Corbetta, Francesco [Corbette, Francisque; Corbera, Franciscus]
Corbetta, Francesco [Corbette, Francisque; Corbera, Franciscus]
Richard Pinnell
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06449
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
This version: 20 December 2021
Updated in this version
updated and revised
(b Pavia, c1615; d Paris, 1681). Italian guitarist and composer. While establishing his own artistry and prestige
on the instrument, Corbetta enhanced the guitar’s popularity, advanced its technique, and stylized the dance
suite, simultaneously becoming an ambassador of its courtly acceptance.
When Corbetta was born, the Italian five-course chitarra spagnola was still in its infancy; its music was a new
instrumental genre. He came to know it well, for in his first book (Bologna, 1639), he employed the latest
variation techniques of strumming on the chaconne and passacaglia. In his notation Corbetta relied on the
typical chord symbols of the alphabet for strummed chords (see Guitar §4). However, for a few pieces in 1639
he superimposed alfabeto chords over Italian tablature to generate ‘mixed tablature’, the notation of his
middle period. After travelling several years in northern Italy, Corbetta left for the court of Madrid. He then
spent a year or so at the courts of Brussels, Paris, and Hanover. In his last period, divided between Whitehall
and Paris, he wrote only in French tablature.
As for his guitar tunings, his early and middle works were written either for standard tuning (aA d′d gg bb e′)
or for various scordature (see Scordatura §3). In 1671, however, he began excluding bourdons from the fifth
course (aa d′d gg bb e′), a tuning that French guitarists adopted as their own.
Corbetta’s playing epitomized the ornate Baroque guitar solo. If throughout his works he employed only a
handful of melodic ornaments, they seemed bewildering as they appeared in close succession. The music of
his first book was mostly chordal and included ornamental strumming. After that he generally wrote each
piece in either of two contrasting textures: the quasi-concerto texture (a few chordal strums followed by a
few measures of florid melody) or polyphony (two or three voices), yet he always concluded phrases with
elaborately strummed cadences. The high range, frequent resolution of dissonance, virtuosic techniques, and
coloristic effects, such as overlapping tones of campanelas or flashy repicco strumming, converged in his
guitar music to make it the most brilliant if challenging of the era.
Corbetta left examples for realizing basso continuo in 1643, 1648, and 1671, in which the guitar must supply
only triadic harmony, not the entire bass line. Two novel sinfonie with figured bass appeared at the end of his
second book, yet his last began with 14 duets in which Louis XIV played the second part.
Corbetta understood patronage and used it to advantage. His first book went out to middle-class patrons at
Bologna, but his work was so remarkable that, according to many contemporary assessments, Corbetta
became a major attraction at continental courts. His first court position was for Charles II of Mantua, and the
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Corbetta, Francesco [Corbette, Francisque; Corbera, Franciscus]
book published for him in 1643 contained Corbetta’s portrait ‘at the age of 28’. Subsequently Corbetta served
Philip IV of Spain, Archduke Leopold William of the Low Countries, Christian Louis and his brothers of
Hanover, Louis XIV of France, and Charles II of England, and he published a collection of music for each
sovereign (that of Hanover is lost). Corbetta thus became a high-ranking diplomat, even better known and
travelled than the Dutch statesman Constanijn Huygens, a lutenist who became a guitar aficionado and
Corbetta’s advocate in his letters.
The guitar became fashionable among his royal contemporaries, and Corbetta patiently engaged key pupils of
the aristocracy to obtain their allegiance. According to Corbetta’s obituary, Charles II, Duke of Mantua,
introduced him to Louis XIV. During the Restoration, Samuel Pepys was in charge of the Royal guitar’s arrival
at Dover on June 8, 1660. After Princess Henrietta became Duchess of Orleans, she exchanged Corbetta’s
guitar lessons with her brother Charles II through the diplomatic post. Moreover, Corbetta taught James,
Duke of York, later James II, and his daughter Princess Anne, later Queen Anne.
Corbetta made his instrument even more fashionable by engaging prominent ladies in the guitar movement.
As the lute had been their Renaissance favourite, many now switched to the Baroque guitar. When Corbetta
served at Hanover (1652–3), Sophia and Ernest Augustus were his devotees. Elizabeth Stanhope, née Butler
(Lady Chesterfield) loaned her instrument, ‘the best guitar in England’, for a performance of one of Corbetta’s
sarabandes that began her affair, according to Grammont and verified by Pepys on November 3, 1662, when
the guitar was as typical on a dressing table ‘as rouge or patches’. Corbetta served as ‘Gentleman of the Queen’
for Catherine of Braganza, a position he shared with Judith Killigrew. According to a letter of Huygens dated
January 12, 1680, ‘The said lady is gifted rich with the two most excellent hands on the lute and later the
guitar, that I have ever found of either sex’. The daughters of Louis XIV became guitarists, as well. After the
sudden death of his pupil Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans at age 25, Corbetta published instrumental and vocal
versions of a tombeau in her honour in 1671. Corbetta’s last but lost book was advertised in The Term
Catalogues (November 26, 1677) as Easie Lessons on the Guittar for young Practitioners; single, and some of two
parts. By Seignor Francisco.
Guitar virtuosi across Europe paid homage by copying Corbetta’s pieces into their manuscripts. The Gallot
guitar books, containing 81 of his compositions, revealed how the master improvised embellishments when
playing repeats because the Gallots’ scribe wrote out a highly ornamented version (fol. 82r), Corbetta’s best
piece. Gaspar Sanz considered him ‘el mejor de todos’. François Le Cocq and his copyist J.-B. Castillion noted
that Corbetta introduced the guitar to the Low Countries and that he was ‘the most talented master to have
appeared up to that time’. In Paris Jean Le Gallois awarded him the ‘crown’.
Evidence of the guitar’s popularity came with its influence as a progressive medium. The chaconne,
passacaglia, folía, and sarabande, all unique to the guitar at first, found further stylization here. Corbetta’s
slower, dotted sarabande replaced the older type as his most influential composition. Moreover, the
sequential modulations of Corelli, the allemande-courante-sarabande-gigue formula of Froberger, and style
galant of F. Couperin were all foreshadowed in Corbetta’s works.
After Pinnell published Corbetta’s known works in modern notation in 1980, four additional sources of the
guitarist’s music have come to light: (1) a Hispanicized copy of his Varii scherzi di sonate, (2) a second
manuscript copied by J.-B. Castillion, (3) a manuscript at NYPL containing Corbetta’s compositions, and (4)
the missing Guitar II parts of his duets for Louis XIV published in 1674. Corbetta went to Spain in the 1640s,
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Corbetta, Francesco [Corbette, Francisque; Corbera, Franciscus]
and subsequently one bibliography there listed Guitarra española y sus diferencias de sones by one Franciscus
Corbera. It became available in facsimile in 2006 from Deutsche LautenGesellschaft, with introduction by M.
Hall and L. Eisenhardt. They suggest it was ‘Reproduced from a piracy print of the composer’s fourth book of
guitar music, Varii scherzi di sonate…’; it includes an additional seven pieces (at least three of which are most
probably by Corbetta) as well two additional variations for Corbetta’s folia. Pinnell transcribed Corbetta’s
unique pieces from J.-B. Castillion’s collection, B-Bc.Ms.S5615. In 2012 Monica Hall edited another Castillion
collection, B-Lc.Ms.245, which contains more pieces by Corbetta. In a New York Public Library source
identified as a lute manuscript, Arthur Ness discovered two suites attributed to Corbetta (*ZBT 215, see fol. 7:
‘Alem.a del Pavese’ and fol. 16: ‘Alem.de…del Corbetta’). The Forni edition of Corbetta’s 1674 guitar book
lacked the fascicle containing ‘Contre parties’ or the Guitar II parts of its duets. The Archivium musicum
edition of the 14 duets (SPES, 1983) contains the missing parts.
Works
De gli scherzi armonici…sopra la chitarra spagnvola (Bologna, 1639/R; Intro. by C. Fontijn, Laute xi, Stuttgart, 2013)
Varii capricii per la ghittara spagnvola [‘il mio secondo libro’] (Milan, 1643/R; Florence, 1980)
Varii scherzi di sonate per la chitara spagnola…. Libro qvarto (Brussels, 1648/R; Florence, c1984)
La guitarre royalle, dediée au Roy de la Grande Bretagne [Charles II] (Paris, 1671/R; Geneva, 1975)
La gvitarre royalle, dediée av Roy [Louis XIV] (Paris, 1674/R; Bologna, 1983) [the first reprint’s 14 duets lack Guitar II parts]
Pièces pour deux guitares da ‘la Guitarre Royale’ (Paris, 1674/R; Intro. by P. Paolini, Archivium musicum, Florence, 1983)
[supplies the fascicle containing the ‘contre-parties’, the Guitar II parts]
Bibliography
N. Antonio: Biblioteca Hispana sive Hispanorum… (Rome, 1672) vol.1, 318, R; Scriptorum Hispaniae Gentis (Rome, 1684)
in Biblioteca Hispana Nova (Madrid, 1788), i, 416
G. Sanz: Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española y método de sus primeros rudimentos hasta tañerla con
destreza (Zaragoza, 3/1674, 8/1697/R; ed. L. García-Abrines, 1966), 1674, f. 6r
J. Le Galois: Lettre…à Mlle Regnault de Solier touchant la musique (Paris, 1680/R1984), 63, 66
R. Médard: Mercure Galant (April 1681), 127–33 [Corbetta’s obituary and epitaph]
A. Hamilton: Mémoirs du Chevalier de Grammont (Paris, 1713; trans. and ed. W. Scott, London, 1885, ii, 25–45)
P. Bourdelot and P. Bonnet: Histoire de la musique et des ses effets… (Amsterdam, 1725; archive.org online) i, 227
J.-B. de Laborde: Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (Paris, 1780), iii, 503
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Corbetta, Francesco [Corbette, Francisque; Corbera, Franciscus]
M.A.E. Green, ed.: Calendar of State Papers: Domestic Series of the Reign of Charles II, 1660–1685 (London, 1862–86), i,
494; ii, 146, 156, 157; iii, 253, 361, 396, 415, 454, 455; v, 143
Sophia, Electress of Hanover: Memoirs…1630–1680, trans. H. Forester (London, 1888), 46 [Oct 1652]
E. Arber, ed.: The Term Catalogues, 1688–1709 (London, 1903–6), i, 291
J. Worp, ed.: De Briefwisseling van Constanijn Huygens (1608–1687), (The Hague, 1911–15) [letters dated May 7, 1660,
May 14, 1671 (on that date, see one letter to Sr. Charas and another to Ninon de L’Enclos)]
H. Sievers: Die Musik in Hannover (Hanover, 1961), 46, 134
S. Pepys: The Diary of Samuel Pepys…[1660–1669], trans. and ed. R. Latham and W. Matthews, (London, 1970–83)
M. Benoit: Versailles et les musiciens du roi, 1661–1733 (Paris, 1971), 28, 264
R. Pinnell: ‘Alternative Sources for the Printed Guitar Music of Francesco Corbetta’, JLSA, vol.9 (1976), 62–85
D. Gill: ‘The de Gallot Guitar Books [1660–1684]’, EMc, vol.6/1 (1978), 79–87
R. Pinnell: Francesco Corbetta and the Baroque Guitar, with a Transcription of his Works (i, biography, guitar history,
concordances; ii, table of ornaments and 327 transcriptions from printed and MS sources), UMI Studies in Musicology,
xxv (Ann Arbor, MI, 1980) [incorporates the discoveries and transcriptions of the author’s doctoral dissertation (UCLA,
1976) and supersedes it]
R. Pinnell: ‘Francesco Corbetta: chitarrista barocco alla corte d’Inghilterra’, Il Fronimo, no.37 (Oct. 1981), 6–29
R. Hudson: The Folia, the Saraband, the Passacaglia, and the Chaconne (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1982), i, The Folia, 26,
31ff, 45–49; ii, The Saraband, 16, 24f, 78ff, 82; iii, The Passacaglia, 58f, 61, 93; iv, The Chaconne, 32, 64, 101f
M. Mabbett: ‘Italian Musicians in Restoration England (1660–90)’, ML, vol.67/3 (1986), 237–47
C. Martin: ‘Ornementation dans les tablatures françaises…’, Instruments et musique instrumentale, ed. H. Charnassé
and L. Hellen (Paris, 1986), 85–88, 91–92, 96–99
M. Esses: Dance and Instrumental Diferencias in Spain during the 17th and Early 18th Centuries (Stuyvesant, NY, 1994), i,
history; ii, inventory and transcriptions; iii, notes in the original Spanish [see Corbera: 122, 139; Corbetta: 18, 109, 122,
129–43 passim, 182–83]
J. Tyler and P. Sparks: The Guitar and its Music: from the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford, 2002), 67ff [see esp. p.
133, ‘Many of the pieces [in S-N 9096, 2] are copied from Corbetta (1671)’]
C.H. Russell: ‘Radical Innovations, Social Revolution, and the Baroque Guitar’, The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar,
ed. V.A. Coelho (Cambridge, 2003), 153–81, 240–45 passim
M. Hall: ‘Recovering a Lost Book of Guitar Music by Corbetta’, Consort, vol.61 (2005), 43–58
C. Fontijn: Desperate Measures: the Life and Music of Antonia Padoani Bembo (Oxford, 2006), 5–7, 21–4, 39–41
M. Hall: ‘Francesco Corbetta and Piracy’, Lute News, no.80 (2006), 18–23
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Corbetta, Francesco [Corbette, Francisque; Corbera, Franciscus]
L. Eisenhardt: ‘Bourdons as Usual’, LSJ, vol.47 (2007), 1–37
L. Eisenhardt: ‘Dissonance and Battuto: a Hidden Practice in the Performance of Seventeenth-Century Guitar Music?’
LSJ, vol.47 (2007), 38–54
M. Hall: ‘Dissonance in the Guitar Music of Francesco Corbetta’, LSJ, vol.47 (2007), 55–80
F. Corbetta: Selected Pieces [in tablature] for Baroque Guitar from B.Lc Ms. 245, copied by Jean Baptiste de Castillion
(1680–1753), trans. and ed. M. Hall (2010), <http://monicahall2.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/
liegeeditioncompleteoct-101.pdf <http://monicahall2.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/liegeeditioncompleteoct-101.pdf>>
M. Hall: Baroque Guitar Stringing: a Survey of the Evidence (LSJ Booklets no.9 [revised 2010])
M. Hall: ‘Princess An’s Lute Book and Related English Sources of Music for the Five-Course Guitar’, Consort, vol.66
(2010), 18–34
M. Hall: ‘Francesco Corbetta: a Biography’, LSJ, vol.53 (2013), 18–48
M. Hall: ‘Plagio, pirateria y los libros perdidos de guitarra de Francesco Corbetta’, Hispanica lyra: Revista de la
Sociedad de la Vihuela, vol.17 (2013)
M. Bane: ‘Honnetes gens, Amateur Musicianship, and the “Easy Air” in France: the Case of Francesco Corbetta’s Royal
Guitars’, Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, vol.20 (2014).
L. Eisenhardt: Italian Guitar Music of the Seventeenth Century: Battuto and Pizzicato (Rochester, NY, 2015).
See also
folia, §3: the late folia
guitar, §4: the five-course guitar
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