Scan 101
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.1 Ed.3, 1904
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1excellent violinist. The particulars of his life are entirely unknown, though Riemann gives his dates as 1674–1745.
3He wrote 42 operas (the first of which appeared in 1694), which are said to have been successful from the novelty of their style, though a modern French critic describes the ideas as trivial and the music as dry and unsuited to the words. Greater talent is to be seen in his instrumental works, concertos, sonatas and songs. J. S. Bach selected themes from his works, as he did from those of Corelli and Legrenzi. 'Bach,' says Spitta (Engl. tr., i. 425), 'must have had an especial liking for Albinoni's compositions. Even in his later years he was accustomed to use bass parts of his for practice in thorough-bass'; and Gerber relates that he had heard his father (a pupil of Bach) vary these same basses in his master's style with astonishing beauty and skill. Two harpsichord fugues by Bach are known to be founded on themes of Albinoni—both from his 'Opera prima.' They are in A and B minor, and are to be found in the B.-G. edition, vol. xxxvi. pp. 173 and 178. For further particulars see Spitta, Engl. tr. i. 425-428. E. H. D.
5ALBIOSO, MARIO (b. Nasi, Sicily; d. Palermo, 1686), canon of the Order of the Holy Ghost. He published 'Selva di canzoni siciliani' (Palermo, 1681) (Fétis).
7ALBONESI, TESEO AMBROGIO, Professor of Syriac at Bologna University, gives a description and illustration of the PHAGOTUS (q.v.), invented by his uncle, in his Introductio in Chaldaicam linguam. . . . E. v. d. s.
9ALBONI, MARIETTA (b. Cesena, Romagna, Mar. 10, 1823; d. Ville d'Avray, June 23, 1894), a celebrated contralto singer.
11She was taught by Mme. Bertolotti, at Bologna, who taught many other distinguished singers. There she met Rossini, who, charmed with her voice and facility, taught her the principal contralto parts in his operas, with the true traditions. With this great advantage Alboni easily procured an engagement for several years from Merelli, an impresario for several theatres in Italy and Germany. She made her first appearance at La Scala, Milan, 1843, in the part of Maffio Orsini. In the same year she sang at Bologna, Brescia, and again at Milan; soon afterwards with equal success at Vienna. In consequence of some misunderstanding about salary she now broke her engagement with Merelli, and suddenly took flight to St. Petersburg. She remained there, however, but a short time; and we find her in 1845 singing at concerts in Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, as well as in Bohemia and Hungary. At the carnival of 1847 she sang at Rome in Pacini's 'Saffo,' introducing an air from Rossini's 'Semiramide,' which was enthusiastically applauded, but could not save the opera. In the spring of the same year she came to London, and appeared at Covent Garden, in the height of the 'Jenny Lind fever.' She was indeed a trump card for that establishment against the strong hand of the rival house. The day after her début the manager spontaneously raised her salary for the season from £500 to £2000, and her reputation was established.
13She sang again in London in 1848 at Covent Garden, and in 1849, 1851, 1856, 1857 and 1858 at Her Majesty's Theatre. She appeared at Brussels in 1848, with no less success than in London and Paris. In 1849 she returned to Paris; in the next year she visited Geneva, and made a tour of France, singing in French at Bordeaux in the operas 'Charles VI.,' 'La Favorite,' 'La Reine de Chypre,' and 'La Fille du régiment.' On her return to Paris she surpassed the boldness of this experiment by attempting the part of Fidés in the 'Prophète' at the Opéra, and with the most brilliant success. She next made a tour in Spain, and in 1853 a triumphal progress through America. After her marriage with Count A. Pepoli, a gentleman of old Bolognese family, she lived in Paris. She sang Rossini's 'Quis est homo' with Mme. Patti at that master's funeral in 1868, and in his 'Petite Messe Solennelle,' in London in 1871.
15Her voice, a rich, deep, true contralto of fully two octaves, from g to g", was perfectly even throughout its range. Her style gave an idea, a recollection, of what the great old school of Italian singing had been, so perfect was her command of her powers. The only reproach to which it was open was a certain shade of indolence and insouciance, and a want of fire at times when more energy would have carried her hearers completely away. Some singers have had the talent and knowledge to enable them to vary their fioriture; Alboni never did this. When you had heard a song once from her, perfect as it was, you never heard it again but with the selfsame ornaments and cadenze.
17J. M.
19ALBORADA (Span.), 'dawn-song' (Fr. aubade), a form of popular instrumental music heard in Galicia and the N.W. provinces of Spain, and usually played on the bagpipes to the accompaniment of a side drum. The melodies have a tendency towards free rhythm, or rather to unequal groups of measures; the drum accompaniment is uniform, except when the drummer (who always follows the piper) indicates by a roll that a new section, or variation, is about to begin. The influence of modern uniform rhythms, combined with that of collectors and transcribers of folk-songs, is gradually but decisively making itself felt. J. B. T.
21ALBRECHT, (I) JOHANN LORENZ (b. Gör. mar, near Mühlhausen in Thuringia, Jan. 8, 1732; d. there, c. 1773). In 1758 he became a teacher at the grammar school as well as cantor and director of music at the principal
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