III PIIUACE

he: dissemination of his music h.u been fully investigJtcd only in Britain, where the process
If its has bccn comprehensively chanl'd: I alii particularly indebtl'd to Owain
Edwards, WilIiam Webl'r, and Harry Diack Jolmstone. In other countries, espl'cially
l;e:rmany, much work is still needed to establish till: precisl' roots of its u"Jnsnmsion, and I can
<lIlly olTer tl'ntativc findings.
SiIKl' it was in Britain that Corclli achieved his must enduring SUCCl'SS, it is surpri\ing that
110 full-Ienboth British study has yet appcared. Marc I'incherle's elegant and illuminating COTrIli
<'I SI'I/Iellll's has bcen available in3n English translation since 1956, but in the intervening fony
yl'ars valuable archival research has shed new light on Corc:lli's aClivities-much of this the
product of Italian and Gemlan-speaking musicologISts, whose p.1rticular contributions arc
Jcknowledged in Chaptcr I. At the same tinll:' cxtensivc source have now produced
IICW editions of most of Corelli's works to replace the scores of Joachim and Chrysandcr,
which done duty since the late nincteenth century. Among Ihe contributors to the new
Grsallllaus.I1.,IK, Ibm Marx llIust be singled out for his painstaking documentation of
thc Ottoboni household, his rationaliz;ltion of the apocrypha, and his C.I,a/"R""laisQIlIlr-nuw
the IIldispcnsablc work of rcferencc lor all future studk-s of dIe composer. It scemcd cxigcnt
dut a collation of this ncw evidencc be madc available to the English-speaking
Over thc years, far k-ss attention h.u bcen paid to the music itself. and while there arc a
number of penetrating analyses of individual works, his output .u a whole still needs proper
c\alu.lIion; this I hope to provide in the present study. As the vital contextual framework of
Corelli's trio sonatas had been co\'ercd 111 my earlier book, I have tried not to dupli-
cate this mJterial, but the solo sonata and concertu requircd a greatcr ;Ullount of gelleral ink)r-
matioll. Apart from this, the lincs of cnquiry been focused closely on the specitic
l'1l\irol1l11l'nts in which Cordli workcd so as to evaluate the degree of their influence on the
liJTIllatioll of his own idiom, which is then itself scrutinized in depth. No onc,
perhaps. would deny the extreme historical importance of An:angclo Corelli: I hope that the
present study will funher the understanding of the nature of his genius.
I should like to thmk I'cter Walls for his valuable comments on my script, HaIlS
Joachim Marx for some useful bibliographical references. I would also like to acknowlcdge
Ill)' debt to the Uritish Acadcmy fi)r providing the funding for all extendcd period of study in
hal),.
P.A.
Lisl of Plait's
Lisl of Tablrs
List of AbbTrI1ia,i,,/IS
The legend: Fact and Fiction
1 11 Uolognese
3 nome: The Early Years
" nome: The Lite Years
5 Thc Free Sonatas a J (I)
6 The Free Sonat.u a J (1)
7 The Sonate da Camera a J
8 The 'Solo' Sonatas
9 Thc Concerti Gros.\i
10 The legacy
11 Dissemination

M"si( Exalll/'/t's
l"do:
Contents
I TIle Man
11 The Music
x
xi
xii
6')
91
10(,
120
139
t53
175
200