Scan 108
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol.5, 1925
20 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. Printed page 76. See the scan on archive.org.
117th century. His name chiefly appears in connection with the chorale-tune to an acrostic hymn, 'Valet will ich dir geben,' written by Valerius Herberger, Lutheran pastor at Frauenstadt, and a famous preacher of the time. The hymn, written in 1613, during a time of pestilence in Silesia, appeared in a publication of Herberger's in 1614, accompanied by two simple musical settings, a 5, by Teschner. Both melodies are given in Zahn's Collection, but only one has survived in modern use. Hymn and tune were received into the Gotha Cantionale Sacrum of 1648, and have thence passed into most modern chorale-books. Teschner's original setting, a 5, appears in Schöberlein's 'Schatz' to Paul Gerhardt's hymn, 'Wie soll ich dich empfangen,' with which the tune is also now associated. With some alteration the tune has been adopted into English Hymn-books to the Palm Sunday hymn, 'All glory, laud, and honour.' Two other works of Teschner are mentioned in the Quellen-Lexikon.
3J. R. M.
5TESI-TRAMONTINI, VITTORIA, celebrated singer, born at Florence, Feb. 13, 1700.1 Her first instructor was Francesco Redi, and at a later date she studied under Campeggi at Bologna, but it is evident that she sang on the public stage long before her years of study were over. [She was singing in Italy in 1716, when she appeared with Cuzzoni, in a pastoral called 'Dafni'; in 1718 she was at Venice] and went in 1719 to Dresden, just at the time when Handel arrived there in quest of singers for the newly-established Royal Academy in London. [The story of her singing in Handel's 'Rodrigo,' in 1707, and of her falling in love with the master, is due to a mistake of Chrysander's. See the articles referred to in footnote 1.] Her voice was of brilliant quality and unusual compass. Quantz, who heard her at Dresden, defines it as 'a contralto of masculine strength,' but adds that she could sing high or low with equally little effort. Fire, force, and dramatic expression were her strong points, and she succeeded best in men's parts; in florid execution she did not greatly excel. Her fame and success were at their zenith in 1719, but it does not appear that Handel made any effort to secure her for England. Perhaps he objected to her practice of singing bass songs transposed all'ottava. [At some time or other, possibly at this period, she visited Poland with her father, where she attracted the admiration of the king. From 1721 to 1747 there are traces of her singing each year in Italy. She married a barber named Tramontini and appeared as 'Tesi-Tramontini, virtuosa di Camera della Granduchessa di Toscana,' from 1743. In the autumn of 1739 she was at Madrid. In 1747 or 1748 she went to Vienna and opened a school for vocal instruc-
71 The baptismal register, of Feb. 15, is copied in A. Ademollo's articles on the singer, in the Nuova Antologia, xxii. 308, and the Gazzetta Musicale, 1889, p. 283, etc.
9tion.] In 1749 she played in Jommelli's 'Didone.' The book was by Metastasio, who wrote of this occasion, 'The Tesi has grown younger by twenty years.' She was then forty-nine. Burney met her at Vienna in 1772, and speaks of her as more than eighty. [This mistake and various statements by other historians, are settled by the discovery of the baptismal register.] Her nature was vivacious and emporté to a degree, and many tales were told of her freaks and escapades. Perhaps most wonderful of all is the story of her marriage, as told by Burney in his Present State (Germany), i. 318; in which, to avoid marrying a certain nobleman, she went into the street, and addressing herself to a poor labouring man, said she would give him fifty ducats if he would marry her, not with a view to their living together, but to serve a purpose. The poor man readily consented to become her nominal husband, and they were formally married; and when the Count renewed his solicitations, she told him that she was already the wife of another. [This may be a version of her marriage with Tramontini, for as he was living in 1753, there would be no reason for her to make a marriage of convenience before that date, and after it, it is unlikely that such a marriage would be required.] Among the pupils of La Tesi were the 'Teuberinn,' and Signora de Amicis, who took a friendly interest in the boy Mozart, and sang in his earliest operatic efforts in Italy.
11F. A. M.
13TESSITURA (Italian), literally texture, from tessere, to weave. A term, for which there is no direct equivalent in English, used by the Italians to indicate how the music of a piece 'lies'; that is to say, what is the prevailing or average position of its notes in relation to the compass of the voice or instrument for which it is written, whether high, low, or medium. 'Range' does not at all give the idea, as the range may be extended, and the general tessitura limited; while the range may be high and the tessitura low, or medium. In place of a corresponding word we say that a part 'lies high or low.'
15'Vedrai carino,' 'Dalla sua pace,' 'Dove sono,' are examples of high tessitura, fatiguing generally to voices that are not highly developed. Indeed, there are many who would prefer singing the 'Inflammatus' from Rossini's 'Stabat Mater' to such a piece as 'Dove sono.' Many of the old Italian composers wrote music of a high tessitura, though it is true that the pitch was lower in their day than it is now. 'Deh! vieni, non tardar,' is an example of moderate tessitura, though it has a compass of two octaves. The tessitura of the vocal music in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is justly the singers' nightmare.
17H. C. D.
19TESTORE, a family of violin-makers at Milan in the first half of the 18th century, consisting of a father, CARLO GIUSEPPE (1690-
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