Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/733

is surprisingly effective, and were it not for the comical lightning effect

the artistic value of the movement would be much greater. In Act 2 a theatrical 'thunder machine' is used to enhance the effect, but this cannot be said to belong to the score, though it stands there.

[ F. C. ]

STORNELLO. 'A short poem, in lines of eleven syllables each: it is peculiar to, and liked by, the people in Tuscany, who extemporise it with elegant simplicity.' This is the definition of Stornello we find in Mons. Tommaseo's Dictionary, and, in this matter at least, we are not aware of any greater authority. The 'Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca,' the stronghold of the purity of the Italian language, does not contain the word: this fact, added to the other, not less significant, that neither Crescimbeni, nor Quadrio, nor Tiraboschi, mention the word in their elaborate works, inclines us to believe that the word Stornello has not the definite meaning that, for instance, Sonnetto has; but is merely a name given in some parts of Italy to very short poems, more with regard to their purport than their form. Tommaseo again, somewhere else, speaking of Tonio and Beatrice, two peasants who sang and recited popular songs and popular poems to him, says: 'Tonio makes a difference between Rispetti and Ramanzetti: the latter are composed of only three lines, the former of eight or ten. And those that Tonio called Ramanzetti Beatrice called Strambotti, as Matteo Spinello and King Manfredi did; and in the territory of Pistoja and in Florence they are distinguished by the name of Stornelli.' Although in the true popular songs of Italy there is a great freedom in the number of lines and rules of rhyming, the two Stornelli we subjoin may bo taken as fair examples of this kind of poem.^[1]

(1)Tutta la notte in sogno mi venito:
Ditemi, bella mia, perche lo fate?
Echi viene da voi quando dormite?

(2) Fiori di pepe.
So giro intorno a voi come fa l'ape
Che gira intorno al fiore della siepe.

The first line may contain either five or eleven syllables; the other two are of eleven syllables each. The first line rhymes with the third, i.e. the two have the last syllable, and the vowel of the last syllable but one, alike: the intermediate line, while corresponding in its last syllable with the last syllable of the other two lines, changes the vowel of the accented one.

The etymology of 'Stornello' is very uncertain: Tommaseo, however, has some ground for asserting that it is a corruption of 'Ritornello,' or 'refrain.'

[ G. M. ]

STRADA DEL PÒ, Anna. An Italian soprano, brought from Italy by Handel in 1729, with Bernacchi, Merighi, Fabri, and others, for the opera in the Haymarket. She appeared there in 'Lotario,' Dec. 2, 1729; in 'Partenope,' Feb. 24, 1730; 'Poro,' Feb. 2, 1731; 'Ezio,' Jan. 15, 1732; 'Sosarme' (originally 'Alfonso Primo'), Feb. 19, 1732—including the lullaby, 'Rend' il sereno,' for Strada, afterwards so well known in an English dress as 'Lord, remember David'; in 'Acis and Galatea,' June 10, 1732; and in 'Orlando,' Jan. 23, 1733. She was the only one of Handel's company who did not desert him for the rival new opera in Lincoln's Inn in the end of 1733, and she remained faithful to him till her departure from this country in June 1738, when a quarrel with Heidegger, the manager, put an end to her connexion with England. In the interval between 1733 and the last-named date she took part in Handel's 'Ariodante,' 'Alcina,' 'Atalanta,' 'Arminio,' 'Giustino,' 'Berenice'; also in 'Athaliah' and 'Alexander's Feast.'

Even on her arrival, though, according to Handel,^[2] 'a coarse singer with a fine voice,' Strada must have had some brilliant execution, for the first air which she sang on those boards contains no less than thirty opportunities to display her shake. Coming after Cuzzoni and Faustina, and having so little to recommend her to the eye that she was nicknamed 'the pig,' it took her some time to get into favour. But Handel took pains with her, wrote for her, and advised her, and at length rendered her equal to the first singers of the Continent.

[ G. ]

STRADELLA, Alessandro, an Italian composer of the 17th century. The earliest and only detailed account of him is that given by Bonnet-Bourdelot,^[3] of which we here subjoin the literal English translation.

A man named Stradel, an eminent musician, while in Venice, engaged by the Government of the Republic to write the music of the operas, charmed everybody no less by the beauty of his voice than by the merit of his compositions. A Venetian nobleman, named Pig.…, whose mistress was well educated in the art of singing, desired to have her perfected by the fashionable musician, and that he should teach her at her own house; a thing much against the habits of the Venetians, who are known to be extremely jealous. After a few months' lessons such a reciprocal affection had grown up between teacher and pupil, that they resolved on the first opportunity to escape together to Rome. The opportunity soon presented itself. The elopement drove the Venetian almost to despair, and he determined to revenge himself by having them both murdered. He at once sent for two of the most notorious assassins then in Venice, agreed to pay them a hundred pistoles, to enable them to follow and murder Stradel and his mistress; and in addition to defray expenses and advance half

1. From Tigri's 'Canto Populare Toscani' (Florence, 1869).
2. Burney's History. iv. 342. The above information is compiled from the same volume, 339–427.
3. Histoire de la muslque et de ses effets. Paris, 1715.