Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century

Another highly symptomatic piece, and perhaps a more significant one, is the Sonata per tre violini
from the collection of 1615 (see Ex. 18-18 for its concluding fireworks). It may very well have been on
the program that Thomas Coryat described, where he mentions “these treble viols” of which “I heard
three several there,” playing so impressively. Since all three solo parts in this sonata are treble parts, the
basso per l’organo in this case is a true basso continuo, an actual fourth part, not a basso seguente. Such a
composition, for treble or trebles above an independent bass with a vague harmonic filler to be added in