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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

Concerto

Around the same time opera was developing as a genre, composers created a new form of orchestral music called the concerto (which is simply Italian for "concert.") The genre was pioneered by the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, who worked for King Louis XIV.

The first type of concerto to develop was the concerto grosso, which creates a variety of textures by contrasting a small group of soloists, called the concertino, with the full orchestra, called the ripieno.

A second type of concerto developed in Venice, called the solo concerto, which replaced the concertino with a single virtuoso performer.