Obras para tecla de Pedro António Avondano: Características formais e estilísticas, particularidades da escrita

Abstract

In the context of the Portuguese keyboard repertoire of the second half of the eighteenth century, the collections Dodeci sonate, variazioni, minuetti per cembalo by Francisco Xavier Baptista and Sei sonate per cembalo by Alberto José Gomes da Silva stand out as the only keyboard works printed in Portugal during the course of the entire eighteenth century. At that time, another Portuguese keyboard work, composed by the violinist Pedro António Avondano (1714?-82), was printed abroad. The existence of other keyboard works by this composer, among which are several sonatas, arouses interest through the recognition of their compositional characteristics. From a survey of the sources and an analysis based on the Sonata Theory by James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, this study describes the formal and stylistic characteristics of Pedro António Avondano’s keyboard works and the particularities of his writing. The analysis reveals the coexistence of a great formal diversity and the assimilation of identifying elements of the galant style and the empfindsamer Stil, together with a creative capacity concerning the modification of the course usually delineated by sonata forms. Comparison with the characteristics of the keyboard sonatas of other Portuguese composers of the period highlights the importance of some particularities identified in Avondano’s keyboard writing.