Do you think Corelli and Handel have similar styles?

Question

I know they are both Baroque composers, but those two really sound alike, even more than the other Baroque composers,
like Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, Albinoni etc.....

Hey, the italian, turn on your IM, or least your e-mail. I like to ask you some questions on your very interesting answer.

Answer 1

Interesting question. Let's say that Corelli and Monteverdi have very little in common, probably only being born in northern Italy. But Corelli 86 years later, and Monteverdi (guess what) 86 years before when Baroque was still in God's mind. At the same time, reducing Corelli to a violin composer is missing a lot of his versatile production. So, I tend to consider Baroque music a hierarchy on top of which you find the 1685-boys: Bach, Haendel and Domenico Scarlatti, and one step below Vivaldi, Corelli and Telemann.
Then, the wide, fantastic world of so many excellent composers: Torelli, the other Bachs, Couperin, Rameau, Muffat, Locatelli, Geminiani, just endless: in some areas of italian cities all the streets are dedicated to them, you can make a culture of it.
Haendel was destined to law by his father (a surgeon). The principal stages of his career were Hamburg as a violinist, then Italy where he learnt to write opera, and finally the great success in London. He was the other side of the german moon, the first being J.S. Bach, and curiously he also became blind after 1750. While J.S. grew in a strictly german environment and never went out of german borders, H. had a chance to widen his views. He was a great opera composer and some of his countless works (about 40) are still staged today. His relationship to the italians (Corelli was 32 years older) was not only limited to the concerto grosso which he took to a level of elaboration and to a proportion never achieved by them, but also to the melodic flow in the church works. So, whereas Bach is development, H. is invention, Bach harmony, H. melody, Bach sound, H color. A top man, believe me. Take the Watermusic, take the Fireworks. In the flow of that opulent, shining torrent you feel the poison of baroque's fundamental pessimism.
Corelli was to instrumental baroque what Haydn was to symphony. He established the structure of trio-sonata and of concerto grosso, separating the concertino (soloists) from the tutti (all the orchestra). In some cases, he reduces the concertino to a single violin, and that can account for his being considered a violin composer, but most important he defines the different bow parts (violin, viola, cello) in clear and rational way. His 12 concerti grossi defy anything: take the Christmas Night, so charming, so italian, so baroque with the popular hornpipe themes.
So, they are formally similar: but when you hear an abundant, imposing, triumphant sequence of sheer brilliance it's Haendel: it has to sound german. When you hear mild, melodic, formally balanced music and you see italian green hills in there, it's Arcangelo.

Answer 2

Sure, they are both considered "Baroque" composers, but the baroque period encompasses 150 years, and really a huge shift (actually more than one) in style and esthetics. The chasm between Monteverdi's and Bach styles is so huge as to make the term "Baroque" meaningless when trying to codify stylistic periods.

Corelli died when Handel was a young man. Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi (to name a few) owe him for his popularizing the "concerto grosso" format which they took and made their own -- each in his own way. So Handel may have imitated elements of Corelli's style, but to my ears, that is where the similarity ends. Corelli used basic harmonies, Handel was a bit more adventuresome. Corelli tended toward the homophonic, whereas Handel employed more polyphony, so I feel his music is a bit more complex than Corelli's. This is a gross simplification. You need to listen to more output from each composer. The differences will become quite apparent.

Answer 3

I hope this helps a bit more .... the real key is Corelli is early Baroque so his music is still very influenced by Renaissance music while Handel is late Baroque and his music is just exhausting the possibilities of Baroque styles to push music into the Classical period

just a little addendum to the other answers

Answer 4

Similar in that they're both Baroque.. other than that nope.. Handel is German Baroque and Corelli Italian. There's a noticeable difference. They also have their own personal styles as well. Styles that say "Handel" or "Corelli" when you hear them. Do a LOT of listening to both and you'll begin to hear the difference.

Answer 5

The first comment is hilarious - if you are not allowing this person to compare composers to Handel, how dare you classify his music as "sad" sounding?

You did indeed scribe a tough questions. I tend to think of Corelli as a violinist composing for violinists, and Handel as a religious man who contributed a little to everything.

I suggest you pick up Handel's Oratorio "Saul" and a CD of Corelli violin sonatas.

Answer 6

Congratulations !

YOUR style is very special ...

But You cannot compare Handel to another
great composer... Handel always sounds
a bit sad and bitter. If I may say so.

And Corelli is more like
Claudio Monteverdi !!!

Aaron.