalo (Exercises for the Harpsichord). Most of these pieces are in one binary-form movement only, with two parts that are in the same tempo and use the same thematic material, though occasionally there will be changes in tempo within the sections. They are frequently virtuosic, and use more distant harmonic transitions and modulations than were common for other works of the time. They were admired for their great variety and invention.

Both the solo and trio sonatas of Vivaldi show parallels with the concerti he was writing at the same time. He composed over 70 sonatas, the great majority of which are of the solo type; most of the rest are trio sonatas, and a very small number are of the multivoice type.

The sonatas of Domenico Paradies are mild and elongated works with a graceful and melodious little second movement included.

Classical period
The practice of the Classical period would become decisive for the sonata; the term moved from being one of many terms indicating genres or forms, to designating the fundamental form of organization for large-scale works. This evolution stretched over fifty years. The term came to apply both to the structure of individual movements (see Sonata form and History of sonata form) and to the layout of the movements in a multi-movement work. In the transition to the Classical period there were several names given to multimovement works, including divertimento, serenade, and partita, many of which are now regarded effectively as sonatas. The usage of sonata as the standard term for such works began somewhere in the 1770s. Haydn labels his first piano sonata as such in 1771, after which the term divertimento is used sparingly in his output. The term sonata was increasingly applied to either a work for keyboard alone (see piano sonata), or for keyboard and one other instrument, often the violin or cello. It was less and less frequently applied to works with more than two instrumentalists; for example, piano trios were not often labelled sonata for piano, violin, and cello.

Initially the most common layout of movements was:

 * 1) Allegro, which at the time was understood to mean not only a tempo, but also some degree of "working out", or development, of the theme.
 * 2) A middle movement, most frequently a slow movement: an Andante, an Adagio or a Largo; or less frequently a Minuet or Theme and Variations form.
 * 3) A closing movement was generally an Allegro or a Presto, often labeled Finale. The form was often a Rondo or Minuet.

However, two-movement layouts also occur, a practice Haydn uses as late as the 1790s. There was also in the early Classical period the possibility of using four movements, with a dance movement inserted before the slow movement, as in Haydn's Piano sonatas No. 6 and No. 8. Mozart's sonatas were also primarily in three movements. Of the works that Haydn labelled piano sonata, divertimento, or partita in Hob XIV, seven are in two movements, thirty-five are in three, and three are in four; and there are several in three or four movements whose authenticity is listed as "doubtful." Composers such as Boccherini would publish sonatas for piano and obbligato instrument with an optional third movement—–in Boccherini's case, 28 cello sonatas.

But increasingly instrumental works were laid out in four, not three movements, a practice seen first in string quartets and symphonies, and reaching the sonata proper in the early sonatas of Beethoven. However, two- and three-movement sonatas continued to be written throughout the Classical period: Beethoven's opus 102 pair has a two-movement C major sonata and a three-movement D major sonata. Nevertheless, works with fewer or more than four movements were increasingly felt to be exceptions; they were labelled as having movements "omitted," or as having "extra" movements.

Thus, the four-movement layout was by this point standard for the string quartet, and overwhelmingly the most common for the symphony. The usual order of the four movements was:

 * 1) An allegro, which by this point was in what is called sonata form, complete with exposition, development, and recapitulation.
 * 2) A slow movement, an Andante, an Adagio or a Largo.
 * 3) A dance movement, frequently Minuet and trio or—especially later in the classical period—a Scherzo and trio.
 * 4) A finale in faster tempo, often in a sonata–rondo form.

When movements appeared out of this order they would be described as "reversed", such as the scherzo coming before the slow movement in Beethoven's 9th Symphony. This usage would be noted by critics in the early 19th century, and it was codified into teaching soon thereafter.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Beethoven's output of sonatas: 32 piano sonatas, plus sonatas for cello and piano or violin and piano, forming a large body of music that would over time increasingly be thought essential for any serious instrumentalist to master.

Romantic period
In the early 19th century, the current usage of the term sonata was established, both as regards form per se, and in the sense that a fully elaborated sonata serves as a norm for concert music in general, which other forms are seen in relation to. From this point forward, the word sonata in music theory labels as much the abstract musical form as particular works. Hence there are references to a symphony as a sonata for orchestra. This is referred to by William Newman as the sonata idea.

Among works expressly labeled sonata for the piano, there are the three of Frédéric Chopin, those of Felix Mendelssohn, the three of Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor, and later the sonatas of Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

In the early 19th century, the sonata form was defined, from a combination of previous practice and the works of important Classical composers, particularly Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, but composers such as Clementi also. It is during this period that the differences between the three- and the four-movement layouts became a subject of commentary, with emphasis on the concerto being laid out in three movements, and the symphony in four.

Ernest Newman wrote in the essay "Brahms and the Serpent":

 * That, perhaps, will be the ideal of the instrumental music of the future; the way to it, indeed, seems at last to be opening out before modern composers in proportion as they discard the last tiresome vestiges of sonata form. This, from being what it was originally, the natural mode of expression of a certain eighteenth century way of thinking in music, became in the nineteenth century a drag upon both individual thinking and the free unfolding of the inner vital force of an idea, and is now simply a shop device by which a bad composer may persuade himself and the innocent reader of textbooks that he is a good one.

After the Romantic period
The role of the sonata as an extremely important form of extended musical argument would inspire composers such as Hindemith, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tailleferre, Ustvolskaya, and Williams to compose in sonata form, and works with traditional sonata structures continue to be composed and performed.

Sonata idea or principle
Research into the practice and meaning of sonata form, style, and structure has been the motivation for important theoretical works by Heinrich Schenker, Arnold Schoenberg, and Charles Rosen among others; and the pedagogy of music continued to rest on an understanding and application of the rules of sonata form as almost two centuries of development in practice and theory had codified it.

The development of the classical style and its norms of composition formed the basis for much of the music theory of the 19th and 20th centuries. As an overarching formal principle, sonata was accorded the same central status as Baroque fugue; generations of composers, instrumentalists, and audiences were guided by this understanding of sonata as an enduring and dominant principle in Western music. The sonata idea begins before the term had taken on its present importance, along with the evolution of the Classical period's changing norms. The reasons for these changes, and how they relate to the evolving sense of a new formal order in music, is a matter to which research is devoted. Some common factors which were pointed to include: the shift of focus from vocal music to instrumental music; changes in performance practice, including the loss of the continuo.

Crucial to most interpretations of the sonata form is the idea of a tonal center; and, as the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music puts it: "The main form of the group embodying the 'sonata principle', the most important principle of musical structure from the Classical period to the 20th century: that material first stated in a complementary key be restated in the home key".(

The sonata idea has been thoroughly explored by William Newman in his monumental three-volume work Sonata in the Classic Era (A History of the Sonata Idea), begun in the 1950s and published in what has become the standard edition of all three volumes in 1972.

20th-century theory
Heinrich Schenker argued that there was an Urlinie or basic tonal melody, and a basic bass figuration. He held that when these two were present, there was basic structure, and that the sonata represented this basic structure in a whole work with a process known as interruption.

As a practical matter, Schenker applied his ideas to the editing of the piano sonatas of Beethoven, using original manuscripts and his own theories to "correct" the available sources. The basic procedure was the use of tonal theory to infer meaning from available sources as part of the critical process, even to the extent of completing works left unfinished by their composers. While many of these changes were and are controversial, that procedure has a central role today in music theory, and is an essential part of the theory of sonata structure as taught in most music schools.

Baroque (c. 1600 – c. 1760)

 * Johann Sebastian Bach
 * Sonatas for solo violin (BWV 1001, 1003 and 1005)
 * Sonatas for flute and continuo (BWV 1034, 1035)
 * Trio sonatas: for organ (BWV 525–530); for violin and harpsichord (BWV 1014–1019); for viola da gamba and harpsichord (BWV 1027–1029); for flute and harpsichord (BWV 1030, 1032); for flute, violin and continuo (Sonata sopr'il Soggetto Reale included in The Musical Offering)
 * Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
 * Rosary Sonatas
 * George Frideric Handel
 * Sonata for Violin and Continuo in D major (HWV 371)
 * Giuseppe Tartini
 * Devil's Trill Sonata
 * Domenico Scarlatti
 * List of solo keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti

Classical (c. 1760 – c. 1830)

 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor (K. 310)
 * Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major (K. 331/300i)
 * Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major (K. 332)
 * Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-flat major (K. 333)
 * Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor (K. 457)
 * Piano Sonata No. 15 in F major (K. 533/494)
 * Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major (K. 545)
 * Sonata in A for Violin and Keyboard (K. 526)
 * Franz Joseph Haydn
 * Sonata No. 1 in C major, Hob. XVI:1 – Piano Sonata No. 62, Hob.XVI:52
 * Franz Schubert
 * Sonata in C minor, D. 958
 * Sonata in A major, D. 959
 * Sonata in B♭ major, D. 960

Romantic (c. 1795 – c. 1900)

 * Ludwig van Beethoven
 * Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathétique"
 * Piano Sonata No. 14 "Moonlight" (Sonata quasi una fantasia)
 * Piano Sonata No. 17 "Tempest"
 * Piano Sonata No. 19 "Leichte"
 * Piano Sonata No. 21 "Waldstein"
 * Piano Sonata No. 23 "Appassionata"
 * Piano Sonata No. 29 "Hammerklavier"
 * Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
 * Violin Sonata No. 5 "Spring"
 * Violin Sonata No. 9 "Kreutzer"
 * Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major Op. 5
 * Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor Op. 5
 * Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major Op. 69
 * Johannes Brahms
 * Cello Sonata No. 1
 * Cello Sonata No. 2
 * Clarinet Sonatas No. 1 and No.2
 * Violin Sonata No. 1
 * Violin Sonata No. 2
 * Violin Sonata No. 3
 * Johannes Brahms, Albert Dietrich, and Robert Schumann
 * 'F-A-E' Sonata
 * Frédéric Chopin
 * Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor
 * Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor
 * Paul Dukas
 * Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (1900)
 * George Enescu
 * Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano in D major, Op. 2 (1897)
 * Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano in F minor, Op. 6 (1899)
 * Edvard Grieg
 * Three sonatas for Violin and Piano
 * Franz Liszt
 * Sonata after a Reading of Dante (Fantasia Quasi Sonata)
 * Sonata in B minor
 * Robert Schumann
 * Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105

20th-century and contemporary (c. 1910–present)

 * Samuel Barber
 * Cello Sonata Op. 6
 * Piano Sonata Op. 26 (1949)
 * Jean Barraqué
 * Piano Sonata (1950–52)
 * Béla Bartók
 * Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
 * Sonata for Piano (1926)
 * Sonata for Solo Violin
 * Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano
 * Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano
 * Alban Berg
 * Sonata for Piano, Op. 1
 * Leonard Bernstein
 * Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
 * Pierre Boulez
 * Piano Sonata No. 1
 * Piano Sonata No. 2
 * Piano Sonata No. 3
 * Benjamin Britten
 * Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 65
 * John Cage
 * Sonata for Unaccompanied Clarinet
 * Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1946–48)
 * Claude Debussy
 * Sonata No. 1, for cello and piano (1915)
 * Sonata No. 2, for flute, viola and harp (1915)
 * Sonata No. 3, for violin and piano (1916–1917)
 * George Enescu
 * Sonata No. 3 for violin and piano, in A minor, dans le caractère populaire roumain Op. 25 (1926)
 * Sonata No. 2 for cello and piano in C major, Op. 26, No. 2 (1935)
 * Piano Sonata No. 1 in F♯ minor, Op. 24, No. 1 (1924)
 * Piano Sonata No. 3 in D major, Op. 24, No. 3 (1933–1935)
 * Karel Goeyvaerts
 * Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 1
 * Hans Werner Henze
 * Royal Winter Music, Guitar Sonatas No. 1 and 2
 * Paul Hindemith
 * Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 11, No. 4 (1919)
 * Charles Ives
 * Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840–60
 * Leoš Janáček
 * 1. X. 1905 (Janáček's Sonata for Piano)
 * Ben Johnston
 * Sonata for Microtonal Piano
 * György Ligeti
 * Sonata, for solo cello (1948/1953)
 * Nikolai Medtner
 * Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 5 (1901-3)
 * Piano Sonata No. 2 in A♭, Op. 11 (1904-7)
 * Piano Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Sonate-Elegie, Op. 11 (1904-7)
 * Piano Sonata No. 4 in C, Op. 11 (1904-7)
 * Piano Sonata No. 5 in G minor, Op. 22 (1909–10)
 * Piano Sonata No. 6 in C minor, Sonata-Skazka, Op. 22 (1910–11)
 * Piano Sonata No. 7 in E minor, Night Wind, Op. 22 (1910–11)
 * Piano Sonata No. 8 in F♯, Sonata-Ballade, Op. 27 (1912–14)
 * Piano Sonata No. 9 in A minor, War Sonata, Op. 30 (1914–17)
 * Piano Sonata No. 10 in A minor, Sonata-reminiscenza, Op. 38 No. 1 (1920)
 * Piano Sonata No. 11 in C minor, Sonata Tragica, Op. 39, No. 5 (1920)
 * Piano Sonata No. 12 in B♭ minor, Romantica, Op. 53 No. 1 (1930)
 * Piano Sonata No. 13 in F minor, Minacciosa, Op. 53, No. 2 (1930)
 * Piano Sonata No. 14 in G, Sonata-Idyll, Op. 56 (1937)
 * Darius Milhaud
 * Sonata for flute, oboe, clarinet, and piano, Op. 47 (1918)
 * Sergei Prokofiev
 * Piano Sonatas—six juvenile (1904, 1907, 1907, 1907–08, 1908, 1908–09)
 * Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1 (1907–09)
 * Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 14 (1912)
 * Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 (1907–17)
 * Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29 (1917)
 * Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major (original version), Op. 38 (1923)
 * Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80 (1938–46)
 * Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82 (1939–40)
 * Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Stalingrad, Op. 83 (1939–42)
 * Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, Op. 84 (1939–44)
 * Flute Sonata in D major, Op. 94 (1943)
 * Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 94 bis (1943)
 * Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major, Op. 103 (1947)
 * Sonata for Solo Violin (Unison Violins) in D major, Op. 115
 * Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 119
 * Sonata for Solo Cello in C-sharp minor, Op. 133
 * Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major (revised version), Op. 135 (1952–53)
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff
 * Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36 (1913, revised in 1931)
 * Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 19 (1901)
 * Alexander Scriabin
 * Piano Sonata No. 2 (Sonata-Fantasy)
 * Piano Sonata No. 3
 * Piano Sonata No. 4
 * Piano Sonata No. 5
 * Piano Sonata No. 6
 * Piano Sonata No. 7 "White Mass"
 * Piano Sonata No. 8
 * Piano Sonata No. 9 "Black Mass"
 * Piano Sonata No. 10
 * Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
 * Piano Sonata No. 0
 * Piano Sonata No. 1
 * Piano Sonata No. 2
 * Piano Sonata No. 3
 * Piano Sonata No. 4
 * Piano Sonata No. 5 "Opus Archimagicum"
 * Igor Stravinsky
 * Sonata for Two Pianos (1943)
 * Eugène Ysaÿe
 * Six Sonatas for solo violin (1923)

title: Sonata