For some time now, Johannes Schenck has enjoyed a return to popularity as a composer of ingenious and technically demanding music for viola da gamba, but his compositional output in other fields has largely been forgotten. His instrumental music, is nowadays generally recognised, was composed in the tradition of the composer-virtuoso, almost exclusively for the viola da gamba.

The only exception is the undated Opus 7, from the publishing house of Estienne Roger, entitled Suonate a Violino e Violone o Cimbalo, which first appeared in 1699. The two individual part-books of the publication, one for the solo violin, the other for the bass accompaniment, contain a total of 18 numbered pieces. The use of French titles for the dance forms and the title “Prelude in stile francese” seem at first to point to a strong French influence on Schenck’s Op. 7, as does the fact that the dance movements are consistently in the ordering Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, as was normal practice for a suite in France at the time.

But in fact Schenck cleverly mixes suite and sonata forms with formally free, almost improvisatory movements or entire pieces in the so-called Stylus phantasticus, creating a successful synthesis of elements from French, Italian, and Dutch/North German styles. This joy in experimentation leads overall to an impressive diversity of form and great richness of contrast, further increased by means of the contrasting characters of the movements, whose spectrum ranges from playful dances to elegiac slow movements.