Arcangelo Corelli

Arcangelo Corelli was born in Italy on 17 February 1653, entering a musical world still finding its formal grammar. As a composer and violinist working through the middle Baroque, he wrote pieces that did something structural: they set the templates for the sonata and concerto as distinct genres, gave the violin its central position in ensemble music, and crystallized the system of tonality and functional harmony that would govern composition for centuries. His work was less about individual virtuosity than about showing what the forms themselves could do. He died on 8 January 1713, leaving be…