CORELLI, ARCANGELO (1653 - 1713)
Arcangelo Corelli trained in Bologna and moved to Rome in or shortly before 1675, where he enjoyed the successive patronage of Queen Christina of Sweden, Cardinal Pamphili, and Cardinal Ottoboni. He composed only instrumental music and his six published collections of...
(more info)
Arcangelo Corelli trained in Bologna and moved to Rome in or shortly before 1675, where he enjoyed the successive patronage of Queen Christina of Sweden, Cardinal Pamphili, and Cardinal Ottoboni. He composed only instrumental music and his six published collections of sonatas and concertos quickly became models for future generations of composers thoughout all Europe. They were reprinted time and again; his Opus 5 enjoyed over 42 editions in the century after its first appearance in 1700. Corelli was also a conductor of note, and on 26th April 1706 he was admitted, together with Pasquini and Alessandro Scarlatti, to the Accademia dellArcadia. His trumpet sonata, too, enjoyed great fame in its time, for manuscript and printed versions survive today in Italy, Austria and England; it may have been written for Twiselton, an English trumpeter, who claimed so in 1713. Its five movements show it to be a sonata da chiesa, the usual four movements of which, with their alternating tempo scheme (slow-fast-slow-fast), are expanded by a martial one for trumpet and continuo inserted before the last movement. The sprightly fugal theme of its second and fifth movements, in common and in triple time respectively, was a favourite of other composers, including Purcell, Stradella and Torelli, from about 1680, an example of which is seen in Stradellas Il Barcheggio of 1681. Priority aside, Corelli must have composed this sonata some time before 1704, when it was printed in London by John Walsh.