aria "Ah! rendimi," well known to all singers, is from his opera
"Mitrane." Luigi Rossi, of whose presence in Rome we hear as early
as the year 1620, was also a very talented composer. His only known
opera is "Il palazzo incantato." But none of these composers rivalled,
either in talent or reputation, their great contemporary, Alessandro
Scarlatti, who was born in 1659 at Trapani in Sicily and died in 1725
at Naples. He was a pupil of Carissimi. The secret of his great power
lay in his recognition of the true value of counterpoint. He was wise
enough to see that the art for which Peri and Monteverde had expressed
their undisguised contempt, formed the technical basis of all true
greatness in music. Scarlatti was considered the most learned musician,
as well as the greatest genius of the age. His power of production was
almost incredible. His first opera, "L'Onesta nell Amore" (1680), was
followed by no less than a hundred and fourteen other operas. He is
known to have written two hundred masses, and far more than that number
of cantatas. Very few of these were printed, and the majority have been
consequently lost. Signs of rapid progress are everywhere apparent in
these operas,--most of all in the recitative and the form of the aria.
Scarlatti is supposed to be the inventor of the recitative obligato (with
accompaniment) and the da capo (repetition of a musical movement). His
son, Domenico Scarlatti, of whom we shall have later to speak, became
one of the greatest harpsicord players on record. Alessandro's greatest
contemporaries in Germany were the older members of the Bach family, who
steadily made advances in musical art, more especially in the higher
branches of sacred music, culminating in the great Sebastian Bach.
[Illustration: BENEDETTO MARCELLO.
Reproduction of a lithograph portrait.]
The followers of Scarlatti during the earlier years of the eighteenth
century, claim our admiration, not so much on account of their inventive
power, as on the ground that they made progress in matters of technical
perfection. Nevertheless, the century gave birth to some composers whose
genius was not merely great in comparison with the talent displayed
by contemporary writers, but so truly great in itself that it seems
impossible they should ever be forgotten.
Among the Italian followers of Scarlatti was the favorite pupil of
Legrenzi, Antonio Lotti (1667-1740). He invested the form left by
Scarlatti with a melodious grace so modern in character that some of his
arias, e. g. "Pur dicesti," are still regarded as standard compositions.
He wrote more than twenty operas. In 1756 he was elected maestro di
capella at St. Mark's, and in the same year he was commissioned by
the Venetian Republic to compose, in honor of the Doge's wedding the
Adriatic, the famous "Madrigale per il Bucintoro," entitled "Spirito di
Dio."
Antonio Caldara (1678-1736) was also a pupil of Legrenzi, at the time
when Lotti studied with him. In 1714 he went to Mantua as maestro di
capella, and later in the same capacity to Vienna. He wrote ninety-six
operas, of which the most successful was "Temistocle." His finest
composition is a Crucifixus for sixteen voices, still very often
sung in prominent churches. Among Lotti's pupils was Baldassare
Galuppi(1706-1786), who wrote fifty-four operas, and a great deal of
delightful chamber-music.
Another pupil of Caldara, and a prominent figure in musical history, was
Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739). He was a Venetian nobleman and musical
amateur who, though possessing the musical ability of neither Lotti or
Caldara, nevertheless succeeded, by hard work, by keen artistic zeal and
by literary mastery, in winning fame for himself even outside his native
country. His masterpiece, the paraphrases of fifty psalms set to music,
at once brought him to the attention of all the prominent musicians of
his time, and established his reputation. The library of St. Mark in
Venice has a manuscript "Teoria musicale" by him; the court library has
many autographs and other works of Marcello, including the cantatas
"Addio di Ettone," "Clorie Daliso" and "La Stravaganza." Marcello's
satirical pamphlet, "Il teatro alla moda," is a valuable source of
information concerning society life in Venice toward the middle of the
eighteenth century. Rossini borrowed one of the principal themes of his
overture to the "Siege of Corinth" from Marcello's twenty-first psalm.
While the Palestrina epoch was called the "Golden age of ecclesiastical
music," the Neapolitan dramatic school, founded by Alessandro Scarlatti,
covers a period in the eighteenth century which is called the "Second
golden age of Italian music." Almost all of these prominent composers
were pupils of Alessandro Scarlatti. Francesco Durante (1684-1755) was a
highly accomplished musician, and one of the best writers of the age. His
sacred compositions, which are numberless, are as graceful as they are
tempered with true dignity of style.
[Illustration: PADRE J. B. MARTINI.
Reproduction of a lithograph portrait.]
Emanuele d' Astorga (1688-1736) was celebrated as a singer and as a
composer, and also for his romantic and rather melancholy life. His
"Stabat mater," is a composition full of religious fervor and sweet
pathos, as well as original in form and melodic invention. Leonardo Leo
(1694-1741), who was superior to Astorga, wrote about fifty operas (one
for the debut of the soprano Caffarelli), many masses, and a famous
Miserere for eight voices. Francesco Feo (1699-1750) was a noble and
learned master, who wrote the operas "Ipermestra" and "Andromache."
Lionardo da Vinci (1690-1732), who is sometimes confounded with the great
painter of the same name, wrote the operas "Silla" and "Siface." A love
quarrel caused his untimely death by assassination.
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1737) was a pupil of Greco, Durante,
and Feo. As an opera composer his only success was "La Serva Padrona," an
intermezzo which was performed in nearly every theatre in Europe. Among
Pergolesi's productions as a church composer, the "Stabat Mater," for two
female voices with a string-quartet accompaniment, enjoyed for a while
extraordinary popularity.
Nicolo Jomelli's (1714-1774) tender and pathetic style rendered him
exceedingly popular, both in Italy and in Germany. He wrote sacred and
dramatic music. Mozart said of Jomelli: "He is so brilliant in his own
particular way that none of us will be able to put him aside: but he
should not have attempted to compose church-music in the old style."
Nothwithstanding this judgment by Mozart, it is an undeniable fact that
Jomelli was the only composer of his time who treated the ecclesiastical
style in an almost perfect manner.
Giovanni Paisiello (1741-1815) showed his true greatness most clearly on
the stage, and attained a reputation so enduring that his best opera, "Il
barbiere di Siviglia," produced at St. Petersburg in 1777, was only after
great opposition displaced to make room for Rossini's masterpiece of the
same name.
Nicolo Porpora (1686-1766) was very celebrated as a teacher of singing,
but also enjoyed, for some time, great popularity as an opera composer.
One of the most important scientific musicians of the eighteenth century
was Padre Martini, who was born at Bologna in 1706. He was first taught
music by his father, Antonio Maria. He learned singing and violin playing
in his youth, and had lessons in counterpoint from Antonio Riccieri, a
castrato of Vincenzo and a composer of merit. In 1725, after having been
ordained, he became maestro di capella of the church of San Francesco in
Bologna. He thus gradually acquired an extraordinary and comprehensive
mass of knowledge, with an amount of literary information far in advance
of his musical contemporaries. His library was unusually complete for the
time. He possessed, for instance, ten copies of Guido of Arezzo's very
rare Micrologos. Scientific men of all countries took pleasure in sending
him books.
It was chiefly in the development of means and details of expression
that music was advancing during this period. The art of singing, too,
was receiving much attention. The head of the Neapolitan school, Aless.
Scarlatti, in addition to his mastery of counterpoint and fugue, was also
a great vocal artist, and all his successors tried to cultivate the art
of _bel canto_. This art of purified and unsophisticated singing was the
foundation-stone in the career of all dramatic composers, and hence their
great ability to write in a wholly singable style.
[Illustration: GIOVANNI PAISIELLO.
From an engraving in Clément's "Musiciens Célèbres."]
The climax of _bel canto_ was reached when the celebrated vocal artist,
Pistocchi, founded at Bologna his training school for vocalists. Many of
his earlier pupils were the celebrities and stars of the London Italian
opera, during the brilliant epoch in which Handel wrote for that stage.
Among them were the male soprano Senesino, and Sgra. Cuzzoni and Faustina
Hasse, wife of the opera composer. But the medal had also its reverse.
Haughtiness and boundless conceit were prominent characteristics of these
artists. Everybody knows how Handel, not always sweet of temper, treated
Cuzzoni, who whimsically refused to take a part in a new opera unless
the composer would rewrite it for her. As if endowed with superhuman
strength, he seized her, held her out of a window, and threatened to drop
her if she did not consent to sing the part as written. But those who had
not at their command such violent means to subdue singers, had repeatedly
to suffer from their tyrannies.
Indeed, as vocal art came to be more and more the central point of
interest in the opera, consideration for the composer grew less and less;
and, finally, he became simply the slave of the almost musically-ignorant
vocalists. He was obliged to modify his compositions to their
satisfaction, whether the changes were in accord with good taste or not.
In the operas of the eighteenth century the musical work was esteemed
valuable only in proportion as it offered opportunities for vocal
display. The composer, in many cases, gave no more than a skeleton of
the aria, and the singers were left free to add any embellishments that
would display their vocal abilities to the best advantage. Nevertheless
names like those of Cuzzoni, Faustina, Durastanti, Frasi, Strada, La
Francesina, Nicolini, Senesino, Bernacchi and Carestini lent brilliancy
to the epoch. They were all favorite singers in Handel's day. They were
great singers when he engaged them, and he no doubt made them greater.
In like manner, Porpora, notwithstanding the weakness of his operas,
created the school which produced Caffarelli and Farinelli. The Italians
may, with just pride, dwell on the fact that the great majority of the
prominent singers of the nineteenth century were pupils of Italian
masters, such singers, for instance, as Mesdames Mara, Catalani, Pasta,
Malibran, Sontag, Grisi and Persiani; the great tenors Manuel Garcia,
Rubini and Mario, and the incomparable bassi Lablache and Tamburini, all
of whom owed their faultless method to the purely vocal style of the
music in which it was their ambition to excel.
But, in spite of its grace and its richly melodious flow, there were
serious faults in the older opera of Italy. There was, in the first
place, insincerity in dramatic expression.
As eminent representatives of the closing days of this brilliant period
of Italian opera, we may mention Nicola Piccinni, Domenico Cimarosa, and
Nicolo Zingarelli. Piccinni (1728-1810) gained greater fame than any
of his precursors. It was at Rome in 1760 that he produced "Cecchina
la buona figluola," perhaps the most popular buffo opera that was ever
written, and which for years had an extraordinary vogue. Among many
improvements Piccinni introduced in his operas, were the extension of the
duet, hitherto treated in a conventional undramatic way, and the variety
and importance given to the finale in many movements, the invention
of which, however, is due to Logroscino. His fame was equalled by his
industry. In the year 1761, alone, he wrote six operas, three serious and
three comic. Through the appearance of a rival and former pupil of his,
Anfossi, who also won great success with comic operas, he fell seriously
ill, and after his recovery he was induced by his friends to leave Italy
and go to Paris, which he did in 1776. After this, a surprising change of
style took place when he wrote the French operas, "Roland" and "Atys,"
both of which were successful. Then followed the famous contests between
Gluckists and Piccinnists, an episode which has been treated in detail in
the special article on Gluck.
[Illustration: DOMENICO CIMAROSA.
From an engraving by C. Deblois, 1867.]
Logroscino, another celebrated opera-composer, built his finale upon
only one subject or theme; Piccinni, on the contrary, chose several
contrasting movements in different keys, and thus gave more dramatic
motion and effect to his finales.
Domenico Cimarosa, born at Naples about the year 1749, is said to have
been educated under Sacchini, Piccinni and Fenaroli, an eminent Italian
theorist at the conservatorio di S. Maria di Loreto. The influence of
his genius upon modern Italian opera was so great and so long-continued,
that he must be considered as one of the foremost of Italian operatic
composers. Up to 1780 he had written about fourteen operas. He then
became the acknowledged rival of Paisiello, although their merits were of
a different order. Cimarosa's flow of melody was already more genial and
infinitely less restrained than Paisiello's, and the concerted movements
of the latter bear no comparison with those of his younger rival. By
invitation of the Empress Catherine II., Cimarosa went to St. Petersburg
in 1787. He remained until 1791, and he produced about six operas in
the Russian metropolis. His greatest triumph, however, was achieved in
Vienna, where he became court conductor, with the "Matrimonio segreto,"
one of the finest masterpieces of Italian opera. Subsequently he returned
to Naples, and was accorded every possible honor by king Fernando. But
he was imprudent enough to join the French terrorists at the outbreak of
the revolution, and accordingly he fell into disgrace and was condemned
to death. Escaping, he fled to Venice, where he died in 1801. Cimarosa
was a prominent genius in the opera buffa, so excellent a master, indeed,
that it is scarcely possible to class his works with any others than
the masterpieces of Mozart and Rossini's "Barbiere." Beside his operas,
seventy-six in all, Cimarosa composed several oratorios, cantatas and
masses, which were much admired in their day. His real talent lay in
comedy, in his sparkling wit and unfailing good humor. His invention was
inexhaustible in the representation of that overflowing and yet naïve
liveliness, that merry, teasing loquacity, which is the distinguishing
feature of the genuine Italian buffo style. His chief musical excellence
lay in the vocal parts, but the orchestra is delicately and effectually
handled, and some of his ensembles are real masterpieces.
Nicolo Zingarelli (1752-1837), whose "Romeo e Giulietta" was so much
admired, was unsurpassed in purity of style and refinement of detail.
Zingarelli was director of the Conservatory at Naples, and later
held a similar position in Milan. Among his numerous pupils the most
celebrated was the "swan of Catania," Vincenzo Bellini. All these masters
contributed something towards the perfection of outward form, which
Italian opera was gradually assuming.
Vincenzo Bellini (1802-1835) was undoubtedly one of the most gifted as
well as one of the most popular Italian composers of this century. He
studied with Zingarelli at Naples, Mercadante being his class-mate. After
some more or less fortunate attempts in opera-writing, he scored a full
success with the "Montecchi e Capuletti" in 1830, Pasta appearing. His
two greatest successes, however, were "La Sonnambula" (1831, Milan) and
"Norma" (1832), with Pasta as heroine. Each of these creations found
its way in an incredibly short space of time to every opera house in
Europe. Bellini later went to Paris, where he produced "I Puritani" in
1835, with Mme. Grisi and MM. Rubini, Tamburini and Lablache. This was
no less a success than the popular works which had preceded it. The
excitement attendant upon the production of the latter work was more than
Bellini's delicate constitution could endure, and eight months after its
performance he died, at Puteaux, near Paris.
Gaetano Donizetti (1798-1848), one of the most prolific writers of the
school of the first half of this century, also studied at Naples with
Zingarelli. In 1830 he scored his first triumph with "Anna Bolena"
(Pasta, Lablache). Rubini sang in it, and a large number of comic and
serious operas followed; among them being "L' elisir d' amore" (1832),
"Lucrezia Borgia" (1824), "Lucia di Lammermoor" (1835), the last written
expressly for the celebrated Madame Persiani and the French tenor Duprez.
These are his best operas, and none of his later works were able to win
the great popularity attained by them. His last work, "Catarina Cornaro,"
was produced at Naples in 1844. Soon after, his health broke down
completely, and in 1848 he died of paralysis at Bergamo, his native place.
But the glory of the two last mentioned composers was far surpassed by
that of their great rival Gioacchino Rossini (born at Pesaro, 1792,
died at Passy, near Paris, 1868.) Son of roaming musicians, he became
early acquainted with stage-life, and after some incomplete studies, he
ventured to write an opera, "La Cambiale di Matrimonio" (1810, Venice).
Two others followed, and with the fourth, "La Pietra di Paragone,"
he scored a great success at Milan. In 1813 "Tancredi" was given and
created a furore, making for him a world-wide reputation. "Il Barbiere di
Siviglia," the greatest masterpiece of opera buffa, was a fiasco at Rome
(1816). "La Cenerentola" (1817), "La Gazza ladra" (1817) and "Moise in
Egitto" (1818) were his greatest successful operas. He went afterwards to
Vienna, where he was received with enthusiasm, and succeeded in making
the Viennese quite forget that they had Beethoven living among them.
In 1825 he settled in Paris and produced "Guillaume Tell." After this
he wrote no more for the stage, but in 1842 he completed his exquisite
"Stabat Mater," and in 1864 "La Messe Solennelle." To the end of his life
he possessed the art not only of attaining popularity, but of gaining the
affections of all with whom he came in contact.
It may not be without interest to quote some sentences of the celebrated
French writer Eugène de Mirecourt (in "Les Contemporains") to show in
what quite different ways French people of the time gave their opinion
about Rossini. Mirecourt says: "In spite of his immense musical genius
we do not accord him the _feu sacré_. He never cared for any dignity in
his talent, nor had he any pride in his art. God gave him melody, and he
might have sung like the nightingale, which warbles among the branches of
the tree, but Gioacchino did not care for that sort of thing. He aspired
only to become a millionaire as quickly as possible. At the top of every
sixteenth note he saw a gold coin, and hence he wrote as many semiquavers
as he was able." Another characteristic incident may be mentioned, which
will show Rossini in another light. Nourrit, the celebrated French tenor,
who created the part of "Arnold" in William Tell, suggested that Rossini
should make an addition to the score, writing a new duet between Matilda
and Arnold, and trying to emulate in it the celebrated duo from "The
Huguenots." Rossini, as he had finished the full score of the opera, did
not see his way clear to comply with Nourrit's wish, and his letter to
the great tenor is significant. He writes: "I have finished completely
my 'William Tell.' And it was a very hard work, I may say, not because
of the many notes with which I filled the staves, but for the emotion,
for the continuous keeping up of a high-pitched excitement during the
composition. There are many who firmly believe in my _fa presto_ way,
in my careless writing, because they have seen me, over and over again,
laughing, joking, perhaps also attending to the cooking of a dish of
savory maccaroni with tomato sauce; and they think I could write serious
music, while talking and gossiping with my friends; but they are all
sadly mistaken. When the heart's fibre is touched, I am moved, I suffer
agony, I weep." And I think whoever listens with unbiassed feeling, to
the strains of Arnold's aria, or to the many other musical inspirations,
must be capable of distinguishing the composer of the "Barbiere" from
that other one who wrote "Guglielmo Tell."
[Illustration: DOMENICO SCARLATTI.
Reproduction of a lithograph portrait.]
Although we of the nineteenth century think of Italy chiefly as an
opera-producing country, we must not forget that she was, in earlier
days, identified with important phases in the development of instrumental
music. Not only were the piano and violin invented in Italy, but the
latter instrument was brought in that country to the highest possible
degree of perfection; and the achievements of Italian organists are of
primary importance in the history of music. The art of harpsichord, or
pianoforte, playing could claim, at the end of the seventeenth century,
worthy and ingenious performers and composers. The greatest among all
was Domenico Scarlatti, born in 1683. He was a pupil of his father and
of Gasparrini, at Naples. He was the first composer who studied the
peculiar characteristics of the free style of harpsichord music. His
bold innovations were by no means appreciated in Italy, for Dr. Burney
remarks in his "State of Music in France and Italy," that the harpsichord
was so little cultivated that it had not affected the organ, which was
still played in the grand old traditional style. After having composed
many operas for Naples, Scarlatti went to Venice, where he made the
acquaintance of Handel. Later, in Rome, Cardinal Ottoboni held a kind of
competition between the two masters which was undecided in respect to the
harpsichord; but when it came to the organ, Scarlatti was the first to
acknowledge his rival's superiority, and to declare that he had no idea
that such playing as Handel's existed. The two became fast friends from
that day. They remained together till Handel left Italy, and met again
in London in 1720. Though the technique of pianoforte playing owes so
much to Domenico Scarlatti, he did little toward the development of the
sonata. Other distinguished performers and composers at the same time,
were Durante, Paradies, Porpora, Gasparrini and Alberti.
Gerolamo Frescobaldi was the greatest and most important of all Italian
organists. He was born, 1587, at Ferrara, and studied under Alessandro
Milleville, also a native of Ferrara. Quadrio tells us that he possessed
a singularly beautiful voice, and it is certain that while still a
youth, he enjoyed a great reputation both as singer and organist. In
1516 he went to Rome, and before long was appointed regular organist at
St. Peter's. His first performance there, according to Baini, attracted
an audience of thirty thousand persons. Frohberger, the great German
organist and composer, was Frescobaldi's pupil from 1637 to 1641, and
thus the noble style of Italian organ playing was handed on to other
schools. His compositions are important and give us a high idea of his
powers. He was the first to play fugues on the organ. His works consist
chiefly of organ-compositions, which even to-day are considered worthy
the attention of students of that instrument. Other great Italian masters
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, distinguished and gifted
composers for the organ, were Girolamo, Parabosco, Andrea and Giovanni
Gabrieli, and Merulo.
[Illustration: GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI.
Reproduction of a lithograph portrait.]
The early history of the stringed instruments in Italy is one of the
most important episodes in the general history of the art. The famous
Italian makers have earned a well deserved immortality, and never were
their instruments as highly prized as now. The parent of the violin was
the rebec, specimens of which may still be seen in numerous museums. We
find indications of the use of the rebec in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. In manuscripts of that period it is represented as not unlike
the mandolin in form, with trefoil sound-holes, and a carved head in the
place of the modern scroll. It was fitted with three strings and was
played with a bow of somewhat rounded form.
The leading-spirit of the Amati family was Andrea Amati (1520-1577),
whose improvements upon the stringed instruments made at Brescia by
Maggini and Gasparo da Salo, the most celebrated artists of the still
older Brescian school, prepared the way for that perfection that was so
soon to be attained. Andrea's brother, the elder Nicolo, confined his
attention chiefly to the bass viol. Antonio (1565-1670) and Geronimo,
Andrea's two sons, carried out their father's ideas with intelligence
and zeal; but the greatest genius of all was Geronimo's son, the second
Nicolo (1596-1648), whose best works are simply priceless. Under his son,
another Geronimo, the celebrity of the house declined, never to rise
again.