Alessandro Stradella 1639 1682

Alessandro Stradella was one of the most important composers of seventeenth-century Italy, contributing significant works to almost every contemporary genre. However, his precise position within the Italian musical baroque has never been properly evaluated, while his biography has long been enshrouded in myth and legend, following his murder in Genoa in 1682. This book is the definitive life and works study of this crucially important composer. The biographical section is the result of extensive documentary research over many years, and presents a clear account of Stradella's career and colorful personal life in all the cities where he lived--Rome, Venice, Turin, and Genoa--as well as information on his patrons and the poets whose words he set. The musical discussion offers a clear exposition of Stradella's 308 extant compositions, illustrated with nearly fifty music examples.

A complete catalogue and a biographical introduction to the work of Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682).

As shown by the ever-increasing volume of recordings, editions and performances of the vast repertory of secular cantatas for solo voice produced, primarily in Italy, in the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, this long neglected genre has at last 'come of age'. However, scholarly interest is currently lagging behind musical practice: incredibly, there has been no general study of the Baroque cantata since Eugen Schmitz's handbook of 1914, and although many academic theses have examined microscopically the cantatas of individual composers, there has been little opportunity to view these against the broader canvas of the genre as a whole. The contributors in this volume choose aspects of the cantata relevant to their special interests in order to say new things about the works, whether historical, analytical, bibliographical, discographical or performance-based. The prime focus is on Italian-born composers working between 1650 and 1750 (thus not Handel), but the opportunity is also taken in one chapter (by Graham Sadler) to compare the French cantata tradition with its Italian parent in association with a startling new claim regarding the intended instrumentation. Many key figures are considered, among them Tomaso Albinoni, Giovanni Bononcini, Giovanni Legrenzi, Benedetto Marcello, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Leonardo Vinci and Antonio Vivaldi. The poetic texts of the cantatas, all too often treated as being of little intrinsic interest, are given their due weight. Space is also found for discussions of the history of Baroque solo cantatas on disc and of the realization of the continuo in cantata arias - a topic more complex and contentious than may at first be apparent. The book aims to stimulate interest in, and to win converts to, this genre, which in its day equalled the instrumental sonata in importance, and in which more than a few composers invested a major part of their creativity.

Opera is the only guide to the research writings on all aspects of opera. This second edition presents 2,833 titles--over 2,000 more than the first edition--of books, parts of books, articles and dissertations with full bibliographic descriptions and critical annotations. Users will find the core literature on the operas of 320 individual composers and details of operatic life in 43 countries. All relevant works through to November 1999 have been considered, covering more than fifteen years of literature since the first edition was published.

Extracted from five hundred years of musical history, this is a fascinating collection of stories about classical music's most unusual concerts and characters. Tales such as that of the organist caught with his trousers down or the orchestra that played faster and faster so that its members could catch the last train home, the sad story of the composer who committed suicide while conducting, the completely silent piece of music and the stone deaf composer who insisted on conducting will delight all lovers of classical music. Many famous names are here, as well the less eminent music performers, in this fascinating and revealing look at what really goes on in the world of classical music.

Based on primary sources, many of which have never been published or examined in detail, this book examines the music of the late seventeenth-century composers, Biber, Schmeltzer and Muffat, and the compositions preserved in the extensive Moravian archives in Kromeriz. These works have never before been fully examined in the cultural and conceptual contexts of their time. Charles E. Brewer sets these composers and their music within a framework that first examines the basic Baroque concepts of instrumental style, and then provides a context for the specific works. The dances of Schmeltzer, for example, functioned both as incidental music in Viennese operas and as music for elaborate court pantomimes and balls. These same cultural practices also account for some of Biber's most programmatic music, which accompanied similar entertainments in Kromeriz and Salzburg. The many sonatas by these composers have also been misunderstood by not being placed in a context where it was normal to be entertained in church and edified in court. Many of the works discussed here remain unpublished but have, in recent years, been recorded. This book enhances our understanding and appreciation of these recordings by providing an analysis of the context in which the works were first performed.

Beethoven’s Skull is an unusual and often humorous survey of the many strange happenings in the history of Western classical music. Proving that good music and shocking tabloid-style stories make excellent bedfellows, it presents tales of revenge, murder, curious accidents, and strange fates that span more than two thousand years. Highlights include: A cursed song that kills those who hear it A composer who lovingly cradles the head of Beethoven’s corpse when his remains are exhumed half a century after his death A fifteenth-century German poet who sings of the real-life Dracula A dream of the devil that inspires a virtuoso violin piece Unlike many music books that begin their histories with the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, Beethoven’s Skull takes the reader back to the world of ancient Greece and Rome, progressing through the Middle Ages and all the way into the twentieth century. It also looks at myths and legends, superstitions, and musical mysteries, detailing the ways that musicians and their peers have been rather horrible to one another over the centuries.

In 1997, twenty-five years after its first publication, Thematic Catalogues in Music-An Annotated Bibliography (Pendragon Press, 1972) appeared in a completely revised and expanded Second Edition. It contains almost twice as many entries as its predecessor; virtually every one of the original entries has been updated; and the following noteworthy features have been added.1. A second introductory essay detailing trends and innovations in thematic cataloguing brought about by the revolution in technology of the past twenty years. 2. Appendices listing thematic catalogues in series; both by national organizations and publishers; a detailed up-to-date, country-by-country report of activities worldwide; a listing of major computerized databanks. 3. New double-column format. 4. Numerous illustrations and reproductions of pages from thematic catalogues of historical significance. The second edition continues the policy of listing all known thematic catalogues and indexes, including those in doctoral dissertations, masters essays, and computer databanks, as well as in-progress and unpublished works, plus reviews, and literature about thematic cataloguing. The original numbering of the 1972 entries has been retained, with new items appearing in proper alphabetical/chronological sequence but with the addition of decimal numbers and/or letters (363.1 or 960a). Lastly, the original historical introduction and special appendices of the first edition have been retained with emendations where needed.