Arcangelo Corelli was born at Fusignano in 1653 into a family
that had
enjoyed considerable prosperity since the fifteenth century. Legend
even suggested descent from the Roman general Coriolanus and further
improbable anecdotes surround a childhood during which he seems to have
taken music lessons from a priest at Faenza, continued at Lugo, before,
in 1666, moving to the famous musical centre of Bologna, where he was
able to study the violin under teachers of the greatest distinction,
their precise identity subject to various conjectures. The basilica of
S. Petronio in Bologna boasted a musical establishment of considerable
prestige under Maurizio Cazzati, with some 33 musicians. In addition
the city had been the home of a number of learned academies since the
middle of the sixteenth century, largely replaced in 1666 by the
Accademia Filarmonica, an association that came to exercise wide
influence.
By 1675 Corelli was in Rome, his presence recorded in various
lists of violinists employed in the performance of oratorios and in the
annual celebrations of the feast of St. Louis of France. Stories of a visit by
Corelli to France before this, and of the jealousy of Lully, are
generally considered apocryphal. In Rome, however, Corelli's career is
well enough documented. He served as a chamber musician to Queen
Christina of Sweden, at least intermittently, until her death in 1689,
and in 1687 directed a large body of musicians, with 150 string players
and 100 singers, in a concert in honour of the ambassador of King James
II, Lord Castlemaine, entrusted with negotiations for the return of
England to the Catholic faith. At the same time he received even more
significant patronage from Benedetto Pamphili, great-nephew of Pope
Innocent X, created Cardinal in 1681 and an exact contemporary of the
composer. In 1687 Corelli became maestro di musica to the Cardinal and
took up residence in his Palazzo on the Curso, with his pupil, the
violinist Matteo Fornari and the Spanish cellist Lulier, his colleagues
in many performances. While normally responsible for an orchestra of
some ten players, there were occasions when very large groups of
musicians were assembled.
In 1690 Cardinal Pamphili was appointed papal legate to
Bologna and Corelli moved to the Palazzo della Cancelleria, of the
newly created Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the gifted young great-nephew of Pope
Alexander VIII, who had acceded to the papacy in 1689. Cardinal
Ottoboni remained Corelli's patron until the latter's death in 1713,
thereafter behaving with generosity to his heirs. In Rome Corelli was held in great respect as a violinist and
as a composer, although stories of less satisfactory performances
during a visit to Naples, where he was defeated by the violin-writing of his
colleague Alessandro Scarlatti, and of his inability to cope with the
allegedly French style of the young Handel, suggest, at least, some
technical limitations.
At his death Corelli left a large collection of pictures, bequeathing a painting of his own choice to Cardinal Ottoboni
and a Brueghel to Cardinal Pamphili, with his musical instruments and
manuscripts going to Matteo Fornad. By special papal indulgence he was
buried in the Pantheon in Rome in a part of the church holding the
remains of artists, sculptors and architects, his epitaph the work of
his patron.
The surviving compositions of Corelli are relatively few in
number but disproportionately far-reaching in their influence. He
published four
sets of a dozen trio sonatas each, in 1681, 1685, 1689 and 1694. In
1700 he dedicated his Opus 5 solo violin sonatas, a set of twelve, to
Sophia Charlotte, Electress of Brandenburg. All these works were
re-published extensively during the composer's life-time and in the
following years and widely imitated. The set of twelve Concerti grossi
was finally published posthumously, with a dedication to the Elector
Palatine Johann Wilhelm. The concertos represent a collection of
compositions that seem to have been known in Rome at least since the
early 1680s.
