J. Gehring – O. Huck

La notazione 'italiana' del Trecento

'Italian' notation – in opposition to 'French' notation, that rather should be called 'international' – in the present paper is delimited to notation using a punctus divisionis continuously. All Trecento sources exhibiting this feature are explored with regard to the use and meaning of the notational signs within the divisio. On the basis of two new concordances to the Rossi Codex, the variability of 'Italian' notation, as a phenomenon existing from its beginning, is displayed. Criteria such as applying the principle of via naturae, the downward stemmed semibrevis, the implementation of new notational signs as those featuring a diagonal stem on the left side, or the direction of the flags of semiminimae lead to the identification of temporal and regional distinguishable or even individual notational practices.

 

P. Ostuni

Il Chitarrone 'col suono solo' e la sua destinazione 'in seguitare queli che cantano': la riscoperta del 'Libro terzo d'intavolatura di chitarone' di Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (Roma, 1626)*

The recent rediscovery of Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger's Libro terzo d'intavolatura di Chitarrone, now at Yale, adds a major item to the theorbo solo repertoire. Yet the relevance of the event goes beyond the mere availability of another source. Kapsberger was a unique artist in early 17th-century Rome, and the Libro terzo offers a deeper insight in his instrumental opus. Also, it sheds new light on the development of highly idiomatic musical styles for certain instruments—a process in which lute, and chitarrone in particular, played a relevant role.

When Kapsberger's Libro primo d'intavolatura di Chitarrone (Venice, 1604) appeared, it bore the signs «of flashing modernity» (Orlando Cristoforetti) pre-dating, as it did, stylistic/expressive devices later to be found in Frescobaldi's opus. The Libro terzo, with its tables «per sonar sopra la parte», displays such innovations at a riper stage, their meaning looking clearer as well. First, a continuo part is associated to the tablature—an almost unique occurrence in plucked string music. Secondly, one four-part and one five-part madrigali passeggiati are found in a book for solo instrument, showing that the composer was ready to meet demands and requests from a sophisticated environment—the accademie, always ready to jump on any and every musical novelty. The Libro terzo appeared in 1626, and it is perhaps no coincidence that the Roman première of Monteverdi's Orfeo took place in the same year.

After eight toccatas, a gagliarda partita and two correnti, the Libro terzo has an entire section including «passaggi diversi su le note per sonare sopra la parte», cadenzas in tablature, a rich «tavola per intavolare sopra il Chitarrone, alla Italiana et alla Francese,» and even a «tavola per sonare il chitarrone sopra il basso»—all clearly showing Kapsberger's interest in the new trends. This practical tutorial, meant for chitarrone players, has no equivalent in the theorbo printed literature. It does have some in the contemporary Spanish guitar one—evidence that chitarrone playing reached amateurs as well.

In early 17th century, no updated music-theory concepts were at hand and the rift between composers' practice and orthodox theorists' speculation grew wider. From the tables included in the Libro terzo, we can now gain a clear, direct knowledge of the basic principles of harmonic sequence and combination—a most powerful tool to understand and discuss 17th-century Italian music.

 

M. De Giorgi

'Traslitterazione' e simbologia del linguaggio tonale nel Finale della 'Nona Sinfonia': L'Ultimo Beethoven Regista di se stesso

Taking its starting point from the so-called “fanfares of terror” which belong to the Ninth Symphony's instrumental finale, this article would like to highlight Beethovens distinctive ways and means of achieving an individual harmonic and tonal approach to composition, making his musical language the powerful mediator between word and music, as the two become indissolubly bonded with the programmatic idea, suggested by Schiller's “Ode to Joy”.

The composer's intention to search for a personal approach to the text of Schiller's ode is clearly disclosed by repeated attempts in opening the fourth movement. In his musical language, still instrumental at this point, he finds new means capable of extending the possibilities of musical expression beyond the limits of conventional compositional language.

In his compositional process, Beethoven works successfully out a meaningful network of metaphorical symbols culminating in the finale's three “fanfares of terror”, where the poetic idea of the Ninth reveals its true form as the quintessence of the germinal materials for the Symphony, at least in its earlier three movements, that is, before its harmonic-tonal, formal and conceptual transfiguration in the choral finale. By means of the powerful message of this symbolism the composer crosses an inner-musical horizon and raises “Tonkunst” to an universal instrument for comprehending the truth of human life. Beethoven thus becomes not only a true “poet of sounds”, who penetrates the meaning of Schiller's text, but moreover he succeeds in representing himself as “producer of his very self”, as bound up in his difficult and conflictual dealings with the object, the Symphony's underlying idea, i.e. the “Freude”. By creating a “music grown into word” Beethoven manages to represent extramusical, variously untranslatable events by musical means only. In doing so, he reveals his personal relationship with art, as well as with life, and imbues the Symphony and its musical conception with the towering value of a philosophical manifesto.

This contribution intends to shed new light, supported by concrete examples, on the whole plan of the Ninth Symphony, by trying to deal with late-Beethoven's musical thought from research's perspectives so far unexplored. The consciousness of the self in the musical language of the late Beethoven has, as its moral and philosophical contents, the hope for the self-transcendence of coercive norms (in his composition as well as in his life). All this is realized in the Ninth Symphony by a cogently reasoned symbolism, in which a profound change of the course of musical language germinates.

 

A. Alberti

'Uomini e no' di Niccolò Castiglioni: un'opera 'engagée' che non arrivò sulle scene

This essay deals with Niccolò Castiglioni's unissued opera, Uomini e no (“Men And Not”). Info is given on the whereabouts of its birth. Since 1953, and possibly for few years, Castiglioni had been a host in writer Elio Vittorini's circle. The plot was drawn from Vittorini's novel bearing the same title. The writer's son, Giusto Vittorini, wrote the libretto and Castiglioni set it to music in 1954-55. It was his first major work grounded in serialism—which, in this case, more or less boils down to classic tone-row techniques.

Contextualization is attempted in the left-wing politically engaged music-making of the Fifties. In those years, music/politics links were quite apparent in the choice of plots, in dedications and opening statements (which holds true both in general and in Castiglioni's case in particular) and in composers' own writings. The question tackled here is whether a composer's political engagement may be detected in musical language as well and, if so, how this may happen in Uomini e no. An answer is tried, after a close discussion of the opera, with its notational, rhythmic and formal devices (special attention being given to Berg's influence) and after recapitulating the two main currents of musical criticism which dealt with this same issue—namely, Adorno's modernist one and the conservative one, with its Zhdanov-like overtones.

In 1957, Uomini e no was scheduled at the Festival delle Novità, Bergamo, but Castiglioni withdrew it few months before. The incident is reconstructed in detail here. The official explanation is reported, alongside the hidden reasons emerging from the correspondence.

An appendix describes the manuscript. Special attention is given to its thickly layered directions, some possibly added just for the Bergamo planned première.