Walter was not an innovator in the art of tone painting, for Farina had tried the same devices seventy years before. Still he cannot be dubbed a mere imitator of Farina, though he was without doubt strongly influenced by the latter. Walter’s technique is much more advanced than that of Farina, but at the same time he shows little improvement in a purely musical way.

IV

There is an obvious advance in musical value in the Correnti e balletti da camera a due violini, 1666; Balletti, Sonate, 1667, 1669; Correnti e capricci per camera a due violini e violone, 1683, and other instrumental pieces by Giovanni Battista Vitali, ‛sonatore di Violino di brazzo’ in the orchestra of Bologna. Vitali’s melodies contain much more pleasing qualities than those of his contemporaries. In regard to form, his sonatas, in which rapid changes from quick to slow movements mark the various sections, show the transition from the suite to the sonata da camera. Vitali was one of those early inspired composers, whose greatest merit lies in their striving toward invention and toward the ideal of pure absolute music. In technique Vitali does not show any material progress.

Of particular importance is Tommaso Antonio Vitali, a famous violinist of his time. Of his works, Sonate a tre, due violini e violoncello, 1693; Sonate a due violini, col basso per l’organo, 1693, and Concerto di sonate a violino, violoncello e cembalo, 1701, the most famous and most valuable is his Ciaccona, which is very often played on the concert stage by present-day violinists. The Ciaccona is full of poetic moods and its short, pregnant theme shows deep feeling and genuine inspiration, qualities which we find here for the first time. The whole is a set of variations upon a short theme, constituting a series of contrasting pictures. Noteworthy are the harmony and the advanced treatment of modulation. The ornamental figures, too, are derived from the logical development of the theme, hence do not serve the sole purpose of providing the virtuoso with an opportunity to display his technical skill.

The first representative virtuoso-composer was Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1708), to whom is ascribed the invention of the concerto, that is, the application of the sonata form of his time to concerted music. In Torelli’s concertos the solo-violins were accompanied not only by a bass as in the sonatas, but by a stringed band, to which sometimes a lute or organ was added. The solo-violins in his ‘Concerti grossi’ (1686) usually played together, though not always. That he had the virtuoso in mind when he wrote may be gathered from the following examples:

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