The instrumental bands taking part in the Roman festive events around 1700, seemed to have had quite a standardised set of instruments. In these bands, Corelli was not only involved as first violin and leader, but also as organiser and manager: he was in charge of recruiting the musicians, contracting them, and he was paying their wages with the money received from the patrons of the event. Hence, it seems logical to assume that the architecture of these orchestras reflected his sound ideal. 11
Franco Piperno, amongst others, has scrutinised thoroughly the payment lists of these orchestras. 12 From the analysis of these documents, one can conclude not only that the strings were invariably the core of the orchestra, but also that the balance between the different families of stringed instruments was relatively stable: regardless of the overall size of the band, which could vary mostly in reason of the place where the performance was held and of the wealth of the promoter, the violins appear to have constituted approximately half of the group, the basses (8 foot + 16 foot instruments, called respectively violoni and contrabbassi ) formed 1/3 of the ensemble, the rest were violas. 13 Stringed instruments, however, were not the only ones present. One lute (rarely more than one) is almost invariably included in the payment lists. As far as continuo players are concerned, it is to be noted that a harpsichordist almost never appears in the lists of payments. The reason for this absence has not been fully studied yet and, on the contrary, would deserve to be studied more in depth. Based on the very few mentions of the harpsichord in the payment lists, Franco Piperno proposes that the harpsichord was not playing during the instrumental compositions. 14 Spitzer and Zaslaw quote him and seem to hold the same opinion. 15 Furthermore, noticing that its presence in the payment lists is usually associated with the performance of vocal pieces, Piperno suggests that in those cases the harpsichord might be used for accompanying recitativos only. 16 While the first assertion is based on documental evidence and more investigation should be conducted in order to debunk it, the second one (i.e., that the harpsichord was playing in recitativos only, hence, not in arias) is harder to be defended and no clear reasons for it are given. Piperno's perspective on continuo instruments becomes clearer when he speaks about the lute and about its presence in large instrumental ensembles: “il liuto era probabilmente impiegato (o, almeno, aveva modo di emergere) solo durante le sortite del concertino.” Which means: “the lute was probably used (or at least it could be heard) only during the concertino solos.” 17 While it is true that, when performing together with a very large band of string and wind instruments, the sound of harpsichords and lutes can hardly come across to the audience, assuming that for this reason their presence was considered redundant, misses to take into account the beneficial role of these instruments inside the orchestra: plucking continuo instruments have a crucial function in ensembles - no matter how large they are - in keeping a stable pace and a steady tempo and, as a result, in keeping the ensemble playing together. This function, and the positive effect that I have experienced countless times in performances, is my main reason for doubt about Piperno's conclusion that no harpsichord was used in purely orchestral music in Rome. As we have iconographic evidence (such as the one representing an outdoor performance held in 1687 in Piazza di Spagna - see Audenaerd’s engraving below), proving the presence of the harpsichord - two in this example - in large instrumental configurations, it is to be hoped that in the future there will be a more thorough study of the use of the harpsichord, and of continuo chordal instruments, in Roman Sinfonie and in Roman music in general.
Apart from strings and lute(s), however, there is another family of instruments regularly present in the lists of payments related to the Sinfonie : the trumpets. 18 It is toward them that I will now focus my attention in order to understand their role, their use and their style of playing
The music for trumpet was undergoing an important development in Italy during the XVII century, particularly in Bologna, where composers such as Maurizio Cazzati, Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Francesco Manfredini and Giuseppe Torelli were expanding the technical possibilities of the instrument and developing its idiom. As a result, the trumpet parts were becoming more and more virtuosic. Corelli, who was active in Bologna before coming to Rome, must have been aware of these developments and he appears to have explored this new idiom in his sonata for trumpet, two violins and continuo WoO 4 no.1, a chamber music composition to which I will return later in this paper. Virtuosic trumpet parts are indeed to be found in Roman repertoire, particularly in vocal compositions, where it is common to find a single trumpet in dialogue with the voice. Overall, in these cases, the trumpet is very much used as a solo instrument, and it has a prominent role in the composition. On the contrary, from the very few examples of scores that have survived, the Sinfonie with trumpets cannot be called, technically speaking, music for trumpet, but music including trumpets. In them, the trumpet idiom is simpler and includes “only” a few chordal figures, some fanfares, sparse tiny melodic lines. 19
Apart from the little that can be learnt from the few survived scores, we can understand more about the role of the trumpets and their use from two other kinds of sources: librettos of vocal compositions and chronicles of events.
Librettos of oratorios and of large cantatas, in particular, can give some very interesting insights about instrumental music. The reason for this is that, apart from reporting the lyrics, they also list the moments in which the voices are resting and the instrumental interludes are played. Often, the instrumentation of these pieces is mentioned, or their character is described. An analysis of these documents confirms the frequent use the trumpet, mostly the trumpets, and shows their association with specific types of Sinfonie: usually Sinfonie guerriere (warlike music), Sinfonie di caccia (hunting music) or Sinfonie strepitose (literally, in ancient Italian, “noisy” or “loud” music). 20
Chronicles of events, on the other hand, not only confirm the frequent presence of the trumpets, particularly in open air performances and in celebrative occasions, but also reinforce the impression that two trumpets were preferred to a single one, at least in instrumental music. In this respect, a handwritten note on the Fondo Bolognetti (an archive rich in musical documents) is very interesting, as it says: “L’anno passato ci fu una tromba, ma quest’anno, che non si possono cantar motetti o bisognerebbe prenderne due o nessuna.” 21 This means: “last year we used a trumpet, but this year, as motets cannot be sung, we should take two, or none.” This quote seems to confirm that, while the use of a single trumpet was considered appropriate in a vocal composition, in the case of purely instrumental music, the Roman practice favoured the use of two trumpets together or, alternatively, of a string-only ensemble.
To complete the considerations regarding the instrumentation of the Sinfonie, in which the presence of the trumpets is nowadays largely accepted as a fact, it is worth mentioning that it has been claimed that a larger variety of wind instruments was widely used in their performance. 22 However, in the documents that I have consulted, I have found only a sparse mention of anything else than trumpets and unless more evidence appears, I think that it can be quite safely affirmed that while the presence of two trumpets was rather common in the large instrumental bands of the time, the participation of other winds instruments (and of more than two trumpets) has to be considered more exceptional. 23
