Stradella

Who is killing classical composers all over America? A serial killer is on the loose and Harry Grouch must find out why and catch the murderer. "Stradella's Revenge" is based on the real life conflicts of two 17th century Italian composers, Tomaso Albinoni and Alessandro Stradella. It is the third in the entertaining Harry Grouch Detective Series that includes "The Witch of Maple Park" and "Nanobe." Dr. Tomaso Albinoni, a Medical Microbiologist at Bard Memorial Hospital (and a descendant of the baroque composer with the same name) hires Harry Grouch and Associates to investigate anonymous death threats. Could they be related to an unsolved series of recent murders of other composers? Harry discovers that in Tom Albinoni's case they may be revenge threats coming from a descendant of Alessandro Stradella, a composer who was assassinated in 1682, possibly by one of Albinoni's ancestors. These were real and talented composers whose music is often heard and celebrated today. Flashbacks to 1682 reveal what really happened. Stradella was a blessed composer and a cursed personality, a cad, a womanizer, and an embezzler from the church. Some would probably say he deserved assassination. The current day Albinoni is stalked by the current day Stradella. Harry Grouch investigates using clues from the composer's music. What is driving the modern day Stradella and will Harry catch him in time?

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.

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.

‘Retro’ is not only a pervading phenomenon in today’s Western culture but has informed cultural history for some centuries and thus gives momentousness to the subject of the present volume, namely literary texts and musical compositions which, for various reasons and with multiple functions, ‘make it old’.