Arcangelo Corelli (, also , ; ; 17 February 1653 – 8 January 1713) was an Italian composer, musician, and violinist of the middle Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of the violin, and as the first coalescing of modern tonality and functional harmony.Taruskin, Richard. Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 2, chapter 5 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Early life and education Childhood Baptismal records indicate that Corelli was born on 17 February 1653 in the small Romagna town of Fusignano, then in the diocese of Ferrara,Allsop, p. 14 in the Papal States. His ancestors had been in Fusignano and land-owners there since 1506, when a Corelli moved to the area from Rome. Although apparently prosperous, they were almost certainly not of the nobility, as several fanciful accounts of the composer's genealogy subsequently claimed. Corelli's father, from whom he took the name Arcangelo, died five weeks before the composer's birth. Consequently, he was raised by his mother, Santa (née Ruffini, or Raffini), alongside four elder siblings, including Ippolito Corelli (1643–1727), Domenico Corelli (1647–1719) and Giacinto Corelli (1649–1719).
The wealth of anecdotes and legends attached to Corelli contrasts sharply with the paucity of reliable contemporary evidence documenting events in his life. This gap is especially pronounced for his formative years, including his musical education; traditional accounts of a highly idealized childhood have long been debunked.Allsop, pp. 3–14
Musical education Corelli was trained in Bologna and Rome and spent most of his career there with the protection of wealthy patrons.Buscaroli, Piero Arcangelo Corelli, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Volume 29. Treccani, 1983
According to the poet Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, who presumably knew the composer well, Corelli initially studied music under a priest in the nearby town of Faenza, and then in Lugo, before moving in 1666 to Bologna. A major centre of musical culture of the time, Bologna had a flourishing school of violinists associated with Ercole Gaibara and his pupils, and Leonardo Brugnoli. Reports by later sources link Corelli's musical studies with several master violinists, including Benvenuti, Brugnoli, Bartolomeo Laurenti and Giovanni Battista Bassani. Although historically plausible, these accounts remain largely unconfirmed, as does the claim that the papal contralto Matteo Simonelli first taught him to write in the "Palestrina style". A remark Corelli later made to a patron suggests that his musical education focused mainly on the violin.
Chronicles of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna indicate that Corelli was accepted as a member by 1670, at the exceptionally young age of seventeen. The credibility of this attribution has been disputed.Allsop, p. 25 Although the nickname Il Bolognese appears on the title-pages of Corelli's first three published sets of works (Opus 1 to 3), the duration of his stay in Bologna remains unclear.
Career and professional success
Early career Anecdotes of travels outside Italy to France, Germany, and Spain lack any contemporary evidence. For example, the anecdote that Corelli's continental fame stemmed from a trip to Paris at the age of nineteen, where he was chased away by an envious Jean-Baptiste Lully, seems to have originated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau.Allsop, p. 5 It was also claimed that Corelli spent time in Germany in the service of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (supposedly in 1681), as well as in the house of his friend and fellow violinist-composer Cristiano Farinelli (between 1680 and 1685).
Although it is unclear quite when Corelli arrived in Rome, he was certainly active there by 1675, when "Arcangelo Bolognese" (as he was referred to) was engaged to play as one of the supporting violinists in Lenten oratorios at the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, as well as in the French national celebrations held each year on 25 August at San Luigi dei Francesi and during the ordination of a member of the powerful Chigi family at Santi Domenico e Sisto. In August 1676, he was already playing second violin to Carlo Mannelli at San Luigi dei Francesi. Although Rome did not have any permanent orchestra providing stable employment for instrumentalists, Corelli rapidly made a name for himself, playing in a variety of ensembles sponsored by wealthy patrons, such as Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, for whom he played in Lenten oratorios at San Marcello from 1676 to 1679.Allsop, p. 27-29
Professional success
Though his entire production is limited to just six published collections – five of which are trio sonatas or solo and one of concerti grossi — he achieved great fame and success throughout Europe, in the process crystallizing widely influential musical models.Barnett, Gregory. "Form and gesture: canzona, sonata and concerto”. In: Carter, Tim & Butt, John (eds.). The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music. Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 479–516Bowring, Lynette. "The coming over of the works of the great Corelli: The influence of the Italian violin repertoire in London 1675–1705". In: Wainwright, Jonathan; Knowles, Joseph; Cheetham, Andrew (eds.). Reappraising the Seicento: Composition, Dissemination, Assimilation. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, pp. 189–190
His writing has been described as having balance, original harmonies, richness of textures, theatricality, and clear, expressive and melodious polyphony, representative of Classical ideals, although belonging to the Baroque era and often employing resources typical of this school, such as the exploration of dynamic and expressive contrasts, but tempered by a sense of moderation.Boyd, Malcolm. "Rome: the Power of Patronage". In: Buelow, George J. (ed.). The Late Baroque Era: Vol 4. From The 1680s To 1740. Springer, 2016Taruskin, Richard. Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press, 2009Burdette, Glenn. "Corelli, Arcangelo 1653–1713". In: Steib, Murray (ed.). Reader's Guide to Music: History, Theory and Criticism. Routledge, 2013 He was the first to fully apply, with an expressive and structuring purpose, the new tonal system, consolidated after at least two hundred years of experimentation. As a virtuoso violinist he was considered one of the greatest of his generation and contributed, thanks to the development of modern playing techniques and to his many disciples scattered throughout Europe, to placing the violin among the most prestigious solo instruments and was also a significant figure in the evolution of the traditional orchestra.Buelow, George J. A history of baroque music. Indiana University Press, 2004, pp. 115–133Spitzer, John & Zaslaw, Neal. The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650–1815. Oxford University Press, 2004Burkhart, Charles & Rothstein, William. Anthology for Musical Analysis: The Common-Practice Period. Cengage Learning, 2014, p. 12Hann, Hanna C. [Ehle, Robert. (or.)]. "The Influence of Historic Violin Treatises on Modern Teaching and Performance Practices" Arquivado em 15 de setembro de 2016, no Wayback Machine.. In: University of Northern Colorado Undergraduate Research Journal, 2015; 4 (3)
A dominant figure in Roman musical life and internationally highly regarded,Boyd, Malcolm. "Rome: the Power of Patronage". In: Buelow, George J. (ed.). The Late Baroque Era: Vol 4. From The 1680s To 1740. Springer, 2016, pp. 52–53 he was desired by many courts and was included in the most prestigious artistic and intellectual society of his time, the Pontifical Academy of Arcadia. He was known in his time as "the new Orpheus", "the prince of musicians" and other similar adjectives, great folklore was generated around his figure and his fame did not diminish after his death.Rose, Stephen. "Music in the market-place". In: Carter, Tim & Butt, John (eds.). The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music. Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 64 Even today his work is the subject of a voluminous critical bibliography and his sonatas are still widely used in musical academies as didactic material as well as pieces capable of affirming themselves in today's concert repertoire. His position in the history of Western music is considered crucial, being recognized as one of the greatest masters at the turn of the 17th and 18th century, as well as one of the earliest and greatest classicists.Hindley Geofrey (ed.). The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music. Hamlyn Publishing, 1971–1990, pp. 204–205Zaslaw, Neal. "Ornaments for Corelli's Violin Sonatas, op. 5". In: Early Music, 1996; 24 (1):95–116. Series Music in Purcell's London II
In 1687 Corelli led the festival performances of music for Queen Christina of Sweden. He was also a favorite of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, grandnephew of another Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, who in 1689 became Pope Alexander VIII. From 1689 to 1690 he was in Modena. The Duke of Modena was generous to him. In 1706 Corelli was elected a member of the Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi (the Arcadian Academy of Rome). He received the Arcadian name of Arcomelo Erimanteo.Arcomelo may be translated as 'Prince of Melody' or 'Prince of Sweetness' (Gk. ἀρχός and μέλος). Cfr. Ph. Borer, The Sweet Power of Strings, p. 226
In 1708 he returned to Rome, living in the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni. His visit to Naples, at the invitation of King Philip V, took place in the same year. The style of execution introduced by Corelli and preserved by his pupils, such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, Pietro Castrucci, Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli, Francesco Gasparini, and others, was of vital importance for the development of violin playing. It has been said that the paths of all of the famous violinist-composers of 18th-century Italy led to Arcangelo Corelli, who was their "iconic point of reference".Toussaint Loviko, in the program notes to Italian Violin Concertos (Veritas, 2003)
However, Corelli used only a limited portion of his instrument's capabilities. This may be seen from his writings. The parts for violin very rarely proceed above D on the highest string, sometimes reaching the E in fourth position on the highest string. The story has been told and retold that Corelli refused to play a passage that extended to A in altissimo in the overture to Handel's oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth (premiered in Rome, 1708).
Nevertheless, his compositions for the instrument mark an epoch in the history of chamber music. His influence was not confined to his own country: his works were key in the development of the music of an entire generation of composers, including Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Friedrich Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach and François Couperin, as well as many others. Bach studied the works of Corelli and based an organ fugue (BWV 579) on Corelli's Opus 3 of 1689. Handel's Opus 6 Concerti Grossi take Corelli's own older Opus 6 Concerti as models, rather than the later three-movement Venetian concerto of Antonio Vivaldi favoured by Bach.
Musical society in Rome also owed much to Corelli. He was received in the highest circles of the aristocracy, and for a long time presided at the celebrated Monday concerts in the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni.
Death Corelli died in Rome in possession of a fortune of 120,000 marks and a valuable collection of works of art and fine violins,Sterling Smith Art Gallery: Portrait of Corelli the only luxury in which he had indulged. He left both to his benefactor and friend, who generously made over the money to Corelli's relatives. Corelli is buried in the Pantheon at Rome.
Works
Context