He was brash, egotistical, and his playing was as fiery as his difficult personality. Corelli had a lot of qualities that Vivaldi didn’t: he was well educated, a respected mentor and teacher, and a writer of virtuosic but tasteful music. It developed out of the trio sonata and its three solo instruments-two violins and cello-were accompanied by strings and continuo. When Vivaldi was starting out, the concerto form popularized by Rome-based composer Arcangelo Corelli dominated Italian instrumental music. This painting shows him wearing a fashionable wig (which was discouraged for priests) and secular clothing. Vivaldi was a not-particularly-devout priest who worked on and off at an orphanage for musically talented girls when he was home in Venice. He claimed to have composed 94 operas, both for his main theater, the Teatro San Angelo in Venice, and many patrons elsewhere, and he traveled extensively as an impresario after 1718. His vocal music, today mostly forgotten, was an important part of his career. He was also a prolific composer, a skilled opera impresario, and all-around musical entrepreneur. He was an incredible violin virtuoso-his playing was so exhilarating and daring that a contemporary described himself as “terrified” when he heard it. Paul Getty TrustĪntonio Vivaldi, born in Venice in 1678, took advantage of these new trends in the music industry. Vivaldi’s Venice: The Grand Canal from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola by Giovanni Antonio “Canaletto” Canal Digital image. The new instruments and new ability to distribute music motivated and challenged composers to write technically demanding music that would have wide appeal. The burgeoning music publishing industry also inspired composers to write pieces that would stand out and establish their international reputations. From the start of the Baroque Period a hundred years earlier, skilled craftsmen like Gasparo da Salò advanced string instrument building technique until it reached its apex with the instruments of Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri. Violin virtuosity reached a new height around the year 1700.
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