(b Verona, 22 April 1658; d Bologna, 8 Feb 1709). Italian composer. He studied with Perti in Bologna and in 1686 joined the S Petronio orchestra as a violinist; he also played the viola and tenor viol there, but his reputation was as a violin virtuoso. In 1696-9 he was at the Ansbach court, briefly as maestro di concerto. He then went to Vienna before returning to Bologna, where he was a S Petronio violinist again from 1701.
Torelli composed some 150 instrumental works and contributed significantly to the development of the concerto grosso and solo concerto. His first four printed collections (1686-8) are all of chamber music, but they show experimental steps towards concerto scoring and ritornello form. These features are more pronounced in his many pieces (entitled variously ‘sinfonia’, ‘concerto’ and ‘sonata’) for trumpet and strings, mostly written for S Petronio before 1696. In later works Torelli arrived at a mature concerto style: his last collection (1709) consists of three-movement concerti grossi and solo violin concertos, with clearcut ritornello forms and relatively simple textures. He also wrote an oratorio and a few other vocal works.
Giuseppe Torelli was a Baroque composer whose music served as an essential link in the evolution of the concerto grosso and solo concerto forms. His works were published in seven collections of concertos, sinfonias, and sonatas, all appearing chronologically. Thus, one can trace his progress from the rather conventional style of the early chamber-oriented concertos and sonatas to the more expansive and stronger efforts of the middle sets. The last two of his collections, 12 Concerti musicali and 12 Concerti grossi con una pastorale are the flowering of his efforts in the these genres. The Concerti musicali are more deftly written than his previous efforts, with ritornellos taking a more prominent role, while the Concerti grossi show his full grasp of structure and a crucial balancing of the roles of the soloist and the orchestral players.
Torelli was born in Verona, Italy, on April 22, 1658. Not much is known about his early years, though it has been suggested that Giuliano Massaroti was one of Torelli's earliest teachers, owing to his close proximity in Verona. Torelli departed Verona in the early 1680s and shortly afterward may have taken the post as maestro di cappella at the Imola Cathedral in the Bologna province. An accomplished string player, he also began studying composition with G.A. Perti around this time. Torelli's first published works were the ten Sonate a 3, for violin and basso continuo, and 12 Concerto da camera for two violins and basso continuo. Both appeared in 1686, and were probably written shortly after his arrival in Bologna.
In 1687, Torelli published his third collection of works, this one a set of 12 Sinfonie, for two to four instruments. His next (1688) was the 12 Concertino per camera, for violin and cello. Around 1690 Torelli began writing his first trumpet works, the Suonata con stromenti e tromba. The composer's growing interest in the trumpet, unusual for a string player, likely owed something to the virtuoso trumpeter Giovanni Pellegrino Brandi, who occasionally performed with the San Petronio orchestra, of which Torelli was a member.
In 1692 Torelli published another collection of works, the Sinfonie a 3 e concerti a 4. Four years later he departed Bologna, eventually reaching Ansbach, Germany, where he engaged in some joint musical ventures with his friend, Pistocchi, the famous castrato and composer. There are accounts that during this time, Torelli toured Germany with Pistocchi.
Torelli was appointed maestro di concerto in Ansbach, probably in 1697. It appears that during his tenure there, he wrote very little music, apparently finding the duties demanding. The composer was known to suffer from hypochondria in his later years, and the condition may well have been worsening for him while away from home.
Torelli spent some time in Vienna but was back in Bologna in 1701, quickly landing a position with the newly formed San Petronio cappella musicale. Torelli and Pistocchi seem to have appeared in a number of concerts together in the early 1700s, most likely earning substantial fees. Relatively little is known about Torelli in his final years, except that he composed little music. His only significant effort was the 12 Concerti grossi con una pastorale, Op. 8, which features one of his more popular pieces, the so-called Christmas Eve Concerto (No. 6). Torelli died on February 8, 1709. ~ Robert Cummings, All Music Guide
Torelli is most remembered for his contributions to the development of the instrumental concerto (Newman 1972, p. 142), especially concerti grossi and the solo concerto, for strings and continuo, as well as being the most prolific Baroque composer for trumpets (Tarr 1974).
Torelli was born in Verona. It is not known with whom he studied violin though it has been speculated that he was a pupil of Leonardo Brugnoli or Bartolomeo Laurenti, but it is certain that he studied composition with Giacomo Antonio Perti (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). On June 27, 1684, at the age of 26, he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica as suonatore di violino (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). By 1698 he was maestro di concerto at the court of Georg Friedrich II, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, where he conducted the orchestra for Le pazzie d'amore e dell'interesse, an idea drammatica composed by the maestro di cappella, the castrato Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, before leaving for Vienna in December 1699 (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). He returned to Bologna sometime before February (1701), when he is listed as a violinist in the newly re-formed cappella musicale at San Petronio, directed by his former composition teacher Perti (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001).
He died in Bologna in 1709, where his manuscripts are conserved in the San Petronio archives. Giuseppe's brother, Felice Torelli, was a Bolognese painter of modest reputation, who went on to be a founding member of the Accademia Clementina. The most notable amongst Giuseppe's many pupils was Francesco Manfredini.
Selected works
10 Sonate a 3, with Basso Continuo, op. 1. (1686)
12 Concertino per camera for Violin and Cello, op. 4. (1688)
12 Concerti musicali a quattro, op. 6. (1698)
12 Concerti grossi con una pastorale per il Santissimo Natale, op. 8. (1709)
More than 30 concertos for 1 to 4 trumpets, including a Sinfonia à 4, composed after 1702 (Tarr 1974) and unpublished during his lifetime, which is a concerto for four trumpets, with an orchestra requiring a minimum of four oboes, two bassoons, trombone, timpani, four violins, two violas, four cellos, two double basses, and continuo.
Sources
Bukofzer, Manfred F. 1947. Music in the Baroque Era: From Monteverdi to Bach. New York: W. W. Norton.
Newman, William S. 1972. The Sonata in the Baroque Era. New York: W. W. Norton.
Schnoebelen, Ann, and Marc Vanscheeuwijk. 2001. "Torelli, Giuseppe." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
Tarr, Edward H. 1974. Unpaginated editorial notes to his edition of Giuseppe Torelli, Sinfonia a 4, G. 33, in C major. London: Musica Rara.
