The concerto grosso (said [konˈtʃɛrto ˈɡrɔsso]; Italian for "big concert," plural concerti grossi [konˈtʃɛrti ˈɡrɔssi]) is a type of music from the Baroque period. In this form, musical parts are played by a small group of soloists (called the concertino) and the full orchestra (called the ripieno, tutti, or concerto grosso). This differs from the solo concerto, which features one solo instrument playing the main melody, with the orchestra providing accompaniment.

History

The form of the concerto grosso developed in the late seventeenth century, though it was not called by its name at first. Alessandro Stradella may have written the first music that combined two groups of different sizes in a special way. The name "concerto grosso" was first used by Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori in a set of ten compositions published in Lucca in 1698.

Arcangelo Corelli was the first major composer to use the term "concerto grosso." After Corelli died, a collection of twelve of his concerti grossi was published. Soon after, composers such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, Giovanni Benedetto Platti, and Giuseppe Torelli wrote concertos in Corelli's style. Corelli also greatly influenced Antonio Vivaldi.

There are two main forms of the concerto grosso:
1. the concerto da chiesa (church concert)
2. the concerto da camera (chamber concert)

The concerto da chiesa had movements that alternated between slow and fast. The concerto da camera had the structure of a suite, beginning with a prelude and including popular dance forms. These differences became less clear over time. Corelli composed 48 trio sonatas, 12 violin and continuo sonatas, and 12 concerti grossi.

Six sets of twelve compositions, published between 1888 and 1891 by Friedrich Chrysander, are confirmed to be by Corelli, along with a few other works.

• Opus 1: 12 sonate da chiesa (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1681)
• Opus 2: 12 sonate da camera (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1685)
• Opus 3: 12 sonate da chiesa (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1689)
• Opus 4: 12 sonate da camera (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1694)
• Opus 5: 12 Suonati a violino e violone o cimbalo (6 sonate da chiesa and 6 sonate da camera for violin and continuo) (Rome 1700) The last sonata is a set of variations on La Folia.
• Opus 6: 12 concerti grossi (8 concerti da chiesa and 4 concerti da camera for concertino of 2 violins and cello, string ripieno, and continuo) (Amsterdam 1714)

Corelli's concertino group included two violins and a cello, with a string section as the ripieno group. Both groups were accompanied by a basso continuo with some combination of harpsichord, organ, lute, or theorbo. George Frideric Handel wrote several collections of concerti grossi (Op. 3 and Op. 6), and several of the Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach also loosely follow the concerto grosso form.

The concerto grosso form was replaced by the solo concerto and the sinfonia concertante in the late eighteenth century. New examples of the form did not appear for more than a century. In the twentieth century, the concerto grosso was used by composers including Igor Stravinsky, Ernest Bloch, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bohuslav Martinů, Malcolm Williamson, Henry Cowell, Alfred Schnittke, William Bolcom, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Andrei Eshpai, Eino Tamberg, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jean Françaix, Airat Ichmouratov, Philip Glass, and Paul Ben-Haim. While Edward Elgar may be considered a modern composer, his romantic Introduction and Allegro strongly resembled the instrumentation setup of a concerto grosso.

Concertino

A concertino, meaning "little ensemble," is the group of solo musicians in a concerto grosso. This is different from the ripieno and tutti, which are larger groups that play music contrasting with the concertino.

Although the concertino is smaller, its music is usually more skillful and complex than the ripieno's. Also, the concertino does not share the same musical themes as the ripieno; instead, it introduces unique ideas. This contrast between a small group and a large group, and between different musical themes, is a key feature of Baroque music. This idea is similar to terraced dynamics, where clear differences in sound are important.