Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Violin Sonatas, Op.5, Nos.1 - 6
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, about the
year 1670, 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 San
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 feast of
St Louis of France. Stories of an earlier visit by Corelli
to France 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 a hundred 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 Corso, where
his pupil, the violinist Matteo Fornari, was employed,
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, the residence of the newly created Cardinal
Pietro Ottoboni, the gifted young great-nephew of Pope
Alexander VIII who had succeded to the papacy in 1689.
Cardinal Ottoboni remained Corelli’s patron until the
latter’s death early in 1713, thereafter behaving with
great generosity to Corelli’s 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 seemingly defeated by
the violin-writing of his colleague Alessandro Scarlatti,
and of his declared inability to cope with the allegedly
French style of the young Handel, suggest, at least, some
limitations. At his death Corelli left a large collection of
pictures, bequeathing one painting each to Cardinal
Ottoboni and Cardinal Carlo Colonna. His musical
instruments and manuscripts went to Matteo Fornari,
now for twenty years his companion and colleague. By
special papal indulgence Corelli 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
influence. He published four sets of a dozen trio sonatas
each between 1681 and 1694, while his important set of
twelve Concerti grossi, Op. 6, the publication of which
had been arranged in 1711, was issued posthumously in
1714, although these works had been known for some
thirty years in Rome. He published his set of a dozen
Violin Sonatas, Op. 5, in 1700, with a dedication to
Sophia Charlotte, Electress of Brandenburg.
The twelve violin sonatas, described as Sonate a
Violino e Violone o Cimbalo, draw on the conventions of
the more formal sonata da chiesa (church sonata) and
the dance suites of the sonata da camera (chamber
sonata), the two forms now beginning to merge. The
published title, with an apparent alternative of either
violone or keyboard instrument in accompaniment, has
been the subject of argument. Some suppose that one or
the other may be used, with the violone, a cello, playing
the bass line and as far as possible filling out the chords
implied by the figured bass, or with a keyboard
instrument alone. Others have interpreted the Italian ‘o’
as ‘and/or’. There has been further discussion of the
ornamentation of slow movements. Various early
editions of the sonatas and manuscript copies of the
same period include ornamentation, notably of the
Adagio movements of the first six sonatas, in some
allegedly as played by Corelli and elsewhere in versions
proposed by other virtuosi. It would seem that violinists
were often judged on their ability to ornament Corelli’s
sonatas, which long held a hallowed place in violin
repertoire.
The first six sonatas are broadly in the form of
church sonatas, although two have final Giga
movements, familiar from the chamber sonata form.
Sonata No. 1 in D major, here with an organ
accompaniment, starts with a decorated Adagio in which
an Allegro interpolation suggests a further element of
the prevailing embellishment. The following Allegro is
in the contrapuntal form expected in a church sonata.
Here the violin states the subject, adding a second entry
in double stopping, before the entry of a third voice in
the bass. A further rapid Allegro of more transparent
form leads to a second ornamented B minor Adagio and
a final contrapuntal Allegro in 6/8, with the violin again
offering the subject and answer, before the third entry in
the bass.
Sonata No. 2 in B flat major, again with organ
accompaniment, starts with an ornamented slow
movement, followed by a fugal Allegro in which the
subject and answer are once more provided by the
violin, before the third entry in the bass. The simpler
Vivace leads to an ornamented G minor Adagio and a
final fugal Vivace.
A similar pattern is followed in Sonata No. 3 in
C major, with organ accompaniment, at least in the
initial Adagio, succeeded by a fugal Allegro, with a
cadenza-like passage over a sustained pedal note, and a
second Adagio, in A minor. The rapid Allegro leads to a
final Giga in 12/8, in which each half of the movement
is duly repeated in an embellished version.
Sonata No. 4 in F major, here accompanied by
harpsichord, has the expected embellished opening
Adagio, leading to a fugal Allegro, with the three voices
entering as before, the first two entrusted to the violin,
followed by a third entry in the bass. The following
Vivace is again in simpler texture, leading to a D minor
Adagio and a concluding Allegro that has the mood of a
dance, in spite of an initial suggestion of counterpoint.
There is an opening ornamented Adagio to Sonata
No. 5 in G minor. The fugal Vivace demands subtle
handling of the bow, as the subject and answer overlap.
The movement ends with an arpeggiated Adagio. The
third movement modulates from E flat major, succeeded
by a Vivace that brings initial dialogue between the
violin and the bass of the harpsichord, a Giga with
decorated repetitions of each half in conclusion.
The first part of the collection ends with the Sonata
No. 6 in A major. The decorated opening Grave is
succeeded by a fugal Allegro, the entries appearing in
descending order, the first two from the violin and the
third in the bass of the continuo, played by the
harpsichord. As elsewhere in such movements there are
passages of brilliant arpeggiation. The lively following
Allegro leads to an F sharp minor Adagio and the last
movement is again a fugal Allegro in 6/8, concluding the
set of six more technically demanding sonatas.
Keith Anderson