Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/710

698 accompagnato da un Concerto intiero di Chalumeau sopra la Scena, da due Fagotti nascosti dietro le Ali; e da due Teorbe nella Orchestra le quali però non suonino che le note segnate.' A grand aria is also accompanied by three trumpets, drums, oboi, fagotti, and strings. The Düsseldorf opera, 'Tassilone, Tragedia in 5 Atti,' is only represented at Buckingham Palace by a vocal score; the overture and all instrumental effects are wanting, only the bass being given to the different pieces; but the singers' names, all Italian, are mentioned. The music is mostly excellent. The second act commences with a charming chorus alternating with dances. The movements of both these operas of 1709 are all long, well developed, and broad, and our composer has not failed to march with the times. Chrysander says that a full score of 'Tassilone' is in the Berlin library, and remarks that a much richer use of the instruments is made, and that the coloratur passages are longer in this than in his preceding operas.—There remains one more opera to speak of, 'Arminio,' which, according to the full score (one of those brought from Hanover by George I.), was composed for the Court of the Elector Palatine in 1707. Though bearing no composer's name, it is without doubt a composition of Steffani, entirely in his manner and one of his very finest; the instrumental colouring still more full and varied than in any other opera of his. And what further establishes its claim to be considered Steffani's is the fact that the fine air, with fagotto obbligato from 'Henrico Leone,' is introduced with other words, and for a soprano instead of a tenor voice. This opera, and 'Tassilone,' show that the Palatine Court at that time possessed a very fine orchestra, and a splendid company of singers. Or did the Hanover company occasionally join its old Hanover Kapellmeister in Düsseldorf?—'von Haus aus,' as the Germans have it. It is quite possible that Steffani composed more operas than these, and that several may have been written for Düsseldorf which have not come down to us; but what we have, form a splendid series of masterly works that establish him as a composer of the first rank, equal to Lulli, greatly his superior as a contrapuntist, if possibly, and only possibly, inferior to him in dramatic force. In Hamburg his reputation was so great that no music was thought equal to his. There Bach and Handel as young men must have listened to his operas. Among other gifts he had great tact in bringing about very fine performances with his exceptionally good singers and players.

Though, however, his operas were his greatest works, they could not attain the same universal popularity as his well-known duets for various voices, with a bass accompaniment. These are mostly in three long movements, some with recitatives and solos, in the cantata form, following Carissimi and Stradella. Of these celebrated duets (as an introduction to which Sir John Hawkins wrote a special biography) there are more than a hundred in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 5055, etc.), and in the splendid copy in 3 vols. in Buckingham Palace. The words were mostly by Ortensio Mauro, Averara, Abbate Conti, Conte Francesco Palmieri, etc. The testimony to the great excellence of these compositions is abundant. Burney says, in speaking of these duets, 'Those of the admirable Abbate Stetfani were dispersed in MS. throughout Europe.' Mattheson again, 'In these duets Steffani is incomparable to all I know, and deserves to be a model, for such things do not easily become old.' Chrysander also writes, 'These duets are the greatest of their kind.' To the foregoing it is useless to add further commendation. The most renowned singers, Senesino, Strada, and others, delighted in them, and used them constantly for practice in both expressive and florid singing. No copies of these duets are dated, but they were probably all composed after he went to Hanover; and some of them are known to have been written for the Princess Sophia Dorothea.

The Duke of Brunswick, Anton Ulrich, was converted to Romanism in 1710, and we find Steffani going from Düsseldorf to Brunswick to accept in the name of the Pope a piece of ground as a site for a Romish church. At the time of the Carnival of this year we find him in Venice in company with Baron Kielmansegge, and he there met Handel, whom he induced to visit Hanover on his way to London. Handel testifies to Steffani's great kindness to him while in Hanover; he was anxious too that he should become Kapellmeister at this Court. About the year 1712 the new church in Brunswick was so far ready that the Pope sent Bishop Steffani, Vicario apostolico delle missione Settentrionali, to consecrate the building and perform the opening service. Two years later the Elector of Hanover became King of England, but Steffani did not accompany him to London, indeed we do not meet with his name again till 1724, when the Academy of Ancient Music in London unanimously elected him its Hon. President for life. This Academy, of which Handel was a great supporter, had been instituted by Dr. Pepusch, J. E. Gaillard, the only known pupil of Steffani, and other musicians, and had become well known abroad. Many eminent musicians of the continent were made honorary members, Steffani among the number, who appears to have sent over the following four works for performance—the fine and well-known Madrigal, 'Qui diligit Mariam,' for S.S.A.T.B. (in which occurs a passage taken by Handel for the chorus in 'Solomon,' 'Music spread thy voice abroad'); another madrigal, called 'La Spagnuola,' 'Al rigor d'un bel sembiante,' for two altos and tenor, not so remarkable; and the beautiful madrigal, 'Gettano i Rè dal soglio.'