Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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664 STABILINI STACCATO
is enough to remove all doubt on the subject.
It is not only a genuine work, but one of the
finest Palestrina ever wrote. For the effect
produced by the union of the three choirs at
the words, '0 quam tristis,' as well as the
manner of their alternation, in other parts of
the Sequence, we must refer our readers to tlie
work itself, in the 7 th volume of Breitkopf &
Hartel's complete edition.
Few modern settings of the 'Stabat Mater,'
with orchestra accompaniments, are finer than
(1) that by Pergolesi, for Soprano and Contralto,
accompanied by Strings and Organ (to which
Paisiello afterwards supplied additional accompaniments
for wind). (2) Haydn's ' Stabat
Mater ' is a treasury of refined and graceful
melody. (3) Next in importance to this we
must rank a very fine one for six voices with
accompaniments for two violins, three viole,
basso, and organo, composed by Steffani, who
presented it to the Academy ' of Antient Musick'
in London, on his election as Honorary President
for life, in 1 724. (4) Clari wrote another beautiful
one, which is among the Fitzwilliam MSS.
at Cambridge. (5) A nearly contemporary work,
by Astorga, is one of the best Italian productions
of its period. 1 (6) Winter's Stabat Mater may
be taken as a happy example of his refined and
graceful style ; and,if not a great work, is at least
a remarkably pleasing one. (7, 8, 9, 10) The
Royal College of Music possesses a Stabat Mater,
a 3, by Pietro Eaimondi, with one composed
by Padre Vito, in 1783, and two others, by
Gesualdo Lanza, and the Spanish composer,
Angelo Inzenga. (11) The Chevalier Neukomm
also wrote one which was very popular among
his disciples. (12) Very different from all these
is Rossini's setting of the text, which has made
its words familiar to thousands, who would
never otherwise have heard of them. (13) Yet
even this does not represent the latest interpretation
of these beautiful verses, which have been
illustrated, in still more modern, and very
different musical phraseology, by Dvofilk.^ [Two
important English compositions deserve mention
; (14) by Ernest "Walker, still in MS. ; (15)
by Sir C. V. Stanford, performed at the Leeds
Festival, 1907.] w. s. R.
STABILINI, GiEOLAMO (or Hibrontmo), a
violin-player, born at Rome about 1762. Having
attained some distinction in Italy he was invited
to Edinburgh, to replace Giuseppe Puppo,
as leader of the St. Cecilia Hall concerts.
Stabilini arrived at Edinburgh in 1783, and
died of dropsy there on July 13, 1815, being
buried in the graveyard of St. Cuthbert's or
the West ' Kirk.' His tombstone is still to be
s'jen built into an old boundary wall. Stabilini,
though he does not appear to have been of very
extraordinary talent, was eminently popular in
Scotland, a popularity not decreased by his per-
1 Publiahad In score by Breitkopf & Hartel (1879).
2 'Stabat Mater lUr Soli, Chor, u. Orchestep (Simrock, 1881).
'
Performed by the London Muelcal Society, March 1883.
formance and arrangement of Scots airs.
' I'll
gang na mair to yon toon ' being especially
associated with him.
There is a head of him in Kay's Edinburgh
Portraits. F. K.
STACCATO
'
abgestossen), detached,'
(Ital. ; Ger.
in contradistinction to legato,
'connected.'
The notes of a staccato passage are
made short, and separated from each other by
intervals of silence. Staccato effects are obtained
on the pianoforte by raising the hand from the
keys immediately after striking, usually by a
rapid action of the wrist (this is called ' wristtouch'),
though sometimes, especially infortiisimo,
from the elbow ; and there is also a third
kind of staccato -touch called 'finger -staccato,'
which is less frequently used, and which, as
described by Hummel, consists in ' hurrying
the fingers away from the keys, very lightly
and in an inward direction.' This kind of
touch is of course only applicable to passages of
single notes.
On stringed instruments staccato passages are
generally bowed with a separate stroke to each
note, but an admirable staccato can also be produced,
especially in solo music, by means of a
series of rapid jerks from the wrist, the bow
travelling meanwhile in one direction, from the
point to the nut. Staccato on wind instruments
is effected by a rapid thrusting forward of the
tongue, so as to stop the current of air ; and in
singing, a staccato sound is produced by an impulse
from the throat upon an open vowel, and
instantly checked. A striking example of vocal
staccato occurs in Mozart's air, ' Gli angui d' inferno,
from ' ' Die Zauberflote. ' Upon the harp,
or any similar instrument, and likewise upon
the drum, a staccato note requires the immediate
application of the palm of the hand to the
vibrating string or parchment, to stop the
sound.
The signs of staccato are pointed dashes mi,
rounded dots placed over or under the
or
,
notes, the former indicating a much shorter and
sharper sound than the latter.
[See Dash, vol.
i. p. 664.] But besides the difference thus
shown, the actual duration of staccato notes
depends to some extent upon their written
length. Thus in the following example the
minims must be played longer than the crotchets
(though no exact proportion need be observed),
in spite of the fact that both are marked staccato
alike :
Beethoven, Sonata Path^tique.
When dots placed over or under notes are
covered by a curved line, an effect is intended
which is of great value in the rendering of
expressive and cantdbiU phrases. This is called
mezzo staccato (half- detached), and the notes