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Giuseppe Torelli

 

(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.



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Biography

Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era, noted for his essential role in the development of the solo concerto, concerto grosso, and chamber sonata forms. Torelli's career took him from Verona to Bologna, Anspach, and Vienna, and he once toured Germany in the company of the castrato Pistocchi. The chronological publication of his music in seven collections enables scholars to follow his advances in style and form. His interest in the trumpet resulted in sets of sinfonias and sonatas for the instrument, an unusual diversion for a composer usually associated with string music. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi
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Giuseppe Torelli

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Giuseppe Torelli.

Giuseppe Torelli (April 22, 1658 – February 8, 1709) was an Italian violist, violinist, teacher, and composer.

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 Concerto da camera, for 2 violins and basso continuo, op. 2 (1686).
  • 12 Sinfonie, for 2–4 instruments, op. 3 (1687).
  • 12 Concertino per camera for Violin and Cello, op. 4 (1688).
  • 12 Sinfonie a 3 e concerti a 4, op. 5 (1692).
  • 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.

External links


 
 
Related topics:
Francesco Antonio Mamiliano Pistocchi (music)
Giacomo Antonio Perti (music)
concerto (in music)

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Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Read more
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