ABSTRACT
Contrary to popular belief, variations held but little appeal for most composers of ensemble sonatas in the first half of the seventeenth century – at least if the contents of printed collections are a just measure of popularity. However, even the most casual glance would reveal that there is little stylistic comparability between Girolamo Frescobaldi's highly individual and idiomatic keyboard variations with their florid transformations of both melody and bass and the ensemble sonatas of either of these two string instrumentalists. It may well be significant that three main contributors to the variation sonata were players of melody instruments, while a great many composers who published abstract instrumental ensemble works were in fact organists. Giovanni Battista Buonamente now makes use of an unusual structural device rarely found in sets of variations, but which provided one of his most characteristic techniques in the 'finales' to his free sonatas: systematic thematic recall.
