ARCANGELO

CORELLI
FEBRUARY 17, 1653
-
JANUARY 8, 1713
 Italian composer and violinist
Corelli's tone quality was the most
remarkable in all Europe
Corelli was the first person to organize the
basic elements of violin technique.
Known as the:
"Founder of Modern Violin Technique"
"World's First Great Violinist"
"Father of the Concerto Grosso."
 His contributions can be divided three ways, as
violinist, composer, and teacher.
It was his skill on the new instrument known as
the violin and his extensive and very popular
concert tours throughout Europe which did most
to give that instrument its prominent place in
music.
Corelli's popularity as a violinist was equaled by
his acclaim as a composer. His music was
performed and honored throughout all Europe; in
fact, his was the most popular instrumental
music.
 His style of composition was much imitated and provided
a model, both through a wide dissemination of works
published in his lifetime and through the performance of
these works in Rome.
Corelli's achievements as a teacher were again
outstanding. Among his many students were included
not only Geminiani but the famed Antonio Vivaldi. It was
Vivaldi who became Corelli's successor as a composer of
the great Concerti Grossi and who greatly influenced the
music of Bach.
Corelli died a wealthy man on January 19, 1713, at Rome
in the 59th year of his life. But long before his death, he
had taken a place among the immortal musicians of all
time, and he maintains that exalted position today.
 Corellis Musical style
His compositions are distinguished by a
beautiful flow of melody and by a
mannerly treatment of the accompanying
parts, which he is justly said to have
liberated from the strict rules of
counterpoint. He was the first composer
specializing in instrumental music to
become recognized as a 'classic', and one
of the first to show clearly those qualities
of restraint, balance, consistency, and
attention to detail that one associates with
th
 Corellis Trio Sonata
The Trio Sonata, an instrumental composition generally
demanding the services of four players reading from three
part-books, assumed enormous importance in baroque
music, developing from its earlier beginnings at the start
of the seventeenth century.
Instrumentation of the trio sonata, possibly for commercial
reasons, allowed some freedom of choice.
most frequently found arrangement became that for two
violins and cello, with a harpsichord or other chordal
instrument to fill out the harmony.
The trio sonata was the foundation of the concerto grosso,
the instrumental concerto that contrasted a concertino
group of the four instruments of the trio sonata with the
full string orchestra, which might double louder passages.
 Corellis Concerto Grosso
Although Corelli was not the inventor of the
Concerto Grosso principle, it was he who proved
the potentialities of the form, popularized it, and
wrote the first great music for it.
Through his efforts, it achieved the same pre-
eminent place in the baroque period of musical
history that the symphony did in the classical
period.
Without Corelli's successful models, it would have
been impossible for Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach to
have given us their Concerto Grosso
masterpieces.
 Corellis Concerto Grosso
The Concerto Grosso form is built on the
principle of contrasting two differently sized
instrumental groups. In Corelli's, the smaller
group consists of two violins and a cello, and
the larger of a string orchestra. Dynamic
markings in all the music of this period were
based on the terrace principle; crescendo and
diminuendi are unknown, contrasts between
forte and piano and between the large and
small string groups constituting the dynamic
variety of the scores.
Corellis Gigue
An old dance that had gone out of style by the
time Corelli composed this work around 1700.
Corellis intention was to take the basic
features of the dance and to dress it up for
listening, not dancing.
Fairly lively dance.
It has a steady rhythm, a consistent emotional
quality, an emphasis on melody with
accompaniment, and contains many repeated
phrases.
Corellis Sarabande
A slow dance in triple meter.
Slow minuet in the beginning of the 18th
century and was highly expressive,
either tender or majestic.
Tempo marking were suggested: allegro,
largo or adagio.
Binary form
Arcangelo Corelli
There is more to
music than in
life.

-Jame Hernane Jr.