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The wealthy and erudite East-Anglian landowner Joseph Eyre (c.1711–1789) had two passions: music and theology. In both areas he achieved distinction. His activity in the first sphere took place mainly within the ambit of domestic music-making and music societies in the counties of Essex and Suffolk. As a monument to his achievement as a musician he published privately c.1765 a set of eight trio sonatas – six specifically for two violins with bass and two for a pair of flutes and bass. Sonatas 1-7 are elaborated reworkings of much older violin sonatas (1723) by the Italian composer G.B. Somis, but Sonata 8, for violins, is clearly a wholly original work composed close to the time of publication. It is an impressive, beautifully crafted sonata that straddles the borderline between Baroque style in its late, galant phase and the early Classical period.
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Music example (pdf)