Five songs ( Italian. Cinque canti ) - Luigi Dallapikkola's vocal cycle for baritone and chamber ensemble , commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation at the Library of Congress in 1956 to the poetry of ancient lyricists in free translation to the Italian Salvator Quasimodo . Characterized by an exceptional degree of interpenetration of the word and music [1] . The work marked the complete elimination of the tonal center in the composer's music. The composition is also known to be underlined by a symmetrical structure at all levels with the ideogram of the Crucifixion in the center of the score.
Five songs | |
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Composer | Luigi Dallapiccola |
Key | dodecaphony |
The form | |
Time and place of composition | Flushing, New York, September 13, 1956, ed. 1957 |
First performance | November 30, 1956, Washington, USA, Library of Congress; performers: Frederick Fuller (baritone) and soloists of the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Callaway |
First publication | Edizioni Suvini Zerboni , Milan |
Autograph storage location | Archive of Dallapiccola, Florence |
Dedication | Roger Sessions |
Duration | about 10 minutes |
Instruments | |
baritone and ensemble | |
Parts | in five parts |
Writing History
The composer came up with the idea of composing at the beginning of 1956, when he had more than a decade after the completion of the three vocal cycles staged for his formation, united by the common name “ Greek Lyrics ”, again refer to the collection of translations of ancient poetry by Salvatore Quasimodo. Dallapikkola pre-selected eleven poems (as in the case of “Greek lyrics” in the selection and interpretation of the Greeks based on the essay by Luciano Antici , Preceded by Quasimodo translations [2] ), rewriting them and, in accordance with his long-term habit carrying them daily with them, gradually penetrating each word and each syllable [3] . When in the spring of the same year, the composer received an order for an essay for the baritone and ensemble from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation at the Library of Congress in Washington, the selection processes, comprehension, and searching for the nature of the musical equivalent of the texts advanced far enough, resulting in the actual score was written in just a few months . In the beginning, parts 4, 2, and 3 were written, respectively; then 1 and 5 (in which order these extreme parts of the cycle were written, the composer himself found it difficult to recall) [4] .
A rough text of the work was completed on the eve of the departure of Dallapiccola to the USA (for teaching in the 1956–57 school year at Queens College in New York ) through Geneva on the night of August 12-13; the score was completed on the way [1] . On the last page of the composer the date was set: September 13, 1956, Flushing, New York . Thus, Dallapikkola last symbolically, posthumously, paid tribute to Schoenberg , as was already the case with “ Four poems by Antonio Machado ”, “ Three poems ” and “ Job ”, the completion of which was timed to coincide with the birthday of the “father of dodecafonia” [1 ] . The score was sent by the composer to the publishing house Suvini Zerboni on October 3, 1956 [1] .
Text and Structure
In “Five Songs”, Dallapikkola again (after “ Greek Lyrics ”) turned to poetic rethinking of ancient poetry by Salvatore Quasimodo, but now at a fundamentally new level: from free experiments he came to complete mastery of the technique. The writing consists of five parts:
- "Let's wait for the morning star ..." ( Ion of Chios ). Molto animato.
- "Golden birds, voiced, free ..." ( Anonymous ). Tranquillo; serenamente.
- “Acheron, which torments people ...” ( Licinius ). Rapinoso.
- “The mountains and the gorges are resting ...” ( Alkman ). Lentamente.
- "And I am burning, how long the stars are burning at night ..." ( Ivik ). Mosso; scorrevole.
The sequence of selected texts, according to the composer’s plan, reflects the course of human life from birth (dawn) to death (dusk). The musical structure is symmetrical and linked to the choice of lyrics. The symmetry of the structure corresponds to the symmetry of the series, whose second hexachord is the raskhod of the first inversion: [65e-208-197-t43] [5] .
In the center of the work, the fragment of the earth from Licinius, which symbolizes Dallapikkola: “ Acheron , // What torments people, // Infinitely seething source of crying and grief” [6] . Its centrality is emphasized by the five-fold ideogram of the Crucifixion, which makes “Five Songs” a tradition of “music for the eyes” of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and was inspired by the contemplation of the Crucifixion in the church of San Felice (the composer even sketched it), which daily prayers were an integral part daily routine of God-fearing Dallapikkoly.
The composer himself retrospectively noted the independence of his plan from others like him, in particular, pointing out that at the time of the composition he was not aware of the existence of the manuscript stored in the Condé Museum in Chantilly , where Baud Cordier’s play “My Beautiful ...” (“Belle bonne sage plaisante et gentille ”) was written out in the form of a heart [3] .
The choice of the series was originally dictated by the idea to depict the hands of Christ spread out on the cross by means of graphic means provided by the score. Before leaving for the United States, Dallapikkola specifically contacted the publisher on this occasion to secure a guarantee that it would be possible to realize it typographically [7] . In the ideogram elements of serial thinking, controlling the duration, as well as something akin to the “irreversible rhythms” of Messiaen are visible.
Place in the works of the composer
“Five Songs”, as well as Dallapikkol’s Concert on the Christmas Night of 1956, written a year later , gave decisive importance in the evolution of his musical language, and in 1956 considered the turning point to signify his full mastery of the pre-decaphon technique and the potential hidden in it, retrospectively confessed to Joseph Roufer in January 1961 during a conversation with him on the Berlin Radio as part of a program about contemporary Italian music [1] . The new stage of the composer’s creativity, which opens with “Five Songs,” was characterized by a complete rejection of the tonal center and any allusions to it, which were regularly present in the works of Dallapikkola earlier.
The Five Songs also continues the metric and timbre experiments begun in Goethe 's Songs of Poems (1953). The timbre as an independent parameter performs a structure-forming role in the construction of imprecise canons piercing the cycle [3] .
Composition
The composition is written for the baritone and chamber ensemble consisting of: flute and alto flute , harp and piano , clarinet “la” and bass clarinet , viola and cello . The final composition of the Dallapikkol ensemble came during the direct work on the score, realizing also the need to arrange the instruments by timbres with the release of four pairs of them [3] .
Dedication
“Five Songs” is dedicated to American composer Roger Sessions , a former close friend of the composer for several decades. Sheshens, in turn, responded to this courtesy by initiating his “Idyll Theocritus ” for soprano and two pianos in 1959 with Dallapikkol [2] .
First Performances
The world premiere of "Five Songs" unexpectedly for the composer was in jeopardy when baritone , considered as a soloist (and therefore Dallapikkola abandoned his original plan to write an essay for contralto ), having familiarized himself with the score, said that the essay is impracticable, and refused further cooperation [1] . As a result, the scandal nearly broke out, as the situation unprecedented in the entire history of the respectable Sprague Coolidge Foundation was developed and widely reported in the press (for the first time even the Washington Post editorial was devoted to music in this regard). Stravinsky on this occasion noted in one of his conversations with Robert Kraft : “A work like The Five Songs of Dallapikkol does not contain any problems associated with instrumental intervalals (his cross-shaped constructions in the spirit of George Herbert are designed for the eye and do not pose any difficulty for hearing; impossible to hear the musical image of the cross ). The difficulties here are entirely rhythmic, and the average musician must learn such a thing tact by tact ” [8] .
In the end, Singer was replaced by Frederick Fuller , and the world premiere took place on November 30, 1956 in Washington in the concert hall of the Library of Congress ; The European premiere took place in the framework of the “Music of Our Time” concert series on West German Radio in Cologne [1] . Dallapikkola hoped that Fisher-Diskau would sing, but eventually the baritone was performed by Eberhard Wächter (Fischer-Diskau later soloed in the German premiere of " Prayers ") [1] .
The world premiere and subsequent concerts convincingly showed that the composition is extremely difficult to perform. The composer would never have heard the composer fully satisfied his performance, highlighting, however, the work with “The Five Songs” by Boulez [9] . A series of disappointments even forced Dallapikkola, when at the beginning of 1959 in Milan another concert with “Five Songs” was being prepared under the management of Sherkhen , to ask his former student Berio to attend rehearsals and inform him about the success of musicians (to come to the concert only if there are grounds for then to hear his music the way it was written by him): unfortunately, Berio only saw glimpses of light at the last rehearsal, when inspired by the news of Dallapikkola could not arrive in Florence on time just Physically [9] . The recording of "Five Songs" with Sherhen (with a different composition) was published decades later, in 1990.
Records
- 1957: Ensemble of the Juilliard School of Music under the direction of , baritone Frederick Fuller . Concert recording February 1, 1957. Not published.
- 1958/90: Soloists of the orchestra. Alessandro Scarlatti under Pierre Boulez , baritone Teodoro Rovetta . Concert record June 9, 1958 in Naples. Published by the label "Stradivarius" (STR 10029).
- 1964/90: Soloists of the orchestra of the La Fenice Theater (Venice) under the direction of Hermann Scherchen , baritone ; a recording from a concert on September 8, 1964, published in 1990 on the disc “Stradivarius” (STR 10034).
- 1969: The same composition as the 1957 record. The recording was reprinted many times on the records of CBS Epic, and later on a CD: Philips Modern Music Series A 01526 L.
- 1979: “Arch Ensemble” conducted by Robert Hughes , baritone ; 1750 Arch Records S-1782. The criticism notes a high level of performance as a whole (Hughes took composition lessons from Dallapikkola in 1959-60 and knew his music well), but he pointed out gross soloist intonation errors, up to the free “transport” of individual phrases [10] . Despite this, the record should be considered the most artistically whole and convincing of all.
The Dallapiccola Archive in Florence is also available for viewing a number of other live recordings, including those made by Hans Rosbaud with baritone Derek Olsen in 1958 in Baden-Baden.
Bibliography
- Berio, Luciano . Ferry // Dallapiccola: letture e prospettive: atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Empoli-Firenze, 16-19 febbraio 1995): promosso e organizzato dal Centro studi musicali Ferruccio Busoni di Empoli. = La Traversata / a cura di Mila De Santis. - Lucca: LIM, 1997. pp. 67-72. - (Le Sfera). - ISBN 978870961729.
- Dallapikkola, Luigi. About “Five Songs” for baritone and eight instruments // Parole e musica = A proposito dei “Cinque Canti” per baritono e otto strumenti / A cura di Fiamma Nicolodi. Introd. di Gianandrea Gavazzeni. - Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1980. - p. 489-496. - ISBN 9783885830054 .
- Alegant, Brian. Dallapiccola's serial Odyssey. Cinque Canti // The Twelve-Tone Music of Luigi Dallapiccola. - New York: University of Rochester Press, 2010. - P. 200-204. - (Eastman Studies in Music). - ISBN 978-1-58046-325-6 .
- Dahl, Ingolf. Review: Cinque canti per baritono e alcuni strumenti by Luigi Dallapiccola; An Mathilde, eine Kantate für Frauenstimme und Orchester by Luigi Dallapiccola // Notes. - Music Library Association, 1958. - Vol. 15 , no. 4 - p . 656 .
- Dapogny, James Elliot. Cinque Canti // Style and Method in Three Compositions of Luigi Dallapiccola (PhD diss.). - Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois, D.Mus.A., 1971. - p. 24-62.
- Fearn, Raymond. Cinque Canti // The Music of Luigi Dallapiccola. - New York: University of Rochester Press, 2003. - P. 200-204. - (Eastman Studies in Music). - ISBN 978-1-58046-347-8 .
- Michel, Pierre. Timbro, ricerca sonora e scrittura nelle ultime opere de Dallapiccola (1950–1970) // Dallapiccola: letture e prospettive: atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Empoli-Firenze, 16-19 febbraio 1995): promosso e organizzato dal Centro et chiro-anti- empiro ïyentro de nirile et al. Busoni di Empoli. / a cura di Mila De Santis. - Lucca: LIM, 1997. - p. 157-182. - (Le Sfera). - ISBN 978870961729. (not available link)
- Ruffini, Mario. Cinque canti // L'opera di Luigi Dallapiccola. Catalogo Ragionato. - Milano: Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, 2002. - p. 259-263. - ISBN 88-900691-0-4 .
- Wildberger, Jacques. Dallapiccolas "Cinque Canti" // Melos: Zeitschrift für Neue Musik. - Mainz, 1959. - Vol. 1 . - p . 7-10 .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kämper, Dietrich. Tra Europa e Stati Uniti // Luigi Dallapiccola. La vita e l'opera. - Firenze: Sansoni Editore, 1985. - P. 207-216.
- ↑ 1 2 Scalfaro, Anna. Capitolo II. Luigi Dallapiccola: dir Liriche greche ai Cinque Canti // I Lirici Greci di Quasimodo: un ventennio di recezione musicale (Tesi di dottorato). - Università di Bologna, 2007. - P. 110-181.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Dallapikkola, Luigi. About “Five Songs” for baritone and eight instruments // Parole e musica = A proposito dei “Cinque Canti” per baritono e otto strumenti / A cura di Fiamma Nicolodi. Introd. di Gianandrea Gavazzeni. - Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1980. - p. 489-496. - ISBN 9783885830054 .
- ↑ Nathan, Hans. About Dallapiccola's working methods = On Dallapiccola's Working Methods // Perspectives of New Music. - 1977. - Vol. 15 , no. 2 - p . 34-57 .
- ↑ In digital notation.
- ↑ In trans. with it. P. Stupina
- ↑ Dallapikkola, Luigi. Letters to the publishing house “Suvini Zerboni” dated July 23, 1956 and May 25, 1957. Given in the monograph of Kemper : Kämper, Dietrich. Luigi Dallapiccola. La vita e l'opera. - Firenze: Sansoni Editore, 1985. - P. 213.
- ↑ Stravinsky, I. F. Dialogues. - L .: Music, 1971. - p. 248.
- ↑ 1 2 165. Dallapiccola - Mila (25 febbraio 1959) // Tempus aedificandi. Luigi Dallapiccola - Massimo Mila. Carteggio 1933-1975 / a cura di Livio Aragona; prefazione di Pierluigi Petrobelli. - Milano: Ricordi, 2005. - P. 220-221. - 428 p. - ISBN 8875927987 .
- ↑ Eckert, Michael. Luigi Dallapiccola: Review of New Recordings // Perspectives of New Music. - 1983. - V. 21 , No. 1/2 . - p . 410-416 .