Francesco Corbetta

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Francesco Corbetta

Born	1615 Pavia, Italy
Died	1681 Paris, France

Francesco Corbetta (ca. 1615 - 1681, in French also Francisque Corbette) was an Italian guitar virtuoso, teacher and composer. He worked at the royal court of Louis XIV in Paris and then left for London. He is considered to be one of the greatest virtuosos of the Baroque guitar.

Corbetta published five surviving books of music for the five-course guitar. His first book includes mostly strummed dance music, while the later books exhibit a great mastery over the combination of strummed and plucked textures. Corbetta's earlier compositions follow the Italian tradition, but his last two publications are firmly in the French style. These publications also included important information for continuo playing on the guitar.

Corbetta was also influential as a teacher. His students included such successful guitarists as Robert de Visée, Giovanni Battista Granata, and Remy Médard, as well as Queen Anne of Great Britain, and King Louis XIV of France

[edit] Publications

Scherzi Armonici (Bologna, 1639)
Varii Capriccii per la Chitarra Spagnola (Milan, 1643)
Varii Scherzi di Sonate per la Chitara Spagnola, Libro Quarto (Brussels, 1648)
La Guitarre Royalle, dediée au Roy de la Grande Bretagne (Paris, 1671)
La Guitarre Royalle (1674)

[edit] References

Wade, Graham, Traditions of the Classical Guitar, London : Calder, 1980.
Wade, Graham, A Concise History of the Classic Guitar, Pacific : Mel Bay, 2001.
Turnbull, Harvey, The guitar, from the Renaissance to the present day, New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1974.

This article is part of the Classical guitar series