Add MS 45882

'ORATORIO di S. Gio:[vanni] Battista à. 5. Con strom[en]ti' by Alessandro Stradella. In score. The accompanying instruments are divided into 'concertino' and 'concerto grosso' sections. Written in a professional Italian copyist's hand of the late 17th century. Calligraphic pen-work initials at the beginning of each part (ff. 1, 75). Pen trials by another copyist are on f. 140b. The date of composition of the work has not been established: Dr Charles Burney, who owned the present MS. (cf. A General History of Music, iv, 1789, p. 105), suggested that it was a performance of this oratorio in St John Lateran which deterred two hired assassins from their task of murdering Stradella in 1676 (thus adding to the story of the attempt on Stradella's life handed down by P. Bourdelot and J. Bonnet, Histoire de la Musique, 1715, pp. 60-62); A. Catelani, Delle Opere di Alessandro Stradella, 1866, p. 30, and H. Hess, Die Opern Alessandro Stradella's (Publikationen der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft, Beihefte, Zweite Folge Heft iii), 1906, p. 5, cast doubt on the whole story but do not suggest an exact date for the work; Hess considers (op. cit., p. 49) that it probably dates from the end of Stradella's life. The statement in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edit., 1954, viii, p. 107, that the score of 'San Giovanni Battista 'bears the date 1676 appears to derive from a misreading by Fétis of Burney's description of the work (Hess, op. cit., p. 5 n.). The MS. score preserved, with many other works by Stradella, in the Biblioteca Estense, Modena (Catelani, op. cit.) is not apparently dated; a printed libretto (which does not name the author of the words) in the same library is dated 1688, six years after Stradella's eventual assassination (in February 1682). Several other manuscript copies of the work are known (see Hess, op, cit., p. 62; R. Eitner, Quellen-Lexikon, ix, pp. 304-6; J. A. Fuller-Maitland and A. H. Mann, Catalogue of the Music in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1893) but the oratorio does not appear to have been published in its entirety. For details of the few published works of Stradella, including extracts from 'San Giovanni Battista' printed in the 18th and 19th centt., see E. Allam, 'Alessandro Stradella', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Assoc., lxxx, 1953-1954, p. 34. Paper; ff. iv + 140. Oblong quarto. Late 17th cent. Belonged to Charles Burney, Mus.D., whose signature, with two of his addresses and two library press-marks, 'p.pr. I. 2' (crossed out) and 'Y. ix' (cf. the similar press-marks in Dr Burney's musical extracts, Add. MSS. 11581-11591, which were also acquired by Dimsdale), occurs on f. iii; lot 579 at the sale of Burney's musical library (see A Catalogue of ... Music ... of the late Charles Burney, Mus.D., F.R.S ... which will be sold by auction by Mr. White ... on Monday, the 8th of August, 1814) when it was purchased by - Dimsdale, to whom the notes 'T + D 579' and '1.5' [i.e. the price £1. 5s.] refer. Binding of white vellum (cf. f. i) with marbled end-papers (ff. ii, iv). Presented by E. Wyndham Hulme, Esq.