Corelli – La follia

To examine the preponderance of period sources for the op. 5 sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli is to gain an appreciation for the wide expanse of the musicbuying public of the eighteenth century. A search under Corelli’s name throws up hundreds of cards at the British Library. Indeed, all over the world, archives contain Corelli’s sonatas copied, re-copied, re-published, and arranged for all sorts of instruments or re-composed as full ensemble works. So widespread was Corelli’s appeal that his work would have been played not only in the expected European musical centres but even in America (he was known to be a favourite composer of U.S.’s third president, Thomas Jefferson), St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Constantinople, and perhaps even in British India. It can be said without any exaggeration that Corelli was the first world-famous composer.