Introduction
Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices make music where alternation is the main principle. This alternation Some sort of musical contrast The term derives from Italian concerto which means 'playing together' — hence concertato means 'in the style of a concerto'.

Audio
  • Concertato Naxos ACC10101
  • Concerto Naxos PTC5186031
  • Many audio examples can be found with Spotify (spotify.com)
Concertato and concerto
Historical roots of alternate singing and playing

The Hebrew mode of singing in the temple and synagogue was probably antiphonal or alternating, either between priest and congregation, or precentor and choir, or between groups of singers. This is implied by many passages in scriptural poetry, especially in the Psalms. For instance, in the thirty-eighth Psalm, which consists wholly of responsive lines, we find this example of antiphonal worship:

Priest: "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath,"
Congregation: "Neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure;"
Priest: "For Thine arrows stick fast in me,"
Congregation: "And Thy hand presseth me sore."

It is more than likely that the method of singing in early Christian congregations was antiphonal (responsive).

  • Philo, a Jewish chronicler of the first century, is authority for the statement that the psalms and hymns were sung by alternate male and female choirs (among the Therapeutae, an Israelitic sect in Alexandria).
  • According to the historian Socrates of Constantinople, its introduction into Christian worship was due to Ignatius of Antioch (died 107), who in a vision had seen the angels singing in alternate choirs.
At all events, some such mode of alternating song must have been the original type of the antiphonal chant which subsequently became so general in the Christian church (instruments of every kind were prohibited for a long time).

Antiphons have remained an integral part of the worship in the Greek Orthodox church and the Eastern Catholic churches. In the Latin Church it was not practiced until more than two centuries later and have been credited to Ambrose, bishop of Milan. He, like Gregory the Great, has been credited with compiling 'antiphonaries', or collections of works suitable for antiphonal singing (also known as an 'antiphonal'), which are still in use in the Roman Catholic Church today.

Conclusion
Antiphony, alternate singing, was part of the musical 'genes' of every church musician.


Polychoral antiphony in western music history: cori spezzati
The Flemish composer Adriaen Willaert was chapelmaster in St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, from 1540 until his death, in 1562. Willaert is supposed to be the originator of the double chorus or cori spezzati — literally, separated choirs. He wrote antiphonal music where opposing choirs would sing successive, often contrasting phrases of the music; the stereo effect proved to be popular, and soon other composers were imitating the idea, and not only in St. Mark's but in other large cathedrals in Italy.

When two or more groups of singers sing in alternation the style of music can also be called 'polychoral'. Specifically, this term is usually applied to music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. Polychoral techniques are a definitive characteristic of the music of the Venetian school, exemplified by the works of successor of Adriaen Willaert, Giovanni Gabrieli (hence Venetian polychoral style).

The Venetian polychoral style was an important innovation of the late Renaissance, and this style, with its variations as it spread across Europe after 1600, helped to define the beginning of the Baroque era. Polychoral music was not limited to Italy in the Renaissance; it was popular in Spain and Germany. To mention some composers from the 17th century

  • Tomás Luis de Victoria
  • Giovanni Gabrieli
  • Claudio Monteverdi
  • Michael Praetorius
  • Johann Schein
  • Heinrich Schütz
  • Lodovico Viadana
  • Orlando di Lasso

And there are polychoral examples from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from composers as diverse as Berlioz (Romeo and Juliet - Capulets and Montagues), Verdi (Te Deum), Mahler (Eighth Symphony), Bartók (Cantata Profana), Igor Stravinsky (Mass), Karlheinz Stockhausen (Gruppe für drei Orchester) and Daan Manneke (Monumentum/Gedanken zu Bach).

Concerto and concerto grosso
The idea of the concerto is that the two parts in a concert, the soloist and the orchestra, alternate episodes of opposition and cooperation in the creation of the music flow.
The concerto, as understood in the modern way as performance of a soloist with/against an orchestra, arose in the Baroque period side by side with the concerto grosso, which contrasted a small group of instruments with the rest of the orchestra. The concerto and concerto grosso were established as a form of composition in the Baroque period.

A somewhat oversimplified, but useful distinction between concertato and concerto can be made:

  • the concertato style involves contrast between opposing groups of voices and groups of instruments
  • the concerto style, especially as it developed into the concerto grosso later in the Baroque, involves contrast between large and small groups (later called "ripieno" = tutti and "concertino" = smaller group) or and in case of a solo concerto, a contrast between soloist(s) and "ripieno".

The most influential and prolific composer of concertos during the Baroque period was the Venetian Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). Vivaldi composed approximately 425 concertos for one or more soloists, including about 350 solo concertos (two-thirds for solo violin) and 45 double concertos (over half for two violins).
Remark
Study the mindmaps of Gabrieli, Monteverdi and Schütz on bestmusicteacher.com