Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/735

STRADELLA. states he was a Neapolitan, apparently for no other reason than that he sends Stradella and Ortensia, en route for Rome, to Naples, which, he adds, was 'the place of Stradella's nativity.' Fétis, evidently on Burney's statement, but without quoting his authority, describes him as born at Naples about 1645, and the assertion is now an accepted statement. The dates both of his birth and death are in fact unknown. But though we reject the story of his murder at Genoa, it is not impossible that he ended his life there, since the composition, which we may presume to have been his last, is dated from thence.

The date of his death was probably about 1681, since there exists in the Biblioteca Palatina of Modena, a cantata, 'Il Barcheggio,' written for the wedding of Carlo Spinola and Paola Brignole, at Genoa, July 6, 1681. The poem contains numerous allusions to it, and the names of both bride and bridegroom; no mistake is possible as to the real date of the composition, and thus the dates 1670 and 1678, given by Bourdelot and Burney for his death, are evidently wrong.

The statements that besides being a composer Stradella was a singer, 'an exquisite performer on the harp,' 'a great performer on the violin,' 'excelled in an extraordinary hand, so as to have been accounted the best organist in Italy,' 'was a Latin and perhaps also an Italian poet,' are all more or less gratuitous, and except composing, it cannot be proved that he possessed any of these qualifications. His name is never met with in any of the best treatises of Italian literature, either as a Latin or an Italian poet, and with respect to his skill on the organ, we have been unable to find anything to justify Wanley's assertion, beyond a short Sonata in D for two violins and basso continuo per l'Organo. As to the statements in the 'Penny Cyclopaedia,' that 'Stradella was not handsome, but remarkable for the symmetry of his form, his wit and polished manners,' and in Wanley's catalogue, that 'he was a comely person and of an amorous nature,' I can do no more than submit them to the reader, as striking instances of the way in which mythical statements gather round a central figure.

Nothing can be positively asserted as to his having been married to Ortensia by the Royal Madame after the occurrence in Turin, because the archives of S. Giovanni di Torino, the parish of the Court, have been destroyed by fire. The Madame Royale alluded to by Bourdelot must be Jeanne Marie de Nemours (who became Regent at the death of her husband, Charles Emanuel II., June 12, 1675), and not Christine de France (who died Dec, 27, 1663), as M. Filibert and other writers have stated.

Where or with whom Stradella studied is entirely unknown. In the archives of the Royal Conservatorio di Musica in Naples, where all the documents formerly belonging to the superseded Conservator! are most carefully kept, his name does not occur: nor is it mentioned in Lichtenthal's catalogue. None of his numerous operas are known to have been performed in his life-time, with the possible exception of 'Il Trespolo.'

Stradella as a composer is known to modern audiences by the Aria di Chiesa, 'Pietà! Signor!' attributed to him. Space will not allow us to enumerate the few pros and many cons respecting its authenticity. 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 generally believed to be Fétis, Niedermeyer, or Rossini. The words are taken from the second stanza of Arsenic'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.' [App. p.797 "add that internal evidence makes it very probable that Francesco Rossi was the composer of 'Pieta, Signore!' although the authorship is still doubtful."]

Stradella'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. i. p. 94; ii. 25. [App. p.797 "add [[../Handel, George#654|vol. i. p.654b"].] 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