ABSTRACT
This chapter covers developments in Bolognese instrumental music that led to the concerto, following a path of musical similarities that travels across differences of genre and instrumentation. A pivotal moment in Bolognese instrumental music was 1692, when Giuseppe Torelli linked the term "concerto" in his Op. 5 to the practice of using multiple string players per part. Many composers for instrumental ensemble, Torelli included, had used the term "concerto" as a genre designation, but never with a performance practice or any specific genre characteristics in mind. The makeup of Torelli's ritornellos varies considerably from one example to the next: it could be a tonally open or closed musical period; its internal structure could be through-composed or bipartite, homophonic or canonic. Nonetheless, the common traits in Torelli's Op. 5 concertos of part-doubling, proto-ritornello-form allegros, and, not least, the "concerto" designation, define a new genre of instrumental music distinct from the sinfonias.
