Recercare 2007 - Patrizio Barbieri

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PIETRO DELLA VALLE: THE ESTHÈR ORATORIO (1639) 77 Fig. 2. Example drawn from Musurgia universalis by Athanasius Kircher (1650, vol. I, p. 675), identifiable with the aria of Amàn, in the First Part of Esthèr. The keyboards to which the indications refer are those of Della Valle’s Triharmonic Harpsicord The plot is taken from one of the books of the Old Testament, attributed to Mordecai, Esther’s uncle (VII century BCE). Esther — born at Babylon during the captivity — becomes the wife of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, and saves the Hebrews from the massacre planned by Haman, the King’s minister. This setting does not appear to have been chosen by chance, since during his travels (1614-26) Della Valle became a friend of the King of Persia, with whom he kept up an epistolary relationship after his return to Rome. 7 Esthèr opens with a monodic passage by the “Poet”, acting as narrator. Immediately afterwards comes one by Haman (from whom Kircher drew the example in Fig. 2), in turn followed by a passage with the other characters (Esther, Ahasuerus, Mordecai), interspersed with five-voice choruses (Persians, Hebrews). The tonoi employed are seven: dorian, phrygian, lydian, aeolian, mixolydian, hypolydian, iastian. Excluding the lack of duets and trios, its structure is thus similar to that of the Dialogo della Purificazione (1640). 8 Esthèr is much longer, however: 197 verses as 7. On his stay in that country, see: REMO GIAZOTTO, Il grande viaggio di Pietro della Valle il “Pellegrino” (1612-1626). La Turchia, la Persia, l’India con il ritorno a Roma, Roma, Torre d’Orfeo, 1988, pp. 63-87; I viaggi di Pietro della Valle. Lettere dalla Persia, Tomo I, ed. Franco Gaeta and Laurence Lockhart, Roma, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1972. His correspondence with the King of Persia can be found in ADV 52. 8. The autograph draft of just the text of the second work, with corrections by the author, can be found in ADV 92, fasc. 4 (loose leaf entitled: “Per la festa della s. ma Purificatione. Da cantarsi nell’oratorio”). The final manuscript, complete with music, is kept at the Rome Biblioteca Nazionale, Ms. musicale 123. Two anastatic reproductions of it have been published in: The Italian oratorio 1650-1800 […], edited with introductions by Joyce L. Johnson and Howard E. Smither, vol. I, New York, Garland, 1986, pp. 7-35; GIAZOTTO, Il grande viaggio, pp. 182-97. More recently, the manuscript part-
78 PATRIZIO BARBIERI compared to the 59 of the Purificazione. 9 Since the latter — despite its brevity, emphasised by many musicologists — is unanimously considered the earliest extant work to be referred to as an oratorio, 10 Esthèr may all the more take its place on the scale of priorities, also considering its further characteristic of being divided into parts (three, to be precise). It is also — like the former — in Italian, so that it is not an oratorio latino, as some have assumed (perhaps owing to its having been first performed at the aristocratic Oratorio del SS. Crocifisso, the only place — in Rome — where such performances were produced). 11 The newly discovered documents make it possible to identify the “Iacomo” who assisted our author in drafting the two scores on paper, which Della Valle confessed he was not very expert at: 12 he was Giacomo Saccardi, who in 1641 also appears as the harpsichord teacher of the mentioned Romibera (Docs. I.7, 9, 14). He was also a violin player: in fact Della Valle reports that, for the performance of the Dialogo di Esther (2 April 1640), “Signor Giacomo Saccardi played the three violins of the three harmoniae” (“il signor Jacomo Saccardi sonò i tre violini delle tre armonie”). 13 From this sincere confession we can see that the memory of what he had learned during his musical studies — too long abandoned — was by now growing dim. I take this opportunity to point out that, on p. 253 of his Della musica dell’età books of this compositions have also been recovered (Roma, Biblioteca Nazionale, Ms Varia 400.49): ANTONIO ADDAMIANO – ARNALDO MORELLI, “L’archivio della cappella musicale di Santa Maria in Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) a Roma nella prima metà del Seicento. Una ricostruzione”, Le fonti musicali italiane, II, 1997, pp. 37-67: 56. 9. The latter lasting about 12 minutes: HOWARD E. SMITHER, “Oratorio”, The New Grove Dictionary of music and musicians, vol. XVIII, London, Macmillan, 2001, pp. 503-28: 505. Esthèr on the other hand lasts about 40-45 minutes, i.e. the average duration of an ordinary oratorio. 10. See DOMENICO ALALEONA, Storia dell’oratorio in Italia, Milano, Fratelli Bocca, 1945, pp. 136-8; ARNALDO MORELLI, Il tempio armonico. Musica nell’Oratorio dei Filippini in Roma (1575-1705), Laaber, Laaber Verlag, 1991, p. 74; SMITHER, “Oratorio”, p. 506. 11. SMITHER, “Oratorio”, pp. 506-07; ROBERT R. HOLZER, “Della Valle, Pietro”, The New Grove Dictionary of music and musicians, vol. VII, London, Macmillan, 2001, pp. 174-6: 175. It should be noted that, at his death, Pietro owed as much as 8350 scudi to the “Venerabile Arciconfraternita del SS. Crocifisso in s. Marcello”: ADV 56 (dated 10.12.1652). 12. In a letter to Doni, dated 23.12.1640, he says he cannot send him his “madrigaletto su Radicofani”, mentioned in § 1.2, because “in queste feste non ardisco di dar tanta briga al sig. Jacomo; tanto più che habbiamo da scrivere ancora un altro oratorio, da me fatto di nuovo, per la festa della s. ta Purificatione” (S, 289). In 1647, in another letter to Doni, he declares he finds himself in difficulty owing to the absence of the said “Iacomo”, who had retired from this activity; adding that he had forgotten one of his old “Toccata […] che scorreva per i sette tuoni diversi e forse più […] come io non so tanto che possa scriver facilmente da me tutto quel che voglio e che suono, non avendo allora comodità di chi mi aiutasse a metterla bene in carta” (S, 310). 13. AGOSTINO ZIINO, “Pietro Della Valle e la ‘musica erudita’. Nuovi documenti”, Analecta Musicologica, IV, 1967, pp. 97-111: 108.
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