Review of After the Italion way: Restoration trio sonatas, ed. Peter Holmanand John Cunningham, Purcell Society Edition Companion Series 4 London: Stainer & Bell, (2012)

The fourth volume of the Purcell Society Edition Companion Series brings to light a selection of late 17th-century trio sonatas written either by English composers or by foreigners active in Restoration England, and whose works appear in English manuscripts of that period.

Editors Peter Holman and John Cunningham aim in this volume to rectify an imbalance in Purcell studies between, on the one hand, research into foreign models (to whom Purcell referred obliquely as ‘fam’d Italian Masters’) and, on the other hand, study of possible local models (teachers, colleagues and so forth) for his trio sonatas (p.xi). However, they have achieved much more than that, being among the first scholars who, by way of meticulous collection and presentation, have filled the vague term ‘Restoration trio sonata’ with substance. Comparative study of the different sonatas contained in the new volume is encouraged further by the fact that all of the eight works in the main body of the volume (that is, not in the appendices) are either in G minor or in A major, which allows easy comparison of the composers’ exploitation of violin technique, harmonic progressions and cadential formulas. It also allows one to appreciate how bold and unlikely was Purcell’s choice of a colourful twelve-key tonal palette for his 1683 Sonnatas.