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Scan 190
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927
39 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 148. See the scan on archive.org.
1Mar. 12, 1796, Colman's 'Iron Chest,' with Storace's music, was performed for the first time. He was then recovering from a severe attack of gout and fever; yet he determined to attend the first rehearsal. The consequence was fatal; he took cold, the gout attacked his stomach, and on March 19 he died.
3At the time of his death he had an opera, 'Mahmoud, or The Prince of Persia,' in preparation for Braham's début in London. This work was left incomplete, but by the assistance of Kelly and the selection of some music by the composer's sister, Ann Storace, it was fitted for performance and produced for the benefit of his widow (a daughter of John Hall the engraver) and his children, Apr. 30, 1796, was well received, and performed many times. Storace's melodies are thoroughly English in character, whilst in his instrumentation the influence of Mozart and the Italian composers is evident. He was almost the first English composer who introduced into his works the type of finale, in which the business of the scene is carried on by concerted music.1 Some fine examples occur in his works.
5W. H. H.
7STORIONE, LORENZO (b. Cremona, 1751), one of the last famous Cremonese violin-makers, who worked on the model of Stradivari from 1776–95. His violoncellos are particularly admired for their full tone.
9STORNELLO. 'A short poem, in lines of eleven syllables each: it is peculiar to, and liked by the people in Tuscany, who extemporise it with elegant simplicity.' This is the definition of Stornello we find in Tommaseo's Dictionary. The Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, the stronghold of the purity of the Italian language, does not contain the word; this fact added to the other, not less significant, that neither Crescimbeni, nor Quadrio, nor Tiraboschi, mention the word in their elaborate works, inclines us to believe that the word stornello has not the definite meaning that, for instance, sonetto has, but is merely a name given in some parts of Italy to very short poems, more with regard to their purport than their form. Tommaseo again, somewhere else, speaking of Tonio and Beatrice, two peasants who sang and recited popular songs and popular poems to him, says: 'Tonio makes a difference between rispetti and ramanzetti: the latter are composed of only three lines, the former of eight or ten. And those that Tonio called ramanzetti Beatrice called strambotti, as Matteo Spinello and King Manfredi did; and in the territory of Pistoja and in Florence they are distinguished by the name of stornelli.' The two stornelli we subjoin may be taken as fair examples of this kind of poem.2
111 Dibdin had foreshadowed it in his 'Quaker.'
122 From Tigri's 'Canto popolare Toscani' (Florence, 1869).
14STRADELLA
16(1) 'Tutta la notte in sogna mi venite;
17Ditemi, bella mia, perchè lo fate?
18E chi viene da voi quando dormite?'
20(2) 'Fiori di pepe.
21So giro intorno a voi come fa l' ape
22Che gira intorno al fiore della siepe.'
24The first line may contain either five or eleven syllables; the other two are of eleven syllables each. The first line rhymes with the third, i.e. the two have the last syllable, and the vowel of the last syllable but one, alike; the intermediate line, while corresponding in its last syllable with the last syllable of the other two lines, changes the vowel of the accented one. In the second form given above, the verse begins with the name of a flower. A stornello is embodied in Browning's 'Fra Lippo Lippi,' and Lola, in 'Cavalleria rusticana,' sings one.
26The etymology of 'stornello' is very uncertain; Tommaseo, however, has some ground for asserting that it is a corruption of 'ritornello,' or 'refrain.'
28G. M., addns.
30STOUGHTON MUSICAL FESTIVAL, see BOSTON, sub-section HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY.
32STRADA DEL PÒ, ANNA. An Italian soprano, brought from Italy by Handel in 1729, with Bernacchi, Merighi, Fabri, and others, for the opera in the Haymarket. She appeared there in 'Lotario,' Dec. 2, 1729; in 'Partenope,' Feb. 24, 1730; 'Poro,' Feb. 2, 1731; 'Ezio,' Jan. 15, 1732; 'Sosarme,' Feb. 19, 1732; in 'Acis and Galatea,' June 10, 1732; and in 'Orlando,' Jan. 23, 1733. She was the only one of Handel's company who did not desert him for the rival new opera in Lincoln's Inn in the end of 1733, and she remained faithful to him till her departure from this country in June 1738, when a quarrel with Heidegger, the manager, put an end to her connexion with England. In the interval between 1733 and the last-named date she took part in Handel's 'Ariodante,' 'Alcina,' 'Atalanta,' 'Arminio,' 'Giustino,' 'Berenice'; also in 'Athaliah' and 'Alexander's Feast.'
34Even on her arrival, though according to Handel,3 'a coarse singer with a fine voice,' Strada must have had some brilliant execution, for the first air which she sang on those boards contains no less than thirty opportunities to display her shake. Coming after Cuzzoni and Faustina, and having so little to recommend her to the eye that she was nicknamed the 'pig,' it took her some time to get into favour. But Handel took pains with her, wrote for her, and advised her, and at length rendered her equal to the first singers of the Continent.
36STRADELLA. (1) Lyric drama, music by Flotow. Produced Palais Royal Theatre, Paris, Feb. 1837. Then recomposed, as a Grand Opera, and produced at Hamburg, Dec. 30, 1844, as 'Alessandro Stradella.' In English
383 Burney's History, iv. 342. The above information is compiled from the same volume, pp. 339-427.
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