Francesco Corbetta
Encyclopedia
Francesco Corbetta was an Italian
guitar
virtuoso
, teacher
and composer
. He spent his early career in Italy. He seems to have worked as a teacher in Bologna where the guitarist and composer Giovanni Battista Granata
may have been one of his pupils. He was then attached to the Court of Carlo II, Duke of Mantua in various capacities. He was however frequently granted leave of absence and travelled abroad to Spain where he amazed the Court in Madrid with his virtuosity and possibly also to Germany. He also visited the Spanish Netherlands, dedicating his fourth book, Varii scherzi di sonate to the governor, the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm
. He was in Paris in the 1650s where he took part in a ballet by Jean-Baptiste Lully
. He came to the attention of the English King Charles II in exile and at the Restoration accompanied him to London
. During the last 20 years of his life he divided his time between London and Paris. He is regarded as one of the greatest virtuosos of the Baroque
guitar.
Five collections of music for the five-course guitar survive today. At least two others are lost. His first book includes mostly strummed dance music, while the later books exhibit a great mastery over the combination of strummed and plucked textures. Corbetta's two earliest books include compositions in the Italian tradition, but his three later publications are increasingly in the French style. These publications also included important information for continuo
playing on the guitar. A substantial amount of music attributed to him also survives in manuscript.
Corbetta was also influential as a teacher. It is often suggested that such successful guitarists as Robert de Visée
, Giovanni Battista Granata
, and Rémy Médard, were his students. Although there is no documentary evidence to support this notion they almost certainly knew him personally. He was definitely employed as guitar teacher to Princess Anne, later Queen Anne of Great Britain
, but there is no evidence that he was employed as guitar teacher to King Louis XIV of France
.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
guitar
Baroque guitar
The Baroque guitar is a guitar from the baroque era , an ancestor of the modern classical guitar. The term is also used for modern instruments made in the same style....
virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
, teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He spent his early career in Italy. He seems to have worked as a teacher in Bologna where the guitarist and composer Giovanni Battista Granata
Giovanni Battista Granata
Giovanni Battista Granata was an Italian classical guitarist and composer. By profession, Granata was a barber-surgeon.- Career :...
may have been one of his pupils. He was then attached to the Court of Carlo II, Duke of Mantua in various capacities. He was however frequently granted leave of absence and travelled abroad to Spain where he amazed the Court in Madrid with his virtuosity and possibly also to Germany. He also visited the Spanish Netherlands, dedicating his fourth book, Varii scherzi di sonate to the governor, the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria was an Austrian military commander, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, and a patron of the arts.-Biography:...
. He was in Paris in the 1650s where he took part in a ballet by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
. He came to the attention of the English King Charles II in exile and at the Restoration accompanied him to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. During the last 20 years of his life he divided his time between London and Paris. He is regarded as one of the greatest virtuosos of the Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
guitar.
Five collections of music for the five-course guitar survive today. At least two others are lost. His first book includes mostly strummed dance music, while the later books exhibit a great mastery over the combination of strummed and plucked textures. Corbetta's two earliest books include compositions in the Italian tradition, but his three later publications are increasingly in the French style. These publications also included important information for continuo
Figured bass
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
playing on the guitar. A substantial amount of music attributed to him also survives in manuscript.
Corbetta was also influential as a teacher. It is often suggested that such successful guitarists as Robert de Visée
Robert de Visée
Robert de Visée was a lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of Louis XIV, as well as a singer, and composer for lute, theorbo and guitar.-Biography:...
, Giovanni Battista Granata
Giovanni Battista Granata
Giovanni Battista Granata was an Italian classical guitarist and composer. By profession, Granata was a barber-surgeon.- Career :...
, and Rémy Médard, were his students. Although there is no documentary evidence to support this notion they almost certainly knew him personally. He was definitely employed as guitar teacher to Princess Anne, later Queen Anne of Great Britain
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
, but there is no evidence that he was employed as guitar teacher to King Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
.
Publications
- Scherzi Armonici (BolognaBolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, 1639) - Varii Capriccii per la Chitarra Spagnola (MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, 1643) - Varii Scherzi di Sonate per la Chitara Spagnola, Libro Quarto (BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, 1648) - La Guitarre Royalle, dediée au Roy de la Grande Bretagne (ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 1671) - La Guitarre Royalle (1674)