Palestrina.[1] Again, in the Lesson for Holy Saturday, he has used the diminished fourth in disjunct motion, and broken many other time-honoured rules. Nevertheless, his work—which is, in many respects, extremely good—was unhesitatingly accepted, and retained in use till the year 1731, when Pope Clement XII. restored the Lamentations to their original shortened form. In this form they were suffered to remain, till 1815, when the indefatigable Baini restored Palestrina's printed Lamentation for the first day, retaining the MS. of 1587 for the second, and Allegri's really beautiful composition for the third; while the last-named composer's inferior work was suffered to fall into disuse—an arrangement which left little to be desired, and which has not, we believe, been followed by any farther change.
Besides the printed volume already mentioned, Palestrina composed two other entire sets of Lamentations, which, though written in his best and purest style, remained, for two centuries and a half, unpublished. One of them was prepared, as early as the year 1560, for the use of the Lateran Basilica, where the original MS. is still preserved. The other reaches us only through the medium of a MS. in the Altaemps Otthoboni collection, now in the Vatican Library. In the year 1842, Alfieri printed the three sets, entire, in the 4th volume of his Raccolta di Musica Sacra, together with the single Lamentation for Good Friday, to which he appended Biordi's additional verses, without, however, pointing out the place where Palestrina's work ends, and Biordi's begins. The three single Lamentations, sung in the Pontifical Chapel, are given, with Biordi's now useless additions, in a volume of the same editor's Excerpta, published in 1840; and, without Biordi's verses, in Choron's Collection des Pièces de Musique Religieuse. Both these editions are now out of print, and difficult to obtain: but a fine reprint of the nine pieces contained in the original Lamentationum liber primus will be found in Proske's Musica Divina, vol. iv. Mr. Capes, in his Selection from the works of Palestrina (Novello), has given the 1st Lamentation in Cœnâ Domini, and the 1st in Sabb. Sancto, from the 1st book (1588), and has introduced between them the single Lesson for Good Friday (1587) already mentioned.
Though the Lamentations of Carpentrasso, Palestrina, and Allegri, are the only ones that have ever been actually used in the Pontifical Chapel, many others have been produced by Composers of no small reputation. As early as the year 1506, Ottaviano dei Petrucci published, at Venice, two volumes, containing settings by Johannes Tinctoris, Ycaert, De Orto, Francesco (d'Ana) da Venezia, Johannes de Quadris, Agricola, Bartolomeo Tromboncino, and Gaspar and Erasmus Lapicida. All these works were given to the world before that of Carpentrasso, which, with many more of his compositions, was first printed, at Avignon, by Johannes Channay, in 1532. But the richest collection extant is that entitled Piisaimæ ac sacratissimæ Lamentationes Jeremiæ Prophetæ, printed, in Paris, by A. le Roy and Robert Ballard, in 1557, and containing, besides Carpentrasso's capo d'opera, some extremely fine examples by De la Rue, Fevin, Archadelt, Festa, and Claudin le Jeune.
'Lamentations' by English Composers are exceedingly rare: hence, quite an exceptional interest is attached to a set of six, for five Voices, by R. Whyte, discovered by Dean Aldrich, and preserved, in MS., in the Library of Christ Church, Oxford. [See Whyte, Robert.]
LAMPE, John Frederick, a native of Saxony, born 1703, came to England about 1725, and was engaged as a bassoon-player at the Opera. In 1732 he composed the music for Carey's 'Amelia.' In 1737 he published 'A Plain and Compendious Method of teaching Thorough-Bass,' etc., and also furnished the music for Carey's burlesque opera 'The Dragon of Wantley,' which met with remarkable success. It is an admirable example of the true burlesque, and is said to have been an especial favourite of Handel's. In 1738 he composed music for the sequel, 'Margery; or, A Worse Plague than the Dragon.' In 1740 he published 'The Art of Musick,' and in 1741 composed music for the masque of 'The Sham Conjuror.' In 1745 he composed 'Pyramus and Thisbe, a mock opera, the words taken from Shakspeare.' Lampe was the composer of many single songs, several of which appeared in collections, as 'Wit musically embellish'd, a Collection of Forty-two new English Ballads'; 'The Ladies' Amusement' and 'Lyra Britannica.' Many songs by him were included in 'The Vocal Musical Mask,' 'The Musical Miscellany,' etc. Lampe married Isabella, daughter of Charles Young, and sister of Mrs. Arne; she was a favourite singer, both on the stage and in the concert-room. In 1748 he went to Dublin, and in 1750 to Edinburgh, where he died, July 25, 1751, leaving behind him the reputation of an accomplished musician and excellent man. Charles Wesley often mentions him with great affection, and wrote a hymn on his death—''Tis done! the Sovereign Will 's obeyed!'
Charles John Frederick, his son, succeeded his grandfather, Charles Young, as organist of Allhallows, Barking, in 1758, and held the appointment until 1769.
LAMPERTI, Francesco, teacher of singing. Born at Savona 1813 [App. p.696 "March 11"]. His father was an advocate, and his mother a prima-donna of considerable repute. As a child he showed great talent for music, and was placed under Pietra Rizzi of Lodi. In 1820 he entered the Conservatorio at Milan, and there studied the pianoforte and harmony under Sommaruga d'Appiano and Pietro Ray. Devoting himself afterwards to the teaching of singing, he became associated with Masini in the direction of the Teatro Filodrammatico at Lodi. Selecting many of the
- ↑ Alfieri has published two editions of this work; and, in both, he has inserted Biordi's additional verses, without vouchsafing any sign—beyond that afforded by internal evidence—to indicate that they are not the genuine work of Palestrina himself. We mention this circum stance, tn order to show the danger of trusting, in doubtful cases, to the authority of any modern edition whatever. Alfieri's volumes may some day, lead to the belief that Palestrina permitted the use of the chromatic semitone in his Ecclesiastical music!
