DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

772 LOTTI LOUIS FERDINAND
between the years 1693 and 1717, at the
theatres of S. Angelo, S. Cassiano, S. Giovanni
Crisostomo, and SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Some
of these having attracted the attention of the
Crown Prince of Saxony during liis stay in
Venice (1712), he engaged Lotti to visit Dresden,
witli a company of singers, including Boschi
and Personelli, both members of the chapel,
and his own wile, a Bolognese singer named
Santa Stella. Tlie joint salary of husband and
' wife was fixed at 2100 dojjpii ' (about £1600).
The party set out on September 5, 1717, having
obtained special leave of absence from the
Procuratori of St. Mark's—
' per farvi un opera.'
In Dresden Lotti composed ' Giove in Argo
(1717), ' Ascanio, ovvero gl' odi delusi del
Sangue '
(1718), and ' Teofane ' with Pallavicini
(1719) ; intermezzi, and various other pieces,
including church works, among which may be
in
specified the eight-part ' ' Crucifixus occurring
a ' Credo ' for five voices and instruments. The
Procuratori gave hira one extension of leave,
but in 1719 he was compelled to return or
vacate his post ; and accordingly left Dresden
in October in a travelling-carriage, which he
ever after retained as a memorial of his visit,
and finally bequeathed to his wife. After his
return to Venice he compiosed entirely for the
church and chamber. Lotti died of a long and
painful illness (dropsy) on Jan. 5, 1740, and
was buried in the church of S. Geminiano,
where his widow (who died 1759 and was
buried with him) erected a monument to his
memory. It was destroyed with the church in
1815.
*^ Besides the compositions already mentioned
he wrote for Vienna an opera, 'Constantino,'
overture by Fux (1716), and two oratorios,
'11 Voto crudele' (1712), and ' L' Umilta
coronata ' (1714); for Venice, the oratorios
'Gioa Re di Giuda,' ' Giuditta ' (printed by
Poletti), and the celebrated madrigal ' Spirto
di Dio '
' for the Doge's espousal of the Adriatic,
performed on the Bucentoro in 1736—a very
etfective composition. His book of madrigals
(1705), dedicated to the Emperor Josepih L,
contains the one in five parts, ' In una siepe
ombrosa, ' which Bononcini claimed in London
as his own comyiosition, and which led to his
disgrace (see vol. i. pp. 360-361). Another is
given as a model by Padre Martini in his Esnnplare
di rontrappunto. Nevertheless they were
severely handled at the time in a Lettcra fami-
gliare d'tcn accadcniico Jllarmoniro, circulated in
MS. anonymously, but attributed on Fontana's
authority to Maroello, who had been a pupil of
Lotti's. [See Chrysander's Handel, ii. 294 and
303.] Many of his compositions are still in
the King of Saxony's musical library, and
Breitkopf & Hartel once possessed several of his
MSS., as did also Dr. Burney.
Lotti's rank among musicians is a high one,
1 A MS, of this in in th', Library of the Royal CoUege of Music.
from the fact that though the last representative
of the old severe school, he used modern harmonies
with freedom and grace. The expression
and variety of his music struck even his con-
temporaries, especially Hasse, when he was at
Venice in 1727. Burney, wlio heard his church
music sung in Venice in 1770 (Frcsent State,
France and Italy, p. 145), credits hira with
' grace and pathos,' and characterises his choral
music as both solemn and touching, and so
capable of expression, though wiitten in the old
eontrapiuntal style, as to have afiected him even
to tears. Of his cantatas he says that they
contain recitatives full of feeling (^Hist. iv. 534).
As a specimen of his writing for a single voice
we may cite the favourite song 'Pur dicesti.'
He was so afraid of overloading the voices that he
never used orchestral accompaniments in church
music. ' There are wind instruments as well as
the four strings in his Dresden ojjeras, but not
in those produced in Venice. [The Qv.dUn-
Lexikon enumerates twelve operas as still extant,
and gives the names of fifteen more, and a list
of masses, church music of difi'ercnt kinds, and
arias and madrigals.]
Besides Saratelli and Marcello, Alberti, Bas-
sani, Gasparini, and Galuppi were aniong his
pupils. A motet of Lotti's, ' Blessed be thou,'
and a madrigal, 'AH hail, Britannia,' both for
four voices, are given in HuUah's Part Music
(1st ed.), and a fine Credo in C, also for four
voices, in his Vocal Scores and Part Music (2nd
ed.). Proske has a mass of his (« 4) in Musica,
Divina, vol. i. , and Rochlitz a Crucifixus, a 6,
and another a 8, and a Qui toUis, a 4, in his
Sawjmlnng. There is also a Kyrie in the
AusiccM vorz. Mvsikiverke (Trautwein). Four
masses and a requiem are in Lilck's Samvilung,
and various other pieces in the collections of
Schlesinger, Moskowa, etc. r. G.
LOTTINI, Antonio, tjie principal Italian
basso in London in 1737 and 1738. He sustained
that part in Handel's ' ' Faramondo in 1737, in
his 'Serse,' and in the ' Conipiista del Velio
d'oro ' in 1738. J. M.
LOUIS FERDINAND, Prince,—accurately
Friedrich Christian Ludwig,—born Nov. 18,
1772, killed at the battle of Saalfeld, Oct. 13,
1806, was the son of Prince August Ferdinand
of Prussia, and therefore nephew of Fredeiick
the Great and of Prince Heni'y (the patron of
J. P. Salomon and cousin of Frederick "William
II.) the violoncello-player, for whom Beethoven
wrote his op. 5. His sister Louise married
Prince Radziwill, who composed the Faust music,
and to whom Beethoven dedicated the Overture,
op. 115. Louis Ferdinand thus belonged to a
musical as well as a royal family, and he appeal's
to have been its brightest ornament on the score
of natural gifts—his uncle the Great Frederick
excepted—even down to our own time in music
;
undoubtedly so. He was kindly and generous in
the highest degree, and free from all pride of