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Scan 746
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1922
25 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1STRADELLA
3been performed in his lifetime,1 with the exception of 'Il Trespolo.'2
5Stradella as a composer is known to modern audiences by the Aria di Chiesa, 'Pietà, Signore!' attributed to him. 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 almost certainly Rossini. The words are taken from the second stanza of Arsenio'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.'
7Stradella'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. ii. pp. 286b, 514b.] 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 Prof. Prout, see Monthly Musical Record, Dec. 1, 1871.
9Burney (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, 1678.
11There are 148 of Stradella's compositions at Modena: amongst them six oratorios and six 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. Many are in the British Museum. (See the Quellen-Lexikon.) The Christ Church Library, Oxford, contains one motet for two voices, and eight cantatas for one and two voices.
13G. M.
15STRADELLA. 1. French lyric drama, music by Flotow. Produced at the Palais Royal theatre, Paris, Feb. 1837. Then recomposed, as a Grand Opera, and produced at Hamburg, Dec. 30, 1844, as 'Alessandro Stradella.' In English (altered by Bunn) as 'Stradella,' at Drury Lane, June 6, 1846. 2. Opera in five acts, by Niedermeyer; produced at the Académie, March 3, 1837. G.
17STRADIVARI, ANTONIO, 'brought the violin to the highest perfection and left to Cremona an imperishable name as master of his craft.' Thus the inscription now affixed by the municipality of Cremona to the house in the Piazza Roma where the great violin-maker passed the most successful years of his life, and where he died on Dec. 18, 1737.
19It should be stated at once that the history, that is to say, the whole of the facts available as the reward of untiring effort and affectionate research, concerning the family of the great 'Stradivarius,' as well as his own personality and work, have been amassed in the monumental study which has been, it may be said, the life-work of the sons of William Ebsworth Hill—Antonio Stradivari, his Life and Work (1644-1737), by W. Henry Hill, Arthur F. Hill, F.S.A. and Alfred Hill (London, 1902). Beyond what is collected in this volume there is, probably, nothing more to be discovered or discussed. To this work the writer acknowledges his great indebtedness.
21Regarding the etymology of the name Mr. E. J. Payne, in the first edition of the Dictionary, pronounced it to be derived from 'the plural form of "Stradivare," a Lombard variety of "Stradiere," a tollman or douanier, a feudal official who was posted on the Strada (or high road) for the purpose of exacting dues from passengers'; while Signor Mandelli, quoting from the catalogue of ancient rolls of the community of Cremona, compiled by the Piedmontese professor, Astegiano, to the year 1300, and printed at Turin in 1899, states that: 'The form of the name "de Stradaverta" as used in 1298 is derived from "Strada Averta" of the Cremonese dialect; in Italian "Strada Aperta." A further outcome of Signor Mandelli's researches is the remarkable genealogy of the Stradivari family which he has traced down to 1883. Beginning with Giulio Cesare Stradivari of the parish of S. Michele Vecchio, who married Doralice Milani, a widow of the cathedral parish, on April 10, 1600, we find Antonio Stradivari's father recorded in the register-entry of the son born to them two years later and christened Alessandro, on Jan. 15 in the same church. Later we find this same Alessandro, son of Giulio Cesare Stradivari, entering into the bonds of matrimony with Anna, daughter of Leonardo Moroni, on August 30, 1622, which fact is duly recorded in the marriage register of the parish of S. Prospero. Three children are recorded to have been born of this union: Giuseppe Giulio Cesare, born March 1623; Carlo Felice, born Sept. 1626; Giovanni Battista, born Oct. 1628. After the birth of the last-mentioned child documentary evidence concerning the family ceases entirely, and no effort has yet dissipated the obscurity which enshrouds the birth of Antonio Stradivari. Every record relating to the subject has, it would seem, been destroyed, or lost, and the only available explanation of this singular deficiency has been furnished by the wars and famine which visited Cremona in 1628, the year Giovanni Battista was born, and again in 1629. Again in 1630 the inhabitants were further harassed by the ravages of
231 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 dramme per musica. Bonlini, Le glorie della Poesia e della Musica. C. F. Menestrier, Des représentations en musique ancienne et moderne, Paris, 1681. Pietro Napoli Signorelli, Storia critica de teatri antichi e moderni. Ditto, Discorso storico critico da servire di lume alla storia dei teatri.
242 Performed at Bologna, 1679, and at Modena, 1686.
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