Theconcerto grosso (pronounced[konˈtʃɛrtoˈɡrɔsso];Italian forbig concert(o),pluralconcerti grossi[konˈtʃɛrtiˈɡrɔssi]) is a form ofbaroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (theconcertino) and full orchestra (theripieno,tutti orconcerto grosso). This is in contrast to thesolo concerto which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by the orchestra.[1]
The form developed in the late seventeenth century, although the name was not used at first.Alessandro Stradella seems to have written the first music in which two groups of different sizes are combined in the characteristic way. The name was first used byGiovanni Lorenzo Gregori in a set of ten compositions published in Lucca in 1698.[2]
The first major composer to use the termconcerto grosso wasArcangelo Corelli. After Corelli's death, a collection of twelve of hisconcerti grossi was published. Not long after, composers such asFrancesco Geminiani,Pietro Locatelli,Giovanni Benedetto Platti andGiuseppe Torelli wrote concertos in the style of Corelli. He also had a strong influence onAntonio Vivaldi.[3]
Two distinct forms of theconcerto grosso exist:
Theconcerto da chiesa alternated slow and fast movements; theconcerto da camera had the character of asuite, being introduced by aprelude and incorporating popular dance forms. (See alsoSonata for a discussion about sonatasda camera andda chiesa.) These distinctions blurred over time.[4] Corelli composed 48trio sonatas, 12 violin and continuo sonatas,[5] and 12 concerti grossi.
Six sets of twelve compositions,published between 1888 and 1891 byFriedrich Chrysander, are authentically ascribed to Corelli, together with a few other works.
Corelli'sconcertino group consisted of two violins and a cello, with astring section asripieno group. Both were accompanied by abasso continuo with some combination of harpsichord, organ, lute ortheorbo.[4]George Frideric Handel wrote several collections ofconcerti grossi (Op. 3 andOp. 6), and several of theBrandenburg Concertos byJohann Sebastian Bach also loosely follow theconcerto grosso form.
Theconcerto grosso form was superseded by thesolo concerto and thesinfonia concertante in the late eighteenth century, and new examples of the form did not appear for more than a century. In the twentieth century, theconcerto grosso has been used by composers includingIgor Stravinsky,Ernest Bloch,Ralph Vaughan Williams,Bohuslav Martinů,Malcolm Williamson,Henry Cowell,Alfred Schnittke,William Bolcom,Heitor Villa-Lobos,Andrei Eshpai,Eino Tamberg,Krzysztof Penderecki,Jean Françaix,Airat Ichmouratov,Philip Glass andPaul Ben-Haim. WhileEdward Elgar may be considered a modern composer, his romanticIntroduction and Allegro strongly resembled the instrumentation setup of a concerto grosso.[6]
Aconcertino, literally "little ensemble",[7] is the group of soloists in a concerto grosso.[8] This is opposed to theripieno andtutti which is the larger group contrasting with the concertino.
Though the concertino is the smaller of the two groups, its material is generally more virtuosic than that of the ripieno. Further, the concertino does not share thematic material with the ripieno, but presents unique ideas. This contrast of small group to large group and one thematic group against another is very characteristic of Baroque ideology—similar to terraced dynamics where the idea is significant contrast.
