Pierluigi Petrobelli - On Dante and Italian Music Three Moments

On Dante and Italian Music: Three Moments
Author(s): Pierluigi Petrobelli

Source: Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Nov., 1990), pp. 219-249
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/823685 .
Accessed: 13/06/2014 05:00
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cambridge
Opera Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
CambridgeOperaJournal,2, 3, 219-49
On Dante and Italian music:

Three moments
PIERLUIGI PETROBELLI
We publish here, in slightly altered versions, three lectures given by Pierluigi

Petrobelli in Autumn 1988 as Chair of Italian Culture at the University of
California, Berkeley. The terms of the Chair, established in 1928, state that
the person entrusted with the post should 'lecturein illustrationand interpretation
of Italian culture'.
Introduction
When my friends and colleagues in both the Music and Italian Departments
of the University of California, Berkeley, gave me the great and undeserved
honour of inviting me to take up the Chair of Italian Culture for the Fall term
of 1988, I thought it my duty to choose for my lectures a topic that would
interest both fields and, at the same time, one through which I could present
some ideas based on my experience both as a scholar and a teacher. The subject
of Dante and Italian music came immediately to mind, almost as a logical conse-
quence of the criteria I had set myself. Italian composers turn to Dante's poetry
only at specific moments in history, and for different yet clearly discernible
reasons. It so happens that my interests as a musicologist coincide with those
composers, those moments, those reasons.
There are, in my opinion, two main trends in Italian music; or, to put it
more precisely, two different Italian attitudes towards music throughout history.
Although these two trends may co-exist in the same period and in the same
composer, sometimes one or the other will characterise the output of a single
historical figure or a single moment in music history. One trend is clearly dis-
cernible through its serene, vivacious, spirited quality; the music it produces
is almost never accompanied by prose writings, and is rarely written about.
It is music which seems almost to be the manifestation of a vital act: a combination
of what the Germans call 'Heiterkeit' and what Italo Calvino, in Six Memos
for the Next Millennium, those final lectures he had prepared for the Norton
Chair at Harvard and which death prevented him from delivering, calls 'legge-
rezza', lightness.1 I have in mind - to give just a few clarifying examples -
Italo Calvino, Lezioniamericane - Seiproposteper ilprossimo millennio (Milan, 1988);

trans. Patrick Cleagh as Six Memosfor the Next Millennium (Cambridge, Mass., 1988).

220 PierluigiPetrobelli
the Renaissancecanzonetta,the music of Domenico Scarlatti,GioachinoRos-

sini, GoffredoPetrassior LucianoBerio.
The other trend is characterisedby 'seriousness',commitment,the involve-
ment of the composerwith manandhumanpassions,with the eternalproblems
and questions which man asks himself, and to which no objectiveanswer is
possible. Often the composers who belong to this trend express themselves
verballyin lucid prose, sometimeseven in a kind of manifesto.The artistsI
like to place in this categorysee themselvesas activeand responsiblemembers
of society; they see their art as a meansby which to propose and then project
a programme,an artisticcredo. It is this trend to which Monteverdi,Verdi
and Dallapiccolabelong; and it is this type of artistwho turns, and sometimes
returnstime andagain,to Dante.
As mentioned a moment ago, it is quite possible for the same artist, or the
same historical period, to produce works which belong to both categories. But
what is important is that the trend characterises, identifies, distinguishes the
artist, or the period, from others. To return to the composers of my first group,
there are sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti which are certainly 'serious', indeed
of unmatched melancholy; Gioachino Rossini is the author not only of II bar-
biere di Siviglia and Cenerentola, but also of Guillaume Tell and - especially
- of Mose in Egitto and the Petite messe solennelle. Goffredo Petrassi wrote
eight Concerti per orchestra, the Serenata for five performers and the opera
II cordovano, pieces whose 'leggerezza' is beyond question. Yet works like
the cantata Noche oscura, written for chorus and orchestra on a text by San
Juan de la Cruz, or 'Beatitudines' - Testimonianza per Martin Luther King,
are no less significant or relevant in Petrassi's entire opus; and they are unques-
tionably 'committed' pieces.
To turn to the other category of composers, the ones I identified as 'serious',
Monteverdi wrote not only Orfeo and II combattimento di Tancredie Clorinda,
but also 'Ecco mormorar l'onde' from the Second Book of Madrigals, 'Si ch'io
vorrei morire' from the Fourth, and delightfully light pieces such as 'Chiome
d'oro' from the Seventh Book. No artist has been so 'light' in sketching a char-
acter as Verdi when he created Nannetta and Fenton, the two young lovers
of his last masterpiece, Falstaff. Dallapiccola is the composer not only of the
Canti di prigionia and IIprigioniero, but also of the Liriche greche; and, what
is more, he wrote the Liriche in the same period and under the same historical
circumstances as those which determined the other two pieces. The transparent
idiom of the Liriche is equally germane to Dallapiccola's nature as is the language
of Ulisse, Sicut umbra and his last work, Commiato. Yet the spiritual character
of each composer, the way he places himself before the world and before art,
and especially the way in which he manifests, realises and organises this attitude
in the language of his compositions, can be defined only within the terms which
identify each trend, 'lightness' and 'seriousness' respectively.
Calvino's Harvard lectures again come to mind, and especially that point
in the first lecture when he compares two lines of poetry, one by Guido Caval-
canti and the other by Dante. The same image, that of snow falling on a windless

On Dante andItalianmusic 221
day, is expressedin two completelydifferentways. Cavalcanti'sline is:

e biancanevescendersenzaventi
andDante's:
comedi nevein alpesenzavento.
Calvinosays:
Thetwolinesarealmostidentical,buttheyexpresstwocompletely differentconceptions.
In both, the snow on windlessdays suggestsa light, silentmoment.But herethe
resemblance ends, and the differencebegins.In Dantethe line is dominatedby the
specificationof theplace('inalpe'),whichrecallsa mountainous landscape. In Caval-
canti, on the other the
hand, adjective -
'bianca' which may seem -
pleonastic together
withtheverb'scendere' (to fall)- againcompletely predictable- dissolvethelandscape
intoanatmosphere of suspended abstraction.Butit is chieflythefirstwordthatdeter-
minesthe differencebetweenthe two lines. In Cavalcanti the conjunction'e' (and)
puts the snow on the same level as the other visionsthat precedeandfollow it in
the sonnet:a seriesof imageslike a catalogueof the beautiesof the world.In Dante
the adverb'come'(as)enclosestheentirescenein theframeof a metaphor,butwithin
this frameit has a concreterealityof its own. No less concreteanddramaticis the
landscapeof hell undera rainof fire, whichhe illustrates by the simileof the snow.
In Cavalcanti everything movesso swiftlythatwe areunaware of its consistency,only
of its effects.In Danteeverythingacquiresconsistencyandstability:the weightof
thingsis preciselyestablished. Evenwhenhe is speakingof lightthings,Danteseems
to wantto rendertheexactweightof thelightness:'comedinevein alpesenzavento'.2
It is this kind of differencethat I am trying to convey when I discuss the

two trendsin Italianmusic.WhatCalvinoadmirablystressesis thatthe difference
in attitudeand conceptionmarksandproducesa differenceat the stylisticlevel;
in other words, differentculturalstancesdetermineandproducedifferentways
of organisinglanguage,and thereforealso musicallanguage;and it is in this
organisationthatthe basicdifferencebetweenthe two trendslies.
One last generalpoint. It is significantthat, in orderto explaina difference
between two ways of conceiving music, I can find no better approachthan
to refer to a literarycomparison,one fashionedby a greatliteraryman. This
is due, I think, to the profound connection between Italian music, even at
its most 'instrumental',and the peculiaritiesof the Italianlanguageand the
history of its literature.Throughoutits history, Italianmusic has changedor
developedits languagein connectionwith literaryattitudesand events: some-
times in accordancewith them and at the same time, sometimesin contrast,
andsometimesat a temporaldistance;but the connectionhas alwaysremained.
2
Calvino, Six Memos, 14-15 (translation slightly modified).

1 Monteverdiand Orfeo
Whereas Petrarch's texts are at the centre of Renaissance music from the very
beginning of the period, Dante comes into the picture only at the very end.
Significantly, composers of madrigals turned to Dante only when they wanted
texts that contained harsh, crude, conflicting images. Moreover, these composers
were few in number. Given the sense of competition that surrounded settings
of the same poetic text during the Renaissance, it is symptomatic that two
tercets from the third canto of Inferno:
Quivi sospiri,piantied altiguai
risonavanperl'aeresanzastelle,
per ch'io al cominciarne lacrimai.
Diverselingue,orribilifavelle,
paroledi dolore, accentid'ira,
voci altee fioche, e suon di mancon elle (III.22-7)
[Theresighs, lamentationsand loud wailings/ resoundedthroughthe starlessair, /
so that at first it made me weep. / Strangetongues, horriblelanguages,/ words of
pain, tones of anger,/ voicesloud andhoarse,andwith thesethe soundof hands]
were set to music no less than seven times in the space of only eight years
between 1576 and 1584.3 Rather than any precise poetic meaning, what most
interested these composers were (as mentioned earlier) Dante's crude, violent
images. Notice that the two tercets contain no supporting verb: the verb is
found at the start of the next tercet, 'facevano un tumulto, il qual s'aggira',
and this line was never included in the various settings.
Luca Marenzio turned to Dante only once, and he chose among the Rime
a text of similar characterfor the madrigalwhich opens his ninth book of 'madri-
gali a cinque' (1599): 'Cosi nel mio parlar vogl'esser aspro'. In 1604 Claudio
Merulo took the opening of the last canto of Paradiso, 'Vergine madre, figlia
del tuo figlio', for a madrigal in his second book 'a cinque voci'. With a few
other insignificant items, this is the meagre anthology of Dante's texts in the
entire madrigal repertory.
During that same period in which 'Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai' enjoyed
such popularity among the madrigalisti, Vincenzo Galilei, Galileo's father, did
not hesitate to turn in 1581 to the last canto of Inferno for a text of extraordinary
expressive power, using Count Ugolino's lament as a test for his theories and
ideas on solo singing, modelled after what he thought was Greek monody.
Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately - the piece is lost. It is, in any case,
the only text by Dante we know to have been chosen by the experimental
monodists at the turn of the century.
3 By suchcomposersas LuzzascoLuzzaschiandGiulioRenaldi(1576),GiovanniBattista
Mosto (1578),LambertCourteys(1580),DomenicoMicheliandFrancescoSoriano(1581),
PietroVinci(1584);see EmilVogel, AlfredEinstein,ClaudioSartoriandFrancoisLesure,
Ilnuovo Vogel (Lamezia, 1983), 652, 1526, 1845, 1977, 2333, 2621, 2922. On Dante
and Renaissance composers, see the excellent essay by Francesco Degrada, 'Dante e la
musica del Cinquecento', Chigiana, 22, new ser. 2 (1965), 257-75.

The presenceof a line fromthe Divine Comedyin the librettoof Monteverdi's

Orfeo, firstperformedin Mantuain 1607,thuscomesas somethingof a surprise.
It occurs at the beginningof the third act when Orfeo, who is trying to rescue
his beloved Euridicefrom the Kingdom of Death, is guided by La Speranza
(Hope) to the entranceof the Underworld.La Speranza,however, cannotlead
him beyond the Gates of Hell, since on it is writtenthe Danteanline 'Lasciate
ogni speranza,voi ch'entrate'(Abandon all hope, ye who enter here). The
presenceof this quotation has long been recognised.Yet the entire scene of
Orfeo's arrivalin the underworldis, in my opinion, heavily influenced by
Dante'spoetry, and especiallyby the thirdcantoof Inferno.It is not by chance
that from this very canto comes 'Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai', the lines
of the Divine Comedyset to musicby all those madrigalcomposers.
'Lasciateogni speranza,voi ch'entrate'is not the only literalquotationfrom
the third canto. Its opening line, 'Per me si va nella citta dolente', is clearly
echoed by La Speranzain line 26 of the libretto, 'di porre il pie nella citta
dolente', and her descriptionof Charon, 'che traegl'ignudispirti a l'altrariva'
(line 13), is modelled on the line pronouncedby Charon himself in Dante:
'I' vegno per menarvia l'altrariva' (III.86). These are direct borrowings.But
the influenceof Dante andhis Divine Comedygoes further.The personification
of Hope, who leads Orfeo to the Gates of Hell but not beyond it, resembles
the figure of Virgil, who guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory,but no
further. The same dismay which strikes Dante when Virgil disappearsat the
top of Mount Purgatorypervadesthe lamentof Orfeo when La Speranzaleaves
him. And Charon'sspeech to the 'mitico cantore'(mythicalsinger)as Orfeo
standsbefore him, 'O tu che innanzimorte a queste rive' (line 37), is a broad
paraphraseof Dante's 'E tu che se' costi, animaviva' (III.88) and 'Piu lieve
legno convien che ti porti' (III.93). I could continuewith these comparisons,
but prefermerelyto statethatthe entiretext of OrfeoAct III is stronglyreminis-
cent of Dante'spoetry, and especiallyof the thirdcanto of Inferno:in rhymes,
images,poetic rhythmandvocabulary.
As is well known, the Orfeo libretto was written by AlessandroStriggio
the younger, who in 1607 was in active service at the Mantuancourt, and
was soon (in June 1611)to becomesecretaryto Duke VincenzoI, Monteverdi's
patron. Striggio'sfather, AlessandroStriggiothe elder, was a composer and
performerof unusual skill: during the 1560s, he was the principalcomposer
at the Medici court in Florence, where he composed music for the intermedi
and the other solemn state occasions which punctuatedCosimo I's last years
in power. The younger Striggio,born in 1573, was certainlyeducatedin Flor-
ence: his fatherdid not leave that court before 1584, and he was a viol player
in the festivities for the wedding of Ferdinandode' Medici and Christineof
Lorrainein 1589. More than this, duringthe 1570s the elder Striggiobecame
acquaintedwith Vincenzo Galilei, whose treatiseon flute playing, II Fronimo,
is the uniquesourcefor one of Striggio'scompositions.4
4 SeeIainFenlon'sentryon the elderStriggioin TheNew GroveDictionaryof Musicand
Musicians,ed. StanleySadie(London,1980),XVIII,271-4.

There is, in short, no reason to question a connection between the author

of the Orfeo librettoand the Florentinemusicaland culturalmilieuwhich had
shown such clearinterestin setting to music partsof the Divine Comedy. On
the other hand, the city and court of Mantua also had some relevance in the
textual history of the Divine Comedy, since Mantua could - together with
Foligno and Jesi - boast of being the place where, in 1472, the first editions
of Dante's poem were printed. The Mantua edition, printed by two Germans,
Giorgio and Paolo da Butzbach, was edited by Colombino da Verona and dedi-
cated to Filippo Nuvoloni, both important figures at the Gonzaga court at
the end of the century. As the great Renaissance scholar Carlo Dionisotti says:
'The Mantua edition of the Divine Comedy clearly represents the turning point
at which, in Mantua as well as in other courts, humanistic culture came to
terms with the Tuscan trecento tradition, and began to produce, in the new
language [i.e., in Italian], a new court literature.'5(One last point about Mantua:
Luca Marenzio's ninth book of madrigals, which - as mentioned earlier- opens
with a setting of Dante's canzone, 'Cosi nel mio parlar vogl'esser aspro', is
dedicated to Vincenzo Gonzaga, the prince at whose command and in whose
court Orfeo was written and performed.)
We can now turn to the score of Orfeo. Monteverdi set both Orfeo's opening
address to La Speranza, and her reply (which contains the Dante quotation
'Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate'), in a compact, powerful recitative style
in which, significantly, the quotation from the poem is sung twice, the second
time a tone higher than the first and with an even stronger emphasis on its
declamation (see Ex. 1).
Ex. 1
Speranza
^ ,J J J i,jijii J C-r rr j i
< :~la - scia - te o-gnispe-ran - za voi ch'en-tra - te.
(':br ?' ? J IJ j o
h?f I
'
SPip. '~ rrr r r

S.< ~ La - scia - teo-gnispe-ran - - za voi ch'en - tra -te.
( J-- I LU. ri - J I! 1 .. 1
Ex. 1
Charon tries to turn back the daring and bold human who, although still
5 G. Savinio, 'Fortuna' [of the Divine Comedy], in the entry on 'Mantova', Enciclopedia
dantesca (Rome, 1971), III, 812-13.

alive, wishes to cross the dead waters of Acheron, the infernal river. Orfeo
must convince Charon, who threateningly bars the way, to take him by boat
across the river of Hell, so that he can reach Pluto's realm and his beloved
Euridice.
Orfeo has only one means at his disposal with which to win over Charon:
his voice and his art, Music. After Charon's stern speech, built on recurring
melodic fragments, and after the instrumental interlude, Orfeo begins his great
aria 'Possente spirto, e formidabil nume'. Placed at the centre of the third act
- which is in turn the central part of this five-act 'favola in musica' - this aria
is the longest and most important set piece of the entire score. It is the supreme
moment in which the mythical singer must, with his art and only with his
art, overcome the immutable rules that govern life and death. And here occurs
the last and, in my opinion, the most significant influence of Dante's poem.
Striggio's metre for Orfeo's aria is the 'terzina di endecasillabi', the eleven-
syllable-line tercet which is the metre of the Divine Comedy. Monteverdi, who
asserted that 'l'oratione sia padrona dell'armonia, e non serva' (speech should
be the master of music, and not its servant), here respects not so much the
expressive meaning of the text, but rather its articulation. Instead of following
its logical sense and syntactical construction, Monteverdi articulates the setting
according to the structure, and only the structure, of the poetic text. After
each tercet, sung by Orfeo in the most elaborate virtuoso style (a magnificent
yet dramatically functional display of diminution technique - the art of embel-
lishing a melodic line), a set of two instruments, playing first in echo and then
in parallel thirds, marks the end of each tercet and the beginning of the next.
The instruments change at each interlude, or 'Ritornello': first come violins,
then cornets, then 'arpa dopia' (on which two echoing and parallel parts are
played by the same instrumentalist), and finally a trio of two violins and 'basso
da brazzo' as Orfeo introduces himself to Charon and explains the reasons
for his request:
Orfeo son io, che d'Euridicei passi

segueperquestetenebrosearene
ove giammaiperuom mortalnon vassi.
[I am Orpheus, who follows the steps of Eurydice/ throughthese gloomy plains /

to whichmortalmanneverhasaccess.]
The instrumental colour, whose changes are scanned by the poetical structure,
enhances and strengthens Orfeo's virtuoso vocal performance. No richer or
more varied display of musical means could realise so vigorously, and in such
purely dramatic terms, the power of music. Through this peculiar device, the
instruments and the human voice are placed at the same functional level; and
they have one and the same function, that of moving the inflexible guardian
of Hell.
The last tercet of Orfeo's aria, however, has no concluding instrumentalrefrain
and, even more important, is not to be sung in an elaborate virtuoso style,

as the previousstanzaswere. All this has a precise,twofold dramaticpurpose.

In this lasttercet,
Oh, dele lucimieluciserene,
s'un vostrosguardopu6 tornarmiin vita,
ahi, chi mi niegail confortoa le mie pene?
[O serene lights of my eyes, / if just one glance from you can restoreme to life, /
ah, who candeny me this comfortto my torment?]
Orfeo forgets for a moment that he is addressingCharon and, taken up by
the name 'Euridice' that he has just sung in the previous tercet, directs his
speech to her, and especially to her eyes. The parenthetical exclamation
addressed to the image of his beloved needs no elaborate ornamentation since
it is - to use Monteverdi's terms - more 'oratione' than 'armonia'. At the same
time, however, placed as it is before the final plea to Charon, this section of
the aria has the function - through the very simplicity of its style - of reinforcing
its stylistic difference both from what precedes and follows it. The rhetorical
question at the end of the tercet, 'chi mi niega il conforto a le mie pene?' (sung
twice in the musical setting), can be answered only by Charon, to whom Orfeo
now turns again, calling him, with obvious exaggeration, 'nobile Dio' (noble
God).
The last stanza of Orfeo's speech is not a tercet but a quatrain. This difference
in metre has a specific function: coming at the end of this address by the 'mitico
cantore' to the boatman of Hell, it is quite literally a 'peroration', the concluding
section in which the orator directly addresses the audience in order to move
them and win them over. Here Monteverdi again changes vocal style and accom-
paniment: no more virtuoso singing and display of instrumental colours and
sonorities between one stanza and the next; and no more plain recitative, as
in the tercet addressed to Euridice. Instead there is clear, solemn declamation
sustained and supported by the homogeneous instrumental colour of a group
of strings, 'tre Viole da brazzo et un contrabbasso di Viola tocchi pian piano':
the best possible consort to enhance the power of speech (see Ex.2).
It is surely no mere coincidence that, at the dramatic climax of his first opera,
at the moment in which Orfeo - emblematic personification of the artist-
musician - displays the full resources of his art, Monteverdi, the 'creator of
modern music',6 turned to Dante, and to the structure of his Divine Comedy.
In different, sometimes undetectable ways, great artists at the culminating point
of their careers turn, or return, instinctively to the most profound roots of
the civilisation to which they belong, and of which they are an expression.
It is one of the few blessings of our time that masterpieces such as Monteverdi's
Orfeo have recently become part of our daily musical experience at the inter-
national level: witness the host of recordings that continue to appear on the
market. Yet only by referring to the cultural idiom to which Orfeo belongs
6 The termis Leo Schrade's,andcomesfromhis Monteverdi:Creatorof ModernMusic
(New York, 1950).

On Dante and Italian music 227
Ex. 2
0
6. -O - . j , a.
A
fb( o o o Jdd
t.. J
'0 0 0 oi J J
Orfeo
f J tu? I- . j Jl - I
Sol
I noJ - bi - le Dio puoi dar - mia - i - ta
rb( * t O O 0
?00 r
L 1
b.. o_ fr ' ?
-Sp " o $ J J
: oNe jJ J
Orf.
=b aJ _j ! JSSSUI j J J | Ip f r ii
Ne te - mer dei chesopr'u - n'au - rea ce - tra Sol di cor - de so-
9b ?
I ?
1 o fr I
o
(continues)

"I rr i " i0 b
"'-I
=^^J ? Ii J 0 J 0 J
Orf. Xb ?I fr41 0 iJ J
- a - vi ar - mo le di - ta Con - tra cui ri- gi-
-9:b |jJ J ? o o t1 I
_ , -- "
e J J J
?
0
b
0 J JJ d
Orf.
-d'al - ma in- van s'im- pe - tra.
-b - jJ. IJ Io I1
Ex. 2

can we understandits truest and most authenticmeaning.As with every great

work of art, numberlessculturaltrendsconcurto make Orfeo a uniqueartistic
achievement:a profound knowledge of poetic structuretogetherwith perfect
timing of musicaleffects;the skilful use of rhetoricaldevicestogetherwith an
infallible sense of dramaticpacing. Orfeo inauguratesmusical theatre as we
understandthe term today; it is the piece with which the history of opera
reallybegins.And, at its core, we can see beckoningthe lightof Dante'spoetry:
the clearestindicationof the line along which we must read and understand
Monteverdi'sart.
2 From Rossini to Verdi

During the seventeenthand eighteenthcenturiesDante was almost forgotten
amongItalianmen of letters, let alone amongmusicians.Interestin his poetry
re-emergedat the beginningof the nineteenthcentury, when a radicalchange
in taste took place in all artistic fields and a new concept of history began
to develop. Fromthis perioddatesthe firstimportantessayon Dante in Italian,
and - not by chance - it comes from a great poet, Ugo Foscolo.7 Opera
composers and their librettistsalso turned occasionallyto Dante, albeit only
on specialoccasionsandfor particularreasons.
The most outstandingexampleof a quotationfrom the Divine Comedy in
earlynineteenth-centuryoperais the gondolier'ssong in the thirdactof Rossini's
Otello (1816). Unlike Shakespeare'splay and Verdi'sopera, the actionof Ros-
sini's work takes place entirely in Venice. In the last act, Desdemonaawaits
Otello in the bridalchamberand, oppressedby sadnessand premonitionsof
her fate, sings the 'Willow Song'. Before the song, an off-stagesolo is heard:
that of a gondolier who gives voice to Desdemona'sfeelings with a melody
of strange,fascinatingcontour.This melody is sungto lines fromthe fifth canto
of Inferno, from the episodedevotedto Francescada Rimini:'Nessun maggior
dolore / che ricordarsidel tempo felice / nella miseria'(There is no greater
sorrowthanto recallhappytimesin misery).
Withthe gondolier'ssong, Rossini'slibrettist,FrancescoBeriodi Salsa,intro-
ducedinto theplot a typicalVenetianfolk traditionwhichwas almostcompletely
forgottenby the timethe operawas composed.Duringsummernights,Venetian
boatmenwould sing to a sort of recitationtune the octavesof Tasso's Gerusa-
lemmeliberatatranslatedinto Venetiandialect.And they would sing in respon-
sorialstyle, one versesung by one manwith anothermanreplyingat a distance,
continuing the singing of the octave. The melody has come down to us in
various 'editions': different versions which attempt to transcribeits flexible
rhythm and melodic movement into modern notation. Rousseauprinted one
in Consolationsdes miseresde ma vie ou Recueild'Airs,Romanceset Duos.8
But before that, Tartinihad included the 'Tasso' or 'Aria del Tasso' melody
in his sonatasfor solo violin, which have come down to us only in manuscript;
7
Ugo Foscolo, Discorso sul testo delpoema di Dante (London, 1825).
8 (Paris: Chez De Roullede de la Chevardiere/Esprit, Libraireau Palais Royal, 1781), 198.

230 Pierluigi Petrobelli
and Tartinigives versions of the melody which differ considerablyone from

the other.9 The great English music historian Charles Burney published one
of the Tartini versions in the 1789 edition of his History of Music, though he
added a bass, thus substantially changing its character.10 The most fascinating
and moving description of this 'Tasso' singing is found in Goethe's Italian
Journey:
For this evening I had made arrangements to hear the famous singing of the boatmen,
who chant verses by Ariosto and Tasso to their own melodies. This performance has
to be ordered in advance, for it is now rarely done and belongs, rather, to the half-
forgotten legends of the past. The moon had risen when I took my seat in a gondola
and the two singers, one in the prow, the other in the stern, began chanting verse
after verse in turns ... The singer sits on the shore of an island, on the bank of a
canal or in a gondola, and sings at the top of his voice ... His aim is to make his
voice carry as far as possible over the still mirror of the water. Far away another singer
hears it. He knows the melody and the words and answers with the next verse. The
first singer answers again, and so on. Each is the echo of the other. They keep this
up night after night without ever getting tired. If the listener has chosen the right
spot, which is halfway between them, the further apart they are, the more enchanting
the singing will sound.
To demonstrate this, my boatmen tied up the gondola on the shore of the Giudecca
and walked along the canal in opposite directions. I walked back and forth, leaving
the one, who was just about to sing, and walking towards the other, who had just
stopped.
For the first time I felt the full effect of this singing. The sound of their voices far
away was extraordinary, a lament without sadness, and I was moved to tears ... It
is the cry of some lonely human being sent out in the wide world till it reaches the
ears of another lonely human being who is moved to answer to it. 1
The 'Tasso canta alla barcariola' (Tasso sung in the style of the Venetian
gondoliers) is clearly the model of the 'Canto del gondoliere' in Rossini's Otello.
However, instead of Tasso, the quotation is taken from Dante, no doubt because
Tasso's poem did not offer a suitable passage to express, in lapidary terms,
the dramatic situation of the opera. Whatever the case, I should like to stress
the 'learned' character of the quotation. It is as if the librettist were saying
to his listeners: let us return to one of our 'classics' for an eloquent and pithy
phrase that will characterise a culminating point in the action.
More interesting still is Rossini's attitude. His real career as an opera composer
began in Venice where, between 1810 and 1813, he wrote no less than four
one-act farse, a comic operatic genre peculiar to Venetian theatres between
1795 and 1815. It is not difficult to imagine Rossini hearing some elderly gondo-
liers still singing Tasso's octaves in Venetian dialect to a melody of such idiomatic
9 SeeGiuseppeTartini,La raccoltadi sonateautografeperviolino(Padua,1976),which
reproducesin facsimilems. 1888,fasc. 1 fromI-Pca.TheTassomelodyis on pp. 37 and
56.
10 CharlesBurney,A General
Historyof Musicfromthe EarliestAgesto the PresentPeriod
(1789), ed. FrankMercer(New York, 1957),II, 453.
n
JohannWolfgangvon Goethe,ItalianJourney(1786-1788),trans.W.H. Audenand
ElizabethMayer(London, 1962),76-8.

On DanteandItalianmusic 231
contour. In fact, the style of the Tasso melody explainsthat of the off-stage
song in the last act of Otello. Example3 presentsthe 'Aria del Tasso' in one
of Tartini'sversions;Example4 gives the gondolier'ssong in Rossini's opera.
The two melodiesmayatfirstsightseemverydifferent;yet on closerexamination
one discoversthat both move almost entirely in stepwise motion, and that -
as it should be - their rhythmsstronglyemphasisethe accentsand declamation
of the text. The differencelies in the fact that the Tartiniversionhas a strong
modalflavour,while thatof Rossiniadaptsthe musicmoreto the tonalsystem.
Ex. 3
^ ' '. I I ,^f 1n. 1

S J p I 'I
Lie- to ti pren- do e po- i la not- te quan - do
47g g g R^rN7J IJ J r gli" I

tut - tein al- to si-len - ti- o e - ran le co - se
vi - diin so - gno un guer-rier che mi - nac - cian - do
a me sul vol - to il fer-ro nu - do po - se.
Ex. 3
So far as we know, Donizetti turnedto Dante only once in his prolific career.
It was in 1828, while he was resident in Naples, before he had reachedthe
leadingposition amongoperacomposershe was to occupy afterAnna Bolena,
firstperformedat Milan'sTeatroCarcanoin 1830.In orderto ingratiatehimself
with the bassLuigiLablache,one of the most famoussingersof the time, Doni-
zetti wrote for him a sort of chambercantatafor bass and piano, choosing
as a text Count Ugolino's lament - the same passagefrom the last canto of
Inferno that, two and a half centuriesbefore, Vincenzo Galilei had selected
for his experimentin monody. For Donizetti the choice was purely practical:
it gave his dedicateethe opportunityto presentthe full rangeof his expressive
skills; the composershowed no real concernfor the culturalvalue and signifi-
cance of the text. In choosing a text by Dante, Donizetti basicallyfollowed
the contemporarytrendtowardsthe MiddleAges and Renaissancefor 'artistic'
subjects:his versionof Count Ugolino's lamentis a precisemusicalcounterpart
of the 'romanzo storico' - historicalnovels by Tommaso Grossi, Massimo
D'Azeglio and others- or of the largehistoricalpaintingsof FrancescoHayez.
That the composerlooked at this piece as a mereexercisecan be gatheredfrom
a letterhe wrote on 15May 1828to his reveredteacherSimoneMayrin Bergamo:

m-
Ex. 4 (sentesi da lungiil Gondoliere,

Gondoliere che scioglieall'auraun dolce canto)
I
em-*P I- - I -h I I 1.
Nes -
Andantino -
tremolo
- ii,,!i':, :
{;i; :,:
^^j>^ SJ
-sun mag-gior do - lo - re, nes - sun mag-gior do - lo re che ri-cor-
G.
- dar - sidel tem-po fe - li - ce nella mi - se - ria, che ri - cor-
r S
i~ ?r 2 c 1
rd~~~~
tL :j'i

On Dante and Italian music 233
G Ab;j
I--
-g"
p
l -VIp I
1 ?'< II Ip TpI
'I v
rI . I
I
r 0
- dar- si del tempo fe - li - ce nel-la mi - se - - - - ria.
(Desdemonaa quel canto si scuote)

- -
1 w I J I- \ t i
;^j.
^*f:b,, ?r \ rItg 1| g rf 1 j V ^1 rl r'T

r
Ex. 4

'I send you a little Souvenirof my music. L'esuledi Roma and variousother
pieces from operas which were successfulin Naples. Among them you will
find the Ugolino by Dante: it has received some favourable comments, but
I want yours.'12
There may be other settings of Dante's poetry dating from this period, and
they are likely to be of the same general type, possibly with the same purpose
as that by Donizetti. Several operas were written to libretti based on episodes
or characters from the Divine Comedy: Donizetti's own Pia de' Tolomei, for
example; or Mercadante's and Morlacchi's settings of Francescada Rimini, both
to a libretto by Felice Romani which may derive from Silvio Pellico's tragedy
rather than from Dante's poem. The young Verdi may also have been active
in this cultural trend: during his early years in Busseto, while composing music
for the local accademia, he may very well have written pieces like Donizetti's
Ugolino lament, since we know that he wrote a sort of cantata on Manzoni's
II cinque maggio. 13
Such early efforts show a Verdi clearly anxious to seem 'learned', albeit at
the same time trying to find his own path and, especially, his own most authentic
voice. However, Verdi's use of Dantean texts in the last part of his careerbelongs
to a totally different world, primarily because of the reasons that provoked
his choice. The six-year silence that followed the Requiem (written in 1874
for the first anniversary of Manzoni's death) has always intrigued biographers
and musicologists. What reasons forced an artist of such great creative powers
to stop suddenly and for such a long period at the height of his career? And
what forces led him to return to the musical scene?
I am convinced that the answer to these questions can be found, at least
in part, in historical events, and above all in the political, social and cultural
situation of Italy at that time.
Italy had become an independent state, a kingdom under the ruling Savoy
dynasty, only a few years earlier in 1861. But the unification of the country
had brought more problems and questions than it had solved, something all
too logical and predictable, given the nation's previous history. Before unifica-
tion, Italy was made up of little states, each with a long and complicated history
and with profound differences in language, cultural traditions, economic devel-
opment and political consciousness. What is more, these differences far
outweighed the common elements. To give just one example of the differences
between various regions of the country at the time of unification: the degree
of illiteracy in a region like Lombardy was 53.7 per cent, while in a region
12 'Lefo un piccoloSouvenirdi musicamia. L'Esulee varjaltripezzi d'operepiacutea

Napoli. Fraquellivi e l'Ugolinodi Dante;ne ha riportatoqualchecompatimento,ma
io voglio il suo.' GuidoZavadini,Donizetti:Vita,Musiche,Epistolario(Bergamo,1948),
260.
13 Thispieceis includedamongthe youthfulcompositionsin a list preparedby Pompeo
Cambiasi,andcheckedandcompletedby Verdihimself;seeNelprimocentenariodi
GiuseppeVerdi.1813-1913,ed. L. GrabinskiBroglio,CarloVianbianchi,GiuseppeAdami
([Milan],1913),4-5.

like Sardinia it was 89.7 per cent.'4 Unification had in fact been realised by
a passionately committed, but nonetheless rather restricted, minority. In a
country where there was practically no middle class, the concept of national
unity was thus understood and shared only by the minority that had produced
it. Added to this, the differences within this minority were also pronounced.
Cavour's trite sentence, 'L'Italia e fatta; ora bisogna fare gli Italiani' (Italy is
made; now we have to make the Italians), not only summarisesa precise historical
situation; it also underlines a problem whose consequences are still with us
today.
We all know that Verdi was recognised as a living symbol of national unity
even before political unification had become a reality. The famous 'patriotic
choruses' of his early operas, 'Va pensiero sull'ali dorate' from Nabucco, 'O
Signore, dal tetto natio' from I Lombardi, 'Si ridesti il Leon di Castiglia' from
Ernani and 'Patria oppressa' from Macbeth, were conscious stylistic choices
within Verdi's 'prima maniera'; but their influence and stirring power has been
greatly exaggerated - and for very specific reasons of propoganda.15 In fact,
Verdi's concern for unity after 1861 was much more relevant, and much greater.
Paradoxically, or not so paradoxically if we consider the weight of past trad-
ition and the nation's fundamental isolation from the main European cultural
stream, the moment when Italy achieved political unity also became the moment
when national traditions began to be questioned. This is particularly true of
music, and especially of opera, in which Italy had reigned supreme for more
than two centuries. But by 1860 Verdi was the only Italian composer creating
works which were influential at the international level. Meanwhile, instead of
new operas, performances of works which had obtained great success in the
past became more and more frequent: the idea and the reality of an Italian
operatic 'repertory' dates from this period. The 'repertory' was enlarged by
the arrivalon Italian stages of various 'grands operas', especially those of Meyer-
beer, and other French operas such as Gounod's Faust. At the same time, and
even though only in well-defined and exclusive circles, performances of instru-
mental chamber music and the founding of 'Societa di concerti' became more
frequent: our present day 'pocket score', for example, originated from a very
small Florentine music publisher, Giovanni Gualberto Guidi, who engraved
and sold his first examples to accompany performances organised by the pub-
lisher's mentor and adviser, the learned musical scholar Abramo Basevi.
And of course there was a great deal of talk about Wagner. But talk was
all it was, because with the exception of pieces like the Tannhduser overture
- which was performed by military bands - no music by Wagner, let alone
entire operas, was known or heard. However, Wagner had soon become a
symbol in Italian life and Italian musical culture; the author of 'The Artwork
of the Future' exerted a powerful appeal on that layer of Italian society which
14
SeeGiuliaBaroneandArmandoPetrucci,Primonon leggere.Bibliotecheepubblicalettura
inItaliadal1861ai nostrigiorni(Milan,1976),11.
15 SeeRogerParker,'Sull'ali dorate':TheVerdianPatriotic anditsReception
Chorus in 1848,
to be publishedby the Istitutonazionaledi studiverdiani,Parma.

had broughtto realitythe idealsof the Risorgimento.No moreof thatcumber-

some past from which nothing new or excitingcould emerge;let us 'reform',
andlet us 'reform'our musicas well, muchas Wagnerwas doingin Germany.16
It is againstthis backgroundthatwe mustview Verdi'sbehaviourandchoices
in this period, and'thus understandbetter his returnto compositionin 1880.
From Verdi'spoint of view, the historicalsituationwas simple:the Italiantra-
dition was 'vocal', the Germanwas 'instrumental'.Even in the late 1860ssome
of his works - and some of his attitudes- had a precise'political'significance.
Consider, for example,the proposalfor a RequiemMassto celebratethe first
anniversaryof Rossini'sdeath, formulatedby Verdiimmediatelyafterhis col-
league'sdeath. The Mass was to be written 'by the most distinguishedItalian
composers',andin its performance,indeedin the realisationof the entireproject,
'no foreignhand, no matterhow powerful,shouldgiveus help. If thathappens,
I shall immediatelywithdraw from the enterprise.'17In the same vein came
the multi-sectionedOverture- which used as a distantmodelthatof Guillaume
Tell - for the revision of La forza del destino(1869) and the StringQuartet
(1873):to show that he could competein the enemy field and use the enemy's
weapons.The examplescould easilycontinue.
For Verdi, the supremerepresentativeof the Italianmusicaltraditionwas
Palestrina,much as the Germanmusicalheritagehad its unmatchedchampion
in J. S. Bach. This radicaldichotomy, and the idea of these two composers
as representativesof eachtradition,returntime and againin Verdi'scorrespon-
dence duringhis last thirty years.18And his need to show youngergenerations
where the roots of Italiantraditionlay explainsthe choice of both the poetic
text and the musicalstyle of two shortand- eventoday- very rarelyperformed
Verdianworks, whose composition and first performancecoincide with his
return to the musical battlefield.They are a Padre nostro for five voices 'a
cappella',and an Ave Mariafor voice and small string ensemble.Both pieces
carry the subtitle 'Volgarizzatoda Dante', and it is clear that Verdi believed
the translationsof both prayersto be by the poet, since he had extractedtheir
textsfrom a volumeof Dante'sOpereminori.19
The polyphonic style of the Padrenostroimitatesthat of Palestrina'smotets,
16
OnWagner's
influence
in theBolognese
milieuatthetimeof Rossini'sdeath,seeCarlo
MatteoMossa,'Una Messaperla storia',in Messaper Rossini.La storia,il testo,la musica
(Quadernidell'Istitutodi StudiVerdiani5), ed. MicheleGirardiandPierluigiPetrobelli
(Parma,1988),11-78,esp.36ff.
17 Letterdated17 November1869to GiulioRicordi,I copialetteredi GiuseppeVerdi,ed.
Gaetano
CesariandAlessandro
Luzio (Milan,1913), 210-11.
18 To
givejustone example,see the famousletterto Hansvon Biilow:'Happyyou who
arestill the sons of Bach!And us?We also, sons of Palestrina,once hada greatschool
. . andours!',letterdated14 April1892,I copialettere,376. ('Felicivoi chesieteancora
ifigli di Bach!E noi?Noi pure,figlidi Palestrina,avevamoun giornounascuolagrande
... e nostra!')
19Thesetranslationsdatefromthe latefourteenthcentury,andwerepublishedunderthe
poet'snameas earlyas 1491:we findthemtogetherwith a Credoon the lastpageof
the BernardinusBenaliusandMatteoda Parmaeditionof the Divine Comedy,printed
in Venicein Marchof thatyear.In spiteof the awkwardstyle, Verdiwas convincedthey
wereby Dante.

at least as Verdi understood it; but the verticalsonorities clearly reveal the
piece's date of composition. Dante and Palestrina:here are the 'fathers'of our
languageand literature,and of our music. Following their example, and in
light of the traditionthey represent,we shouldfind commontraitswhich enable
us to overcome petty regional differencesand personal animosities;we will
find, through them, a sense of common belonging, the roots of our political
unity. This is the message the Padre nostro volgarizzato da Dante seeks to
convey, somethingwell beyond artisticand musicalmatters.And the message
finds its greatestartisticrealisationin the new Finaleof the first act of Simon
Boccanegra,on which Verdi worked in the months immediatelyafterthe pre-
miere of the two pieces on texts 'volgarizzatida Dante'. As Verdi wrote in
a letter of 20 November 1880 to Giulio Ricordi, at the time he was about
to beginrevisionof the Boccanegralibretto:
Let us returnto the first-actFinale... Whatcouldone find for it? I saidat the
beginningof this letterthatwe mustfindfor this act somethingwhichgivesvariety
anda littlebrioto theoverpowering darknessof thedrama.How, then?Forexample:
a
stage hunting scene? It would not be theatrical.
A celebration?Too banal.A battle
withtheAfricanpirates?It wouldn'tbe too amusing.Preparations forwarwitheither
PisaorVenice?
On this subject,I recalltwo wonderfullettersby Petrarch,one writtento Doge
Boccanegra, theotherto theDogeof Venice,in whichhe saysthattheywerebeginning
a fratricidal
war,sincebothweresonsof thesamemother,Italy,etc.,etc.How sublime
this sentimentof Italyas motherland at thattime!All this is political,not dramatic;
but a creativetalent[un uomod'ingegno]couldwell dramatiseit.20
And then follows, sketched in all its essentials,the Council chamberscene

which closes the new first-actFinale. In this instancethe 'political'stimulus
comes from yet another'father'of Italianculture,Petrarch;however,not from
his sonnets or other poetical works, but from his Epistulae,the documents
of his politicalactivityandthought.
The second text 'volgarizzatoda Dante' is a simple paraphraseof the Ave
Maria;here Verdi resumedhis most authenticvoice, giving to the soloist the
entire weight of the composition. The Ave Maria volgarizzata da Dante is
clearly a stylistic exercise, and will find its definitiveversion in Desdemona's
prayerfromthe fourthactof Otello.Theprayerbeginswith a simpledeclamation
in one pitch, Eb, much as the declamationat the beginningof the Ave Maria
is on F; in both the opera and the religious piece, chromaticmovement in
the lower strings accompaniesthis declamation.The similarityof harmonic
languageis striking,as is the factthatthe articulationof the melodycorresponds
to that of the poetic text; this is particularlytrue of the Ave Maria, where
eachsectionpreciselycorrespondsto a tercetin the poem.
As we have seen, a Dante citation precedesthe 'Willow Song' in Rossini's
20
Carteggio Verdi-Ricordi 1880-1881, Pierluigi Petrobelli, Marisa Di Gregorio Casati and
Carlo Matteo Mossa, eds. (Parma, 1988), 70.

Otello, a score Verdi knew extremely well.21 And a prayer, modelled after
a piece on a text by 'Dante', occurs after the 'Willow Song' in Verdi's Otello.
The coincidence can hardly be fortuitous. Whatever the artistic value of this
Ave Maria, its historical relevance seems beyond question. First because it was
not provoked by any external circumstance: both the choice of text and its
actual composition were entirely Verdi's decision. And second because the 'pol-
itical' significance of the piece is strongly connected to the manner in which
Verdi wanted it performed. He insisted that both the Padre nostro and the
Ave Maria should be sung as complementary pieces. In a letter of 30 January
1880, discussing with Giulio Ricordi the concert programme for their premiere,
Verdi stated that: 'So far as the programme is concerned, I want to remain
out of it. I should like only that the Pater and Ave be sung without a break
[di seguito], as if they were a single piece.'22 This is all the more remarkable
considering the sharp contrast in scoring and number of players between the
Pater nostro, an 'a cappella' piece in which - as one gathers from the same
letter - the choral ensemble was supposed to have at least forty singers to each
part, and the Ave Maria, scored for a solo voice, two first and two second
violins, two violas and four 'divisi' cellos. More important than musical coher-
ence was the extra-musical significance these two pieces derived from the auth-
ority of their poetic text; a significance that encapsulated both their truest
meaning and their 'political' function.
The same contrast in scoring and musical style returns at the very end of
Verdi's career, in those Pezzi sacri which were the final manifestation of his
art.23In January 1898, at the time when Boito was preparing the first perform-
ance of the three pieces for Paris, Verdi signaled out in a letter the peculiarities
of each composition. He described the central piece, the piece called today
- with no authority whatsoever - the Laudi alla Vergine Maria, as: 'A prayer
in Italian on the first lines of the last canto of Dante's Paradiso, for four treble
voices [a quattro voci bianche]: a Soprano, a second Soprano, an Alto, a second
Alto.' As for the performance, Verdi added: 'For the Prayer, four solo Artists
will be needed, even though this is a small piece without solos .. . The Prayer
lasts less than five minutes.'24 He was clearly annoyed when Tebaldini, then
Director of the Parma Conservatory, proposed a performancewith a large chorus
of women. The contrast in size and musical style was an essential feature of
these compositions, much as it was for the Padre nostro and the Ave Maria.
There is no need to recall that Verdi wrote the Pezzi sacribasically for himself.
21 Forthe bestaccountof the similaritiesbetweenRossini'sandVerdi'sOtello, seeJulian
22
Budden,The Operasof Verdi(London, 1973-81),III, 303ff.
20-1.
CarteggioVerdi-Ricordi,
23
Forthe purposeof ourdiscussion,I preferto leaveasidetheAve Maria'on an enigmatic
scale',whichhasnowadaysbecomethe firstof the Quattropezzi sacri.In Verdi'slifetime,
andfor sometimeafterwards,it was neverperformedwith the otherthreepieces,which
arethe Stabatmaterandthe Te Deum (bothfor largechorusandorchestra),andbetween
thesetwo hugefrescoeswhatis now calledthe Laudialla VergineMaria,a small
polyphoniccomposition.Todaythis lastpieceis performedby a ratherlargechorusof
24
women, but suchwas not Verdi'sintention.
CarteggioVerdi-Boito,MarioMediciandMarcelloConati,eds. (Parma,1978),I, 253-4.

In his extreme old age,25Dante's poetry stimulatedthe Maestro to write a

piece of rarefied beauty: not only Palestrina, but the entire madrigal experience
as Verdi knew it lay behind the work, in that the composer never failed to
develop in musical imagery the suggestions offered by the poetic text. To empha-
sise the perfect concord reigning in Paradise, suggested by the line 'Qui se'
a noi meridiana face di caritate' (You are the noonday torch of love) - we
should not forget that St Bernard is addressing the Virgin Mary - he used vocal
unison; and this contrasts with the base world at 'e giuso [. . .] se' di speranza
fontana vivace' (and there below, you are a living spring of hope): the two
lower voices, beginning with intervals of a downward fifth ('e giuso'), imitate
each other while the two upper voices also move in imitation but in the opposite
direction (see Ex. 5).
The texture is basically homophonic, and in this way the meaning of the
text is strongly enhanced. Verdi was extremely careful - as he had been in
the pieces 'volgarizzati da Dante' - to respect the metrical structure: each tercet
ends with a cadence, followed by a rest in all the voices.
Just as with Monteverdi, Dante's poetry returned at crucial moments in Verdi's

career as an artist, and also in his career as a citizen. It returned when he
strove to remind his fellow countrymen of the cultural roots of their national
unity, but also as the best possible poetic structure to create music in the purest
'national' idiom. There is no need to emphasise how little this lesson was under-
stood, let alone learned from. At the end of his life, Verdi was a solitary figure,
his very popularity perhaps a main cause of the complete misunderstanding
of his intentions. Only now, and thanks to the temporal distance, can we gra-
dually discover the depths of his art, the strength of his human and historical
message.
3 Dallapiccolaand Ulisse
Fifteen years after his death, Luigi Dallapiccola is generally regarded as one
of the most significant, the most 'serious', artists of our century. And he was
'serious' in the sense I tried to outline at the beginning of this essay: he was
a man and an artist who consciously felt the need - one is tempted to say
the duty - to 'read' the times, and life in general, through his art. There is
hardly a composition in which Dallapiccola did not attempt to convey a message,
present a reflection, a meditation on the problems with which man is confronted,
and towards which each individual must take a personal and responsible stand.
This aspect of Dallapiccola's 'seriousness' is clearly reflected, in fact brightly
illumined, in his numerous essays, several of which were written specifically
25 The dateof compositionof the DantePrayeris rathermysterious:FrancoAbbiati,Verdi

(Milan,1959),IV, 570, maintainsthatit was writtenimmediatelyafterOtello, thatis,
in 1888-9;but we haveno evidencesupportingthis date.

240 Pierluigi Petrobelli
Ex. 5
lXpmfJ
SIC. trt 7r
r^T ?
yfltfj ri - di
Qui se' a noi me a - na face di ca - ri - ta- te,
f QuiJ.4se'm a noi me- ri - di- a- na face di ca -

I J
ri - ta- te,
mf j
p^^ i .. 4
Qui se' a noi me - ri - di- a- na fa - ce di ca - ri - ta- te, e
37 Qui_ se' a noi me- ri-di a- na fa - ce di ca - ri - ta- te,
1tO
DJ
$ I. Z 1r r ZI f I
se' di spe - ran - za fon- ta - na vi-va - ce.
p
pt1m p
S J J J PJ~
giu-so,intraimor - ta
h -JI
Iru7J ..-. J -.P
-
-
- -
li, se' di spe - ran - za fon - ta na vi-va ce.
e giuso, se' di spe ran za fn ta na vi-va e.

e giuso, se' di spe - ran - za fon - ta - na vi-va - ce.
Ex. 5

to illustrateandclarifyhis compositions,or his variouscompositionalchoices.26

Dallapiccolawas the first Italiancomposerto adopt - at first tentativelyand
then systematically- the twelve-note system, a choice which seemed at the
time, and to those who consider it superficially may still seem, strange and
'unnatural'. How was it that an Italian composer, a man born in the land of
Verdi, Puccini and perhaps even Mascagni, could not only be interested in
but actually adopt such a compositional technique, one so deeply rooted in
the German, or rather the Viennese, cultural tradition? How could a composer
from Italy, the land in which 'everybody sings', where music is written 'with
the heart', adopt such a 'cold, intellectual' approach? Let us immediately sweep
away this sort of nonsense, which even tourist offices and travel agents no
longer try to dispense. Dallapiccola's choice, made in solitary splendour during
the late 1930s, at a time when 'nationalistic' trends were the musical equivalent
of the political regime then dominating the country, was the result not only
of profound reflections on musical and compositional problems, but also of
deep cultural experiences, of familiarity with literary texts of the present and
of the past.
Among the composer's essays, the most important in this respect is, in my
opinion, 'On the Twelve-Note Road', written in 1950. After mentioning his
attendance in 1924 of the first Florence performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot
lunaire, conducted by the composer, and after having explained how difficult
it had become, as the years went by, to make contact with the music and the
writings of the Viennese masters, Dallapiccola lists the literary experiences which
helped him continue on his chosen road; and he emphasises that these experiences
were for him a guide at the structural level, an education in the organisation
of musical thought. For Dallapiccola, the main difference between tonal and
serial music was that, 'In classical music, the theme is very often transformed
melodically, but its rhythmic scheme remains unchanged; in serial music, the
task of transforming the theme is entrusted to articulation, independent of
rhythm.'27
In the works of JamesJoyce and Marcel Proust he found criteriafor articulation
and models of organisation akin to those he had noticed or - better - sensed
in the music of the Viennese masters. He could then apply these models to
his own compositions:
In JamesJoyce's art, and especiallyin his Ulysses,I was struckimmediatelyby certain
assonances... The way in which Joyce uses the name of Lynch, a young friend of
StephanDedalus,hasnothingto do with a simplepun. In the brothelscene(correspond-
ing to the Circeepisodein Homer'sOdyssey),I foundthe followingpassage:
26 The largest and most important collection of Dallapiccola's writings is Parole e musica,
ed. Fiamma Nicolodi (Milan, 1980). Many of these essays are published in English in
Dallapiccola on Opera (Selected Writings of Luigi Dallapiccola, vol. 1), trans. and ed.
Rudy Shackelford (n.p., 1987).
27 'Sulla strada della dodecafonia', in Parole e musica, 448-63, here 453; Deryck Cooke's
English translation of this essay (not used here) appearsin Music Survey, 4/1 (1951),
318-32.

Stephen: Hm. (He strikes a match and proceeds to light the cigarette with enigmatic
melancholy.)
Lynch: (Watchinghim.) You would have a better chanceof lightingit if you held
the matchnearer.
Stephen: (Brings the match nearer his eye.) Lynx eye.
... Joyce's love for individualwords, so close to love for sound (somethingwhich
music of our time has conqueredagain), can also be observedin the famous French
translation[of Joyce's Ulysses],in which completefidelityto the originaltext was pre-
served.28
This passage is relevant to my main theme for more than one reason. Not
only does it explain the way in which Dallapiccola understood and used the
term 'articulation'; it also indicates some of the themes which return time and
again in his music and his writings. What counts in the excerpt from Ulysses
is the constant return, the almost obsessive use not just of words, but - especially
- of syllables and words of similar sound. The entire passage unfolds as if these
sounds were the basic element, the determining force behind the text; sounds
like 'match - Lynch - watching'; like 'Stephen - strikes - cigarette'; and, of
course, the transformation of 'Lynch' into 'Lynx'. As well as, perhaps even
more than, the semantic function of the text, the articulation of the passage
is determined by these sounds. The same happens in twelve-note composition,
where the contrapuntal articulation of the basic material, the intervallic relation-
ships within the row and during its development, are far more important than
literal repetitions of individual cells.
The Joyce quotation and Dallapiccola's comments are also relevantfor another
reason. When quoting from Joyce's Ulysses, the composer stresses the structural
analogy between the scene in the novel and the Homeric poem in which Ulysses
is the protagonist. Why did he feel it necessary to underline this analogy, when
his main point was elsewhere? The answer can be found in another Dallapiccola
essay, one devoted to the origin of his libretto for Ulisse and dating from 1967,
one year before the opera's premiere. At the beginning of the essay we read
that 'we are not always the ones to choose our texts; rather, it is the texts
that choose us'.29 This statement may at first sound startling, but it is in fact
a pithy and extremely concise description of the cultural process central to
Dallapiccola's entire output.
In the same essay Dallapiccola lists the stages through which the Ulysses
subject 'came' to him. In May 1938 the choreographer Leonide Massine sug-
gested he write a ballet on the subject of Homer's Odyssey; but because of
the outbreak of war the project did not materialise. In 1941 Dallapiccola was
asked by the General Manager of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino to prepare
a performing edition of Monteverdi's II ritorno di Ulisse in patria, which he
28 'Sullastradadelladodecafonia',Parolee musica,454.
29
'Nascitadi un librettod'opera',in Parolee musica,511-31, here512;a translationof
this essay(not usedhere)appearsin Dallapiccolaon Opera(seen. 26), 232-62.

did and about which he wrote a very revealingessay afterthe performance.30

Stimulatedby the recurrenceof the Ulysses subject, the composer recalled,
almost as a dream, that he had seen a film when only eight years old, during
a summer holiday at Trent in 1912. The title of the film was L'Odissea di
Omero(Homer'sOdyssey).Note the temporalsequenceof these eventsas nar-
ratedby the composer: 1938-1941-1912. The myth of Ulysses, his journeys,
his returnto Ithaca,hadbeen 'lookingfor him' sincechildhood.The recurrence
of the myth in Dallapiccola'slife thus acquiresa precise significance.It is no
longer a simple 'tale', a story from the past. The meaningof the myth and
of its recurrencebecomes evidentonly if viewed, understoodand experienced
as a way to interpretlife, to explain ourselves to ourselves, as a means by
which to understandour placein history.
But the Homericmyth was not by itself sufficientto accomplishsuch a direct
andlofty task.In the 1942essaywhichfollowedthemoderneditionof Montever-
di's II ritorno di Ulisse, we find a passagestrikinglypropheticof the opera
Dallapiccolawas to completethirty-sixyearslater.Writingof the Massineballet
project,the composerrecalledthathe stronglyemphasisedto the choreographer
that 'for a person of Italianculture,today, a Ulysses not previously"filtered"
through the interpretationas given by Dante is not a conceivableUlysses',
adding that he would not have allowed the ballet to conclude with a scene
of triumph in Ithaca'sroyal palace, but instead wanted 'in the last tableau,
Ulysses alone, flying towardsthe sea'.31
At the beginning of this essay I assertedthat Dante's poetry appearsand
re-appearsin the lives andcareersof the threecomposerson whom I concentrate.
And while Dante is present only at very specific moments in Monteverdi's
andVerdi'sworks, the poet andhis writingsconstantlyreturn,as pivotalforces,
in Dallapiccola's life and music. Dallapiccola was the son of a professor of classics
in the Italian 'Real-Gymnasium' at Pisino, a small town in the centre of Istria,
at the extreme eastern part of the Italian peninsula. When Dallapiccola was
born in 1904, Pisino belonged to the Austrian Empire; it went to Italy in 1918
and to Yugoslavia in 1945. In the family of an Italian with cultural responsibili-
ties, and in a place where no less than three different cultures - Latin, German
and Slav - existed in constant and (to say the least) uneasy proximity, Dante's
poetry was a powerful symbol of national identity. Small wonder, then, that
Dallapiccola learned the Divine Comedy at a very early age, and learned it
so thoroughly that in later life he could recite almost the entire poem by heart.
His unforgettable conversation was constantly interspersed with (sometimes
lengthy) citations from the Divine Comedy; and, far from being a vain, erudite
performance, these citations were in fact the best and most precise way to com-
municate his thoughts.
A few anecdotes will illustrate this constant enthusiasm for Dante. In describ-
30
'Perunarappresentazione
de'IIritornodiUlisseinpatria'diClaudioMonteverdi',
in
Parolee musica(see n. 26), 421-35;translation(not usedhere)in Dallapiccolaon Opera
(seen. 26), 215-31.
31 'Perunarappresentazione', Parolee musica,425.

ing his first encounterwith MuriloMendes, the Brazilianpoet on whose texts

he wrote Preghiere,Dallapiccolasaid: 'Mendes'svisit lastedtwo hours, during
which we spoke only of Dante. That eveningI devotedto the visit a few lines
in my diary, ending thus: "Decouverted'un frere"[Discovery of a brother]';
in Dante, of course.32In 1966Dallapiccolawrote a memorialtributeto Wilhelm
G. Hertz. This name - one unfamiliarto musical scholars and musicians-
will be known to Dantescholars:Hertz is the authorof a fineGermantranslation
of the Divine Comedy.In his tribute,the composerdescribedhow - absolutely
by chance, at the Stuttgarttrain station!- he came acrossHertz's translation;
how their friendshipdeveloped;and especiallyhow he found in Hertz what
we can now call 'yet anotherbrotherin Dante'. This memorialtributeto Hertz
was requested by GianfrancoContini, the great philologist, who published
it in Studi danteschi.33To my knowledge, no other musicianor music scholar
had or has the knowledgeof Dante impliedby this invitationto write for such
a prestigiousperiodical. At the time of Dallapiccola'sdeath, Contini in his
turn wrote a moving tribute entitled 'Dallapiccolaand Dante'.34In 1974, a
yearbeforehis death,the composerwas givenhonorarycitizenshipof Florence,
and in his acceptanceaddresshe mentioned the reasons that had prompted
him to choose the city as his home for the greaterpart of his life. Besides
the colour of its stones, he mentioned the fact that so many buildingswere
decorated with inscriptions containing citations from the Divine Comedy,
citationswhich referredto the buildingitself, or to the placewherethe building
hadbeen.
Let us returnto Ulysses, andto Dante'sUlysses. I needhardlyremindreaders
that, in Canto 26 of Inferno, Dante and Virgil meet among the 'consiglieri
fraudolenti',the eviladvisers,Ulysses andDiomedes,who burnforeverengulfed
in the sameflame.Homer'shero explainshow, afterhis returnto Ithaca,neither
love for his son, nor for his old father, nor for his faithful wife could prevent
him from returning to the sea: 'L'ardore / ch'i' ebbi a divenir del mondo esperto,
/ e delli vizi umani e del valore' (A burning wish to experience the world and
learn of human vices and worth). With a small group of old comrades, in just
one ship, Ulysses sailed westwards, beyond the established boundaries of the
known world, the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar). In an 'orazion
piccola' (a short address) Ulysses reminds his companions that 'Fatti non foste
a viver come bruti, / ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza' (You were not made
to live like beasts, but for the pursuit of virtue and knowledge). Inflamed by
Ulysses's words, his comrades follow him beyond the border of the universe
and sail into an unknown sea until, after five months, they finally see in the
distance Mount Purgatory. They rejoice, but a storm borne from that land
sinks the little boat and all her crew. The most terrible sin committed by Ulysses
is the evil advice he gave his companions: to break the rules which govern
32
'Nascita di un libretto d'opera', Parolee musica, 507.
33 Reprinted in Parole e musica, 188-92.
3 'Dallapiccolae Dante',in LuigiDallapiccola.Saggi,testimonianze,carteggio,biografiae
bibliografia,ed. FiammaNicolodi (Milan,1976),55-6.

the realm of human knowledge. Ulysses led his comradesto a sea which no
humanbeing was permittedto enter. Yet Dante'sUlysses has become, at least
in Italianculture, a perfectsymbol of man's searchfor knowledge, and it was
in this sense thatDallapiccolainterpretedthe Homerichero. Clothedin ancient
Greek garments,Ulysses carrieswithin himself all the questionsthat torment
modern man. As Dallapiccolawrote: 'Ulysses' fight is above all a fight with
himself, in that he aspires to the understanding of the world's mystery.'35 Ques-
tioning is, then, the essence of this character; in questioning lies the difference
between him and the Homeric hero; and questioning makes him a man of our
time.
In 1962 Luigi Dallapiccola was appointed fourteenth occupant of the Chair
of Italian Culture at the University of California at Berkeley. At that time he
had already begun Ulisse, his longest and loftiest work, a score that would
be completed five years later in 1967. During his stay at Berkeley he finished
the Preghiere for baritone and orchestra, a piece on texts by Murilo Mendes
whose world premiere took place in Berkeley's Hertz Hall on 10 November
1962. The period also saw work on an orchestral composition commissioned
in 1960 by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, for which Dallapiccola used
the same basic material on which Ulisse is built. The orchestral piece was per-
formed in Connecticut on 5 February 1963, and bears an English title: Three
Questions with Two Answers.36 It is divided into five sections. The first, third
and fifth sections - the three 'questions' - are related to the opera only in
their basic structural elements: the note row and an obsessive rhythmic figure.
The second episode (the first 'answer') corresponds, at least initially, to the
opening scene of the opera, that of Calypso alone on the seashore. The fourth
episode (the second 'answer') corresponds to another moment in the opera,
the scene of the Kingdom of the Kimmerians, the world of the dead; it describes,
in other words, a descent into Hell. In his essay on the birth of the Ulisse
libretto - we should not forget that the composer was also author of the literary
text of the opera - Dallapiccola explained that this scene is central to the structure
of the entire work.37
In a letter, now lost, to the conductor of the premiere of Three Questions
with Two Answers, Dallapiccola specified that the three questions are: Who
am I? Who art thou? Who are we? But he did not specify what the answers
might be.38 The most cogent metaphor for such questioning is the image of
the mirror; in the mirror the object, the person reflects itself, returns to itself,
much as Ulysses, as symbol of man, asks himself the eternal questions. This
image is recalled in the libretto of the opera through the recurrence of a line
which even in its structure carries the very principle of reflection: 'Guardare,
35 'Nascitadi un librettod'opera',Parolee musica,516.
36
For furtherinformationon thispiece, see my 'Dallapiccola'sLastOrchestralPiece',
Tempo, 123 (1977), 2-6.
37 'Nascitadi un librettod'opera',Parolee musica,527.
38 Seethe Prefaceto the orchestralscore:LuigiDallapiccola,ThreeQuestionswith Two
Answers,per orchestra(1962);publishedby SuviniZerboni,pl. no. S. 8155Z. (Milan,
1977).The composerneverthoughtit appropriate to publishthis score.

meravigliarsi,e tornar a guardare'(To look, to wonder, and again to look).

The line appearsas a refrainin Calypso'smonologue,the scenethatcorresponds
to the first 'answer';it is then sung by the protagonistat the beginningof
the scene between Ulisse and Circe; and finally it occurs at the end of the
last scene.
But the imageof questioning,as realisedin the mirrorprinciple,also appears
in the organisationof the musicalmaterial,first of all in the twelve-noterow
on which both the score of the opera and the orchestralpiece are built. The
row consists of four units of threenotes each, groupedin two hexachords(see
Ex. 6). The firsthexachordbeginsandendswith the sameinterval,an ascending
major second, as does the second hexachord,which begins and ends with a
descendingminor second. The two hexachordsare, in other words, almost
identicalin their successionof intervals;they are almostmirrorimagesof each
other.
Ex. 6
b 0ir Ior son fr u c II

mnor so, , s bo
major second, third, minor second, augmentedfourth, major second
minor second, third, minor second, augmentedfourth, minor second
Ex. 6
Thereare other symmetriesand similaritiesin the basicmaterialDallapiccola

used for both works. He takesthe openingintervalof the row, a majorsecond,
and 'reflects' it in a minor second that moves in the opposite direction; in
this way the 'musical ideogram'(as he called it) of the question takes on a
most eloquent shape. The entire articulationof the three 'questions' in the
orchestralpieceis basedon a continuouspolyphonictexturebuilton thismelodic
formula,whichreturnsjuxtaposedin variousrhythmicformulations:in augmen-
tationanddiminution,enlargedthroughoctavetransposition,andinverted.
In sharpcontrastto this linearmaterialstandsthe rhythmicformulawhich
in the opera is called 'ritmo principale'(principalrhythm),39and which in
the orchestralpiece is playedby the percussion(see Ex. 7).
Ex. 7 3 1
3 J i. J. J J iJ
Ex. 7
This formulais emphaticallyisolatedat the end of the first and third 'ques-
39 See Luigi Dallapiccola, Ulisse, opera in un prologo e due atti. Riduzione per canto e
pianoforte di Franco Donatoni [Opera in two acts with prologue. Adapted for voice and
piano by Franco Donatoni], published by Suvini Zerboni, pl. no. S. 6910 Z. (Milan, 1968),
68.

tions', and returns several times in the opera, always connected with ill-fate,
misfortune,sorrowandsuffering.It is absolutelypredominantin the most nega-
tive of all scenes in the opera,Ulysses' visit to the Kingdomof the Kimmerians
(as mentioned earlier,the centralmoment of the opera), the scene on which
the second 'answer'of the orchestralpiece is modelled.The immediatecounter-
partof questioningis suffering;the one is indissolublyconnectedwith the other.
The two 'answers'have, then, a clearly negativeimplication:solitude, like
that of Calypso, abandonedby Ulisse on the seashore;and eternal sorrow,
which dominatesthe Kingdomof the Kimmerians,the world of the dead. But
it would be wrong to suggest a direct connectionbetween the two 'answers'
and the 'questions' immediatelyprecedingthem, and this for a very precise
reason. We have alreadyseen how Dallapiccola'smind, his way of narrating
events, hardly ever followed chronologicalorder. This was in no way due to
absent-mindedness.On the contrary,it stemmed,I think, from his conception
of time. To returnonce more to the 1950 essay 'On the Twelve-Note Road',
when Dallapiccolawantedto dismissthe notion thatin twelve-notecomposition
all soundshaveequalimportance,he stated:
Even if all twelve tones returneach an equal numberof times, we cannot disregard
a factor of great importance:the moment, that is, the part of the measurein which
one hears the tone. Here time intervenes,time which in this way representsalmost
the fourth dimensionof music. It is quite evident that the meaningof a tone varies,
dependingwhether it falls on a strong or on a weak beat, even if its dynamic and
its duration remain unchanged ... I am fully aware that such differences can be found
also in classicalmusic; but how much subtlerand more delicateis this kind of relation
in twelve-tonemusic!
Subtler and more delicate because it derives from what Dallapiccola calls polari-
ties, poles of tension and relaxation between notes:
The interest of this polarity lies mainly in the fact that it changes(or may change)
from one work to another.A row canpresenta polaritybetweenits firstandits twelfth
tone; another between the second and the ninth; and so on ... It is here that the
factortime, of which I havejust spoken,comesbackwith all its imposingrelevance.40
In such a conception of time, in which the basic material remains the same
despite its different temporal manifestations, past and present, myth and history,
legend and reality are interchangeable. We have here, in other words, an idea
of time that is 'circular'. It is a concept which explains how a person endowed
with such deeply committed awareness of the history of his time, and of belong-
ing to it, could use a legend from the remotest past as the subject for his opus
maximum. Since this legend allowed him to 'read' past and present alike, he
could intermingle the most esoteric cultural elements without giving the impres-
sion of an awkward or contrived mixture. Models for the Hades scene can
be found not only in Homer and Virgil (as well as in Dante, if rather remotely),
but also in works such as Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, from
40 'Sullastradadelladodecafonia',Parolee musica,455.

whose terrifying description of Hell in the Jesuit priest's sermon the choral
exclamation 'Sempre! Mai!' (Ever! Never!) directly derives.41
The descent into Hell is the descent of man into the abyss of his soul. Again
we must recall the 1942 essay on Monteverdi's II ritorno di Ulisse, which opens:
I will not begin with the 'descentto Hell'; it is neverthelessuseful to repe.t here the
beginningof a literarywork which is very dearto me [Dallapiccolarefersto Thomas
Mann'sJosephund seine Briider];it consists of two sentences,the first affirmative,
the secondquestioning:'Deep is the well of the past. Shouldit not be calledinscrutable?'
Certainlya 'descentto Hell' was a necessityfor someonewho intendedto searchinto
the abyssthatmillenniahollowedup.42
For this reason, then, the opera Dallapiccola was to write decades after has
at its centre a 'descent to Hell'.
In looking through the various cultural experiences which Dallapiccola was
ever eager to enlist in his writings, it is certainly surprising - and at the same
time very revealing - that we never encounter the name of, or even a reference
to, Ezra Pound: surprising because the greatAmerican poet explicitly used Dante
as his mentor and guide in the construction of his Cantos, which were conceived
as a sort of contemporary Divine Comedy; and, at the same time, extremely
revealing because, in spite of Dallapiccola's probable disregard for, perhaps
ignorance of, Pound's poetry, the similarity between - one is almost tempted
to say the identical nature of - Ulysses/Odysseus and his 'descent to Hell' is
certainly most striking. In a recent essay on Pound's poetry we read that:
The poem [i.e., the Cantos]plunges into Hades with Odysseus in Canto I, and the
descentis explicitlya figureof a questfor knowledge,a missionto consultwith Tyresias,
the man 'Who even dead yet hath his mind entire.'His messageis: 'Odysseus/ Shalt
returnthroughspitefulNeptune, overdarkseas,/ Lose all companions'.43
The central scene of Ulisse, the visit to Hades, is mainly devoted to the encounter
of the protagonist with the shadow of his mother, Anticlea. When she disappears,
Ulisse says: 'Solo, son solo: un uomo che guarda nel fondo dell'abisso ...'
(Alone, I am alone: a man who looks into the depths of the abyss ...). As
the shadows of the dead return, Tiresia appears among them, and reveals to
Ulisse the prophetic vision of his future.
Ergonsicontrote mostridall'onde:
sul tuo legno la folgores'abbatte...
D'Itacabaciil suolo, ed il figlio e la consorte...
Maquantosangueintorno...
Infine,
solo, ancorti vedo ramingosul mare:
canutosei, canutocome il mare.
Ti cullanl'onde...44
41
JamesJoyce,A Portraitof theArtistas a YoungMan(New York, 1962),119-35, esp.
133.
42 'Perunarappresentazione', Parolee musica,421.
43 JeromeJ. McGann,'The Cantosof EzraPound,the Truthin Contradiction',Critical
Inquiry,15 (1988), 1-25; here5.
44 LuigiDallapiccola,Ulisse,Operain un prologoe dueatti[Libretto](Milan,1972),26.

[Monstersrise againstyou from the waves: / lightningstrikes your boat ... / You
kiss Ithaca's ground and your son and your wife ... / But how much blood around
... / Finally, / I see you alone, wanderingagainat sea: / hoary you are, hoary like
the sea. / The waveslull you ...]
The descent of man into the abyss of his soul is merely a confirmation of
his solitude, a revelation of the monsters which torment him. It is not there
that he can find an answer to the third question, which remains unanswered
in the orchestral piece. In the last scene of the opera, Ulisse, alone in a boat
at sea, finally receives the answer through the revelation of God; a mystical
vision that strongly reminds us of Dante, as protagonist in the Divine Comedy,
in the last canto of Paradiso. Both the printed libretto and the orchestral score
of Ulisse bear on their final page a quotation from St Augustine's Confessions:
'Fecisti nos ad te / et inquietum est cor nostrum / donec requiescat in te' (Thou
hast made us for Thyself / and our hearts are restless / until they find their
rest in Thee), an inscription which 'came' to Dallapiccola in the railway station
of Westport, Connecticut, a year after the libretto was completed. This, then,
is the third, the last, the final answer.45Luigi Dallapiccola was a fervent believer.
He felt the most profound spiritual affinity for Dante and his poetry, and Dante
offered him not only the best possible way of expressing his thoughts, but
- even more important - an answer to the most radical questions which
tormented him as a man of his time.
Monteverdi turned to Dante's poetry for the central episode of Orfeo, when
the hero of his opera enters the world of the dead. Verdi turned to Dante
as a symbol of Italian culture and as author of the most intense and lyrical
prayer, that of St Bernard to the Virgin Mary. Dallapiccola found in Dante
a spiritual mentor, the perfect interpreter of the myth that personifies man's
quest for knowledge. In Spring 1988 the Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino
completed one of his longest and most important works, Per i cerchi concentrici
for solo instruments and orchestra; and this composition is a sort of musical
'reading' of the Divine Comedy. Time and again, Italian music turns or returns
to Dante; in crucial works or at crucial moments in the career of a composer.
Whether conscious or unconscious, their choice conveys to us an unmistakably
clear message. In an age like ours, in which nothing is certain, in which traditions
and values are constantly questioned and easily set aside, Dante's poetry can
offer to all of us a firm point of reference, a sure way to read and contemplate
our destiny.
45 'Nascita di un libretto d'opera', Parole e musica, 530.


Pierluigi Petrobelli - On Dante and Italian Music Three Moments

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Pierluigi Petrobelli - On Dante and Italian Music Three Moments

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

On Dante and Italian Music: Three Moments

Author(s): Pierluigi Petrobelli

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

On Dante and Italian music:

We publish here, in slightly altered versions, three lectures given by Pierluigi

Italo Calvino, Lezioniamericane - Seiproposteper ilprossimo millennio (Milan, 1988);

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

the Renaissancecanzonetta,the music of Domenico Scarlatti,GioachinoRos-

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

day, is expressedin two completelydifferentways. Cavalcanti'sline is:

comedi nevein alpesenzavento.

It is this kind of differencethat I am trying to convey when I discuss the

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

The presenceof a line fromthe Divine Comedyin the librettoof Monteverdi's

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

There is, in short, no reason to question a connection between the author

< :~la - scia - te o-gnispe-ran - za voi ch'en-tra - te.

SPip. '~ rrr r r

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

Orfeo son io, che d'Euridicei passi

[I am Orpheus, who follows the steps of Eurydice/ throughthese gloomy plains /

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

as the previousstanzaswere. All this has a precise,twofold dramaticpurpose.

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

-d'al - ma in- van s'im- pe - tra.

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

can we understandits truest and most authenticmeaning.As with every great

2 From Rossini to Verdi

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

and Tartinigives versions of the melody which differ considerablyone from

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

^ ' '. I I ,^f 1n. 1

47g g g R^rN7J IJ J r gli" I

vi - diin so - gno un guer-rier che mi - nac - cian - do

a me sul vol - to il fer-ro nu - do po - se.

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

Ex. 4 (sentesi da lungiil Gondoliere,

-sun mag-gior do - lo - re, nes - sun mag-gior do - lo re che ri-cor-

- dar - sidel tem-po fe - li - ce nel- la mi - se - ria, che ri - cor-

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

(Desdemonaa quel canto si scuote)

^*f:b,, ?r \ rItg 1| g rf 1 j V ^1 rl r'T

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

12 'Lefo un piccoloSouvenirdi musicamia. L'Esulee varjaltripezzi d'operepiacutea

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

had broughtto realitythe idealsof the Risorgimento.No moreof thatcumber-

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

And then follows, sketched in all its essentials,the Council chamberscene

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

In his extreme old age,25Dante's poetry stimulatedthe Maestro to write a

Just as with Monteverdi, Dante's poetry returned at crucial moments in Verdi's

25 The dateof compositionof the DantePrayeris rathermysterious:FrancoAbbiati,Verdi

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

f QuiJ.4se'm a noi me- ri - di- a- na fa- ce di ca -

37 Qui_ se' a noi me- ri-di a- na fa - ce di ca - ri - ta- te,

e giu- so, se' di spe ran za fn ta na vi-va e.

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

to illustrateandclarifyhis compositions,or his variouscompositionalchoices.26

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 05:00:02 AM