DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

GABRIELLE GABRIELLI 127
often so bold and difficult that we can scarcely
believe they were ever intended for voices. In
this respect he may be called the father of the
chromatic style. For particulars of his times
and contemporaries see Winterfeld's Johann
Gabricli iind seine Zeil (1834), two vols, of text
and one vol. of examples, containing twenty- three
pieces for voices (from four to sixteen), one for
organ, and one for (juartet. Others will be ibund
in Bodenschatz ; Rochlitz ; in Musica sacra
(Schlesinger, 1834), etc. Rochlitz's Collection
(Schott) contains an In excelsis of his for Soprano
and Tenor solo, and chorus (a 4), with violins,
three horns, and two trombones ; also a Bene-
dictus lor tiiree choirs. Five vocal works are in
Torohi's Arte Miisicale, vol. ii., and an organ
pnece in vol. iii.
GABRIELLE, CHARMAKTE, that is, Gabrielle
d'Estrees, mistress of Henri IV. The
reign of Louis XVIII. revived an artless little
romance, which, like the song ' Vive Henri IV.'
[see Vive Henki Quatre], recalled pleasant
memories of the Bearnais. ' Charmante Gabrielle
was not only sung far and wide at that royal
epoch, but the authorship of both words and
music was attributed to the gallant king, and
the mistake is still often repeated. True, Henri
suggested tlie song to one of the pioets of his
court, but we have his own authority for the
fact that he did not himself write the stanzas.
The letter in which the king sent the song to
Gabrielle is in the Rccncil des Lettrcs missives
of Berger de Xivrey (iv. 998, 999), and contains
these words ;— ' Ces vers vous representeront
mieulx ma condition et plus agreablement que
ne feroit la prose. Je les ay dictez, non arran-
gez.' The only date on the letter is May 21,
but it was written in 1597 from Paris, where
Henri was collecting money for his expedition
to Amiens, and making preparations to leave
Gabrielle for the campaign against the >Spaniards.
It was probably Bertaut, Bishop of Srez, who,
at the king's 'dictation,' composed the four
couplets of the romance, of which we give the
first, with the music in its revived form :
3jEE|p^l^^i^=i^
Char-uian - te Ga - bri - el - le. Per - c6
mil - le dards, Quand la gloi - re m'ap - pel - le Da
lea sen - tiers de Mara. Cm - el - le d(S - par -
The refrain is not original ; it is to be found
word for word in the T/iesaiiriis harmonu-us of
Besard (1603), and in the Cabinet ou I'resor
as at that
dcs nourelles chansons (1602) ; and
time it took more than five or six years for an
air to travel from the court to the peopde, we
may safely conclude that it was no novelt}'.
Fiitis attributes the air to Eustache Du Caurroy,
maitre de chapelle to Charles IX., Henri 111.,
and Henri IV. ;
' but the music of that prince
of musicians,' as Mersennus calls him, is so imbued
with science, not to say pedantry, that it
is impossible to suppose the author of the contrafiuntal
exercises in his ' Melanges '
to have had
anything in common with the composer of so
simple and natural a melody. Its origin is undoubtedly
secular ; and there is the more reason
to believe it to have been borrowed from an air
already popular that tlie words ' Cruelle departie,
Malheureux jour ' occur in the ' Chansons sur les
airs mondains.' In the book of cauticjues en-
titled La piciise Ahyiicite avec son tirelire (1619)
we find a proof that the Church borrowed the
air and pirevailing idea of this song from the
world, rather than the reverse, for the religious
refrain, • ^Douce vierge Mane,
Sf^coui-ez-moi !
Otez-moi ou la vie.
Oil bien I'fimoi,
„
is obviously founded on the love-song of 1597.
Such is all the positive information we have
been able to obtainabout ' Charmante Gabrielle'
but the mystery which surrounds its origin rather
increases tlian diminishes the attraction of this
celebrated song. G. c.
GABRIELLI, Catterina, born at Rome,
Nov. 12, 1730, daughter of Prince Gabrielli's
cook, one of the most beautiful, acconijilished,
and capricious singers that ever lived. At the
ageof fourteen, the Prince, walking in his garden,
heard her singing a difficult song of Galujipii,
sent for her, and after listening to her pierformance,
promised her his protection and a musical
education. She was placed first under Garcia,
lo Spagnoletto, and afterwards under Porpora.
A great success attended her debut (1747) as
' prima donna, at Lucca, in Galuppii's Sofoiiisba.'
Guadagni gave her some valuable instruction in
the style in which he himself excelled,—the
pure and correct cantabile. This she was therefore
now enabled to add to her own, which was
the perfection of brilliant bravura, with a marvel-
lous power of rapid execution and an exquisitely
delicate quality of tone. At other theatres in
Italy she met with equal success, singing in
1750, at Napdes, in Jommelli's ' Didone,' after
which she went to Vienna. Here she finished
her declamatory style under the teaching of
Metastasio, and fascinated Francis I., who went
to the opera only on her nights. Metastasio
is said to have been not inditt'erent to the charms
of this extraordinary singer, still known as
la Coehetta or Cochcttina, in memory of herorigin ;