Home > Alessandro Stradella

Not much is known about his early life, but he was from an aristocratic family, educated at Bologna, and was already making a name for himself as a composer at the age of 20, being commissioned by Christina, the Queen of Sweden. In 1667 he moved to Rome where he composed copiously, mostly sacred music, and began to live a dissolute life. With a friend he attempted to embezzle money from the Catholic Church, but was found out: he fled the city, only returning much later when he though it was safe. Unfortunately his numerous incautious affairs with women began to make him enemies among the powerful men of the city, and he had to leave Rome for good.

In 1677 he went to Venice, where he was hired by a powerful nobleman as the music tutor to his mistress. As might be expected, Stradella was shortly involved with her, and had to flee when their liaison was found out; but this time the nobleman hired a gang of thugs to follow him and kill him, which they narrowly failed to do. Stradella went next to Genoa, where he wrote operas and cantatas; unfortunately he was again involved in an affair with a poorly-chosen woman, and this time a hired killer caught up with him at the Piazza Bianchi and stabbed him to death.

Stradella was an extremely influential composer at the time, though his fame was eclipsed in the next century by Corelli, Vivaldi and others. Probably his greatest significance is in originating the concerto grossoThe concerto grosso was a popular form of baroque music centered around an ensemble, usually having four to six movements in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the concertino and full orchestra (the ripieno . The form: while Corelli in his Op. 6 was the first to publish works under this title, Stradella clearly uses the format earlier in one of his Sonate di viole. Since the two knew each other, a direct influence is likely.

Stradella wrote at least 6 operas, as well as numerous cantatas and oratorios. He also wrote 27 separate instrumental pieces, most for strings and basso continuo, and typically in the sonata da chiesaSonata da Chiesa is Italian for " church sonata". Sonatas are instrumental compositions of three or more movements. There are various forms of sonata, such as the sonata da camera, as well as the sonata da chiesa. The sonata da camera (chamber sonata) is format.

His colorful life and bloody death clearly made a good story for an opera of its own. Three separate composers made operas out of his life, the most famous being Friedrich Flotow with his Alessandro Stradella ( HamburgHamburg is Germany's second largest city (after Berlin) and its principal port. The official name Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg recalls its membership in the mediaeval Hanseatic League and the fact that Hamburg is a city state and one of Germany's sixteen, 1844Events January 15 University of Notre Dame receives its charter from Indiana. February 27 The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti. February 28 A gun on the USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United).