Biography of Arcangelo Corelli
...a of Sweden, who had been living in Rome since 1655. Queen Christina established an academy of literati that later became the Arcadian Academy. There, Corelli would be employed by the Queen as a composer and dedicated his first opus to her. Also in 1679, Corelli led Roman orchestras, and by the year 1687, he begun directing large orchestras at the Academy of Music organized by the Queen. There he led 150 string players. Corelli periodically composed infonias and concertos at these occasions, as the introduction to large performances by other composers. In 1685, Corelli became the director of violins, which he held for twenty years. During this time he published his second set of Trio Sonatas, Chamber Sonatas, and Opus 2. The following years, cardinals in Italy would employ him, including Cardinal Pamphili in 1687, and Cardinal Ottoboni in 1694. The cardinals allowed him to reside in their palaces, which gave Corelli the opportunity to meet and play with many of the major musicians of the Baroque period. Corelli’s compositions included the Concerto Grosso and although he did not invent this principle, he developed the potential of the form and made the concerto grosso popular by writing the first great music for it. In Corelli’s Concerto Grosso, the smaller group consists of two violins and a cello accompanied with a larger string orchestra. Other compositions included six opus numbers, which were devoted to serious and popular sonatas as well as trio sonatas. The Trio Sonata arrangement became that of two violins, a cello, and with a harpsichord to fill out the harmony. This instrumental form would become the most important in the baroque era because the composition was written in three parts but usually was played by four people. Some of Corelli’s creations included 48 Trio Sonatas for two violins, a harpsichord, and a cello, twelve sonatas for violin and continuo, and twelve Concerto Grosso, which were composition for sting orchestra with a solo group of violins, cello, and harpsichord. Corelli stated that the purpose of his music was to demonstrate the abilities of the violin as a musical instrument. He emphasized the principle of the contrasting musical markings forte and piano and between the large and small string groups. Majority of Corelli’s music was secular dance music such as his Violin Sonata “La Follia” and some sacred music like the Concerto Grosso “Christmas”. Now, because he was the first person to organize the basic elements of violin technique, his music was the most popular instrumental music throughout Europe. Later, he would retire from the public life and just concentrate on comp...