Abstract
Until recently, it was generally assumed that Luigi Boccherini's six published sonatas for the cello were his only works for the medium. The publication, however, of a Thematic, Biographical and Critical Catalogue of the Works of Luigi
Boccherini, London, (1969) , compiled by Yves Gerard, has thrown new light on Boccherini's compositions, many of which were never published. He composed a number of sonatas for cello, but only six of these, the set of six mentioned above, are generally known. The Gerard Catalogue lists thirty-two sonatas for cello, eleven of which appear in the supplement at the back of the volume, and gives all the known manuscript and printed sources for each.
This thesis examines in detail all thirty-two sonatas listed in the Gerard Catalogue. Three of the sonatas are not by Boccherini and at least six others are of doubtful authenticity. Part I deals with the manuscript and printed sources and suggests some approximate dates of composition. Part 2 deals with general historical background and looks at the compositions themselves in terms of historical development. Part 3 discusses the eighteenth-century cello and bow and contemporary conventions of notation, including all the ornaments found in the cello sonatas. Part 4 consists of an edition of all those cello sonatas which can be attributed to Boccherini, based on all available sources.
The appendices in Part 5 include a sample realisation of the basso of one of the sonatas, a cadenza for two cellos and a sonata for two cellos (both by Boccherini) , and also those sonatas which have been found during the course of the present study to be either spurious or of doubtful authenticity.