Bonno. Metastasio was also musical; he played the harpsichord, sang ('come un serafino,' as he used to say) and composed.[1] He may be considered as the originator of a real improvement in the musical drama, though long since superseded. His popularity as a dramatic poet was great; the charm, grace, melody, and sweetness of his verse induced the composers to overlook the absence of contrast and strong passion; and in consequence some of his libretti have been set as many as thirty or forty times.
Mozart's 'Clemenza di Tito' is the solitary example of Metastasio's dramas to be seen on the boards at the present day. His poems include 29 dramas, 8 oratorios, 39 pièces de circonstance, nearly 50 cantatas and scenas; elegies, idyls, sonnets, canzonas, sestines, terzines, etc., published in nearly 50 different editions.[2] His portrait has often been engraved; that by Mansfield and Heath after Steiner is the best. Burney describes his appearance in 1772 in enthusiastic terms.[3] There are also busts and medallions of him. He was buried in a vault in the Michaeler church, and in 1855 an amateur named Galvagni placed a marble monument to his memory (by Luccardi) in the church of the Minorites, bearing the following lines by the Abbé Guido Ferrari:—
'Dat patriam Assisium, nomen Roma, Austria famam,
Plausum orbis, tumulum haec urna Metastasio.'
Chronological List of Metastasio's Secular Dramas, with the chief composers, and dates of production.
Didone abbandonata. Sarro, 1724; Hasse, 1743; Jomelli, 1749; Bonno, 1752. [App. p.718 "For Sarro read Sarri, and correct the date of Jommelli's composition to 1745. Add to the names of composers who set the libretto those of Galuppi; Scarlatti, about 1724; Porpora, 1742; Piccinni, 1767; Kozeluch, 1795; Paisiello, 1797; Paer, 1810; Mercadante, 1823; Reissiger, 1823."]
Siface. Porpora, 1726; Leo, 1737.
Siroe. Vinci, 1726; Handel, 1728; Hasse, 1733. [App. p.718 "Piccinni, 1759."]
Catone in Utica. Vinci, 1727; Jomelli, 1749. [App. p.718 "Leo and Hasse, 1732; Graun, 1744; Piccinni, 1770."
Ezio. Auletta, 1728; Porpora, 1729; Jomelli, 1749; Hasse, 1755; Graun, 1755; Gluck, 1763. [App. p.718 "Handel, 1731; Mercadante, 1826."]
Semiramide. Vinci, 1729; Porpora, 1729; Hasse. 1747; Gluck, 1749; Meyerbeer, 1819.
Alessandro nell' Indie. Vinci, 1729; Handel (as 'Poro'), 1731; Hasse (as 'Cleofide'), 1731. [App. p.718 "Correct date of Vinci's work to 1730. Add Leo, 1727; Gluck, 1745; Piccinni, 1758 and 1774."]
Artaserse. Vinci, 1730; Hasse, 1740; Gluck, 1741; Galuppi. 1749; G. Scarlatti, 1763: 40 settings in all. [App. p.718 "Leo, 1740."]
Demetrio. Caldara, 1731; Gluck (as 'Cleonice'), 1742. [App. p.718 "Hasse, 1732."]
Adriano in Siria. Caldara, 1732; Hasse, 1752; 26 settings in all.
Issipile. F. Conti. 1732. [App. p.718 "Porpora, 1723."]
Olimpiade. Caldara, 1733; Wagenseil, 1749; Hasse, 1756; Gassmann, 1764. [App. p.718 "Pergolesi, 1735; Leo, 1740; Jommelli, 1765; Piccinni, 1761 and 1771. [See Olimpiade]."]
Demofoonte. Caldara, 1733; Gluck, 1742; Hasse, 1748. [App. p.718 "Leo, 1741; Piccinni, 1762; Paisiello, 1773."]
La Clemenza di Tito. Caldara, 1734; Hasse, 1737; Wagenseil, 1746; Gluck, 1751; G.Scarlatti, 1760; Mozart, 1791. [App. p.718 "Leo, 1735."]
Achille in Sciro. Caldara, 1736; Jomelli, 1749; Hasse, 1759. [App. p.718 "Correct date of Jommelli's work to 1745."]
Ciro riconosciuto. Caldara, 1736; Hasse, 1751. [App. p.718 "Scarlatti, 1712; Leo, 1727; Jommelli, 1744."]
Temistocle. Caldara, 1736. [App. p.718 "Omit Caldara, as his work is not composed to Metastasio's libretto. Add Porpora, 1742; Pacini, 1838."]
Zenobia. Predieri, 1740. [App. p.718 "Hasse, 1763."]
Antigono. Hasse, 1743. [App. p.718 "Gluck, 1754."]
Ipermestra. Hasse, 1744. [App. p.718 "Jommelli, 1752; Gluck, 1742; Hasse, 1751."]
Attillo Regolo. Hasse, 1750. [App. p.718 "Jommelli, 1752."]
Il Rè Pastore. Bonno, 1751; Sarti, 1753; Hasse, 1755; Gluck, 1756; Mozart, 1775.
L'Eroe Cinese. Bonno, 1752; Hasse, 1753; Gluck, 1754; Sacchini, 1771; Cimarosa, 1783.
L'Isola disabitata. Bonno, 1754; Jomelli, 1762; G. Scarlatti, 1763; Haydn, 1779; Spontini, 1798. [App. p.718 "Correct date of Scarlatti's work to 1757."]
Nitteti. Jomelli, 1759; Hasse, 1759; Sarti, 1765; Sacchini, 1774.
Alcide al Bivio. Hasse, 1760; Paisiello, 1779.
Il Trionfo dl Clelia. Gluck, 1760; Hasse. 1762.
Tetide. Gluck, 1760.
Egeria. Hasse, 1764.
Romolo ed Ersllia. Hasse, 1765.
Il Parnasso confuso. Gluck, 1765.
Il Trionfo d'Amore. Gassmann, 1765.
Partenope. Hasse, 1767.
Il Ruggiero, ovvero L'eroica gratitudine. Hasse, 1771.
Sacred Dramas or Oratorios, performed in the Imperial Chapel, Vienna, in Passion week.
La Passione etc. Caldara, 1730.
Sant' Elena. Caldara, 1731.
La Morte d'Abel. Caldara, 1732.
Giuseppe riconosciuto. Porsile, 1733.
La Betulia liberata. Reutter, 1734.
Gioas, Rèe dl Giuda. Reutter, 1745.
Isacco. Predieri, 1740.
One drama, 'Per la Fest. di S. Natale,' composed by G. Costanza,was performed at Rome, 1727, in a theatre with scenery and action.
METRE, the rhythmic element of Song: as exemplified, in Music, in the structure of melodious phrases—in Poetry, in that of regular Verses.
As the rhythm of Poetry is measured by syllables and feet, so is that of Music by beats and bars. The two systems, notwithstanding their apparent difference, may almost be described as interchangeable: since it would be quite possible to express the swing of a Melody in Dactyls and Spondees, or the scansion of a Verse in Crotchets and Quavers. Upon this coincidence, Music and Poetry are almost entirely dependent for the intimacy of their mutual relations: and, as we shall presently shew, these relations influence pure Instrumental Composition no less forcibly than Vocal Music; the themes of a Sonata being as easily reducible to metrical feet as those of an Opera. Themes which are not so reducible—in other words, Melodies which exhibit no rhythmic correspondence with any imaginable kind of poetical Verse—may, indeed, be safely assumed to be bad ones. We shall most readily make this position intelligible, by considering the syllables and feet which form the basis of Poetical Metre; and then shewing their application to the phrases of a regularly-constructed Melody.
Syllables are of three kinds; long(–), short (‿), and common (–‿). One long syllable is reckoned as the equivalent of two short ones. A common syllable may be treated either as long, or short, at pleasure. In Classical Prosody, the length or shortness of syllables is determined by the laws of quantity. In modern Poetry, it is dependent upon accent alone; all accented syllables being considered long, and all unaccented ones short, whatever may be the quantity of their respective vowels. This distinction is of great importance to the Composer; for Poetry regulated by quantity has very little affinity with the Sister Art. The association of what we now call Tune, with Sapphics or Elegiacs, would probably be impracticable. But the regular cadence of English or Italian verses, in which the claims of quantity are utterly ignored, seems almost to demand it as a necessity.[4]
The union of two, three, or four syllables, constitutes a foot. Four forms only of the dissyllabic foot are possible—
| Pyrrhic | ‿ ‿ |
| Spondee | – – |
| Iambus | ‿– |
| Trochee, (or Chorius) | – ‿ |
Of trisyllabic feet there are eight varieties—
| Tribrach. | ‿ ‿ ‿ |
| Molossus | – – – |
| Dactyl | – ‿ ‿ |
| Anapæst | ‿ ‿ – |
| Bacchius | ‿ – – |
| Antibacchius (or Palimbacchius) | – – ‿ |
| Amphibrachys | ‿ – ‿ |
| Amphimacer (or Cretic) | – ‿ – |
- ↑ Cappi of Vienna published his 'XXXVI Canzoni a Sole tre voci.'
- ↑ Vol. i. of 'Opere del Signer Abbate Pletro Metastasio,' 17 small vols. 12mo. (Nice 1785), contains a life by Cristini.' A selection of his poems was published in Paris (1804) with the title 'Pensieri di Metastasio.' Burney wrote his 'Memoirs' (London 1796).
- ↑ 'For that time of life [he was about 74] he is the handsomest man I ever beheld. There are painted on his countenance all the genius, goodness, propriety, benevolence, and rectitude which constantly characterise his writings. I could not keep my eyes off his face, it was so pleasing and worthy of contemplation.—Present State of Music in Germany, i. 295.
- ↑ Not very long ago, a celebrated Poet, experimenting upon the possibility of producing good English Hexameters, wrote some curious examples in accordance with the laws of quantity a proceeding which left the real point at issue untouched.
