ARCHANGELO CORELLI.
That this celebrated composer was a man of humour and pleasantry may be inferred from the following story, related by Walther, in his account of Nicholas Adam Strunck, violinist to Ernestus Augustus, Elector of Hanover. This person being at Rome, upon his arrival, made it his business to see Corelli: upon their first interview, Strunck gave him to understand that he was a musician. “What is your instrument?” asked Corelli. “I can play,” answered Strunck, “upon the harpsichord, and a little on the violin; and should esteem myself extremely happy, might I hear your performance on this latter instrument, on which, I am informed, you excel,” Corelli very politely condescended to this request of a stranger. He played a solo, Strunck accompanied him on the harpsichord, and afterwards played a foccata, with which Corelli was so much taken, that he laid down his instrument to admire him. When Strunck had done at the harpsichord, he took up the violin, and began to touch it in a very careless manner; upon which Corelli remarked, that he had a good bow-hand, and wanted nothing but practice to become a master of the instrument. At this instant, Strunck put the violin out of tune; and, applying it to its place, played on it with such dexterity, attempering the dissonances occasioned by the mistuning of the instrument with such amazing skill and dexterity, that Corelli cried out, in broken German, “I am called Arcangelo, a name that, in the language of my country, signifies an Archangel; but let me tell you, that you, Sir, are an arch-devil.”
Sir John Hawkins’s History of Music.