A form of
musical composition used mostly in the
Baroque Era, the Baroque analogue of a
jam session.
If a plain
concerto features a single player on a single instrument, or occasionally two or three, the concerto grosso features several. It is usually made up of six
movements, each featuring one instrument. Ideally, each player in the ensemble (except perhaps the
basso continuo) gets a
solo.
The first concerti grossi were written by Italian composer
Alessandro Stradella in the late
17th Century. Later, concerti grossi by
Arcangelo Correli established the form as something more than an experiment, and many
18th Century composers wrote their own concerti grossi.
One imagines
Franz Josef Haydn faced with writing recital music for a
passel of
Esterhazys, each proficient to a greater or lesser extent on a different instrument, and none of whom could be favored over the others. Herr Haydn probably would have solved such a dilemma by writing a concerto grosso.