The Overtures of Rossini

The Overtures of RossiniAuthor(s): Philip GossettSource: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul., 1979), pp. 3-31Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3519819Accessed: 21/06/2010 17:26

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The Overtures of Rossini

PHILIP GOSSETT

Little did Rossini suspect that many of his finest operas would survive through their overtures alone. Master of irony himself, he would have smiled at La scala di seta with all but its bottom rung lopped off. Supreme parodist, he would have delighted at the Keystone Cops scurrying to the strains of Guillaume Tell. But irony and parody have darker sides, and Ros- sini might have wondered at the success of a genre which in his most ambitious works he renounced. His popular overtures (Semiramide and Guillaume Tell excepted) date from his early career. Indeed, during his Neapolitan years, when he exercised fullest control over the content and production of his operas, he avoided formal overtures altogether.

As a conscientious craftsman, Rossini would have been less amused at the extent to which his overtures have been misunderstood.

0148-2076/79/0700-0003 $0.25 ? 1979 by The Regents of the University of California.

Many new ones were invented by avaricious contemporary publishers, bringing large reve- nues from a public both avid for Rossini overtures and indifferent as to whether he had actually composed them. Music from the opera could easily be adapted to this end. Thus La donna del lago and Zelmira regularly sported overtures in the nineteenth century, pieced together from the music of the large ensem- bles-the Introduzioni-which open these operas.' But creating an overture where none

'Both the first Breitkopf & Hartel edition of La donna del lago (pl. no. 3731, 1823) and the earliest Ricordi edition (pl. nos. 2892-2907, 1826-27), for example, open with an "Ouverture" or "Sinfonia," which is simply the first section of the Introduzione with the choral parts suppressed. For Zelmira an overture was invented by using the orchestral introduction of the opening chorus and adding a concluding section based on Antenore's cabaletta, "Sorte sec- ondami." In this form the "overture" was published by Simrock in Germany (pl. no. 2015, 1823), Lorenzi in Flor- ence (pl. no. 711, date unknown), and Ratti, Cencetti e Comp. in Rome (pl. no. 227, 1828).

3

exists is also a modem phenomenon. For the centenary of Rossini's death in 1968 an Ital- ian company issued recordings of all the overtures.2 Eager for their project to be complete, they included all the music played in the orchestra at the beginning of each opera, whether or not these so-called "overtures" are independent compositions.

In Rossini's operas a precise distinction can practically always be made between an orchestral introduction, meaningless when severed from the larger musical unit to which it belongs, and an independent overture. In two operas, L'occasione fa il ladro and Ricciardo e Zoraide, Rossini emphasizes the link between an unusually elaborate orchestral introduction and the opening number of the opera by using the title "Sinfonia e Introduzione."3 Ricciardo e Zoraide, for example, begins with a tripartite instrumental composition:

Largo Marziale Andante

C minor C major F major, modulating to and

closing in A minor

Tonally the piece is open-ended, while for- mally it seems incoherent. This "Sinfonia e In- troduzione," however, concludes convincingly with a reprise of the Marziale passage for chorus, to the text "Cinti di nuovi allori." To wrench the orchestral introduction out of this context is clearly unacceptable. Such invented anomalies must necessarily obscure our understanding of the Rossini overture.

The consequences are twofold. First, critics seeking to comprehend Rossini's style and musical development are faced with material which seems intractable largely because it is inaccurately conceived. Second, it becomes impossible to confront problems of authentic-

2Eight discs and accompanying notes were published by Fratelli Fabbri Editori as vols. 67-74 of their series I grandi musicisti. The unsigned notes, unlike the recordings, are often quite good. 3This title also appears in the autograph of La donna del lago, but it is vestigial. The orchestral introduction to this opera bears the same relation to its opening chorus as do countless other orchestral introductions to choruses, whether the choruses are initial segments of an Intro- duzione, a Coro e Cavatina, or a Finale Primo, or are independent numbers.

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ity. Attributions of overtures to Rossini are ac- cepted even though they violate fundamental stylistic norms. An overture in Bb major for II barbiere di Siviglia, frequently cited, is a travesty of Rossinian procedures.4 A Sinfonia di Odense, recently discovered and printed, is filled with peculiarities of phrase structure, melodic design, and form.5 Even the fairly popular overture to II viaggio a Reims is suspect. One must exercise caution when using stylistic or formal evidence to investigate problems of authenticity: few composers show a mono- lithic approach to musical forms, and none develops in a completely predictable fashion. But until we perceive better the essence of the Rossini overture we cannot begin even to de- bate these questions.

This study is in three parts. In part I the archetypical Rossini overture is defined and il- lustrated. Part II focuses on Rossini's early development as a composer of overtures, a period during which the archetypical procedures are being formed. In the final section, part III, results of the preceding investigations are applied to several overtures of uncertain authenticity from this first period.6

I: THE ARCHETYPICAL ROSSINI OVERTURE

We can define with precision a "typical" Ros- sini overture. Our archetype is, of course, a fiction, a composite vision of Rossini's art, a model against which to understand the par- ticularities of individual overtures. Its external

4A theme from this overture, which exists in several contemporary prints and manuscripts, is reproduced by Her- bert Weinstock in his Rossini: A Biography (New York, 1968), p. 414. 5This composition, found in Odense, Denmark, in 1946 by Povl Ingerslev-Jensen, is described in his "An Unknown Rossini Overture: Report of a Discovery in Odense," The Music Review 11 (1950), 19-22. The source is a group of manuscript orchestral parts of uncertain origin. Despite the manifold doubts this piece elicits on both textual and musical grounds, it was published in vol. 8 of the Quaderni rossiniani (Pesaro, 1959), pp. 17-65. 6In the larger study of Rossini's overtures of which this paper is an excerpt, the entire development is traced, and five distinct periods are defined as paradigmatic for further study of Rossini's music. This comprehensive study of the overtures forms the first chapter of a book in progress, on Rossini's operas.

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form is not extraordinary, deriving obviously from opera overtures of the late eighteenth century. But the clarity of the design, the careful adaptation of musical material to specific formal function, and the use of the crescendo are aspects of Rossini's art which were to exert a significant influence on later Italian composers. None of his imitators, however, could hope to match the richness of melody, rhythm, and orchestral detail which characterize the Ros- sini overtures.

In the archetypical overture, a slow intro-

duction, which serves the harmonic function of establishing the tonic and then moving to the dominant, prepares a quick main section, constructed according to the sonata principle of contrasting thematic groups in different tonal regions. A simple transition from the exposition to the recapitulation replaces the development section, which is traditional in sonata movements but generally absent in overtures. When the tonic is a minor key, the secondary key is its relative major. (See diagram 1.)

THE ARCHETYPICAL ROSSINI OVERTURE

Slow Introductory Section I-V Quick Main Section

Exposition: First theme I Transition I-V of V

Second theme V Crescendo V Cadences V

Short Modulation V-V7-I

Recapitulation: First theme I-bVI Transition bVI-V

Second theme I Crescendo I Cadences I Additional cadences I

Diagram 1

Slow Introductory Section. Beginning his overtures with a slow introduction, Rossini followed a practice common among composers of Italian opera in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The three-movement overture of earlier eighteenth-century Italian opera, with its ties to the pre-Classical symphony, could hardly follow developments leading to the Classical symphony and yet maintain proportions appropriate to an overture. Instead, the concluding movements fell away and the opening movement alone was allowed to expand. Many overtures of Cimarosa and Paisiello consist of a single quick movement, as do some of Mozart's (Idomeneo, Le nozze di Figaro, La clemenza di Tito). At the end of the century it became customary to preface this quick movement with a short slow introduction, perhaps to capture the audience's attention. Cimarosa's late operas Penelope (1795) and Gli Orazi e i Curiazi (1797) begin in this

way, as do Paer's La Griselda (1798), La Camilla (1799), and Agnese (1809), and most of Simone Mayr's operas written after 1800. These composers could have found models in Mozart operas (Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, Die Zauberflote) and late Haydn sym- phonies, not to mention the old Lullian French overture, but the proximate source of their new practice remains obscure.7

7The problem of the slow introduction in the eighteenth century, particularly in the works of the Viennese Classical composers, has been studied by Marianne Danckwardt, Die langsame Einleitung: Ihre Herkunft und ihr Bau bei Haydn und Mozart (Tutzing, 1977). Her rapid glance at nineteenth-century Italian opera (pp. 298-301), however, is not very helpful. Somewhat more useful is the general discussion of Rossini's overtures in Susanne Steinbeck, Die Ouvertiire in der Zeit von Beethoven bis Wagner: Prob- leme und Losungen (Miinchen, 1973), but the sheer bulk of music she attempts to cover precludes her entering into this repertoire with any thoroughness.

5

PHILIP GOSSETT Rossini's Overtures

The slow introduction in a Rossini overture consists of three parts. In the first, loud orchestral chords are followed by softer passages, or else a soft opening swells to forte. These contrasting extreme dynamics are theat- rically and psychologically apt: loud passages impose themselves on a fidgeting audience, quiet ones demand their closer attention. The musical content here is motivic and dynamic rather than melodic, with constant interplay among instrumental groups (strings, winds, and tutti). Rossini nonetheless organizes his motives into a regular musical phrase with a balanced antecedent and consequent. Using material which may or may not be motivically related to the opening phrase, he then proceeds to a full cadence in the tonic or a related key. The opening of II barbiere di Siviglia is exemplary lex. 1).

Though Rossini's gift for elegiac melody can be overlooked in the swirling motion of his energetic passages, the slow introduction of the archetypical overture is characterized by a lyrical second part. One occasionally finds melodic outbursts in earlier overtures, to be sure, but rarely with the breadth and quasi-vocal character of Rossini's. Melody reigns unencumbered, and the orchestra merely curtseys before her. A single wind instrument often emerges into prominence, as in the horn solo from II Turco in Italia (ex. 2). Whether the lyrical melody appears in the tonic or in a foreign key (here bIIl), it must always then proceed to the dominant-either directly, as in this example, or after a full cadence. In either case the final element of the slow introduction stresses the dominant.

Extended prolongation of the dominant harmony builds expectations of resolution to the tonic. These are further heightened at the close of the slow introduction by Rossini's use of short repeated phrases, often with an orchestrated diminuendo (anticipating the orchestrated crescendo to come in the main part of the overture). In the following example from Torvaldo e Dorliska, a two-measure phrase is played twice (2 x 2), followed by a half-measure motive played four times (4 x '/2), each time descending in register and volume. Through- out, the music remains poised on the dominant, maintaining suspense, until a renewed

chordal forte brings the slow introduction to a close (ex. 3). The quick main section of the overture will supply the anticipated resolution.

That the slow introduction should contain three distinct sections with three diverse functions might seem excessive fragmentation of a short passage, even when occasional motivic relations, melodic or accompanimental, link these sections. It can be explained partially by observing that in two operas, Aureliano in Palmira and Maometto II (1822), the slow introduction is essentially identical to the orchestral passage which opens an important scena ed aria later in the action.8 Within the latter genre the fragmented structure of the introductory orchestral material meets the specific compositional requirements of the musical- dramatic form. The orchestral introduction leads directly to recitative, during the course of which the orchestra will interject fragments of its introduction, following the order of their original presentation. Thematically neutral recitative may alternate with these orchestral interjections, or more impassioned declamation may be superposed on them. In either case the fragmented structure of the introduction al- lows a measure of both coherence and flexibil- ity within the recitative. When the same procedures are applied to the overture, however, the internal structural details of the slow introduction are less compelling; we consequently find more pronounced divergencies here than in any other part of our archetype. In particular, the earliest overtures will be seen to have only hints of a regular melodic period

8In the original version of Maometto II (Naples, 1820), which has no overture, the orchestral passage introduces the scena ed aria of Calbo in Act II. When Rossini added an overture for the Venetian revival of 1822 he incorporated this music verbatim, instructing an associate to copy only the list of instruments and the bass line. Rossini's own autograph begins at the quick main section of the overture. This incomplete appearance of the score has confused many critics, and one still reads occasionally that the overture to the 1822 Maometto II was never finished.

The autograph manuscript of Aureliano in Palmira has not been found, but the orchestral passage which in the opera introduces the Gran scena of Arsace in Act II was surely written before the overture which quotes it. In this case, however, the original autograph of the overture must also have included the slow introduction in Rossini's hand. Not only is the overture in a different key, but there are also numerous other variants between the two passages.

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Tutti i I strs., bsn.

winds strs. Tutti

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within the introduction, while later overtures expand the melodic period at the expense and even to the exclusion of motivic phrases and formulas.

Quick Main Section. Although it is unfash- ionable to describe sonata-form movements as having two "themes," such a description is appropriate for the main section of a Rossini overture, where single, closed, coherent periods characterize the tonic and dominant regions. In the archetypical overture strings present the first theme and solo winds the second. The first theme is motivically conceived, with scalar patterns predominating, and con-

structed of symmetrical, balanced phrases. As Rossini's style develops, however, this symmetrical structure begins to be distorted; indeed, the extent of the distortion is practically a linear function of chronology. Elements of the period are expanded, cadences are added to achieve greater rhythmic activity at the close, and transitions between phrases are intro- duced, often occasioned by the appearance of more remote key areas within the period. A moderately advanced example is the first theme from Sigismondo, used again with modifications in Otello, where a basic sixteen- measure period of scalar triplets is forcibly re- strained after the fourth and eighth measures

7

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(ex. 4). Held notes suspend the motion, and rests with fermatas prolong the rhythmic distortion. At the third phrase, which parallels the first, the music is allowed to rush forward freely, encouraged by added wind chords, and the conclusion of the period is given further rhythmic impetus by the cadential extension and its concomitant crescendo.

The second, lyrical theme played by the winds is rarely subjected to internal distortion. Added dimension is achieved simply by repeating it with different instrumental color. The contrast between a more motivic, structurally freer opening theme for strings and a more lyrical, symmetrical second theme for winds parallels a functional division already observed in the slow introduction. Even within these limited contexts it exposes two facets of Ros- sini's art.

That themes in Rossini's overtures can be isolated from their surroundings, occupy im- mutable positions in the scheme of the overture, and maintain definite structural proper- ties internally suggests that specific thematic slots within an overture might accommodate substitute periods without excessive damage to the whole. There are several examples of such substitutions among Rossini's works. The overtures of II Turco in Italia (1814), Sigis- mondo (1814), and Otello (1816) form a single, interrelated complex. Sigismondo and Otello are particularly close, although the latter is re- worked and reorchestrated. A principal change is the introduction of a new second theme, re- placing one which in Sigismondo also appears as an orchestral motive in the quartet "Genitor ... deh vien!" The substitution was obligatory because Rossini had employed the theme from Sigismondo in his first Neapolitan opera, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (1815), within the Finale Primo. His Neapolitan audience for Otello would have recognized the melody immediately, and Rossini was usually wise enough to limit his self-borrowing to works having premieres in different cities. Aestheti- cally, however, both second themes are perfectly acceptable, and the substitution is im- perceptible. A similar situation occurs in Matilde di Shabran, whose overture was written originally for Eduardo e Cristina. In

Matilde Rossini introduces as a new second theme a melody taken from the Finale Primo, thereby providing a point of reference between overture and opera. Substitutions within a specific thematic slot are possible, then, but the significant differences in character between first and second themes preclude interchanges between them in our archetypical overture.

The transition linking the two themes fulfills its classical function: modulating from the tonic to the secondary key by arriving at and prolonging the dominant of the new tonality. The transition is immediately set off from the first theme by volume (it is attacked fortissimo), orchestration (it is scored for full orchestra), and phrase structure. Whereas the themes are built from balanced phrases form- ing a larger, coherent period, here a single short phrase, usually of four measures, is repeated four or more times. Each statement is directed to a new harmonic goal, obscuring the original tonality and leading to the secondary key or its dominant. Should this progression lead directly to the secondary key, Rossini continues to the new dominant so as better to prepare the secondary tonal region. Poised on the dominant, he prolongs it with short, repeated phrases. The volume decreases as the orchestra, which had played together for the transition, again sepa- rates into component families. Finally the music slips into the secondary key and the second theme.

La gazza ladra provides a good example (ex. 5). The modulation consists of a fourfold repetition of the initial phrase, moving from E major to B major to E minor to D major and then to G major, the secondary key. A new four-measure phrase leads to the dominant, D major, and is repeated there in varied form. Another motivically related four-measure phrase, over a D pedal, features a melodic line which rises an octave, immediately followed by a similar phrase falling an octave. Irrelevant to our archetype but not to Rossini's artistry is the way this second pair of phrases contracts the intervallic structure of the first pair, reduc- ing a varied pattern to a scalar one. A pair of two-measure phrases over the dominant continues this process, restricting the intervals even further, until a final phrase achieves the

8

19TH CENTURY

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Allegro

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Tutti

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Example 5

9

ultimate reduction, a repetition of the pitch D, fortissimo for the entire orchestra, then pianissimo for strings alone. This melodic reduction, while not affecting the rhythmic impulse of the music, leaves it thematically neutral. The lower winds now erase the rhythmic force as well, suspending all motion on a dominant chord which slowly resolves to the new tonic. Thus effectively prepared, the second theme can emerge resplendent.

The lyrical interlude provided by the second theme lasts but a moment, to be followed directly by a "Rossini crescendo." This infa- mous device has attracted more attention than any other aspect of Rossini's music-a dubious distinction: and what is worse, its unique qual- ities have rarely been demonstrated. For some, the presence of the familiar hairpin or the word "crescendo" is sufficient cause to invoke the term.9 But a Rossini crescendo is not any intensification of volume over any number of measures, irrespective of harmonic support, phrase structure, or formal position. We fail to recognize its salient characteristics when we lump together all forms of intensification of volume and seek thereby to prove the variety of Rossini's crescendos. They are essentially alike, all of them.

Within the overture, Rossini invariably places the crescendo between the second theme and the cadence section, and except for key and details of orchestration it is identical in the exposition and recapitulation. The central element is a single antecedent-consequent phrase of four, eight, or sixteen measures, repeated three times. It can be followed by shorter, related phrases of two, one, or one-half measures, each repeated two, three, or four times, with more continuous rhythmic activity. Phrase length decreases from one element of the crescendo to the next so that phrases renew themselves more quickly and the harmonic rhythm accelerates. In a typical crescendo the central phrase moves in the antece-

9A classical misstatement is Ada Melica's "I1 crescendo" in the Bollettino del centro rossiniano di studi, Anno 1957, no. 5, 84-87. Even a more perceptive critic, Luigi Rognoni, Gioacchino Rossini, 3rd edn. (Turin, 1977), p. 182, con- fuses matters when he claims that Rossini's overtures often conclude with "un secondo piu folgorante 'crescendo'."

dent from I to V and in the consequent back from V to I; it does not introduce other chords and never establishes a cadential harmonic pattern, such as I-IV-V-I. As phrase length decreases, the harmonies alternate more rapidly, but we still do not perceive the crescendo as strongly cadential. It functions instead practically as a tonic pedal. This very impression of stasis, though, permits Rossini to manipulate other musical elements simultaneously.

An increase in dynamics and an accretion of instruments further intensify the crescendo. Changes in dynamic markings and additions of instrumental parts are not made haphazardly, of course, but follow the dictates of phrase structure; changes occur at regular junctions, either between phrases or at symmetrical points within them. Register too enters into the crescendo. As the dynamic level increases, instruments appear in ever more brilliant registers.

The crescendo from Maometto II (1822) nicely exemplifies these characteristics (ex. 6). The central theme, played three times, is an eight-measure antecedent-consequent phrase, the first half on I moving to V, the second on V returning to I. It is followed by a one-measure continuation, also alternating I and V, played four times. Register is used to enhance the effect, as are instrumental entries: the first statement of the theme is for strings, clarinets, horns, bassoons, and tamburo, the second adds oboes, trumpets, and timpani, and the third adds flutes and gran cassa, providing, fur- thermore, an independent part for cellos, which have hitherto played together with the contrabass. Dynamic markings also articulate the structure: p, cresc., f, ff, and finally tutta forza, with the discrete levels placed at cru- cial points, though the effect of the crescendo should be continuous. Rossini carefully avoids writing cresc. at the beginning of the crescendo, and a proper interpretation demands that the volume be held steady at piano until the word actually appears. Indeed, the effec- tiveness of such a passage depends entirely on how well a conductor can create the expecta- tion of increased sonority without arriving prematurely at tutta forza.

The facile Rossini crescendo, then, is a rather sophisticated manipulation of harmonic

10

19TH CENTURY

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PHILIP GOSSETT Rossini's Overtures IC

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rhythm, phrase structure, melodic design, register, dynamics, and instrumentation, carefully controlled to produce the maximum effect. In operas by Rossini's immediate predecessors, his characteristic juxtaposition of these various elements is not found, although passages with increasing volume are hardly unique to Ros- sini.10 In its context, the Rossini crescendo remains enormously exciting, and scarcely an opera by Donizetti, Bellini, or the young Verdi does not emulate Rossini's design.

The cadence section which follows the crescendo, closing the exposition, shares one characteristic with it: the use of several elements of progressively shorter length and correspondingly quicker harmonic rhythm, each of which is repeated. Neither register, dynamics, nor instrumentation is significantly varied, however, and phrases are constructed as full cadences, not as simple alternations of tonic and dominant. A typical example is found

1OSee, for example, the description of a Mayr crescendo by Ludwig Schiedermair, in his Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Oper um die Wende des 18. und 19. Jahrh. (Simon Mayr), 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1907, 1910), I, 101-02. The more Schieder- mair describes Mayr's "crescendo" the more different it seems from the Rossini archetype.

in Semiramide whose cadences can be repre- sented as 2x8+2x2+4x'/2. They are uniformly loud throughout, but Rossini nicely balances the winds versus the full orchestra in the two-measure cadence (ex. 7: see page 13). It should be added that repeated phrases of decreasing length are a feature of most Rossini cadential passages, and are not reserved for overtures.

The brief section leading to the recapitulation does little more than prepare harmonically for the return of the original tonic. In Tancredi the orchestra merely plays two measures of chords on the tonic of the secondary key, A major, the dominant, to the last of which the seventh is added. The resulting dominant seventh chord proceeds immediately to the recapitulation. I1 barbiere di Siviglia has a direct, four-measure modulation for strings alone from G major back to the tonic, E minor. Other operas provide slightly longer passages, sometimes anticipating the expected first theme (as in Semiramide), but in the archetypical overture little compositional energy is expended on this section. Symphonic development is not a characteristic strength of Rossini's style.

Nor did Rossini labor over his recapitula- tions. The first theme is reproduced literally

11

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CENTURY (although in a few instances it is truncated). MUSIC The second theme and crescendo are trans-

posed to the tonic, which sometimes occasions alterations in the orchestration. One section, though, is especially vulnerable to change: the transition. This section is always prob- lematical in a sonata-form movement, since in the recapitulation, where all thematic material is presented in the tonic, a transition has no inherent harmonic function. The archetype here divides into two families, independent of chronology. In the first, Rossini concludes the opening theme with a deceptive cadence to bVI, adapts the exposition transition for use in the recapitulation, and arrives at V of I instead of V of V. In the second he cuts out the transition entirely, proceeding directly from the first theme (which may be truncated) to the tonic statement of the second theme.

That the transition in the recapitulation is an optional feature of the archetypical overture, and that Rossini feels he can eliminate it entirely, if he chooses, is apparent from an in- teresting episode in the history of the overture to II Turco in Italia. In all printed and manuscript sources of this overture, the second theme follows the first theme in the recapitulation without transition. The transition in the exposition corresponds in every way to the archetype, although it is among the longest found in Rossini's overtures. A four-measure phrase is played five times, modulating from the tonic, D major, through A7, D7, B major, E major, to F major as bVI, where an additional four measures establish E major as V. The prolongation of this new dominant can be ex- pressed as 2 x 6 + 4 x 2 + 2 x 2. After a fer- mata, four additional measures lead to the new key, A major. Rossini's autograph, located in the Archives of Casa Ricordi in Milan, reveals that he originally prepared a transition for the recapitulation as well. Ten measures are still visible, although crossed out; the remainder was on a bifolio removed early in the history of the opera, but not before the bifolios of the overture were numbered consecutively in the upper left-hand comer, as was Rossini's cus- tom. The lost bifolio bore the number "10."

The surviving, crossed-out measures are built around the four-measure modulating

phrase of the transition in the exposition. Be- ginning on bVI, to which a typical deceptive cadence at the end of the first theme has led, the transition proceeds to 16, then to the minor subdominant-but after two more measures the fragment breaks off. On the discarded bifolio Rossini surely continued the pattern, arriving finally at V of I. The prolongation of this dominant and return to the tonic for the second theme would have been identical, except for key, to the parallel exposition passage. The composer's decision to omit the transition entirely in the recapitulation of II Turco in Italia probably reflects its length in the exposition. Following the phrase in question (ex. 8) through another five modulating notches must have seemed daunting even to its inventor.

After the second theme and crescendo are stated in the tonic, the recapitulation closes with the cadential passage. Here, too, there are diverging branches of our archetype, and again chronology is not a factor. Generally, Rossini repeats the exposition cadence, adding additional cadences or a tonic prolongation at the end. But in the other branch he ignores the exposition and introduces entirely new cadential material. These newly composed concluding tonic cadences usually have much the same structure as a typical exposition cadence, but the initial phrase is longer and a final prolongation of the tonic is added. Both modifications are clearly appropriate to the final moments of an overture. II barbiere di Siviglia, with which we began consideration of the archetypical Rossini overture, closes in an equally regular fashion (ex. 9). After a simple, repeated two-measure tonic cadence, the music continues with a chromatic passage in contrary motion, arriving sforzando at bVI (C major), which gradually resolves to the tonic. Rossini delights in coloring cadential phrases with unexpected harmonies; indeed, familiarity with his style leads us to expect them.

Just as the slow introduction of I1 barbiere di Siviglia originated within the opera for which the overture was written, Aureliano in Palmira, so too these final cadences served first, in slightly different garb, to conclude Au- reliano's Finale Primo. Indeed, many elements described here as archetypical features of Ros-

12

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sini's overtures surface again in the operas themselves. Finding such stylistic continuity should hardly surprise us, but Rossini's characteristic and ingenious ways of adapting stylistic and structural norms to the various re-

quirements of different genres-the aria, duet, ensemble, and finale-prove significant both to an understanding of the composer himself and of his influence on nineteenth-century Italian opera.

13

II: THE OVERTURES OF ROSSINI'S FIRST PERIOD

Defining an archetype of this kind, while a harmless and amusing activity in itself, is truly valuable only in proportion to the insight it af- fords when we consider actual music. By establishing the archetypical Rossini overture we open two important paths for further investiga- tion. First, we gain a model against which to view Rossini's compositional development. With variants from the archetype arranged chronologically, we can then test attributions of dubious pedigree, confident that problems of authenticity can begin to be resolved.

Rossini's overtures fall chronologically into five groups, corresponding to the principal periods of his operatic career. No periodization is ever absolute, of course, and the chrono- logical models are as provisional as structural archetypes. This particular division, however, reflects well Rossini's developing approach to the overture, and proves equally fruitful for a consideration of other aspects of his operas. Seen through the perspective of an idealized archetype, Rossini's enormous artistic growth during the twenty years from Demetrio e Polibio to Guillaume Tell can be fully ap- preciated. Here, however, we can consider only his first period.

Rossini divided his earliest career between Bologna, as a Conservatory student and assis- tant at the Teatro Communale, and Venice, as a fledgling composer writing one-act farse for the Teatro San Mose. This small, experimental theater offered Rossini and other composers of his generation, such as Pietro Generali and Carlo Coccia, the opportunity to write and mount short operas without the emotional burdens and financial risks of composing for a major house. The experience was invaluable to a young aspirant even if his opera failed to please. Fully five of Rossini's early operas were prepared for the San Mose, works clearly dem- onstrating his youthful skill. These Venetian successes generated a major commission (for the Teatro alla Scala of Milan), La pietra del paragone, whose resounding acclaim guaran- teed Rossini a steady supply of future commis- sions.

A summary account of Rossini's early

overtures is given in table 1. Each of the nine operas has an overture, except L'occasione fa il ladro, where a standard slow introduction prefaces an orchestral Tempesta, which leads in tur directly to the Introduzione. Since a storm is actually raging as the opera begins, motives from the Tempesta can recur to link the "Sinfonia e Introduzione." Two overtures, well known to students of Rossini's music, are works written at the Conservatory in Bologna: one (the Sinfonia in Eb of 1809) became the overture to La cambiale di matrimonio, Ros- sini's first performed opera, while a theme from the other (the Sinfonia in D of 1808) was reused in his overture to L'inganno felice. At least five operas have overtures written ex- pressly for them (Demetrio e Polibio, L'inganno felice, La scala di seta, La pietra del paragone, and II signor Bruschino). An alternative overture exists in some sources for La scala di seta, however, which will be examined in part III. The overture to L'inganno felice was reused two months after the premiere of that opera in Rossini's next work for the stage, Ciro in Babilonia, presumably due to intolerable pres- sures of time. The case of L'equivoco stravagante, for which several different overtures are found among contemporary sources, will also be considered in part III.

Of particular interest are the two sinfonie in D, "al Conventello" and "obbligata a contrabasso." They were recently discovered in manuscript copies (not autographs) at the Is- tituto Musicale 'G. Verdi' of Ravenna by the Italian musicologist Paolo Fabbri.11 Both these works will be examined in part III. The present discussion focuses on overtures whose authenticity is unquestioned.

The early overtures, thematically and pro- grammatically independent of the operas they introduce, demonstrate Rossini's striving toward a personal compositional identity. Ele-

"Fabbri announces his discovery in an important article appearing now in the Bollettino del centro rossiniano di studi, "Presenze rossiniane negli archivi ravennati: due in- editi, un autografo ed altro." I wish to thank Dottor Bruno Cagli, artistic director of the Fondazione Rossini, for bringing this material to my attention and supplying facsimiles of the manuscripts.

14

19TH CENTURY

MUSIC

OVERTURES OF THE FIRST PERIOD: THE EARLY OPERAS AND FARSE (1808-1813) PHILIP GOSSETT Rossini's Overtures OPERA

Sinfonia "al Conventello"

Demetrio e Polibio

Sinfonia

Sinfonia

OVERTURE

in D

in C in D

in Eb

DATE COMMENT

1806-07(?) First theme reused in II signor Bruschino (1813); see part II of this study.

1806-08(?) 1808

1809

Second theme reused in L'inganno felice (1812). Reused with alterations in La cambiale di matrimonio (1810) and also, in the latter version, in Adelaide di Borgogna (1817).

Sinfonia "obbligata a contrabasso"

La cambiale di matrimonio

L'equivoco stravagante

L'inganno felice

Ciro in Babilonia

La scala di seta

La pietra del paragone L'occasione fa il ladro

I1 signor Bruschino

in D 1807-10(?) Authentic? see part III of this study. borrowed 1810

uncertain 1811 in D 1812

borrowed 1812 in C

in D

not a closed overture

in D

1812

1812

1812

1813

Uses the Sinfonia in Eb with some alterations.

See part mI of this study, and Table 2.

Second theme taken from the Sinfonia in D (1808). Overture reused without change in Ciro in Babilonia (1812). Uses the overture of L'inganno felice. See part III of this study. Reused without change in Tancredi (1813). A "Sinfonia e Introduzione," continuing directly from the orchestral opening to the Introduzione.

First theme taken from the Sinfonia "al Conventello"

Table 1

ments of the archetypical structure gradually cohere. By La pietra del paragone every section is externally in place, while most have also achieved their characteristic internal form. But working within still flexible constraints, Ros- sini created outstanding overtures, such as La scala di seta and II signor Bruschino, whose singularities of structure are part of their natural appeal.

In his very earliest overtures, however, Demetrio e Polibio and the two Bolognese sinfonie, Rossini struggles with a form he has not mastered. So structurally flawed is the Sinfonia in Eb that the composer's efforts to revise it for La cambiale di matrimonio created new problems as formidable as the old. One understands his apparent fondness for the piece, since the thematic material is appealing and fresh, but the structure of the quick main section remains incoherent in both versions. The first theme is a simple sixteen-measure period, whose opening harmonic motion in two- measure segments from V7 to I and then from

V7 of V to V is particularly nice (ex. 10a, page 17). An appropriate four-measure phrase begins the transition, but it leads from I back to I. We now anticipate moving away from the tonic, but instead the phrase is repeated without harmonic change. Selecting part of this phrase, Rossini then continues to vi, to IV, and finally, either in ignorance or in childish revolt, to V of ... I. He prolongs this dominant to arrive at the second theme presented in the original tonic, Eb major (ex. 10b). Yet another theme is presented (twice) in Eb major, an eight-measure phrase featuring the horn, resembling in structure a crescendo but not so treated in dynamics or orchestration (ex. 10c). In the original version eight additional measures on the tonic, cut in the revision, closed this pseudo-second group.

One wants to believe that Rossini had precise artistic aims in assigning what appears thematically to be a second group to the original tonic, but comparison of the differing consequences of this structural abnormality in the

15

19TH two versions precludes this assumption. In the CENTURY MUSIC original version the transition material now re-

turns and modulates to the correct secondary key, Bb major, where Rossini presents second theme, crescendo-like phrase, and eight additional measures, thus repeating the entire second group in its "correct" key. None of this material recurs at all in the recapitulation, so that after the second group has appeared twice in the exposition, first in I, then in V, it never appears again. Unhappy with this flouting of the sonata principle, perhaps, for La cambiale di matrimonio Rossini recapitulates the second theme and the crescendo-like phrase in the tonic (the eight additional measures are cut throughout). Rather than present the entire second group three times, he decides to ab- breviate one of the exposition statements; but instead of cutting anything in the initial tonic appearance, he eliminates the crescendo-like phrase in the dominant. This phrase consequently never appears in any key but the tonic, even though it belongs unquestionably to the second group. These manipulations lay bare a composer unsure of himself and grappling, not always successfully, with problems of formal structure. That the overture nonetheless succeeds in some respects is a tribute to Rossini's melodic and rhythmic gifts, but these gifts desperately needed to be harnessed.

Not only the modern critic finds the structure of Rossini's earliest overtures suspect. In the 1820s the Viennese firm of A. Diabelli et Comp. published a piano reduction of the overture to Demetrio e Polibio.12 This overture is structurally even stranger than the Sinfonia in Eb. Some problems are minor-the irregular transition, the long, rambling, unbalanced second theme, the awkward attempt at a development section. But the major difficulty is that Rossini seems committed to avoiding a regular recapitulation at whatever the cost. Diabelli was prepared to publish almost any Rossini overture for the hungry Viennese, but

12A copy of this print (pl. no. D. et C. n?. 466) is found in the Bavarian National Library in Munich (4? Mus. pr. 36860). This Diabelli version is unique; other publishers, including Steiner in Vienna, Ricordi, etc., issued piano reductions of the original version.

this piece he seems to have found unacceptable. To salvage the situation the publisher- composer had Rossini's overture regularized. The transition was straightened out, the second theme was recast, and, most important, a new, "correct" recapitulation was substituted for the original. Diabelli's publication stands as an amusing act of academic criticism, foisted on a youthful overture which badly needed the red pencil of Padre Mattei, Rossini's composition teacher at the Bologna Liceo Musicale.

By 1812, with the overture to L'inganno felice, the essential outlines of the archetype are present, though some details remain primi- tive. Least well defined is the slow introduction. L'inganno felice, in which the development of an opening antecedent-consequent phrase leads directly to the dominant prolongation, lacks an internal lyrical period. In La pietra del paragone there is a section with the function of a lyrical period, a moment of re- spite between the opening phrase and the dominant prolongation, but the characteristic melodic quality is not present. Instead, delicate imitative passages in the winds are highlighted over a pizzicato string accompaniment. Both La scala di seta and I1 signor Bruschino are more than a little unusual, as we shall see. In- deed, although it does not preface a regular overture, the slow introduction to L'occasione fa il ladro is closest to the archetype among these early works.

Once the main section begins, every element of these overtures is in its proper place. The thematic groups are distinctly formed, although first themes are not quite as sharply dif- ferentiated from second themes as they ultimately will become, while transitions and crescendos are still developing their characteristic shapes. In L'inganno felice the transition begins with an appropriate four-measure phrase, which promptly returns to the tonic and is repeated there, as in the Sinfonia in Eb; a new two-measure idea continues to emphasize I, but its repetition finally veers off toward vi. Unlike the earlier overture, L'inganno felice now continues properly to V of V, using material reminiscent of but not identical to the opening four-measure phrase (ex. 11). Both the character of the thematic material and the harmonic goal are correct; only the internal

16

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shape so characteristic of Rossini's mature transitions remains absent. Neither the prolongation of V of V nor the resolution to the main tonic deviates from the archetype.

In each of the other overtures, La scala di seta, La pietra del paragone, and II signor Brus- chino, the opening transition idea is played three times and functions correctly as a modulating phrase. La pietra del paragone, excep- tionally, adopts a six-measure phrase, but employs it in a standard fashion to move first from I to I, then from I to vi, and finally from vi to V of V, which is prolonged until the second theme begins. After II signor Bruschino every

overture with a standard transition will repeat the opening phrase at least four or even five times. These early overtures, then, are partly characterized by the relatively smaller proportions of their transitions.

Smaller proportions typify also the crescendos. In L'inganno felice, the first overture to have a proper crescendo, a two-measure mod- ule is played three times, followed by a half- measure continuation played four times (3 x 2 + 4 x 1/2). Perhaps because of this crescendo's brevity Rossini inserts another passage between the second theme and the crescendo, 2 x 2, which remains pianissimo throughout.

17

19TH It is rather like a crescendo in style, but instead CENTURY MUSIC of alternating between I and V, this "pre-

crescendo" alternates between I and IV (ex. 12). In La scala di seta the pre-crescendo is expanded to 2 x 4 (I-IV-I), while the crescendo has three elements: 4 x 2 + 2 x 1 + 4 x /2 (each proceeding I-V-I). Rossini continues to use pre-crescendos alternating between tonic and subdominant in two of his next three overtures, II signor Bruschino and L'Italiana in Al- geri, even though the main crescendo phrase is expanded to the standard four measures. In La pietra del paragone, however, he abandons the pre-crescendo, and after L'Italiana it is never employed again, although a memory of it exists in Aureliano in Palmira, the future overture to II barbiere di Siviglia. Here the pre-crescendo theme (2 x 4) has the harmonic structure I-V-I. It shows no dynamic intensification, though it does add new instruments for the repetition. The main theme of the crescendo proper (3 x 4 + 4 x 1) differentiates itself harmonically from the pre-crescendo by alternating tonic and dominant more rapidly (ex. 13). This is, indeed, the only crescendo theme among the overtures to introduce so many harmonic changes internally. Surely the relationship between this theme and its pre- crescendo is responsible for Rossini's procedure here.

Written before the archetype had fully con- gealed, the early overtures occasionally diverge from it markedly. Several, including Demetrio e Polibio, the Sinfonia in D (1808), and La scala di seta, have development sections. Rossini's technique in them is simplistic, largely limited to stating the second theme in a foreign key. He learned to avoid this redundancy by sup- pressing development sections altogether.

More positively, Rossini's experiments re- sulted in two of his loveliest overtures, La scala di seta and II signor Bruschino. Each approaches the mature archetype, but is further dominated by a unique musical idea: in La scala di seta the characteristic use of the wind ensemble as a concertante, in I1 signor Brus- chino the wonderful and absurd effect of violins tapping their bows rhythmically against the metal shades of their candle-holders, or (less authentically) against their music stands.

La scala di seta opens with a few quick measures, violins and violas racing down the scale to a tonic chord played by the entire orchestra. Now the wind band, a flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, and a bassoon, sepa- rates itself and unveils an Andantino introduction without strings. It is a beautiful passage, constantly varied in texture by Rossini's care to assign solos in turn to oboe, flute, and horn (ex. 14). The introduction seems to approach a full cadence in the tonic, but at the last moment the winds repeat and sustain a dominant seventh chord. Instead of resolving the disso- nance Rossini begins the first theme of the quick section still on the dominant, played by first violins alone. Only when the other strings enter with a pizzicato accompaniment does the tonic appear. The theme is in constant motion. Although its main element is essentially six measures long, extended upbeats and transitions perpetually dance the phrase structure away from regularity. The antecedent closes in V, the consequent moves towards I but stops short before the resolution, as at the end of the slow introduction. Again poised on V, Rossini repeats the entire theme for winds alone, led by the solo oboe (ex. 15). Finally it does resolve to the tonic as the transition begins; the extended phrase, avoided cadences, and separation of the instrumental groups make this resolution with full orchestra welcome indeed. Concer- tante use of the wind instruments continues throughout the overture, in the second theme, "pre-crescendo," and development section, giv- ing the entire piece a wonderful feeling of lightness and grace.

Fifty years after the great Rossini biog- rapher Giuseppe Radiciotti destroyed the myth of II signor Bruschino's being a jest at the expense of the impresario,13 the story regrettably continues to circulate, doubly regrettable because this is perhaps the best of Rossini's early farse-comic, witty, and sentimental by turns. The tapping bows in the overture are delight- ful, both for the novelty of the idea and for the natural and logical way the effect is woven into

13Radiciotti recounts the history in his Gioacchino Ros- sini: vita documentata, opere ed influenza su l'arte, 3 vols. (Tivoli, 1927-29), I, 88-95.

18

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fl.

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19

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C9NTURY the composition. There is an introduction, but CENTURY MUSIC it is not slow. Instead, the overture is attacked

Allegro with a theme more sharply etched rhythmically than melodically, moving from V of ii to ii, then repeated a step lower to close on the tonic. The ensuing idea is rhythmically analogous (ex. 16). It develops into a full period, ultimately settling on V. The prolongation of V uses melodic figures based on the opening theme, but also reduces that theme to its rhythmic component alone by means of the tapping bows (ex. 17). The main section of the overture, which preserves the same tempo, is thoroughly standard in construction, but each time a dominant harmony is prolonged to prepare a new section-at the end of the transition in the exposition, before the recapitulation, and at the end of the transition in the recapitulation-Rossini returns to this music from the introduction, both the melodic figure and the tapping bows. The overture is per- meated by this effect, so that in the midst of the lyrical second theme, played in octaves by flute and clarinet, the composer cannot resist yet another reference (ex. 18). Even in the final prolongation of the tonic at the end of the overture, Rossini has the violinists tap their bows in rhythm a last time, humorously recalling within the concluding bluster the rhythmic gesture which gave birth to the entire overture.

The overture to I1 signor Bruschino is, on one level, simply an amusing tour de force, but it comes significantly on the threshold of Ros- sini's maturity. Beginning his career only a few years earlier, he had barely known how to con- struct an overture at all. By 1813 all significant elements of the fully developed archetype were in place. Rossini had inverted and mastered the genre. In II signor Bruschino he also learned to delight in it.

III: OVERTURES OF UNCERTAIN AUTHENTICITY FROM ROSSINI'S FIRST PERIOD

There are good reasons to remain cautious in using stylistic evidence to develop or test attributions, but unless studies of style can assist us in grappling with these matters, they are of limited value. We must continually apply what we have learned and be willing to live with the

inevitable uncertainties; no matter how much we refine our tools, unequivocal statements of attribution on stylistic grounds will always be logically impossible. The behavior of human beings, especially composers, is not fully predictable. Yet neither is the weather, neither is the motion of elementary particles under ob- servation, neither are the vagaries of the national economy. We must seek a middle ground between those who are only too ready to accept an attribution because "it sounds like" a composer, and those who categorically refuse to accept stylistic evidence as a deter- mining factor for the attribution of a work.

Documentary evidence may indeed seem to hold out hopes for complete objectivity, and it would be folly to ignore the tremendous ad- vances made in the past twenty years in the study of manuscripts, archives, the history of publishing, and so on. But documentary evidence is generally insufficient. Some manuscript copies or printed editions to which no primary value as sources can be assigned do nonetheless preserve authentic compositions; some preserve spurious ones. Only by drawing on the resources of both approaches, documentary evidence and stylistic analysis, can we hope to achieve significant results.

Among the early group of Rossini overtures, doubts might exist about the authenticity of four pieces, including the two newly discovered overtures in D ("al Conventello" and "obbligata a contrabasso"), the overture to L'equivoco stravagante, and that to La scala di seta. It is worth examining each case in detail, both for the intrinsic interest of the works themselves and to demonstrate the strengths and limitations of the system of formal and stylistic analysis developed in parts I and II. We shall begin with two examples where results are decisive: La scala di seta and the Sinfonia in D "al Conventello." The other two prob- lematical cases, the Sinfonia in D "obbligata a contrabasso" and L'equivoco stravagante, will not permit equally positive responses, but the evidence nonetheless deserves consideration.

La scala di seta. After its Venetian premiere on 9 May 1812, at the Teatro San Mose, La scala di seta was rarely revived during Ros- sini's lifetime. Radiciotti lists four occasions,

20


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for none of which has a printed libretto been located: Senigallia in the summer of 1813, Venice in 1818, Siena (Teatro dei Rinnovati) during the Carnival season of 1821, and finally Lisbon (Teatro S. Carlos) in January 1825.14 Loewenberg adds a performance in Barcelona on 4 August 1823.15 There is no evidence what- soever that Rossini participated in any of these revivals.

Although Rossini's autograph score has not been located, at least five complete manuscripts of La scala di seta exist. Two of them, in the Bibliotheque du Conservatoire in Paris and

14Radicotti, m, 194. s1Alfred Loewenberg, Annals of Opera 1596-1940, 2nd

edn. (Geneva, 1955), 2 vols., I, column 627.

the Library of Congress in Washington, were prepared in Venice in the copisteria of Giacomo Zamboni, who was attached to the Teatro San Mose. They are excellent copies, presumably prepared at the time of the first performances. The Washington copy has the standard overture; the Parisian copy lacks the overture but has bound in its place an orchestral part for cello and bass, identical to that of the Washington overture. A manuscript copy of the overture alone exists in the Ravenna collection described by Fabbri, with the title: "Sinfonia / Del Maestro Rossini / Nella Scala di Seta / in Ravenna 1813" and the name of Ros- sini's close friend from Ravenna, "Sig:r Agos- tino Triossi." This piece appears finally in the only nineteenth-century editions of La scala di

21

- r 1. I P I

if"" ij ^.. IT. ill

ITi-1 F:Nrg^i

19TH seta: a reduction for piano and voice published CENTURY MUSIC by Ricordi in ca. 1852 from a manuscript in the

Ricordi Archives destroyed during World War II, and a reduction for piano solo published in Vienna by Sauer & Leidesdorf in the early 1820s.

The other three surviving manuscripts, in the conservatories of Florence and Brussels and in the Boston Public Library, lack any indica- tion of provenance. They essentially follow the Venetian copies, with one major exception: the overture shared by all three manuscripts is not the standard one. Yet another manuscript copy of this overture exists, an extract in the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna, ac- quired in 1969. Its title page, written in the hand of the same copyist who prepared the music, reads: "La Scala di Seta / Farsa / Del Sig:r Giovac:"n Rossini."

There are no biographical or archival grounds for thinking that Rossini composed an alternative overture for La scala di seta. It is conceivable that the manuscript available for some projected or actual performance con- tained only the bass part of the overture, as in the source preserved in Paris. Another musician may thus have been obliged to supply an overture of his own composition to replace the missing one. Surviving copies may derive from that occasion, and careful study and recon- struction of the filiation among sources might prove useful in testing this hypothesis.

On musical grounds, however, this alternative overture to La scala di seta must surely be dismissed as unauthentic. To begin with, its composer quotes two Rossinian melodies in full, both written during the winter of 1816- 17. There are no instances in which Rossini quotes melodies from an earlier overture in the body of a later opera unless he intends to preface the latter with the same overture.16 There is only one case in which Rossini quotes a melody from the body of an earlier opera in a later overture (unless he also reuses the melody within the new opera). The second theme of

'6Although in Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra he does quote a melody from the overture to Sigismondo, the melody had also occurred within the body of the latter opera. (See above, p. 8).

Bianca e Falliero paraphrases a tune from an Act I duet of La donna del lago, but it is a fairly nondescript melody and Rossini's self-borrowing may well have been practically un- intentional. The same cannot be said for the themes quoted in the alternative overture to La scala di seta. One is from Otello, the cabaletta theme, "Amor di rada il nembo," of Otello's cavatina, which in the overture becomes the second theme; the other is from La Ceneren- tola, the orchestral passage played in the Finale Primo to herald the approach of the disguised Cenerentola at Don Ramiro's ball (ex. 19). In the overture the latter appears after the second theme in the recapitulation, but significantly there is no analogous passage in the exposition. This is only one of the many structural problems in this overture.

A sampling of the stylistic grounds for de- nying the attribution of this overture to Ros- sini would include the following:

1) The overture is scored for strings, one flute, two clarinets, two horns, two trumpets, and one bassoon. No other Rossini overture lacks oboes, and oboes are part of the instrumentation of the opera itself-in which, however, trumpets are not present. The original overture has the same instrumentation as the remainder of the opera.

2) The slow introduction never departs from its tonic, C major. Every phrase comes to a full cadence; there is not even a prolongation of the dominant to prepare the quick main section. No other Rossini overture behaves in this manner.

3) No second theme in a Rossini overture, not even those deriving from vocal models, di- verges as completely from the standard periodic construction of the archetypical second theme as does this melody, derived from Otello. It follows a pattern often found among Rossini's cabalettas, however, a pattern one might label "linear." A linear theme consists of a basic thematic idea; a continuation, harmonically static and usually repeated, which for want of a better term might be called a "hold- ing pattern"; and an extended, often florid cadence (see ex. 19a). This procedure for building a melody is very different from the techniques used by Bellini or Verdi. Exploration of linear

22

clar.

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b.

r I J I I. 1 j I I IExampleI 19 Example 19

melody in Rossini would lead us too far afield. Suffice it to say that such a tune has no place in a Rossini overture.

4) A passage marked crescendo a poco a poco follows the second theme in the exposition, and its external structure (4 x 4 + 4 x 1) agrees with the structure of a normal Rossini crescendo. The composer of the overture did not understand how Rossini scores his crescendos, however, and so the first two statements of the four-measure phrase are played by strings alone, while the last two statements and continuation are played by the entire orchestra. No authentic Rossini crescendo is scored in this manner.

5) The first group in the recapitulation is allowed to resolve on the tonic, and only within the transition does the music begin to diverge. Within Rossini's overtures, if a transition is used in the recapitulation, the first group invariably concludes with a movement to bVI.

6) The crescendo of the exposition does not reappear in the recapitulation. In its place

is found the theme quoted from La Ceneren- tola (ex. 19b), followed by yet another unre- lated theme in C major, which can be repre- sented as 2 x 8 + 2 x 4. This theme with its continuation probably was intended to function as a tonic crescendo, but once again the scoring bears no relation to Rossini's characteristic procedures. In any case, substitution of the exposition crescendo theme by another in the recapitulation never occurs in Rossini's authentic overtures.

These are only the most obvious ways in which this alternative overture to La scala di seta differs from Rossini's practice. Its peculiarities cannot be dismissed by calling the composition early, since no overture, not even La cambiale di matrimonio, sins in anything like so many ways. The nature of the sources makes this overture suspect; its stylistic and structural anomalies dismiss it from further consideration. There is no period in Rossini's life to which it could be assigned without con- structing an elaborate and ultimately unsatis- factory series of hypotheses.

23

19TH Sinfonia in D "al Conventello." The investi- CENTURY MUSIC gations of Paolo Fabbri into Rossini's connec-

tions with Ravenna have illuminated significantly a portion of the composer's child- hood.17 As early as 1803 the eleven-year-old Rossini became acquainted with Agostino Triossi, a wealthy merchant from Ravenna twice his age. Triossi was an amateur musician and seems to have recognized the boy's talent. For Triossi and his friends Rossini composed his six Sonate a quattro, as attested to by Ros- sini's autograph inscription, added late in his life on the set of manuscript parts extant at the Library of Congress in Washington: Six horrendous sonatas composed by me at the summer house (near Ravenna) of my friend and pa- tron Agostino Triossi, when I was at the most infantile age, not having yet taken even a single lesson in accompaniment: they were all composed and copied in three days, and performed terribly by Triossi, contrabass; Morini (his cousin), first violin; the latter's brother, violoncello; and the second violin by my- self, who was, to tell the truth, the least terrible.18

Triossi was later responsible for a commission Rossini obtained to compose a Mass for the Cathedral of Ravenna in 1808, a manuscript copy of which exists in the Archivio Arcives- covile of Ravenna. Among Fabbri's discoveries in the Istituto Musicale 'G. Verdi' of Ravenna is the autograph manuscript of the Gratias from this Mass.

There are seventeen manuscripts in the collection described by Fabbri, a disproportion- ate number of which stem from Rossini's early career. In addition to the Gratias, the only autograph, the collection comprises: a complete score and set of parts for Rossini's cantata, II pianto d'Armonia, written in 1808 for the Liceo Musicale of Bologna; a set of manuscript

7See the study by Fabbri cited in fn. 11. '8"Sei Sonate orrende da me composte alla villeggiatura (preso Ravenna) del mio amico mecenate, Agostino Triossi alla eta la pii Infantile non avendo neppure una Lezione di accompagnamento, il Tutto composto e copiato in Tre Giomi ed eseguita cagnescamente dal Triossi Contrabasso, Morini (di lui Cugino) Primo Violino, I1 fratello di questo ii Violoncello, ed il Secondo Violino da me stesso, che ero per dir ver il meno cane." The autograph inscription is re- printed in facsimile by Alfredo Casella in his article "Una ignota 'Sonata' per archi di Gioacchino Rossini," in Ros- siniana (Bologna, 1942), pp. 37-39. The six sonatas are edited in vol. I (Pesaro, 1954) of the Quaderni rossiniani.

parts identified as the overture of L'equivoco stravagante (Bologna, 1811), to be discussed be- low; a faithful copy, dated, "in Ravenna 1813," of the overture to La scala di seta (Venice 1812); three numbers from L'equivoco stravagante, to which sacred texts have been added by "Sig:r Giuseppe Forlivesi" of Ravenna;19 and most importantly, manuscript copies of two previously unknown overtures ascribed to Rossini, both of which Fabbri accepts as authentic. We shall test these attributions here employing the techniques developed above.

The Sinfonia in D "al Conventello" is the simpler case. Conventello was a country home near Ravenna owned by Triossi, probably the one referred to in Rossini's inscription on the six sonatas. The frontispiece of the manuscript reads: "Sinfonia / Scritta al Conventello [erased word] per il Sig.r Agostino Triossi /Del Sig.r Maestro Gioachino Russini [sic]." This asso- ciation with Triossi and Conventello is itself suggestive, though the manuscript is sloppily copied. A "Violoncello obbligato" part, for example, is a measure off for much of the overture; when it straightens out, the bass line races a measure ahead. But the reliability of the copy is not our primary concern; these errors are obvious and easily corrected. The central issue is whether the circumstantial evidence of the piece's provenance and non-autograph identification can be supported stylistically.

An external relationship is immediately striking: the first theme of the quick main section, Allegro, of the Sinfonia in D "al Conven- tello" was reused practically without change as the corresponding theme in II signor Brus- chino. Rossini similarly reused a theme from the previously known Sinfonia in D (1808) in an early opera overture, and adopted his Sinfonia in Eb (1809), with some changes, for La cambiale di matrimonio (1810).20 As no later ties between Rossini and Triossi are known, the

'9Fabbri identifies Forlivesi as a tenor who ran a singing school in Ravenna around 1812. Since Rossini's opera was not revived later, these manuscripts are presumably not much later than 1812. 2OFabbri claims that several other themes are related to ideas in the orchestral introduction to II pianto d'Ar- monia, but these are more generic relationships, neither direct nor even indirect citations.

24


^trtfl^~ifm^id^ llL r !

t rtOfl -rI1If I Ic I

v1 solo cellotf f f I

solo cello

Example 20

Sinfonia "al Conventello," if it is by Rossini, should precede the overture to II signor Brus- chino. This is borne out by the formal structure of the newly discovered overture.

The Sinfonia "al Conventello" shares many significant characteristics with the earliest Rossini overtures. Its slow introduction only hints at a lyrical period. The first theme, later quoted in II signor Bruschino, is followed by a transition (ex. 20a) which fails to modulate properly. Its opening four-measure phrase could easily have been developed into an archetypical transition, but in fact it seesaws twice from I to V to I, then struggles pointlessly to reach A major as V, its very point of depar- ture. This ability to define musical ideas but lack of control over their direction is a mark of the young Rossini. Peculiarly, it is the second, lyrical theme that provides the modulation. A first phrase, played by solo cello (ex. 20b), closes on the dominant; it is repeated by the first violin, now modulating finally to A major. Though Rossini characteristically highlights solo winds in the second group, here the cello emerges as soloist instead, perhaps played by one of Triossi's friends or even by "the least terrible" of the string players, Gioacchino Ros- sini. The non-modulating transition is repeated almost intact in the new key, making way for a repetition of the second theme, now given in

the dominant, A major, without an internal modulation. The transition recurs, finally with a tonal function as it leads back to D major for the recapitulation of the first theme. The opening measures of the transition are heard yet again, in the tonic, but cadences immediately ensue and the Sinfonia "al Conventello" comes to a close.

A transition within the quick main section which fails to modulate; a second theme first heard in the tonic, and only then in the dominant, but never recapitulated in the tonic; the absence of a crescendo: we recognize every one of these divergencies from the archetype. The Sinfonia in D "al Conventello" shares them with Demetrio e Polibio and the Sinfonia in Eb (La cambiale di matrimonio). It is charming, slight work, but there can be little question about its authenticity. Externally and internally the piece proves itself a significant addition to the canon of Rossini juvenilia. Sinfonia in D "obbligata a contrabasso." The apparent authenticity of the Sinfonia "al Con- ventello" should augur well for the other new overture, whose manuscript occurs in the same collection. But its title page has no specific link with Tirossi: "Sinfonia / Del Sig. Maestro Ros- sini / obbligata a Contrabasso." Nor does its first page, where the title is: "Grand' Overtura

25

a.

19TH obbligata / a Contrabasso," with the last word MUSIC erased.21 None of its themes recur in other

Rossini compositions, and as we examine the overture more closely many other doubts emerge.

The disposition of the instruments in the manuscript and the orchestration as well are unusual for Rossini. In his mature works, after ca. 1812, Rossini consistently laid out his autographs with violins on top followed by violas. Winds came next-flutes, oboes, clarinets, then horns, trumpets, bassoons, trombones, timpani, violoncellos, and contrabass. Among Rossini's earlier works, a variant is sometimes found: violas are grouped with the bass instruments near the bottom of the score, rather than appearing after the violins at the top. This is the arrangement in the autograph of II pianto d'Armonia (1808), for example, and in the copy of the Sinfonia "al Conventello" discussed above. No work by Rossini to our knowledge, however, is laid out as is the Sinfonia "obbligata a contrabasso," with staves assigned, from the top down, to corni, flauto, oboS, clarinetti, violini [I and II], viole, fagotto, trombone, violoncello, and basso. Placing the violins in the middle of the score is contrary to Rossini's practice.

Equally puzzling is the presence of the trombone, for Rossini does not use trombones in any other early overture. Indeed, trombones first unequivocally appear among Rossini's overtures in II Turco in Italia (1814). What is more, there are no trumpets in the score, and nowhere else does Rossini fail to use trumpets in a piece containing a part for trombone. Still, it is possible that a copyist reversed the order of instruments from that of the autograph or was assembling the score from parts, just as Rossini may have been writing for a certain body of available musicians. We cannot, in short, rely too heavily on evidence of this type.

The structure of this overture follows a more traditional outline than the very earliest Rossini overtures. According to Fabbri, "Be- cause of its shape, which conforms more to

21The "obbligata a Contrabasso" is really a misnomer. There are solos for the bass in this overture, but the contrabass are always combined with violoncellos and bassoon.

classical rules and models, one can assign this overture to Rossini's years of Bolognese contrapuntal study (1807-10)... ." The overture begins with a plausible slow introduction, whose opening phrase differentiates a loud tutti from a softer continuation, mixing strings and winds. Its varied repetition proceeds force- fully to the dominant, where a standard Ros- sinian prolongation-repeated one-measure phrases decreasing in volume and generally shifting downward in register-concludes the introduction on V. The absence of a lyrical theme marks this overture, should it be by Rossini, as early.

The opening theme of the quick main section, while free of the standard scalar figuration so common in Rossini overtures, is certainly well within Rossini's style (ex. 21); its similar- ity to the stretta of the first-act Finale in II barbiere di Siviglia is palpable evidence. A single period of thirty-two measures, its sixteen- measure antecedent is played by the first violins, accompanied by lower strings, moving to V; in the consequent, which returns to I, the melody occurs in violoncellos, contrabass, and bassoon, with piquant interjections from the winds between phrases. The most unusual aspect of this theme, however, is the contrapuntal play in the third phrase of both halves. Though the phrase is neither elaborate nor entirely felicitous (violas and first violins approach their fourth awkwardly in similar motion, with the larger leap on top), we do not normally expect to find such passages in a Ros- sinian first theme.

Both for its familiar basic material and its failure to employ it according to the archetype, the transition is thoroughly in the Rossinian manner for his early period. As in the Sinfonia "al Conventello," the music seesaws twice from I to V and back, exhausting its potential before exploiting it (ex. 22). Horns pick up the F#, transforming it to the root of F# major. From there the music shifts sequentially, before coming to rest on E major as V of V, whose prolongation is thoroughly standard. The final approach to the new tonic features solo winds in turn (oboe, then flute, finally clarinet).

This emphasis on winds at the end of the transition leads naturally to a second theme begun by strings alone. The theme is unusually

26

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I

r -- piano assai

g fl^ LJ ii J ;Ja ii J - F -" t r r" fr1r r, -,.'

."r. ~p' fr p r,

Example 21

iff rtassai f assai F; ;F

yt* r$"+ rrrr '


Example 22

fi..

ir r rt . r r i rr . r X clar. Theme fl ~ Theme

^-rr rnF-r^rt fr r7r-rt r r

s:$" j ^ /^?^ t)ii . /11~: * a

There is no crescendo. Instead the music proceeds directly to cadences. A standard cadential phrase opens the section, based on the opening phrase of the second theme, but it is varied on its repetition. The opening forte becomes piano and the initial A major becomes A minor, though both the original dynamic level and modality are restored at the end of this varied repeat. Additional cadences close the exposition. A first violin solo, constructed from fragments of the second theme, leads back to the tonic and to the recapitulation. Most of this is perfectly compatible with a stylistic attribution to Rossini, particularly in his early years.

The opening of the recapitulation is ab- breviated: only the consequent of the opening theme is played, nor is it allowed to finish. In- stead, it moves abruptly to the transition (using a V-VI progression), which consequently opens in B major. Here the transition phrase behaves the way a mature Rossinian transition phrase should, proceeding in four-measure units from B major, to E minor, to D7, to G major, and finally to A major as V. The prolongation follows the exposition as does the second theme, played twice in the tonic. The orchestration centers both times on the winds, and counterpoints pop up throughout the instruments, encouraged by the simplistic tonic-dominant harmonies which underlie the entire section. The very last chord, however, is unexpectedly D minor, rather than D major. Instead of the opening cadential phrase, we hear its modified repetition, beginning in minor and closing in major. This in turn appears to lead to the D-major version; but just as we are settling down for the remainder of the cadences, the first violins are abandoned to play a descending chromatic line. The strings softly pause on a dominant chord, and then there is silence.

Something momentous is obviously being prepared. A low D sounds in the violoncellos alone. As it continues the horns begin the second theme as the violas and bassoon simultaneously embrace the first theme in counterpoint-bad counterpoint, with parallel octaves and improperly resolving dissonances (ex. 24). In particular, the coordination of the

themes harmonically is poor: the E minor implications of the first theme are swallowed in the A7 implications of the second, leaving the former's B homeless. After eight measures, the passage is repeated three more times in crescendo. The full orchestral resources are employed, the register is filled out, there is increased rhythmic activity in the accompanying parts as the crescendo proceeds: all earmarks of the archetypical Rossini crescendo. In this passage the contrapuntal leanings present throughout the overture find their apotheosis. When tutta forza is reached, twelve new cadential measures ensue, to be followed by an appearance in the tonic of the cadential passage that concluded the exposition. With a few additional measures on the tonic, the overture ends.

Were this Sinfonia "obbligata a contrabasso" supposed to be a mature work of Rossini's, one could easily disallow it. But as a youthful work, despite its many admitted differences from other early overtures, it is harder to exclude, since so many aspects are similar to Rossini's practice. The extensive attempt to incorporate contrapuntal activity within the work, a practice not normally associated with Rossini, is fundamental to the essence of this overture. It causes directly many of the more peculiar aspects of the piece: the melodic nature of its first theme, the structure of its second theme, the function of its coda with crescendo. Can we account for a piece of this kind in Rossini's early career?

One of the most reliable of contemporary biographies of Rossini is by Alexis Azevedo, published in Paris in 1864. Azevedo, music critic and journalist, was a close friend and fa- natical supporter of Rossini. Even a friendly Italian critic, Filippo Filippi, recognized in Azevedo "an admirer, even too exclusively so, of the Pesarese."22 The French critic and musicologist Arthur Pougin is much more vi- tuperative: "passionate to an excess, he recognized only a single genre of music, remained completely deaf to the beauties found in works

22Cited in Radiciotti, op. cit., II, 469.

28

19TH CENTURY

MUSIC

hns.

cello sotto voce bsn

rrr rrrr rrrr rrrrrrrrr rrrr rr rr vlc. Example 24

not coming from the Italian school, and considered enemies all those who did not think as he did." Pougin goes on to accuse Azevedo of "irrational adoration of Rossini, whose youthful trifles he considered of equal worth with Guillaume Tell or the Barber."23 Azevedo's biography of Rossini has many errors, to be sure, but its author was clearly in contact with Rossini while writing it. His commentary is consequently always of some value.

Azevedo is quite accurate on the subject of Rossini's relations to Triossi and Ravenna. He mentions the sonatas written for Triossi, correctly refers to the latter as an amateur on the contrabass, and speaks of the Mass for Ravenna and Triossi's part in its commission. Presum- ably this information came directly from the composer. In discussing Rossini's years at the Liceo Musicale of Bologna, Azevedo recalls Rossini's fascination with the music of Haydn and Mozart, going on to say that Padre Mattei, his teacher, called Rossini "il Tedeschino." Azevedo also speaks of Rossini's lack of real interest in advanced contrapuntal studies, which he considered of little relevance to Ital- ian opera.

Among Rossini's early compositions Azevedo mentions a "Symphonie d grand or- chestre," explaining that this refers in Italian to an overture. He describes it as "an overture with fugue, written by the young composer in imitation of that of Mozart's The Magic Flute, whose beauty had struck him.... In any event, Rossini, after having had his sinfonia, that is,

23Pougin's article is found in F. J. Fetis, Biographie univer- selle des musiciens, Supplement et Complement, published under the direction of Arthur Pougin (Paris, 1878), I, 34-35.


his overture, performed by his fellow students at the Conservatory, found it so poor that he ripped it up on the spot."24 An overture with fugue. A fascinating idea, one unlike any known work by Rossini from these years. Might this composition, the overture Rossini thought he had destroyed, be the Sinfonia "obbligata a contrabasso"? Though it is hard to see much influence from The Magic Flute, the piece is certainly more contrapuntal in conception than any other by Rossini, the counterpoint smacking of schoolboy efforts, only partially learned and half-heartedly be- lieved in.

We cannot be certain, and may never be so unless other sources emerge. We can tenta- tively assert that the Sinfonia "obbligata a contrabasso" has enough points of agreement with the early overtures of Rossini that it may be considered a work written specifically under the influence of contrapuntal studies underta- ken by him at the Liceo Musicale of Bologna, perhaps in 1809 or 1810. If this assumption is correct,

The Overtures of Rossini

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