Biography
Giuseppe Torelli, a violinist working in the seventeenth century, receives credit for releasing the earliest solo concertos in Western music. Recognition also stems from his role in shaping the concerto grosso, a format that deploys multiple soloists instead of one, and from his extensive output of pieces scored for trumpet and strings.
Evidence of his evolving command over this structure appears throughout the concertos he brought to print. The first four collections, issued under assorted headings such as sinfonias, sonatas, and concertos, remained chamber works performed by single players on each part and stayed in line with those of other Italian composers active at the time.
Opus 5, which contains six sinfonias and six concerti, presented Torelli’s first compositions written expressly for full orchestra. These works begin to adopt a concertate manner, alternating passages between a smaller group and the larger ensemble.
Two of the twelve pieces in Opus 6 include technically demanding passages in the leading violin line that, although unmarked, may have been conceived for a soloist and would therefore count as the first solo concertos preserved in the historical record. In any event, the Opus 8 concertos—Opus 7 having been lost—explicitly label six of the twelve works as solo concertos, the first such designation in published Western music. This set of twelve is widely regarded as one of the outstanding achievements of Baroque repertoire.
Torelli’s impact on the concerto’s development therefore proved substantial, and many of his distinguished compositions continue to appear regularly in performance.
He passed the greater part of his career in Bologna, occupied with teaching, playing, and conducting. A short interval took him to Germany, where he directed the Brandenburg Court Orchestra in Ansbach from 1698 to 1699 before proceeding to Vienna, where he remained until 1700. Details of his later years are limited, yet records show he had returned to Bologna by 1702 and was much sought after as a violinist, his name recurring on the payrolls of numerous ensembles and academies.
Evidence of his evolving command over this structure appears throughout the concertos he brought to print. The first four collections, issued under assorted headings such as sinfonias, sonatas, and concertos, remained chamber works performed by single players on each part and stayed in line with those of other Italian composers active at the time.
Opus 5, which contains six sinfonias and six concerti, presented Torelli’s first compositions written expressly for full orchestra. These works begin to adopt a concertate manner, alternating passages between a smaller group and the larger ensemble.
Two of the twelve pieces in Opus 6 include technically demanding passages in the leading violin line that, although unmarked, may have been conceived for a soloist and would therefore count as the first solo concertos preserved in the historical record. In any event, the Opus 8 concertos—Opus 7 having been lost—explicitly label six of the twelve works as solo concertos, the first such designation in published Western music. This set of twelve is widely regarded as one of the outstanding achievements of Baroque repertoire.
Torelli’s impact on the concerto’s development therefore proved substantial, and many of his distinguished compositions continue to appear regularly in performance.
He passed the greater part of his career in Bologna, occupied with teaching, playing, and conducting. A short interval took him to Germany, where he directed the Brandenburg Court Orchestra in Ansbach from 1698 to 1699 before proceeding to Vienna, where he remained until 1700. Details of his later years are limited, yet records show he had returned to Bologna by 1702 and was much sought after as a violinist, his name recurring on the payrolls of numerous ensembles and academies.