Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

1794 ;
STORNELLO STEADA DEL PO 705
'
The Glorious First of June,' occasional
piece, produced July 2, 1794 ; the ballet of
'Venus and Adonis' (1794), and the 'Cherokee,'
comic opera, Dec. 20, 1794, were all well
received, as was also The Three and '
the Deuce,'
musical drama, performed Sept. 2, 1795. On
March 12, 1796, Colman's Iron ' Chest,' with
Storace's music, was performed for the first time,
and although the play, owing to accidental
circumstances, failed to produce an immediately
favourable impression, the music wasrapturously
received. But few, however, if any, of the
gratified and applauding auditors knew or
thought that anxiety for the success of that
music had impelled its composer to a course which
had laid him upon his deathbed. He was
then recovering from a severe attack of gout
and fever ;
yet urged by a sense of duty, he
determined, despite the entreaties of his family,
to attend the first rehearsal. The consequence
was fatal ; he took cold, the gout
attacked his stomach, and on March 19,^ he
expired, at the early age of thirty-three years.
At the time of his death he had an opera,
'
Mahmoud, or The Prince of Persia, ' in preparation
for Braham's d^but in London. This
work was left incomplete, but, by the assistance
of Kelly, and the selection of some music by
the composer's sister, A. S. Storace, it was
fitted for performance and produced for the
benefit of his widow (a daughter of John Hall
the engraver) and his children, April 30, 1796,
was well received,
and performed many times.
Storace's melodies are thoroughly English in
character, whilst in his instrumentation the
influence of Mozart and the Italian composers
is evident. He was almost the first English
composer who introduced into his works the
modem finale, in which the business of the
scene is carried on by concerted music. ^ Some
fine examples occur in his works. There is
reason for believing that his early death delayed
for many years the advance in that direction
which mightotherwise have been made. w. H. H.
STOENELLO.
'
A short poem, in lines of
eleven syllables each: it is peculiar to, and
liked by the people in Tuscany, who extemporise
it with elegant simplicity.' This is the definition
of Stornello we find in Mons. Tommaseo's
Dictionary, and, in this matter at least, we are
not aware of any greater authority. The 'Vocabolario
degli Accademici della Crusca,' the stronghold
of the purity of the Italian language, does
not contain the word ; this fact added to the
other, not less significant, that neither Ci-escimbeni,
nor Quadrio, nor Tiraboschi, mention the
word in their elaborate works, inclines us to
believe that the word Stornello has not the
definite meaning that, for instance, Sonnetto
has, but is merely a name given in some parts
of Italy to very short poems, more with regard
1 The day of his death is given °" "« "?;""' " '?''^"''-
2 Dlhdinhadioreshadoweditinhis Qualter.
VOL. IV
to their purport than their form. Tommaseo
again, somewhere else, speaking of Tonio and
Beatrice, two peasants who sang and recited
popular songs and popular poems to him, says :
'
Tonio makes a difference between Risp^Ui and
Samanzetti ; the latter are composed of only
three lines, the former of eight or ten. And
those that Tonio called Samametti Beatrice
called Strambotti, as Matteo Spinello and King
Manfredi did ; and in the territory of Pistoja
and in Florence they are distinguished by the
name of Stomelli.' Although in the true
popular songs of Italy there is a great freedom
in the number of lines and rules of rhyming,
the two Stomelli we subjoin may be taken as
fair examples of this kind of poem.^
(1) Tutta la notte in sogno mi venite ;
Ditemi, bella mia, perchfe lo fate ?
E Chi viene da voi quando dormite ?
(2) Fieri dipepe.
So giro intomo a voi come fa 1' ape
Che gira intorno al fiore della siepe.
The first line may contain either five or eleven
syllables ; the other two are of eleven syllables
each. The first line rhymes with the third, i.e.
the two have the last syllable, and the vowel of
the last syllable but one, alike ;
the intermediate
line, while corresponding in its last syllable with
the last syllable of the other two lines, changes
the vowel of the accented one. [In the second
form given above, the verse begins with the
name of a flower. A Stornello is embodied in
Browning's 'Fra Lippo Lippi,' and Lola, in
'Cavalleria Eusticana,' sings one.]
The etymology of 'Stornello' is very uncertain
; Tommaseo, however, has some gi'ound
for asserting that it is a coiTuptidn of Eitor-
'
nello,' or 'refrain.' G. M.
STEADA DEL Pb, Anna. An Italian soprano,
brought from Italy by Handel in 1729,
with Bernacchi, Merighi, Fabri, and others, for
the opera in the Haymarket. She appeared
therein ' Lotario,' Deo. 2, 1729 ;
in 'Partenope,'
Feb. 24, 1730; Poro,' Feb. 2, 1731; 'Ezio,'
Jan. 15, 1732 ; 'Sosarme,' Feb. 19, 1732 ; in
'Acis and Galatea,' June 10, 1732; and in
'Orlando,' Jan. 23, 1733. She was the only
one of Handel's company who did not desert
him for the rival new opera in Lincoln's Inn in
the end of 1733, and she remained faithful to
him till her departure from this country in
June 1738, when a quarrel with Heidegger, the
manager, put an end to her connection with
England. In the interval between 1733 and
the last-named date she took part in Handel's
'Ariodante,' Alcina,' 'Atalanta,' Arminio,"
' '
' Giustino,' Berenice ' ; also in
' Athaliah 'fend
'
'
Alexander's Feast.'
Even on her arrival, though, according to
Handel,* 'a coarse singer with a fine voice,'
'
3 Prom Tigi-i's Canto Populare Toacani ' (Florence, 1869).
* Burney's IJintifry, iv. 342. The above information is compiled
from the same volume, pp. 339-427.
2z