Alessandro Stradella
Alessandro Stradella (April 3, 1639 - February 25, 1682) was an Italian composer of the middle Baroque period. He was born in Rome, and died in Genoa. It is said that Stradella had a major concern about the meaning of life; however, he pursued achieving a balanced character with moral feelings which only came about in his musical compositions and not in his suffering and eventual death.
Not much is known about his early life, but he was from an aristocratic family, educated in Bologna, and was already making a name for himself as a composer at the age of 20, being commissioned by Queen Christina of Sweden. In 1667, he moved to Rome where he composed copiously, mostly sacred music; however, he appeared to have lost his way and began to live a dissolute and debauched life. With the guidance from an acquaintance, he attempted to embezzle money from the Roman Catholic Church, but was found out. He fled the city, only returning much later when he thought it was safe. Unfortunately, his numerous incautious affairs with women began to make him enemies among the powerful men of the city, and he had to leave Rome for good.
In 1677, he went to Venice, where he was hired by a powerful nobleman as the music tutor to his mistress. As might be expected, Stradella was shortly involved with her, and had to flee when their liaison was found out. This time the nobleman hired a gang of thugs to follow him and kill him, which they narrowly failed to do. Stradella escaped and went next to Genoa, where he wrote operas and cantatas. Unfortunately he was again involved in an affair with a lady, and this time a hired killer caught up with him at the Piazza Banchi and stabbed him to death.
Alessandro Stradella, even with his infamous life style, was an extremely influential composer at the time, though his fame was eclipsed in the next century by Corelli, Vivaldi and others. Probably his greatest significance is in originating the concerto grosso. While Corelli in his Op. 6 was the first to publish works under this title, Stradella clearly uses the format earlier in one of his Sonate di viole. Since the two knew each other, a direct influence is likely.
Stradella wrote at least six operas, as well as numerous cantatas and oratorios. He also wrote 27 separate instrumental pieces, most for strings and basso continuo, and typically in the sonata da chiesa format.
His colorful life and bloody death clearly were viewed as creating a good story for an opera of its own. Three separate composers made operas out of his life, the most famous being Friedrich von Flotow with his Alessandro Stradella (Hamburg, 1844).
References and further reading
- Gianturco, Carolyn, "Alessandro Stradella", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 13, 2006), (subscription access)
- Gianturco, Carolyn, "Alessandro Stradella, 1639-1682: his life and music", Oxford: Clarendon Press; NY: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-198-16138-7
- Jander, Owen, "Alessandro Stradella, 1644-1682", Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College, 1969. OCLC 1603117
- Sadie, Stanley, ed., "Alessandro Stradella", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 vol, London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
- Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: "Alessandro Stradella"
External links
- Free scores by Alessandro Stradella in the Werner Icking Music Archive
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
