This conference was principally concerned with the dissemination of Arcangelo Corelli's music beyond Western Europe in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Themes included the cultural meaning and construction of Corelli's fame and, by extension, that of other European musicians, and the mechanisms and effects of transmission of cultural artefacts from Europe to the New World in the early eighteenth century. The conference coincided with the three-hundredth anniversary of Corelli's death, and was convened by Dr David R. M. Irving (Australian National University (ANU)), who was assisted by a team of music academic colleagues.

The first presentation was by Graeme Skinner (University of Sydney). He used the ‘Sydney Cecilians’, established in 1838, as a case study for his speculation on the role of short-lived amateur music societies in Sydney. They may have engendered the assertion of a musical and socio-political identity in the fledgling antipodean British dependency. Skinner noted that the first documented appearance of Corelli's music in Sydney was a solo violin sonata performed at a subscription concert in 1826. Of particular interest was the revelation that in the early years of the colony, performers at such concerts were drawn from all sectors of society, including professionals, the gentry and the military. Referring to printed programmes, Skinner speculated that the repertoire predominantly performed in the colony prior to the availability of professional musicians in the 1870s was consistent with the long-standing popularity of vocal music and instrumental works such as opera overtures that were performed by amateurs in Europe at the time.

Samantha Owens (University of Queensland) discussed the mechanisms by which Italian music reached Dublin in the early decades of the eighteenth century. She focused on the violinist William Viner, noting that he had associated in London with Francesco Gasparini, the Italian violinist and composer who had studied with Corelli. This association may have led to Viner's capacity to emulate Corelli's style in performance. Other Dublin musicians who were able to obtain the latest repertoire included Viner's associates John Sigismond Cousser (Johann Sigismund Kusser) and Philip Percival.

Referring to the extemporaneous nature of the performance of Italian instrumental music in the seventeenth century, Peter Walls (Victoria University of Wellington) discussed and demonstrated various ‘graced’ editions of Corelli's Op. 5 sonatas. He noted that, with the exception of the 1710 edition by Estienne Roger, all the exemplars originated from the British Isles or Sweden. This raises the question of why English musicians were interested in writing and performing embellished versions of the works while their Italian counterparts apparently were not. A possible explanation is that English musicians had a different musical vernacular, and thus needed to analyse and articulate what would have been part of the expressive consciousness of a well-trained violinist in mainland Europe.

Alan Maddox (University of Sydney) discussed the special status of eighteenth-century singers of opera seria, noting that in the sociocultural milieu of the time they had a unique capacity to embody the identity and the social and political power of the nobility, who primarily funded performances. He referred to the liminal space that the singers occupied, being effectively never off stage. They played multiple roles, reinforcing their audience's values while at the same time being in a position to subvert them. Referring to events in the lives of some prominent singers, Maddox noted that there were boundaries of decorum which could not be crossed either on or off the stage. He suggested that study of the ways in which singers fashioned their off-stage identities can provide insight into the mutual understanding between performers and audiences of opera seria characters.

Janice B. Stockigt (University of Melbourne) discussed the renown throughout Europe of musicians in the court orchestra of August III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. A rediscovered poem from 1740 by Johann Gottlob Kittel pays homage to twenty-three outstanding musicians. These include singers such as Faustina Bordoni-Hasse, instrumentalists such as Sylvius Leopold Weiss and composers such as Johann Adolph Hasse and Jan Dismas Zelenka. Manuscripts contained in the Schrank II collection indicate that the repertoire of the Hofkapelle included several works by Corelli.

David Irving's paper, with the intriguing subtitle ‘Flight of the Archangel’, explored the ways in which an individual musician's global ‘fame’ might have been constructed in the eighteenth century. He discussed how Corelli's music circulated across vast geographical distances following his death in 1713. Aspects of Italian musical style, including dance forms and concepts of tonality, were disseminated with the music. He noted that in contrast to the earlier circulation of sacred vocal music, Corelli's instrumental works were not confined to societies aligned with established Christian institutions. Thus, as well as in Spanish and Portuguese colonies, they were received without prejudice in India, North America and Australia. There are examples of the music also crossing more distant cultural boundaries, being heard, for example, by rulers in Asian courts.

Neal Peres da Costa (University of Sydney) provided insights into how the keyboard accompaniments in Corelli's compositions may have been realized. He referred in particular to Antonio Tonelli's manuscript of the Op. 5 sonatas, which contains realizations of Corelli's figured-bass lines. This, as well as contemporary treatises such as that of Francesco Gasparini, suggests Corelli may have intended a more prominent role for the continuo than the style of playing popular in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century recordings. A parallel to Corelli's apparent practice is Ferdinand David's mid-nineteenth-century editions with full-voiced piano accompaniments. Peres da Costa suggested that by Corelli's time, ‘discretion’ was no longer in style for continuo playing.

Rosalind Halton (University of Newcastle) discussed Corelli's ubiquitousness in the musical life of late seventeenth-century Rome, suggesting that this was a factor in his subsequent ‘globalization’. Although he did not compose vocal music, Corelli conducted and performed with singers and choirs. This, and his patronage by Cardinal Ottoboni, resulted in his sinfonie having a central influence on contemporary vocal genres, including the serenata, oratorio and opera. Halton proposed that there was a symbiotic relationship between Alessandro Scarlatti the Neapolitan and Corelli the Bolognese, the two composers having met in 1702. Suggesting that Scarlatti adopted Corelli's style and made it his own, she gave examples of similar compositional methods, including key relationships, use of hard and soft hexachords, walking bass, ⁴₃ suspensions and the diminished-seventh approach to a cadence.

Bryan White (University of Leeds), in a streamed video presentation, suggested that Aleppo, an important trading centre for many European countries in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, was an important vector for dissemination of current musical compositions. The British merchant and harpsichordist Rowland Sherman lived there for over fifty years, and an inventory of his library contains many of Corelli's compositions. His correspondence reveals that he performed with many European merchants, having a preference for Italianate chamber works in which he could play basso continuo. It also suggests that he was influenced by the national performance styles of visiting musicians.

In the first lecture-recital on day two, Joyce Lindorff (Temple University) and Nancy Wilson (Mannes College, The New School for Music) performed several works from Teodorico Pedrini's Op. 3 on harpsichord and baroque violin respectively. The presentation was streamed live from Temple University, Philadelphia. Pedrini, an Italian missionary and musician, served as music master in the Chinese emperor's court from 1711 until his death in 1746. His Op. 3, comprising twelve sonatas for violin and bass, is the only surviving example of a Western-style music manuscript in China from the eighteenth century. Lindorff noted similarities between Pedrini's compositions and those of Corelli, including harmonic progressions through the cycle of fifths and unexpected harmonic movements. From a large collection of Pedrini's writings she inferred the important role of Western music in the political and sociocultural milieu of China at the time. Two important factors were the emperor's desire to assimilate current international knowledge and his opposition to aspects of the European missionary presence. An interesting inference made by the performers was that Pedrini's compositions may be an example of European music developing out of context, following a different evolutionary pathway.

The second lecture-recital, introduced by David Irving, focused on Thomas Forrest (c1729–c1802), an important figure in the cultural exchange between Europe and Southeast Asia. A theme was that the exchange of the abstract entity of music fostered the mutual goodwill required for trade. Forrest, an agent of the Dutch East India Company, as well as an independent trader, travelled extensively in the Malay archipelago. He not only taught Western music theory and practice to the local people, but also absorbed their music, transcribing it and playing it back. He composed songs in the Malay language. One example, ‘Angin be dingin, Oogin be jattoo’, was found in an edition of one of his two published travelogues. Irving has studied and edited the piece, noting that it is based on the Corrente: Vivace of Corelli's Trio Sonata Op. 4 No. 2. The lecture-recital concluded with performances of this sonata by a quartet including guest artists, and Forrest's song by Paul McMahon (ANU). The performance of the latter was an emotive one, the song being clearly a vocal challenge.

The conference concluded with an orchestral concert by ANU student and staff members, supplemented with special guest artists. Opening the programme was Corelli's ‘Christmas Concerto’, Op. 6 No. 8, and bringing it to a close were works by Georg Muffat and Francesco Geminiani, both known to be admirers of Corelli.