Verdi Forum

Number 13 Article 6

1-1-1985 Abstract: Compositional Emendations in Verdi's Autograph Scores: Il trovatore, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera James A. Hepokoski Oberlin College

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Recommended Citation Hepokoski, James A. (1985) "Abstract: Compositional Emendations in Verdi's Autograph Scores: Il trovatore, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera," Verdi Forum: No. 13, Article 6. Available at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss13/6

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Verdi Forum by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract: Compositional Emendations in Verdi's Autograph Scores: Il trovatore, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera

Keywords Giuseppe Verdi, compositional process, Il trovatore, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera

This article is available in Verdi Forum: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss13/6 Abst:ra.cts

AIVS-AMS (Fall 1983)

Compositional Emendations in Verdi•s A~tog:raph Scores: T £. ::C?l-o va:::t::.o.?Le.,, La. ::C?La.v...La:::t::.a.,, Un ba..£.£..o ...Ln rna...6C-he..?La. by James A. Hepokoski, Oberlin College

It is by now well known autograph scores of ll tJtova­ that Verdi's first task in to/f.e, La tltaviata, and Un ballo producing a manuscript orches­ ht mMc.he/la. The Il tltovato/f.e tral score of his mature operas examples deal with deleted was to lay out a "skeleton ornaments and expanded phrases score." This is the basic in Leonora's Cavatina, "Tacea la framework or "skeleton" of what notte placida, " and the Count's will be expanded into the "Il balen del suo sorriso," and orchestral score--a filling-in with an early version of the of only two or three staves of opening of the Act I "Scena the large orchestral paper. Romanza e Terzetto," the first Only later, and sometimes much appearance of the Count di later, would the composer return Luna. From the La tltaviata to this skeleton score and fill autograph score one may recon­ in tho hannonios, Lholr :;pac­ u truct an oarly vor:..:ion of ings, the instrumental doubl- Violetta's celebrated "Addie del ings: the entire orchestra- passato" that differs in tion. Typically, as Verdi striking ways from the final expanded his work orchestrally, version, most notably in its he often revised it ·as well, absence of oboe interpolations erasing and scraping away his midway through the aria and in a earlier ideas to replace them different melodic line at the with new ones. In principle, climactic words, "al desio, I A then, one ought to be able to lei, deh perdona. " And from the '"rediscover" the skeleton scores Un ballo in 1111U>c.he/f.a manuscript within the autograph manuscripts an early version of Amelia's Act by ignoring what are clearly III p/f.eglU.ella, "Morro, ma prima later layers of composition and in grazia," is recoverable. by restoring the relevant HP.re the numerous differences, erasures and deletions when they particularly at cadential are recoverable. This, in points, help to point out cen­ effect, retrieves an earlier tral structural relationships-­ draft embedded in the autograph e .g., an important d flat, d score. natural conflict--that are far This paper concerns a few more concealed, but no less restored skeleton-score f rag­ central, in the final version. ments (including restorations of The manuscript scores of Verdi's erasures) that differ in operas provide a hitherto almost provocative ways from their untapped source for evidence of respective final versions in the his compositional emendations. 42