The Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli exercised a wide influence
on his contemporaries and on the succeeding generation of composers. Born in
Fusignano, Italy, in 1653, a full generation before Bach or Handel, he studied in
Bologna, a distinguished musical centre, then established himself in Rome in the
1670s. By 1679 had entered the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, who had
taken up residence in Rome in 1655, after her abdication the year before, and had
established there an academy of literati that later became the Arcadian Academy.
Thanks to his musical achievements and growing international reputation he
found no trouble in obtaining the support of a succession of influential patrons.
History has remembered him with such titles as "Founder of Modern Violin
Technique," the "World's First Great Violinist," and the "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. It is probably correct to say that Corelli's
popularity as a violinist was as great in his time as was Paganini's during the 19th
century. Yet Corelli was not a virtuoso in the contemporary sense, for a beautiful
singing tone alone distinguished great violinists in that day, and Corelli's tone
quality was the most remarkable in all Europe according to reports. In addition,
Corelli was the first person to organize the basic elements of violin technique.

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. It is important to note in this regard that a visit
of respect to the great Corelli was an important part of the Italian tour of the
young Handel. Yet Corelli's compositional output was rather small. All of his
creations are included in six opus numbers, most of them being devoted to
serious and popular sonatas and trio sonatas. In the Sonatas Opus 5 is found the
famous "La Folia" Variations for violin and accompaniment. One of Corelli's
famous students, Geminiani, thought so much of the Opus 5 Sonatas that he
arranged all the works in that group as Concerti Grossi. However, it is in his own
Concerti Grossi Opus 6 that Corelli reached his creative peak and climaxed all his
musical contributions.

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.

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.

Of all his compositions it was upon his Opus 6 that Corelli labored most
diligently and devotedly. Even though he wouldn't allow them to be published
during his lifetime, they still became some of the most famous music of the time.
The date of composition is not certain, for Corelli spent many years of his life
writing and rewriting this music, beginning while still in his twenties.

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 to a late flowering in the work of Handel, Vivaldi, Johann
Sebastian Bach and their contemporaries, alter the earlier achievements of
Arcangelo Corelli in the form. Instrumentation of the trio sonata, possibly for
commercial reasons, allowed some freedom of choice. Nevertheless the 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.

Corelli's dedications of his Sonatas mark his progress among the great patrons of
Rome. He dedicated his first set of twelve Church Sonatas, Opus 1, published in
1681, to Queen Christina, describing the work as the first fruits of his studies. His
second set of trio Sonatas, Chamber Sonatas, Opus 2, was published in 1685 with
a dedication to a new patron, Cardinal Pamphili, whose service he entered in
1687, with the violinist Fornari and cellist Lulier. A third set of trio sonatas, a
second group of twelve Church Sonatas, Opus 3, was issued in 1689, with a
dedication to Francesco II of Modena, and a final set of a dozen Chamber
Sonatas, Opus 4, was published in 1694 with a dedication to a new patron,
Cardinal Ottoboni, the young nephew of Pope Alexander VIII, after Cardinal
Pamphili's removal in 1690 to Bologna. Cardinal Ottoboni became Corelli's main
patron, who made it possible for Corelli to pursue his career without monetary
worries, and it would seem that no composer has ever had a more devoted or
understanding patron.

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 occupied a leading position in the musical life of Rome for some thirty
years, performing as a violinist and directing performances often on occasions of
the greatest public importance. 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 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.