Petronio Franceschini was born and active in Bologna. He was a cellist in the Basilica di S. Petronio from 1675 to 1680 and died in Venice before he could finish his fifth opera, Dionisio, which was subsequently completed by Partenio. Besides operas, which according to Thomas Walker "have great rhythmic energy and make much use of the trumpet in dialogue with the voice", Franceschini composed a quantity of church music, including two church sonatas, the present one with two trumpets dating from the last year of his life. Its full sound is derived in part from the string texture with two viola parts instead of one. Particularly noteworthy is the third movement, in which the trumpets are required to play in the minor mode. This is a rare happening in Baroque trumpet music, for, as the other works of this recording testify, the trumpet was usually employed in C or D major to express jubilant emotions. The use of the minor gives this work its peculiar, profound quality and shows that its composer was an original thinker.