CORELLI, ARCANGELO

Baroque composer, violinist, and teacher; b. Fusignano, Italy, Feb. 17, 1653; d. Rome, Jan. 8, 1713. From 1666 until 1670 he studied with Benvenuti, Gaïbara, and Brugnoli in Bologna, where he acquired the stylistic traits of the Bologna school. From 1675 until his death he was active mainly in Rome, where he moved in the most brilliant musical and literary circles, his principal patron being Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, who gave him every opportunity to develop his talents. His compositions, in which the use of tonality and of a contrapuntal texture within a harmonic structure reveal the mentality of the late baroque era, influenced the history of baroque instrumental music enormously. His sonate da chiesa (church sonatas) are of special importance for baroque chamber music, since he standardized the four-movement form in which the first and third movements in slow tempo contrast with the second and fourth in a fast one. He wrote 30 such sonatas, all requiring organ continuo. Although designed to be performed during Mass and Vespers, when the liturgical action permitted incidental music, their use was not restricted to the church.

Bibliography: Sämtliche Werke, op. 1–6, ed. j. joachim and f. chrysander, 5 v. (London 1888–91). Sonate a tre, op. 1–4, ed. w. woehl (Kassel 1933). There are a number of other modern eds. b. paumgartner, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 2:1668–79. p. david and h. c. colles, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom, 9v. (5th ed. London 1954) 2:438–440. m. f. bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York 1947). w. s. newman, The Sonata in the Baroque Era (Chapel Hill, N.C. 1959). p. allsop, "Da camera e da ballo-alla francese et all'italiana: Functional and National Distinctions in Corelli's sonata da camera, " Early Music 26 (1998) 87–96. n. cook, "At the Borders of Musical Identity: Schenker, Corelli and the Graces," Music Analysis 18 (1999) 179–233. w. corten, "Fatto per la notte di Natale: le Concerto opus VI no. 8 de Corelli," Analyse Musicale 29 (1992) 5–17. l. della libera, "La musica nella basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore a Roma, 1676–1712: nuovi documenti su Corelli e sugli organici vocali e strumentali," Recercare 7 (1995) 87–161. l. u. mortensen, "'Unerringly Tasteful'?: Harpsichord Continuo in Corelli's op. 5 Sonatas," Early Music 24 (1996) 665–679. r. pecman, "Corellis Concerti grossi als Vorboten des Klassizismus," Sborník Prací Filosofické Fakulty Brnenské University 3 (1968) 29–42. r. e. seletsky, "Eighteenth-Century Variations for Corelli's Sonatas, op. 5," Early Music 24 (1996) 119–130. n. zaslaw, "Ornaments for Corelli's Violin Sonatas, op. 5," Early Music 24 (1996) 95–115.

[t. culley]