Corbetta's 1671 publication, La Guitarre royalle, dedicated to Charles II, included pieces alluding to people and events at the English court, such as 'the Allemande of the Duke of York' and 'the Sarabande in Memory of Madame'.
Compositional Technique
The second volume of La Guitarre royalle (1674) includes a series of duets for two guitars, which was a first in France.
Historical Context
Corbetta's music was so fashionable that King Charles II of England's taste for his compositions made the guitar a popular instrument, with "everyone play[ing] it, well or ill."
Compositional Technique
Corbetta's 1643 collection, Varii capricci per la ghitarra spagnola, combined chord progressions typical of rasgueado (strumming) with contrapuntal elements characteristic of lute music (stile punteado).
Compositional Technique
Corbetta's first collection, De gli scherzi armonici, published in 1639, featured a wide range of dance music written in alphabet notation and the rasgueado (strumming) style.
Composer Biography
Francesco Corbetta, the most famous performer on and composer for the guitar in the seventeenth century, was self-taught and completely dedicated to the instrument.
Compositional Technique
The pieces for two guitars on this album are not a solo guitar accompanied by a second, but rather two guitars in dialogue, creating "harmonic clusters" and contrapuntal melodic lines.
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