Arcangelo Corelli had served as first violinist…

Arcangelo Corelli had served as first violinist in the San Luigi dei Francesi orchestra, a position he held until 1685, the year in which his 12 Chamber Trio Sonatas for Two Violins, Violone and Violoncello or Harpsichord, Opus 2, were published.

Corelli has served from September 1687 as musical director at the Palazzo Pamphili, where he both performs in and conducts important musical events.

In 1689 he directs the performance of the oratorio Santa Beatrice d'Este by Giovanni Lulier, called del violino, also with a large number of players (thirty-nine violins, ten violas, seventeen cellos, and additional instruments to make a total of more than eighty musicians).

Corelli's Twelve Church Trio Sonatas for Two Violins and Archlute, with Organ Basso Continuo, Opus 3, dedicated to Francesco II, duke of Modena, are published in 1689, the same year he enters the service of Venetian-born Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, in which he is to spend spent the rest of his life.

The seventy-nine-year-old Ottoboni, made cardinal in 1652 and bishop of Brescia in 1654, is elected pope on October 6, 1689, as Alexander VIII.

Corelli, who is particularly skilled as a conductor and may be considered one of the pioneers of modern orchestral direction, is frequently called upon to organize and conduct special musical performances.

Perhaps the most outstanding of these is the one sponsored by Queen Christina of Sweden, who has a residence in Rome, for the British ambassador, who had been sent to Rome by King James II of England to attend the coronation of the new pope.

For this entertainment, Corelli conducts an orchestra of one hundred and fifty strings.