A Mass Almost by Chance 19

A Mass almost by Chance 19 A Mass almost by Chance Perhaps people want to be indulgent orchestra. The ample introductory towards the "sins of my old age", volume to the recent critical edition or perhaps it seems inopportune to promoted by the Fondazione Rossini refer repeatedly to the occasiona[ of Pesaro, besides the usual philo moment of tiredness - w ho does no t logical restoration, effects what in suffer from them?- but it is certain our terminology we call a "genetic" that in general people prefer not to examination of the score. In other mention, or at least only to whisper, words, on the basis of the state of a quite widely held opinion ... the paper, of the handwriting, of the Which is this. The orchestral version types ofink, ofthe weight ofthe pen ofthe Petite messe solennelle is said stroke, and above all of the continual to be nothing more than a transcrip modifications introduced during the tion done as a mere duty. Perhaps course ofthe work, has succeeded in Rossini might have avoided doing indentifying the layers of composi it. Why would he have wanted to or tion, and recognizing at least eight chestrate the original for two pianos different moments spread over the and harmonium which had been so six years ofwork on the Petite messe, successful? That is the masterpiece, the years preceding his death (1868). while this other- its arthritic sym In the beginning Rossini had merely phonic expansion - looks like a bu conceived an important sacred reaucratic homage to contemporary work for eight voices and piano, fashion, with no appeal today, other then, following a continuous proc than curiosity about the operation. ess of expansion, additions to and Certainly in recent years excellent re-organizations of the work, he put performances of the orchestra[ ver together the composition as we know sion have appeared, but the impres it today, lasting nearly two hours, sion remains that this has happened the orchestral version ofwhich is its more for the sake of the singers t han apotheosis. for the intrinsic merits of Rossini's The symphonic ideal that Rossini sco re. conceives for the Petite messe is far from the great masses ofperformers The recently published study of the typical of sacred works in the second two Rossini autographs, that of the half ofthe nineteenth century. I t is a "chamber" version and the follow c ho ice going against all the tendency ing "orchestral'' one, has allowed us ofexpansion to which the symphonic to understand the motives behind works of t ha t period were inclining. this double publication and, at the The phonic weight of the numerous same time, has revealed how far the body of wind instruments must, performances that we are used to however, have sounded less inva hearing might seem from Rossini's sive than they would when modern intentions, particularly those with instruments are used, so that only a 20 Petite messe solennelle moderate number ofstrings is neces completely ideological, to push the sary to balance them. version for two pianos and harmo The unifying harmonic factor is nium (more often limited tojust one assigned to the organ, which is not piano), the unusual scoring ofwhich given a real solo role. To this rough supported the eccentric image that and severe orchestration, that has people had of the composer. Worse: no part in late Romantic symphonic the chamber version encouraged the opulence, Rossini adds a chorus of anti-catholic and modernist cause, just a few voices in which the solos the real reason for the success that do not contrast with the full chorus was attributed to its miniature for but are an integrai part ofthem. In mat. The embarrassment of ecclesi fact, Rossini prescribes that the solo astica[ circles concerning the use of ists must always sing along with the the piano- an instrument foreign to chorus, as though the Mass had been church use - together with a sing thought of just for four solo voices, ing style occasionally too "operatic", supported, if you like, by a little made the "chamber" version beloved choir useful for varying the body of of the left-wing avant-garde: some sound and the timbric depth of the among them discovered that the use leading parts. ofkeyboard instruments anticipated The full score of the Petite messe such pieces as Stravinskij's Les poses more problems t han o ne o n the N oces. I n fact, the piano an d harmo performance level: the relationship nium, solo or together, were instru between the soloists and the chorus, ments often used for concerts in the the balance between the sections of houses ofSecond Empire aristocrats; the orchestra, the balance between and they were frequently used for the orchestra and the chorus. The domestic performances ofsacred mu first performances of the orchestrai sic, at least before the advent of the version, all following the composer's Cecilian reform that would destine death and all in theatres or concert sacred music to more severe styles. halls, sought to compensate what In 1919, in a climate imbued with was seen as a limited orchestra the affirmation of national identity, tion by expanding the weight of the Vittorio Podrecca published an arti instrumentation and of the chorus. cle in the periodical "Il primato artis The effect was to annihilate, under tico italiano" dedicated to Barbara too many decibels of o ne sole colour, M archisio, o ne of the origina l inter the expertly fine handiwork that preters ofthe Mass, who had recently Rossini had expended on the al died. Podrecca had the eighty-six ternating use of the most differing year-old singer, whom he had meta types of wind instruments (trumpets few months earlier, say that Rossini with and without piston, chromatic had preferred the version "with only cornets, an ophicleide) and also on piano and harmonium, just as we the highly delicate rapport between sang it". The writer, who had met soloists and instruments. A ne w li ne the eighty-six year-old singer in the ofinterpretation could be opened by preceding weeks, in an atmosphere of considering the Petite messe an in Rossinian nostalgia, was in fact pro timate composition, to be performed moting modern wishful thinking. It in some sheltered and reverberant is, however, clear that Rossini could alcove in a church. not "prefer" anything, for the simple Besides the lack of understanding reason that at the time ofthe episode that Rossini's score aroused, {rom recalled by Marchisio the Mass had the beginning of the twentieth cen not yet been orchestrated. tury there was an explicit campaign, In the end the existence of two dif- A Mass almost by Chance 21 ferent scorings weighed against the Gabrielis, the Bach family. Nieder orchestra[ version. People became meyer would also publish, together more and more convinced that the with Joseph Louis d'Ortige, a treaty transcription had bee n a narcissistic on how to accompany plainchant, act of Rossini's, simply to prevent a text in some ways symbolic and a anyone else from getting his hands precursor, perhaps inadvertently, of on it. The alibi was used to neglect that rather artificial "Cecilian" taste the apparently more canonical ver which would characterize church sion - but, on the contrary, it was music far aver a century. precisely the orchestra[ version that Niedermeyer's premature death on presented itself as a really "revolu the 14 March 1861left a significant tionary" contribution to music. gap in Parisian culturallife, no less In fact, during the long period of than in Rossini's. Perhaps even that time in which the Petite messe took summer - though the work is dated form, the idea of realizing a Mass, the following May - the composer even one sui generis, but with a sym occupied his days in his country phonic scoring suitable far church villa at Passy in composing a Kyrie use, got under way as early as 1864, in memory of his friend. From if no t earlier. Niedermeyer's Mass in B minor, his most successful work, Rossini After he had retired from writing extracted the Et incarnatus, the only far the theatre after Guillaume Tell a cappella [unaccompanied] sec (1829), Rossini had returned to Paris tion, changing the words to "Christe in 1843 to undergo medical treat eleison"; finally he set it between ment. On that occasion he had de two choral tableaux in which eight clined the invitation oftheAcadémie voices, accompanied by the piano, Royale de la Musique to dedicate sing "Kyrie eleison". In this curious himself to a pastiche that might in memoriam piece - perhaps con turn into a new opera. Three years ceived as one of the many Péchés de later the director of the Académie vieillesse ["Sins of my old age"]- the returned to the attack, sending the rapid and insistent rhythm of the composer Louis Niedermeyer to Bo piano stands aut, almost making the logna to propose the project again. immobility of the unaccompanied Perhaps because of the euphoria of Christe to his colleague's notes even the preparations far his marriage more unexpected and unreal. to Olympe Péllisier, perhaps be We do not know the reasons why this cause of his friendly feelings far his Kyrie, in just a few months, from fellow-composer, the fact remains being an homage to a friend, had that Rossini convinced himself to turned into the first part of a new accept. At the end of 1846 Paris saw Mass; not, however, the Mass as we the first night of Robert Bruce, a know it today, but a first sketch with re-hash ofLa donna del lago with a out the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, like new libretto and music interpolated others that Rossini had composed from other operas: Niedermeyer had in his youth, and as it was usual to perpetrated the arrangement and write them in Italy.

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