Arcangelo Corelli

Timeline

1. 1653–1670Bologna · Emilia-RomagnaBorn in Fusignano in the Papal States in 1653, he first received musical instruction at Faenza and Lugo, and around 1666 went to Bologna to study violin with the musicians of San Petronio. In 1670, aged seventeen, he was admitted to the Bologna Philharmonic Academy; his early works are often signed 'of Bologna'.
2. 1675–1689Rome · LazioBy 1675 at the latest he was playing violin in Roman churches and oratorios, and studied Palestrina counterpoint with Simonelli. In 1681 he published Opus 1, church trio sonatas dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden; he then entered the service of Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, issuing Opuses 2 and 3 and establishing the four-movement norm for church and chamber sonatas.
3. 1690–1713Palazzo della Cancelleria · RomeFrom 1690 he lived in Cardinal Ottoboni's Palazzo della Cancelleria, directing Monday concerts. In 1700 he published the violin sonatas of Opus 5, dedicated to the Electress of Brandenburg, and that year became warden of the musicians of Santa Cecilia in Rome. The concerti grossi of Opus 6 were revised repeatedly in his lifetime and published after his death, becoming a European model for the concerto. He died in Rome in January 1713 and was buried in the Pantheon.