ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the rationale behind the examples by setting forth the collection of tonalities within which late-Seicento sonata composers conceived their music. Theorists of the Seicento most often relied on the single term tuono to describe several distinct ideas, all of which relate to some notion of tonal organization. The seventeenth-century analog to G major provides a case of that era's distinctive tonal style—a G-tonality based on the eighth psalm tone that differs from common-practice major keys. A similar propensity for emphasizing the fourth degree in Bolognese G-tonality sonatas occurs where there are neither modal designations nor any discernible arrangement of the sonatas within a print according to the church keys. Modern scholars have reacted in various ways to the tonal style of late-Seicento instrumental music, which has been taken to exemplify both modern keys and Renaissance modes.
