Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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STEFFANI STEFFANI 681
compositions is abundant. Burney says in
speak ing of these duets, Those ' of the admirable
Abbate Steffani were dispersed in MS. througliout
Europe.' Mattheson again, In these duets
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Steffani is incomparable to all I know, and
deserves to be a model, for such things do not
easily become old.' Chrysander also writes,
'These duets are the gi-eatest of their kind.'
To the foregoing it is useless to add furtlier
commendation. The most renowned singers,
Senesino, Strada, and others, delighted in them,
and used them constantly for practice in both
expressive and ilorid singing, i No copies of
these duets are dated, but they were probably
all composed after he went to Hanover ; and
some of them are known to have been written
for the Princess Sophia Dorothea.
The Duke of Brunswick, Anton Ulrich, was
converted to Romanism in 1710, and we iind
Steffani going from Diisseldorf to Brunswick
to accept in the name of the Pope a piece of
ground as a site for a Catholic church. At the
time of the Carnival of this year we find him
in Venice in company with Baron Kielmansegge,
and he there met Handel, whom he induced to
visit Hanover on his way to London. Handel
testifies to Steffani's great kindness to him
while in Hanover ; he was anxious, too, that he
should become Capellmeister at this Court.
About the year 1712 the new church in Brunswick
was so far ready that the Pope sent
Bishop Steffani to consecrate the building and
perform the opening service. Two years later
the Elector of Hanover became King of England,
but Steffani did not accompany him to London ;
indeed, we do not meet with his name again
till 1724, when the Academy of Ancient Music
in London unanimously elected him its Hon.
President for life. This Academy, of which
Handel was a great supporter, had been instituted
by Dr. Pepusch, J. E. Galliard (the only
known pupil of Steffani), and other musicians,
and had become well known abroad. Many
eminent musicians of the Continent were made
honorary members, Steffani among the number,
who appears to have sent over the following
four works for perfoimance—the fine and wellknown
Madrigal Qui ' diligit Mariam,' for
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S.S.A.T.B. ; another madrigal, called La
Spagnuola,' 'Al rigor d' un bel sembiante,' for
two altos and tenor, not so remarkable ; and
the beautiful madrigal, 'Gettano i Rfe dal soglio.
These are generally found in the MS. collections
of the time. The fourth piece was the
great Stabat Mater, composed for S. S. A. T. T. B.,
accompanied by strings and organo, and undoubtedly
one of the finest works of any composer
of the period immediately preceding that
of the giants Bach and Handel. His great
contemporaries Alessandro Scarlatti and Purcell
produced nothing finer. No exact dates can
I [Several movemeiita from these dueta are Included in 'Duetti
da Camera,' edited by J. A. FuUer Maitknd.]
be assigned to these four works, but they all
belong to his later manner. In Steffani is to
be found the perfection of counterpoint without
stiffness, and with that real sign of genius,
exhaustless variety. As in Bach, there is
marvellous freedom in the movement of the
parts, and no hesitation at a good clashing dissonance
produced by this freedom. He was an
adept too at writing the charming minuets and
gavottes which were then so fashionable, and
in which his operas abound. At the British
Museum there is likewisea glorious 'Confitebor'
for three voices with violins and bass in E minor,
said to be of the year 1709, with a splendid
bass solo (' Sanctum et terribile ')—a species of
accompanied recitative ; the whole work being
full of exquisite beauties. No notice of this
piece has yet appeared in any life of Steffani.
In the library of the Eoyal College of Music
there is a book of ' XII Motteta per celeberrimum
Abbatem Stephanum' for three voices with
solos and recitatives, but it is only a, vocal
score, without the symphonies and accompaniments
which all undoubtedly had. In another
book in the same library, however, we find two
of them complete.
Early in 1727 Steffani was once more and for
the last time in Italy ; and Handel met him
at Rome in March, where he was living at the
Palace of Cardinal Ottoboni. This latter enthusiast
still kept up his Monday performances
of music, at which Steffani, now seventy-foiir
years old, occasionally sang. Handel tells us
(through Hawkins) that 'he was just loud
enough to be heard, but that this defect in his
voice was amply recompensed by his manner,
in the chasteness and elegance of which he had
few equals. ' From Hawkins we also learn that
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as to his person he was less than the ordinary
size of men, of a tender constitution of body,
which he had not a little impaired by intense
study and application. His deportment is said
to have been gi-ave, but tempered with a sweetness
and affability that rendered his conversation
very engaging ; he was perfectly skilled in
all the external forms of polite behaviour, and,
which is somewhat unusual, continued to observe
and practise them at theage of fourscore.' He was
back in Hanover in a short time, and the next
year, going to Frankfort on some public business,
died there after a short illness, Feb. 12, 1728.
The last word has not yet been said about
this remarkable musician, and it is to be hoped
that some of his duets, and perhaps his glorious
Stabat Mater and Confitebor, may still be heard
in the concert-room. His career was certainly
one of themost extraordinary in musical history.
Born of obscure parents, he raised himself by
his talents and industry from the position of a
poor choir boy, not only to be one of the foremost
musicians of his age, but likewise the
trusted confidant of princes and the friend of
such a man as Leibniz. The only other instance
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