| Italian composer and violinist, whose style
of playing became the basis for the violin technique of the 18th and 19th
centuries, and whose chamber music compositions were far-reaching in their
influence. Born in Fusignano, he studied in nearby Bologna and after 1675
lived in Rome. There his patrons included Queen Christina of Sweden and,
after 1690, the art patron Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1668-1740). The most
widely published and reprinted composer before the Austrian
Joseph Haydn, Corelli was the first composer to gain an international reputation solely
on the basis of his instrumental music. Many elements of his style became
commonplace in the 18th century, and his works are early examples of the
newly evolved system of major and minor tonality. As the preeminent violin
virtuoso of the day, he taught many leading violinist-composers of the 18th
century, among them the Italian Francesco Geminiani. Corelli's chamber music
includes four sets of trio sonatas (op. 1-4); a set of 12 sonatas (op. 5)
for solo violin and continuo (in this case, cello plus harpsichord), the
last of which includes the famous variations on La Follia; and a set of
12 concerti grossi (op. 6), among the earliest concerti grossi to be published. |