Violin Sonata in D minor Op.5 No.12 “La Folia” (before 1700)

If there was one work responsible for sustaining Corelli’s reputation even in the dark ages when baroque music was considered to be of little interest, it must be the variations on “La Folia” published as the last of his twelve Violin Sonatas Op.5 in Rome in 1700. It is true that the work had to be substantially rewritten to suit 19th-century taste, as in Hubert Léonard’s once widely performed edition of 1877, but it was never forgotten: Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli, which are actually variations on “La Folia,” are just one of many indications of that.

Much of the appeal of the Sonata in D minor rests, of course, in the quality of the theme – a serious late-17th century version, first used by Lully in 1672, of a not so respectable dance tune which had originated in Portugal two centuries earlier. Its tendency to shift the rhythmic accent to the second beat of every other bar is a particularly intriguing characteristic. But it would be a mistake to underestimate the unfailingly resourceful quality of the 23 variations themselves. In fact, just as the Op.5 sonatas as a whole are the foundation of modern violin playing, “La Folia” had a far-reaching influence on the art of the variation. Variations in a quick tempo predominate but there is also a judicious proportion of slow ones to offset them. The practice, of which Brahms was to be a master, of applying a distinctive rhythmic figuration to each variation is clearly foreshadowed here, as is the identification of each one with a different instrumental technique. The climactic elongation of the virtuoso last variation is another prophetic feature.