Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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200 SACCHINI SACKBUT
in very much the same way. In his later works,
the influence of Gluok's spirit is unmistakable.
There is a wide gulf between such early Italian
operas as L' Isola '
d' Amore,' consisting of the
usual detached series of songs, duets, and
concerted pieces, and the 'CEdipe k Colone,'
where each number leads into the next, and
where vigorous accompanied recitative and wellcontrasted
dialogued choruses carry on and
illustrate the action of the drama, while keeping
alive the interest o f the hearer. Burney. remarks
that Saochini, observing how '
fond the English
were of Handel's oratorio choruses, introduced
solemn and elaborate choruses into some of his
operas ; but, though excellent in their kind, they
never had a good effect ; the mixture of English
singers with the Italian, as well as the awkward
figure they cut as actors, joined to the difliculty
of getting their parts by heart, rendered those
compositions ridiculous which in still life would
have been admirable.' In Paris they managed
these things better, for in all the operas of Saochini's
which were composed or arranged for the
French stage, choruses are used largely and with
admirable effect, while in CEdipe ' ' they are the
principal feature. A somewhat similar tra'nsition
to this is apparent in comparing Piooinni's earlier
and later works ; but his French operas are only
Italian ones modified and enlarged. Sacchini
had far more dramatic spirit, and took more
kindly to the change. He bears the kind of
relation to Gluck that Piccinni does to Mozart,
but he approached his model more nearly, for
he handled Gluok's theory almost as well as
Gluck himself ; had he possessed the one thing
lacking—force of originality—there might have
been more in his works for criticism to censure,
but they might not now have been forgotten.
As it was, they made a hard struggle for life.
The ' (Edipe ' was continuously on the boards of
the Acaddmie for fifty-seveli years (from 1787 to
1844), which can be said of no other opera.
During this time it had 583 representations.
It was revived in July 1843, and was performed
six times in that year and once in May 1844.
Sacchini understood orchestral as well as choral
effect. His scores are small, oboes, horns, and
sometimes trumpets and bassoons, being the only
additions to the stri'ng quartet, but the treatment
is as effective as it is simple. His partwriting
is pure and good, while the care and
finish evident in his scores are hard to reconcile
with the accounts of his idle and irregular ways.
The same technical qualities are shown in his
compositions for the church, which in other ways
are less distinguished than his operas from contemporary
works of a similar kind.
Much of Saochini's music is lost. Four
oratorios, a mass, and various motets, etc., are
mentioned in the QuelUn-Lexileon, F^tis gives
a list of twenty-one sacred compositions, and
the names of forty-one operas, the chief of which
have been mentioned here, but Burney puts the
number of these much higher [twenty-seven
are given as still extant in the Queilen-Lemkon].
The last of them, 'Arvire et Evelina,' was left
unfinished. It was completed by J. B. Key,
and performed with success after the composer's
death (April 29, 1788). He also left two
symphonies in D, six trios for two violins and
bass ; six quartets for two violins, tenor and bass
andtwosets, each of six harpsichord sonatas, with
violin, as well as twelve sonatas (opp. 3 and 4)
for clavier solo. These were all published in
London. One of the sonatas, in F, is included
in Pauer's ' Alte Meister.' [See the list, vol. iii.
p. 1 03. ] A couple of cavatinas are given by Gevaert
in his 'Gloires d'ltalie,' and an antiphon for
two voices by Choron in his
'
Journal de
Chant.' F. A. M.
SACKBUT, an early name for the trombone,
probably derived from the Spanish sacahuche
(' draw-tube ') i.e. sacar ' to draw,' and Jmcha ' a,
pipe,' originally of boxwood (cf. Portuguese sacabuxa),
the name being also given to a form of
pump. Other derivations, however, are from
O.F. saquier-boter ('to pull and to push') or Sp.
sacar del buche ('to exhaust the chest'). The
form first appears in Spanish literature of the
14th century, the trombone having been evolved
from the trumpet about the year 1300. At
the beginning of the next century the French
form saqueboiUe is found, and at the close of
the same century, when the instrument was
introduced into England, it was known as the
shakbxisshe and subsequently as the sayhebud,
sackbwt, or sagbut. One of the earliest uses of
the word in English literature occurs in Hawes's
Passetyme of Pleasure (1506). English players
were held in high esteem both in this country
and on the continent, the popularity of the
sackbut continuing till the 18th century, when
it gave place to the horn and serpent. Burney
{Musical Performances in Westminster Abbey,
1784) relates the diflBculty experienced in obtaining
players on the sackbut or double trumpet,
the only performers to be found in England
being the six German musicians of the Koyal
Band. About the year 1800 the use of the
instrument was revived in connection with the
Opera, but the old English name was supplanted
by the Italian trombone. Notwithstanding
Shakespeare's allusion (Coriolamis, Act V.
Sc. iv.), there is at present no authority for
believing that the sackbut was known to the
Romans, the specimen said to have been discovered
in the 18th century at Pompeii or
Herculaneum having proved a myth. 'The socalled
representation of a 9th-century sackbut
in the Boulogne Psalter (MS. No. 20) is also
an error, the instrument depicted being a fanciful
delineation of the sambuke, an ancient
four-stringed lyre. The phrase tuba ' ductilis
applied in later times to the sackbut, originally
meant a trumpet of metal beaten or drawn
out by the hammer, i.e. not cast. For details