Pines of Rome

Last updated
Pini di Roma
Pines of Rome
Tone poem by Ottorino Respighi
Native nameI Pini di Roma
Catalogue P 141
Composed1924 (1924)
DurationApprox. 21 minutes
Movements4
Premiere
Date14 December 1924 (1924-12-14)
Location Rome, Italy
Conductor Bernardino Molinari
PerformersAugusteo Orchestra

Pines of Rome (Italian : Pini di Roma), P 141, is a tone poem in four movements for orchestra completed in 1924 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It's the second of his three tone poems about Rome, following Fontane di Roma (1916) and preceding Feste Romane (1928). Each movement depicts a setting in the city with pine trees, specifically those in the Villa Borghese gardens, near a catacomb, on the Janiculum Hill, and along the Appian Way. The premiere was held at the Teatro Augusteo in Rome on 14 December 1924, with Bernardino Molinari conducting the Augusteo Orchestra, and the piece was published by Casa Ricordi in 1925.

Contents

Overview

The piece consists of four movements, for which Respighi wrote programmatic notes describing each scene: [1] [2] [3]

  1. "I pini di Villa Borghese" ("The Pines of the Villa Borghese")  Allegretto vivace
  2. "Pini presso una catacomba" ("Pines Near a Catacomb") Lento
  3. "I pini del Gianicolo" ("The Pines of the Janiculum") Lento
  4. "I pini della via Appia" ("The Pines of the Appian Way") Tempo di marcia

Respighi completed I Pini di Roma in the summer of 1924, after he had "conceived, started and restarted" work on the piece in the course of several years. Having relocated from his hometown of Bologna to Rome in 1913, Respighi said that the city's "marvellous fountains" and "umbrella-like pines that appear in every part of the horizon" were two characteristics that "[have] spoken to my imagination above all". [4] This influence resulted in the first of his three tone poems about Rome, the Fontane di Roma (1916), which brought him international fame.

Authors Rehding and Dolan observed that the piece is cyclical in nature in different ways; the Villa Borghese gardens, the Janiculum hill, and the Appian Way pinpoint a counter-clockwise tour around Rome's perimeter, and the four movements progress from day to night, and ending with dawn. [2] The setting of each movement goes back in time, from children playing in the contemporary city to the era of the catacombs from the early Christian period, before it concludes at the time of the Roman Republic. The piece also represents progressing through time, beginning with children playing and ending with grown men in uniform. All the while, the Janiculum hill is dedicated to Janus, the god of beginnings, endings, and transitions, and has two faces, both of which looks both forward and back in time. [2]

Movements

"I pini di Villa Borghese"

Pine trees in the Villa Borghese gardens Piazza di Siena.jpg
Pine trees in the Villa Borghese gardens

This movement portrays children playing by the pine trees in the Villa Borghese gardens, dancing the Italian equivalent of the nursery rhyme "Ring a Ring o' Roses" and "mimicking marching soldiers and battles; twittering and shrieking like swallows". [5] The Villa Borghese, a villa located within the grounds, is a monument to the Borghese family, who dominated the city in the early seventeenth century. Respighi's wife Elsa recalled a moment in late 1920, when Respighi asked her to sing the melodies of songs that she sang while playing in the gardens as a child as he transcribed them, and found he had incorporated the tunes in the first movement. [6]

Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf

"Pini presso una catacomba"

In the second movement, the children suddenly disappear and shadows of pine trees that overhang the entrance of a Roman catacomb dominate. [5] It is a majestic dirge, conjuring up the picture of a solitary chapel in the deserted Campagna; open land, with a few pine trees silhouetted against the sky. A hymn is heard (specifically the Kyrie ad libitum 1, Clemens Rector; and the Sanctus from Mass IX, Cum jubilo), the sound rising and sinking again into some sort of catacomb, the cavern in which the dead are immured. An offstage trumpet plays the Sanctus hymn. Lower orchestral instruments, plus the organ pedal at 16′ and 32′ pitch, suggest the subterranean nature of the catacombs, while the trombones and horns represent priests chanting.

Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf

"I pini del Gianicolo"

The end of the third movement features this recording of the song of a nightingale which Respighi incorporated into the score.

The third is a nocturne set on the Janiculum hill and a full moon shining on the pines that grow on it. Respighi called for the clarinet solo at the beginning to be played "come in sogno" ("As if in a dream"). [4] [7]

The movement is known for the sound of a nightingale that Respighi requested to be played on a phonograph during its ending, which was considered innovative for its time and the first such instance in music. In the original score, Respighi calls for a specific gramophone record to be played–"Il canto dell'Usignolo" ("Song of a Nightingale, No. 2") from disc No. R. 6105, the Italian pressing of the disc released across Europe by the Gramophone Record label between 1911 and 1913. [8] The original pressing was released in Germany in 1910, and was recorded by Karl Reich and Franz Hampe. It is the first ever commercial recording of a live bird. [8] Respighi also called for the disc to be played on a Brunswick Panatrope record player. There are incorrect claims that Respighi recorded the nightingale himself, or that the nightingale was recorded in the yard of the McKim Building of the American Academy in Rome, also situated on Janiculum hill. [9]

Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf

"I pini della via Appia"

Pines on the Appian Way Minturno Via-Appia.jpg
Pines on the Appian Way

Respighi recalls the past glories of the Roman Empire in a representation of dawn on the great military road leading into Rome. The final movement portrays pine trees along the Appian Way (Latin and Italian: Via Appia) in the misty dawn, as a triumphant legion advances along the road in the brilliance of the newly-rising sun. Respighi wanted the ground to tremble under the footsteps of his army and he instructs the organ to play bottom B on the 8′, 16′ and 32′ organ pedals. The score calls for six buccine – ancient circular trumpets that are usually represented by modern flugelhorns, and which are sometimes played offstage. Trumpets peal and the consular army rises in triumph to the Capitoline Hill. One day prior to the final rehearsal, Respighi revealed to Elsa that the crescendo of "I Pini della Via Appia" made him feel "'an I-don’t-know-what' in the pit of his stomach", and the first time that a work he had imagined turned out how he wanted it. [4]

Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf

Instrumentation

The score of Pines of Rome calls for a large orchestra consisting of three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets in B and A, bass clarinet in B and A, two bassoons, contrabassoon; four horns in F and E, three trumpets in B, an offstage trumpet in C, two tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, six buccine in B (two sopranos, two tenors, two basses; usually played on flugelhorns and saxhorns); a percussion section with timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, two small cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, ratchet, tambourine, glockenspiel; organ, piano, celesta; harp; gramophone; and strings.

Performances and recordings

Use in film and elsewhere

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flugelhorn</span> Brass musical instrument

The flugelhorn, also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some are in C. It is a type of valved bugle, developed in Germany in the early 19th century from a traditional English valveless bugle. The first version of a valved bugle was sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax with the inspiration for his B soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modelled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appian Way</span> Roman road

The Appian Way is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius, of Appia longarum... regina viarum . The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who, during the Samnite Wars, began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cor anglais</span> Woodwind musical instrument

The cor anglais, or English horn, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto oboe in F.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms)</span> Piano concerto by Brahms

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B major, Op. 83, by Johannes Brahms is separated by a gap of 22 years from his first piano concerto. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. It took him three years to work on this concerto, which indicates that he was always self-critical. He wrote to Clara Schumann: "I want to tell you that I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo." Ironically, he was describing a huge piece. This concerto is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen. The public premiere of the concerto was given in Budapest on 9 November 1881, with Brahms as soloist and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, and was an immediate success. He proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottorino Respighi</span> Italian composer and musicologist (1879–1936)

Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa Borghese gardens</span> Landscape garden in Rome, Italy

Villa Borghese is a landscape garden in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums and attractions. It is the third-largest public park in Rome, after the ones of the Villa Doria Pamphili and Villa Ada. The gardens were developed for the Villa Borghese Pinciana, built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese, who used it as a villa suburbana, or party villa, at the edge of Rome, and to house his art collection. The gardens as they are now were remade in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albano Laziale</span> Comune in Lazio, Italy

Albano Laziale is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, on the Alban Hills, in the Italian region of Lazio. Rome is 25 kilometres (16 mi) distant. It is bounded by other communes of Castel Gandolfo, Rocca di Papa, Ariccia and Ardea. Located in the Castelli Romani area of Lazio. It is sometimes known simply as Albano.

B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor.

Roman Festivals, P 157 is a tone poem in four movements for orchestra completed in 1928 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It is the last of his three tone poems about Rome, following Fountains of Rome (1916) and Pines of Rome (1924), which he referred to as a triptych. Each movement depicts a scene of celebration in ancient and contemporary Rome, specifically gladiators battling to the death, the Christian Jubilee, a harvest and hunt festival, and a festival in the Piazza Navona. Musically, the piece is the longest and most demanding of Respighi's Roman trilogy.

Fountains of Rome, P 106, is a tone poem in four movements completed in 1916 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It is the first of his three tone poems about Rome, preceding Pines of Rome (1924) and Roman Festivals (1928). Each movement depicts a setting at one of Rome's fountains at a different time of the day, specifically the Valle Giulia, Triton, Trevi, and Villa Medici. The premiere was held at the Teatro Augusteo on 11 March 1917, with Antonio Guarnieri conducting the Augusteo Orchestra. Respighi was disheartened at its initial mild reception and put away the score, until the piece was re-evaluated by the public following a February 1918 performance by conductor Arturo Toscanini which brought the composer international fame. The piece was published by Casa Ricordi in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor de Sabata</span> Italian conductor and composer

Victor Alberto de Sabata was an Italian conductor and composer. He is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished operatic conductors of the twentieth century, especially for his Verdi, Puccini and Wagner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernardino Molinari</span>

Bernardino Molinari was an Italian conductor.

An offstage instrument or choir part in classical music is a sound effect used in orchestral and opera which is created by having one or more instrumentalists from a symphony orchestra or opera orchestra play a note, melody, or rhythm from behind the stage, or having a choir of singers sing a melody from behind the stage.

Ancient Airs and Dances is a set of three orchestral suites by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, freely transcribed from original pieces for lute. In addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, Respighi was also a notable musicologist. His interest in music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods led him to compose works inspired by the music of these periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vigna Randanini</span> Jewish catacombs situated near the Appian Way near Rome, Italy

The Vigna Randanini are Jewish Catacombs between the second and third miles of the Appian Way close to the Christian catacombs of Saint Sebastian, with which they were originally confused. The catacombs date between the 2nd and 5th-centuries CE, and take their name from the owners of the land when they were first formally discovered and from the fact that the land was used as a vineyard (vigna). While Vigna Randanini are just one of the two Jewish catacombs in Rome open to the public, they can only be visited by appointment. They are situated below a restaurant and a private villa and entrance is from the Via Appia Pignatelli side. These catacombs were discovered by accident in 1859, although there is evidence that they had been pillaged before then. They cover an area of 18,000 square metres and the tunnels are around 700 metres long, of which around 400 can be seen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appian Way Regional Park</span> Large archaeological park in Rome, Italy

The Appian Way Regional Park is the second-largest urban park of Europe, after Losiny Ostrov National Park in Moscow. It is a protected area of around 4580 hectares, established by the Italian region of Latium. It falls primarily within the territory of Rome but parts also extend into the neighbouring towns of Ciampino and Marino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Rome</span> Overview of and topical guide to Rome

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Rome:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa Gabrielli</span>

Villa Gabrielli was an urban villa in Rome. It once comprised a large plot of land on the northernmost part of the Janiculum, just west of the Tiber. Today its land has been divided among the present campuses of the Pontifical North American College and the Pontifical Urban University. The construction of various buildings from 1869 until the present day has significantly altered the original layout of the villa's park, which survived largely intact into the twentieth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Municipio VII</span> Municipio of Rome in Lazio, Italy

Municipio Roma VII is the seventh administrative subdivision of the Municipality of Rome (Italy).

References

  1. Ferguson 1968, p. 458.
  2. 1 2 3 Rehding & Dolan 2021, p. 448.
  3. "Program Notes - Respighi: Pines of Rome". San Francisco Symphony. May 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Dotsey, Calvin (7 January 2020). "The March of Time: Respighi's Pines of Rome". Houston Symphony. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 Ferguson 1968, p. 459.
  6. Rehding & Dolan 2021, p. 454.
  7. Rehding & Dolan 2021, p. 450.
  8. 1 2 Rehding & Dolan 2021, p. 443.
  9. Brody 2014, p. 17.
  10. "What's On / Programme Notes - Pines of Rome (1923–4)". BBC Proms 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  11. Frank, p. 75
  12. Borowski and Upton, p. 391
  13. Presto Classical
  14. "0x61.com" . Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  15. Respighi: Pines of Rome & Fountains of Rome and Debussy: La mer|Presto Classical
  16. Respighi: Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; Debussy: La Mer - Fritz Reiner|AllMusic
  17. SHINE A LIGHT: THE ART OF BRUCE CONNER-Artfourm International
  18. The Creepy World of Bruce Conner-by J. Hoberman-NYR Daily-The New York Review of Books
  19. City Of Love by Yes on official YouTube channel
  20. Places in Time: The Pines of Rome-San Diego Symphony
  21. Fantasia/2000 (film) - D23

Bibliography