Sonatas à 2 / Trio Sonatas

[tim.willis1685]

I have several 17th century sonatas to upload from the Düben collection, Uppsala but I don't know what to call them. I was hoping someone (maybe from the tagging team) could give me some advice.

[[Trio Sonata in D minor, S-Uu 58:7 (Schmelzer, Johann Heinrich)|This one]] I have named "Trio Sonata", as are all sonatas here for 2 instruments and continuo, however the manuscript says Sonata à 2. It seems that more often than not, continuo parts were disregarded in the 17th century when giving a piece its title, however later on in the baroque period such a piece would be called "Sonata à 3" or Trio Sonata. Is this correct, or should 17th century "Trio Sonatas" keep their original titles; "Sonata à 2"?

It gets more complicated when dealing with pieces for 3 instruments and continuo... "Sonatas à 3" on the manuscripts. I already uploaded a few of these sonatas (there's one [[Sonata à 4 in D minor (Bertali, Antonio)|here]]), but I'm now wondering if it was correct to name it "Sonata à 4".

The most confusing is when we have "Sonata à 4" on the manuscript, but the 4th "solo" part is a bass instrument in unison with the continuo. ([[Sonata à 4 in G minor (Bach, Johann Michael)|See here]]. So what we actually have is a sonata for 3 instruments and continuo. What should we be calling THESE pieces?

I think we should make a decision because at the moment these titles aren't very standardised, (this is largely my fault).

Thanks in advance.

[Notenschreiber]

This is a special case which shows, that the guide line "Tag by title" has to be applied with some intelligence. Sometimes "sonatas à n" counts only the voices without the continuo, in other cases the continuo voice is included. So n = 2 may stand for a duo or a trio sonata, n = 3 for a trio sonata or a quadro sonata. But it should be clear, which
interpretation is right, if one looks "inside".

[steltz]

Don't worry about it for tagging, because in this case, the tag would be "sonata" in any case, and not "trio" or "duo". So the title should be exactly what is on the page, and the tag will be "sonata". However, there are cases in which it is a relevant question -- the Italians wrote many pieces called "Duetto" for two voices and piano, and I got accosted at a concert once by an angry audience member who thought I couldn't add properly! "Who compiled this programme?"

[tim.willis1685]

It must have been a great performance if that's all they had to complain about!