A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Stradella, Alessandro

by Giannandrea Mazzucato

STRADELLA, Alessandro, an Italian composer of the 17th century. The earliest and only detailed account of him is that given by Bonnet-Bourdelot,^[1] of which we here subjoin the literal English translation.

A man named Stradel, an eminent musician, while in Venice, engaged by the Government of the Republic to write the music of the operas, charmed everybody no less by the beauty of his voice than by the merit of his compositions. A Venetian nobleman, named Pig.…, whose mistress was well educated in the art of singing, desired to have her perfected by the fashionable musician, and that he should teach her at her own house; a thing much against the habits of the Venetians, who are known to be extremely jealous. After a few months' lessons such a reciprocal affection had grown up between teacher and pupil, that they resolved on the first opportunity to escape together to Rome. The opportunity soon presented itself. The elopement drove the Venetian almost to despair, and he determined to revenge himself by having them both murdered. He at once sent for two of the most notorious assassins then in Venice, agreed to pay them a hundred pistoles, to enable them to follow and murder Stradel and his mistress; and in addition to defray expenses and advance half the sum. At the same time he gave them full instructions for the safe accomplishment of the murder. They made for Naples, where they learned that Stradel was in Rome with his mistress, who passed for his wife. They informed the Venetian nobleman of this, … and begged him to send them letters of introduction to the Venetian ambassador at Rome, that they might be sure of finding an asylum. On their arrival in Rome they discovered that on the next day, at five in the afternoon, Stradel was to have a spiritual opera, or oratorio, performed at St. John Lateran, where the murderers did not fail to go in the hope of carrying out their design as Stradel went home with his mistress. But the enthusiasm of the public for the music, and its effect on the murderers themselves, was such as to change by magic their anger into piety, and they agreed that it would be a pity to kill a man whose musical genius formed the admiration of all Italy; in fact, moved by one and the same feeling, they resolved upon saving his life instead of taking it. Accordingly, on his leaving the church, they complimented him on the oratorio, told him their intention of assassinating him and his mistress, to revenge the Venetian nobleman …; but that the charm of his music had changed their minds; and advised him to leave on the morrow for a place of safety. Meanwhile, lest they should be suspected of neglecting their duty, they would inform the nobleman that he had left Rome on the eve of their arrival there. Stradel did not wait for further advice, but with his mistress made straight for Turin, where the present 'Madame Royale' was then Regent. The murderers returned to Venice, and informed the nobleman, as they had already written, that Stradel had left Rome for Turin, where it was certainly much more difficult to commit an important murder than in any other Italian town, owing to the garrison, and to the fact that no places of asylum were respected, save only houses of ambassadors. But Stradel was no safer for that: for the Venetian nobleman began to consider how best to carry out his revenge in Turin, and with that view interested his mistress's father in it, who betook himself to Venice with two assassins, with the express purpose of slaying his own daughter and Stradel in Turin, after having obtained letters of introduction from the Abbé d'Estrade, French ambassador at Venice, to the Marquis de Villars, French ambassador at Turin. M. d'Estrade requested protection for three merchants staying in Turin. These merchants were the assassins, who regularly paid their homage to the ambassador, while waiting for an opportunity to accomplish their design. But the Regent having been apprised of the true cause of Stradel's flight, and being fully aware of the character of the Venetians, placed Stradel's mistress in a convent, and engaged him for her own band. One evening, as he was walking on the ramparts of Turin, he was suddenly attacked by the three murderers, who each stabbed him in the chest, and then took refuge in the house of the French ambassador. The deed being witnessed by many people, who were promenading on the ramparts, instantly caused an immense excitement. The gates of the town were closed, and the Regent gave orders that the utmost diligence should be employed to find out the assassins. On learning that they were in the house of the French ambassador she demanded that they should be delivered up, but the ambassador refused to do so without an order from his king.… The occurrence made much noise throughout all Italy. On the request of M. de Villars the assassins gave him the reasons for their proceeding; he wrote to d'Estrade, who answered that he had been deceived by Pig …, who was one of the most powerful noblemen in Venice. As however Stradel did not die from his wounds, M. de Villars allowed the assassins to escape, the chief being, as we have said, the father of the nobleman's mistress, whom he would have killed had he found the opportunity.

But as the Venetians never forgive treachery in love affairs, Stradel could not escape his enemy, who left spies in Turin charged to follow his movements; and a year after his recovery, while in Genoa with his mistress, Ortensia, whom the Regent had given him in marriage during his convalescence, they were murdered in their bedroom. The murderers escaped on a boat that was waiting for them in the harbour, and nothing more was said about them. In this manner died the most excellent musician of all Italy, about the year 1670.

Contrary to M. Fétis's opinion, we believe, for the reasons now to be submitted, that this narrative has been too readily accepted by all writers on Stradella, with the exception of M. Richard^[2] and M. Catelani,^[3] whose researches, however, have not led to any positive result. Being thus thrown back again upon the statement of Bonnet-Bourdelot, we shall point out the main objections to its veracity, as well as the mistakes that occur in it either from carelessness or want of exact information.

The materials for the 'Histoire de la musique et de ses effets' were collected by Pierre Bourdelot, who at his death in 1685 entrusted the compilation of the work to his nephew Pierre Bonnet; who in his turn dying in 1708, before the history was completed, it fell to the lot of his brother Jacques Bonnet—an erudite person but of unsound mind and much given to the cabala—to wind up and publish the book. None of the three appear to have been musicians, and this fact, added to the mental condition of the final editor, is much against the accuracy of the statement. Moreover the story is told à propos to Poliziano's death, merely to strengthen the opinion advanced by Bourdelot that 'no young teacher of singing ought to be given to a young lady.'^[4] If we were to take his narrative of Poliziano's death as a test of the accuracy and truth of Stradella's history, we should be very cautious in accepting it. The particulars of Poliziano's death are well known to us,^[5] as they might have been even to Bourdelot himself, had he not preferred to adopt Varila's legend.^[6] If he has so grossly mis-stated a matter regarding which he had documents at hand, how can we believe a statement which, with the exception of the occurrence in Turin—apparently taken from the correspondence of the ambassadors—was made simply on the faith of court gossip?

The mistakes in the narrative are three: (1) Stradella could not have been engaged by the Government of Venice to write operas, because neither in the official lists, nor in Allacci, is there any mention of such; in addition to which the operatic performances in Venice have always been left to private enterprise; (2) the name of the nobleman in question was not Pignaver, as implied by the abbreviation Pig., but Contarini; (3) the date of Stradella's death is to be assigned to a much later period than 1670, as will be seen farther on. The account of the effect of the music on the assassins savours too much of the marvellous; and even the murder at Genoa must be very doubtful, seeing that the most accurate historians do not mention it.^[7]

The place of Stradella's birth is unknown. Wanley^[8] thinks he was a Venetian, while Burney^[9] states he was a Neapolitan, apparently for no other reason than that he sends Stradella and Ortensia, en route for Rome, to Naples, which, he adds, was 'the place of Stradella's nativity.' Fétis,^[10] evidently on Burney's statement, but without quoting his authority, describes him as born at Naples about 1645, and the assertion is now an accepted statement.^[11] The dates both of his birth and death are in fact unknown. But though we reject the story of his murder at Genoa, it is not impossible that he ended his life there, since the composition, which we may presume to have been his last, is dated from thence.

The date of his death was probably about 1681, since there exists in the Biblioteca Palatina of Modena, a cantata, 'Il Barcheggio,'^[12] written for the wedding of Carlo Spinola and Paola Brignole, at Genoa, July 6, 1681. The poem contains numerous allusions to it, and the names of both bride and bridegroom; no mistake is possible as to the real date of the composition, and thus the dates 1670 and 1678, given by Bourdelot and Burney for his death, are evidently wrong.^[13]

The statements that besides being a composer Stradella was a singer,^[14] 'an exquisite performer on the harp,'^[15] 'a great performer on the violin,'^[16] 'excelled in an extraordinary hand, so as to have been accounted the best organist in Italy,'^[17] 'was a Latin and perhaps also an Italian poet,'^[18] are all more or less gratuitous, and except composing, it cannot be proved that he possessed any of these qualifications. His name is never met with in any of the best treatises of Italian literature, either as a Latin or an Italian poet,^[19] and with respect to his skill on the organ, we have been unable to find anything to justify Wanley's assertion, beyond a short Sonata in D for two violins and basso continuo per l'Organo.^[20] As to the statements in the 'Penny Cyclopaedia,' that 'Stradella was not handsome, but remarkable for the symmetry of his form, his wit and polished manners,' and in Wanley's catalogue, that 'he was a comely person and of an amorous nature,' I can do no more than submit them to the reader, as striking instances of the way in which mythical statements gather round a central figure.

Nothing can be positively asserted as to his having been married to Ortensia by the Royal Madame after the occurrence in Turin, because the archives of S. Giovanni di Torino, the parish of the Court, have been destroyed by fire. The Madame Royale alluded to by Bourdelot must be Jeanne Marie de Nemours (who became Regent at the death of her husband, Charles Emanuel II., June 12, 1675), and not Christine de France (who died Dec, 27, 1663), as M. Filibert^[21] and other writers have stated.

Where or with whom Stradella studied is entirely unknown. In the archives of the Royal Conservatorio di Musica in Naples, where all the documents formerly belonging to the superseded Conservator! are most carefully kept, his name does not occur: nor is it mentioned in Lichtenthal's catalogue.^[22] None of his numerous operas are known to have been performed in his life-time,^[23] with the possible exception of 'Il Trespolo.'^[24]

Stradella as a composer is known to modern audiences by the Aria di Chiesa, 'Pietà! Signor!' attributed to him. Space will not allow us to enumerate the few pros and many cons respecting its authenticity. It is enough to say that no musician, even though but slightly acquainted with the works that are indisputably by Stradella, will attribute it to him. The composer of that beautiful composition is generally believed to be Fétis, Niedermeyer, or Rossini. The words are taken from the second stanza of Arsenic's aria in Alessandro Scarlatti's oratorio 'Santa Teodosia,' two copies of which are in the Biblioteca Palatina of Modena, and bear the signature 'A. S.' [App. p.797 "add that internal evidence makes it very probable that Francesco Rossi was the composer of 'Pieta, Signore!' although the authorship is still doubtful."]

Stradella's name has lately been invested with fresh interest on account of a Serenata attributed to him, in which the subjects of many of the pieces in 'Israel in Egypt' exist in a more or less crude form. [See vol. i. p. 94; ii. 25. [App. p.797 "add [[A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Handel, George#654|vol. i. p.654b"].] A copy of this, formerly belonging to Dr. Gauntlett, is in the Library of the Royal College of Music, London, and another (older) in that of the Conservatoire, Paris: the original is not known. For a review of the work, by Mr. Prout, see 'Monthly Musical Record,' Dec. 1, 1871.

Burney (iv. 105) gives an analysis of his Oratorio di S. Gio. Battista, and mentions a MS. of his opera 'La Forza dell' Amor paterno,' dated Genoa, 1578 [App. p.797 "1678"].

There are 148 of Stradella's compositions at Modena: amongst them 6 oratorios and 11 dramas. The library of S. Marco in Venice possesses a collection of 'Canti a voce sola dell' insigne A. Stradella, legate alla Biblioteca S. Marco di Venezia dalla nobile famiglia Contarini.' Some of his compositions are also at the Conservatorio at Naples, and some in that at Paris. The Christchurch Library, Oxford, contains 1 motet for 2 voices, and 8 cantatas for 1 and 2 voices.

The following are in the British Museum.

Printed.

Così amor mi fai languir. Canzonetta.
Medes. Cantata.
Il Nerone. Cantata.
O del mio dolce ardor. Aria.^[25]
Se i miei sospiri. Aria di chiesa.
Anco in cielo. Aria.
Se nei ben sempre. Arietta.

Manuscript.

1. In the Harleian Library.

Se nei ben sempre. Arietta.^[26]
Stelle non mi tradite. Cantata.
La ragion ni assicura. Duetto.
Se t'ama, Filli, o cor. Arietta.
Chi dira' che nel veleno. Cantata.

2. Add. MSS.

Troppo grave. Duetto.
Ahi che in sentirio. Duetto.
La povera mia fè. Duetto.
Pupillette amorose. Madrigal à 5.
Clori son fido amante. Do.
Piangete occhi dolenti. Do.
E' pur giunta. Madrigal à 5.
Tirsi un giorno piangea. Do. à 5.
Feritemi, feritemi. Do. à 4.
Colpa de' bei vostr' occhi. Do.
Aure fresche. Do. for 2 voices.
A Sonata for two violins and basso.

[ G. M. ]

1. Histoire de la muslque et de ses effets. Paris, 1715.
2. Le Ménestrel; 1865, 51, 52; 1866, 1 to 6, and 12 to 18.
3. Delle opere di A. Stradella esistenti nell Archivio Musicale della E. Biblioteca Palatina di Modena. Modena, 1866.
4. Hist. de la mus. etc.. vol. 1. chap, iii, 'Opinions of the philosophers, poets, and musicians of ancient times, on the use of vocal and Instrumental music, and of its effects on passions.'
5. Classici Italiani, vol. xxxv, Vita di Angelo Poliziano. Milano 1808.
6. Relation of Poliziano's death by Roberto Ubaldini, a Dominican monk, who after having assisted him during his last illness, dressed him, by consent and order of Fra Domenico Savonarola, in the garb of the religious order of the Predicatori, 1494.
7. 'Annali di Genova,' di Filippo Casoni; 'Storia d'Italia,' di Carlo Botta; Bossi, 'Istoria d'Italia'; Muratori, 'Annali d'Italia'; Sismondi, 'Républiques Italiennes du moyen age.'
8. A Catalogue of the Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. i. p. 642, cod. 1272.
9. A General History of Music, iv. 100, 101.
10. Biographie universelle des musiciens.
11. See 'Dictionnaire général de Biographie et d'Histoire' (Paris 1857); 'Dictionnaire de la Conversation et de la lecture' (Paris 1858); Mendel, 'Mus. Conversations-Lexikon' (1877); Riemann, Musik-Lexikon (1882).
12. On the first page of the score la written: 'Il Barchegglo. del Sig. Alessandro Stradella 1681. L'ultima delle sue sinfonie.' After the overture, and before the duet with which the scene opens, at the top of the page is written 'Inuentione per un Barchegio 1681. 16 Giugno. L'ultima composizione del Sig. Alessandro Stradella' This is a cantata for soprano, tenor and bass, in two parts. Each part is preceded by an overture. The score is for two violins, cornet or trumpet, and bass: a trombone di rinforzo at times with the bass.
13. Burney's mistake is easily explainable, because, when he wrote, 'Il Barcheggio' had not yet been discovered, and he was in possession of a libretto 'La forza dell' amor patenio,' Genoa 1678, dedicated to Signora Teresa Raggi Saoli, by Alessandro Stradella, the dedication apparently written by Stradella himself. The facts that the oratorio 'S. Giovanni Battista'—supposed to be that which saved its author's life in Rome—bears the date 'Rome 1676.' and the fact that Bourdelot's account implies a period of two years between Stradella's singing in Rome and his murder in Genoa, induced Burney to believe that Stradella might have met his death in Genoa while attending the rehearsals of his new opera. However, that libretto was seen by Burney only, and has since disappeared.
14. Bourdelot and all biographers.
15. Hawkins's History, vol. iv. bk. 2. chap. 10.
16. Burney, 'A General History of Music,' iv. 100.
17. A Catalogue of the Harlelan MSS.
18. Catelani. 'Delle opere di A. Stradella esistent, etc.'
19. 'Della Storia e della Ragione di ogni Poesia,' di F. S. Quadrio. Bologna-Milano, 1739–1742. Tiraboschi, 'Storia della letteratura italianas.' Ginguene, 'Histoire littéraire d'Italie.' Giovan Mario Crescimbeni, 'Dall' Istoria della volgar Poesia.' In this last work, Stradella is spoken of only where the author, dealing with the Cantatas, thus expresses himself: 'they are pretty things and the best and most pleasant diversion that one can enjoy in any honourable and noble conversation; especially when set to music by eminent maestri, as amongst the old ones, are those by the famous Alessandro Stradella. one of which was sung not long since in the Academy of the Cardinal Ottoboni by Andrea Adami detto il Bolsena.' Vol. 1. lib. iv. chap. xii. p. 330. This passage is quoted from Edn. 3, 1731.
20. 'Scielta delle suonate a due violini con il Basso continuo per l'Organo, raccolte da diversi eccellenti autori.' In Bologna per Giacomo Monti 1680. With the exception of this Sonata, no other of Stradella's compositions was printed In the 17th century.
21. Supplement à la Biographie universelle,' Paris 1853.
22. Dizionario e Bibliografia della Musica del D. Pietro Lichtenthal, Milano, 1826.
23. The following is the list of books in which the names of Stradella's operas should have been mentioned, if any of them had been performed. Leone Allacci, 'Drammaturgia.' Groppo, 'Catalogo di tutti i drammi per musica.' Bonlini, 'Le glorie della Poesia e della Musica.' C. F. Menestrier, 'Des représentations en musique ancienne et moderne'; Paris, 1681. Pietro Napoli Slgnorelli, 'Storia critica de teatri antichi e moderni.' Ditto, 'Discorso storico critico da servire di lume alla storia dei teatri.'
24. Performed at Modena 1686, and possibly at Bologna 1682.
25. Attributed to Stradella, but written by Gluck.
26. Doubtful.