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Arcangelo Corelli (17 February 1653 – 8 January 1713) was an Italian violinist and composer of Baroque music.

Biography

In 1685 Corelli was in Rome, where he led the festival performances of music for Queen Christina of Sweden, and he was also a favorite of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, grandnephew of another Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, who in 1689 became Pope Alexander VIII. From 1689 to 1690 he was in Modena; the Duke of Modena was generous to him. In 1708 he returned to Rome, living in the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni. His visit to Naples, at the invitation of the king, took place in the same year.

The style of execution introduced by Corelli and preserved by his pupils, such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, and many others, was of vital importance for the development of violin playing. It has been said that the paths of all of the famous violinist-composers of 18th-century Italy led to Arcangelo Corelli who was their "iconic point of reference." (Toussaint Loviko, in the program notes to Italian Violin Concertos, Veritas, 2003) However, Corelli used only a limited portion of his instrument's capabilities. This may be seen from his writings; the parts for violin very rarely proceed above D on the highest string, sometimes reaching the E in fourth position on the highest string. The story has been told and retold that Corelli refused to play a passage that extended to A in altissimo in the overture to Handel’s oratorio il Trionfo del Tempo e Disinganno (premiered in Rome, 1708), and felt seriously offended when the composer (32 years his junior) played the note.

Nevertheless, his compositions for the instrument mark an epoch in the history of chamber music. His influence was not confined to his own country. Johann Sebastian Bach studied the works of Corelli and based an organ fugue (BWV 579) on Corelli's Opus 3 of 1689.

Musical society in Rome also owed much to Corelli. He was received in the highest circles of the aristocracy, and for a long time presided at the celebrated Monday concerts in the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni.

Corelli died in possession of a fortune of 120,000 marks and a valuable collection of pictures, the only luxury in which he had indulged. He left both to his benefactor and friend, who generously made over the money to Corelli's relatives. Corelli is buried in the Pantheon at Rome. One can still trace back many generations of violinists from student to teacher to Corelli (the Corelli school).

His compositions are distinguished by a beautiful flow of melody and by a mannerly treatment of the accompanying parts, which he is justly said to have liberated from the strict rules of counterpoint.

His concerti grossi have often been popular in Western culture. For example, a portion of the Christmas Concerto, Op.6 No.8, is in the soundtrack of the film . He is also referred to frequently in the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Works

Six opuses are authentically ascribed to Corelli, together with a few other works.

Music files

See also

References

External links

;Free sheet music

Category:1653 births Category:1713 deaths Category:People from the Province of Ravenna Category:People from the Province of Ferrara Category:Italian composers Category:Baroque composers Category:Composers for violin Category:Italian classical violinists Category:17th-century Italian people Category:18th-century Italian people

Life

Ivry Gitlis is a commentator (along with Itzhak Perlman) all the way through the DVD "The Art of Violin" (2000) which showcases performances and gives biographical details of many of the great violinists of the 20th Century.

Since the end of the sixties, Gitlis has resided in Paris, France.

At various stages in his career he played on the 1737 "Chant du Cygne" Stradivarius and the "Ysaye" Guarnerius del Gesu. Ivry currently owns the "Sancy" Stradivarius of 1713.

References

Further reading

Category:1922 births Category:Israeli classical violinists Category:Living people Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:Jewish violinists Category:Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition prize-winners Category:Israeli people of Russian origin Category:People from Haifa Category:The Dirty Mac

Jiří Antonín Benda, also Georg Benda (30 June 1722 6 November 1795) was a Czech kapellmeister, violinist and composer.

Born in Staré Benátky, Bohemia, he studied at the Piarist Gymnasium (grammar school) in Kosmonosy and at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Jičín from 1735 to 1742. Benda was 19 when Frederick II of Prussia bestowed upon him in 1741 the position of second violinist in the chapel of Berlin. The following year Benda was summoned to Potsdam as a composer and arranger for his older brother Franz, himself an illustrious composer and violinist. Seven years later, in 1749, he entered the service of the Duke of Gotha as chapel master, where he constantly cultivated his talents for composition, specializing in religious music.

A stipend from the Duke allowed him to take a study trip to Italy.

Benda had particular success with a form of musical stage entertainment, the melodrama, which influenced Mozart. The melodrama Ariadne auf Naxos is generally considered his best work. At its debut in 1775, the opera received enthusiastic reviews in Germany and afterwards, in the whole of Europe, with music critics calling attention to its originality, sweetness and ingenious execution. Besides that he wrote many instrumental pieces including a few sonatinas.

Benda died in Köstritz, Gotha at the age of 73, leaving his son, Friedrich Ludwig Benda (1752–1796), who briefly carried on the family musical tradition, serving as a music director in Hamburg and later in Mecklenburg, before finally becoming the Concertmaster in Königsberg. He died less than a year after his father.

Opera compositions

Notes

References

*The information in this article is based on a translation of its German equivalent.

External links

Category:1722 births Category:1795 deaths Category:Czech composers Category:German composers Category:Classical era composers Category:Opera composers Category:18th-century Czech people