Skip Navigation

Music and Letters 2006 87(4):551-579; doi:10.1093/ml/gcl081
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hibberd, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Murder in the Cathedral? Stradella, Musical Power, and Performing the Past in 1830s Paris

Sarah Hibberd


  Abstract

Romantic fascination with the seventeenth-century composer Alessandro Stradella began in Paris with the performance of a now notorious ‘air d’église’ at one of François-Joseph Fétis’s innovative concerts historiques in 1833. The combination of romantic adventure and musical power embodied by the Stradella legend—in which the beauty of his singing dissuades two assassins from murdering him—was subsequently explored in a short story by Jules Janin for the Revue et Gazette musicale in 1836, and in two theatre works in 1837: a comédie-vaudeville with music arranged and composed by Friedrich Flotow, and a grand opera set by Louis Niedermeyer. Each work effectively reconstructs the myth, presenting an understanding of the power of song that is historically situated, yet aimed at a modern audience. Taken together, they present a complex reception model for early music in the 1830s that illuminates the interaction of modern and (various) historical idioms as well as popular and educated tastes, and literature and music, in a variety of media. They also reveal an increasing interest in imaginative reinterpretation rather than authentic pastiche in historical representation at this time.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.