His compositions are, 1. La Vedora Scaltra; Op. Buffa, (his first opera,) at Prague. 2. La Bottega del Caffé; Op. Buffa, ditto. 3. Don Giovanni, o sia il Convitato di Pietra; Op. Buffa, ditto. 4. Several scenes, duets, &c. for introduction in serious operas performed there. 5. La Sorpresa amorosa, Cantata à tre voci, with full orchestra, written at Vienna for three of his pupils. 6. Il natale d’Apollo, a grand Cantata, with full orchestra, ditto. 7. Grand Serenade, with full orchestra, ditto. 8. L’Incontro inaspettato; Op. Buffa, 1785. 9. Le Demogorgone, o sia il Filosofo confuso; Op. Buffa, ditto. 10. Several scenas and rondeaus, introduced in various operas produced at the Vienna theatre. 11. The scena Berenice, Che fai? from Metastasio’s opera, Antigono. 12. The scena Se cerca, se dice, from Metastasio’s Olimpiade. 13. Armida; Op. Seria; first performed at Aschaffenburg. 14. Alcide al Bivio; Op. Seria; produced at Coblentz, 1789. 15. A grand solemn mass, performed at the election of the Emperor Joseph II. 16. Enea nel Lazio; Op. Seria; composed for the theatre at Berlin. In this Righini himself sang, and made his first appearance on the stage of the great Opera-house in January, 1793. 17. Il Trionfo d’Arianne; Op. Seria, 1793. 18. Atalanta e Meleagro, Festa teatrale che introduce ad un ballo allegorico, performed at the Opera-house at Berlin, on 15th February, 1797, on the occasion of the marriage of the princess. 19. Armida; Op. Seria; the text remodelled by Filistri; the music almost entirely re-composed, 1799; published at Leipzig in 1805. 20. Tigrane; Op. Seria; Berlin, for the Carnival, 1799, 1800; score published 1810. 21. Gierusalemme Liberata; Op. Seria. 1802. 22. Various detached compositions for the church. 23. Der Zauberwald (La Selva incantata), an opera published at Leipzig.
Besides the above works, Righini’s minor productions, vocal and instrumental, but chiefly the former, are very numerous. He was a ready man, of most industrious habits, and his taste and judgment, the result of great experience, could be relied on. Hence he was resorted to when occasion demanded the prompt exertion of a composer’s talent. But it follows as almost a necessary consequence, that most of what was thus suddenly called for and brought forth, was calculated for an immediate purpose—not written with any hope that it would add much to his reputation. His fame he well knew would rest on his operas[2].
FALLACIES OF SOME WRITERS ON MUSIC.
To the EDITOR of the HARMONICON.
SIR,
As you have considered my first paper admissible, I beg leave to continue my remarks on what I conceive to be the fallacies of some writers on music, and proceed with those of Dr. Browne, whose fifth charge against Handel is contained in the following words:—
‘Choirs (or choruses) sometimes (though seldom) calculated more for the display of the composer’s art, in the construction of figures and canons, than for a natural expression of the subject.’ The writer, then, is evidently no admirer of the fugue style; and such choruses as the “Amen” (Messiah), “He led them through the deep” (Israel in Egypt), and many others, were, to his ears, nothing more than musical exercises!
On the subject of fugue, which obliges the various voices to sing different words at the same time, thereby producing confusion in the sense, argument for and against has been nearly exhausted by some of the first literary and musical writers of the present and past age. In the Harmonicon, a few months back, some excellent remarks, I think, appeared on both sides. Vocal composers, from the time of Palestrina, have all augmented their fame by their fugues, the variety which such style of writing imparts to the subject often rendering a simple, nay, even a meagre one, interesting. But it must be allowed that it is highly necessary that he who would enjoy such composition should be somewhat of an educated musician, or he will never enter into the true meaning and spirit of it.
This, perhaps it may be said, only proves a prejudice, engendered by education and habit. But if so, every subject on which men have dissented is liable to the same objection. Different advances in civilized life and education are attended by more or less of such prejudices; and in search of truth a man must be endowed with almost superhuman powers who can divest himself wholly of the influence of early impressions. As a striking proof of this, it is enough to state that, up to the present hour, our two universities cannot agree concerning the pronunciation of the Latin A; it is, therefore, clear that one of these great emporiums of learning must be labouring under a prejudice.