Concerto grosso No. 9 [antikvár]

I ARCANGELO CORELLI, CONCERTO GROSSO No. 9, F MAJOR. Arcangelo Corelli's Opus 6, the "Concert! grossi", is divided into two unequal parts: the weightier body of the 8 more serious and comprehensive Church concertos ; and 4 "Concerti da camera", of lesser extent and more simple in character. One is tempted to regard these Chamber works as subsidiary creations, but that is by no means the case. For, from printer and publisher they have received their own title: "Preludii, Allemande, Correnti, Gighe, Sarabande, Gavotte e Minuetti. Parte Seconda per Camera." Thus their contents is partly though not wholly embraced and described. For Co-relli does not simply follow on, after the Prelude, with a set series of dance-pieces, as the title might lead us to suppose; but from the dance-types already mentioned, he makes a different choice for each of the four Concertos. In one case the Allemande is missing; in another there is no Sarabande or Gigue; a third may lack the Gavotte or Minuet—the choice being the more closely knit together by the soloistic element. In other words Corelli did not write orchestral Suites, substituting a Concertino for the Concerto grosso, but composed genuine Concerti grossi da Camera. It should not be said that Corelli thereby confounded the two forms of Church and Chamber concertos and effaced their definite characters. His sacred concertos No. 359 doubtless contain many a dance-measure in a disguised form; but the centre of gravity always lies in the pieces exhibiting a stricter handling of the parts — and Corelli's genius is at its highest in the manner in which he combines, harmonically, these more intricate passages with the solo virtuoso sections. In the Concerti da camera, music in free style is inserted between the definite dance-movements: a thoughtful transitional passage, and avowedly contrapuntal section, or pne which affords more unlimited fantasy to the solo group than is possible in the stereotyped forms of the dance. But the crux of the matter is in the dance-types themselves.Whether the more cheerful character of the Chamber concertos, as compared with the Church concertos, presupposes "a smaller room", as Chry-sander maintains in the preface to his new edition, is a matter of conjecture. The London copy of the first edition, which I have used for this reprint, contains Corelli's (apocryphal) dedication, which in other copies is often not to be found. It only mentions Corelli's intention, "di unire in questi miei Concerti uno stile, che servir possa per le solenniti della Chiesa, e per le Veglie sontuosis-sime, che per lo piu sogliono da V. A. E. condirsi coll'armonia di famosi Cantanti, 6 de piu rinomati Professori di Stromenti Musicali". And the evening concerts given by the Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz were certainly of no less splendour