The Songs of Giacomo Puccini Laurie Domingue Lester
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 The Songs of Giacomo Puccini Laurie Domingue Lester Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC THE SONGS OF GIACOMO PUCCINI By LAURIE DOMINGUE LESTER A Treatise submitted to the College of Music In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2007 The members of the Committee approve the treatise of Laurie Domingue Lester on October 4, 2007. ______________________________ Stanford Olsen Professor directing treatise ______________________________ Jane Piper Clendinning Outside Committee Member ______________________________ Douglas Fisher Committee Member The office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank Professor Stanford Olsen for his guidance and support during my time at Florida State University and beyond. I would also like to express my thanks to the members of my committee, past and present, Dr. Jerrold Pope, Larry Gerber, Douglas Fisher, and Dr. Jane Clendinning, for their time and help on this treatise. My parents, Ed and Annette Domingue, have been a constant source of support and encouragement throughout my education. Thank you for travelling to and attending the many recitals and performances over the years, as well as always encouraging me to continue developing my musical talents. Finally, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my husband, Jason. Thank you for your encouragement, patience, and continuous support during this time. You have been there for everything and I have enjoyed sharing each step of this journey with you, and I look forward to where the road leads us next. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Examples v Abstract vii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. PUCCINI‟S EARLY SONGS 3 3. THE MILAN CONSERVATORY PERIOD 8 4. SONGS FROM 1888-1899 19 5. PUCCINI‟S SONGS FROM 1902-1919 30 6. PUCCINI‟S OPERATIC SELF-BORROWING 41 7. CONCLUSION 47 APPENDICES: A. SONG CHART 49 B. SCORE PERMISSION LETTERS 50 BIBLIOGRAPHY 52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 56 iv LIST OF EXAMPLES 2.1 Puccini “A te” (1875) 5 2.2 Puccini “La Primavera” (1880) 6 3.1 Puccini “Salve Regina” (1882) 11 3.2 Puccini “Ad una morta!” (1883) 13 3.3 Puccini “Storiella d‟amore” (1883) 15 3.4 Puccini “Mentia l‟avviso” (1883) 17 3.5 Puccini “Mentia l‟avviso” (1883) 18 4.1 Puccini “Sole e amore” (1888) 21 4.2 Puccini “Ave Maria Leopolda” (1896) 22 4.3 Puccini “Avanti, Urania!” (1896) 25 4.4 Puccini “Inno a Diana” (1897) 26 4.5 Puccini “E l‟uccellino” (1899) 28 5.1 Puccini “Terra e mare” (1902) 31 5.2 Puccini “Canto d‟anime” (1904) 33 5.3 Puccini “Casa mia, casa mia” (1908) 35 v 5.4 Puccini “Sogno d‟or” (1912) 36 5.5 Puccini “Morire?” (1917) 38 5.6 Puccini “Inno a Roma” (1919) 40 6.1 Puccini “Angiol di Dio” (1883) 42 6.2 Puccini “Donna non vidi mai” (1893) 43 6.3 Puccini “Dunque è proprio finita” (1896) 45 6.4 Puccini “Paris, ja das ist die Stadt” (1920) 46 vi ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to examine the songs for solo voice with piano accompaniment by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), observing the composer‟s evolving compositional style, as well as the songs‟ place in the modern voice studio. Puccini‟s seventeen songs can be divided into four periods in his life: the early years from 1875-1880, the Milan Conservatory years of 1880-1884, songs from 1888-1899, and his final song period from 1902- 1919. Puccini‟s songs vary widely in their level of difficulty and ranges, and they can be used as useful tools in the voice studio to address many issues a vocal student might face. Although Puccini is known for the beautiful melodies from his twelve operas, many of which continue to be part of the standard repertoire today, several of those melodies were first used in his songs before he included them in his operas. This paper also examines Puccini‟s practice of borrowing source material from his previously composed songs for use in his operas. vii CHAPTER 1 Introduction Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), known worldwide as an accomplished composer of operas and renowned for his beautiful melodies and great soprano heroines, also wrote lesser- known songs of varying quality for solo voice throughout his life. While Puccini wrote twelve operas, many of which continue to be performed today in the standard repertoire, his solo voice compositions are virtually unknown. These compositions include songs, fragments of songs, liturgical pieces, arias, and some early duets. Some of these songs are known and have been recorded by various artists, while others are more obscure. Still others have become known only since the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this paper, the author will examine the solo songs written for voice with piano accompaniment, considering their artistic and technical merit and whether or not they deserve a place in the modern vocal studio. In so doing, the author will employ scores that have been available for many years and additional sources that have become known as recently as 2004, including fragments of songs previously thought lost and the full realizations by Puccini scholars of songs that previously had incomplete accompaniment. In order to organize this material in a sensible fashion, the author has chosen to divide Puccini‟s seventeen extant songs chronologically into four separate periods. These coincide, respectively, with his childhood and youth in Lucca, his early years in Milan, the years that correspond with the premieres of some of his successful operas, and his mature style period.1 The first period includes works Puccini composed as a young man living in Lucca, Italy from 1875 to 1880. This period includes the one early extant song, a duet, and a recently discovered song. In the second period, there are Puccini‟s compositions as a student in Milan before his first opera, Le Villi, premiered on May 31, 1884. These compositions include more sophisticated and extended songs for various voice types as well as incidental music written for a melodrama and a liturgical piece. A third compositional period from 1888 to 1899, includes five songs, several of which were composed for or dedicated to friends. The final period coincides with Puccini‟s mature-style period, composed at his villa in Torre del Lago between 1902 and 1919. Songs 1 Michael Kaye, introduction to The Unknown Puccini (New York, Oxford University Press, 1987), p.xiii. 1 from this period were written while Puccini was recognized as an accomplished composer of opera and include pieces he wrote to benefit a particular organization or city. It is well-documented that Puccini borrowed from melodies he had previously written in other works and re-used them later in his operas. In order to effectively compare Puccini‟s songs with his operatic self-borrowing, I have chosen to print excerpts from piano/vocal scores instead of full scores, as the piano reduction will display the similarities to the original song more concisely and legibly. Chapter 6 will discuss those borrowings with references and examples, including the use of the above mentioned excerpts. 2 CHAPTER 2 Puccini’s Early Years (1875–1880) Puccini‟s earliest songs date from 1875 to 1880, when he was still living in his hometown of Lucca. In 1876, at the age of eighteen, Puccini and a friend walked from Lucca to Pisa, approximately eleven miles away, to see a performance of Giuseppe Verdi‟s Aida.2 After that performance, Puccini recognized the passion of his life and decided to break from the family tradition of four generations of church musicians to pursue opera.3 The first period includes two early solo songs, “A te” and “La primavera,” and two duets: “Vexilla a due voci,” for tenor and bass voice, was written around 1878, and “Beata viscera” for soprano and alto voice, was written around 1875.4 As this paper will only be discussing Puccini‟s songs for solo voice, these duets will not be examined in this document. Based on an anonymous poem, “A te” (To you) is thought to have been Puccini‟s first song, written in 1875 during his student days at the Istituto Musicale Pacini in Lucca.5 Puccini presented the manuscript of this song to the Istituto Musicale Pacini in 1901. “A te” is a song for solo voice with piano accompaniment on the theme of love. The poetry describes a restless, anxious lover who desires a kiss that would enable him to forget everything. Although Puccini himself did not specify for which voice type this song was written, the Boccaccini and Spada Edition of 1996 indicates the song should be performed by a soprano or tenor.6 The range of this song in the score is A3 to F#5, suggesting that it might be more appropriate for a mezzo-soprano or baritone (singing an octave lower), as a low voiced singer could access the multiple pitches written below C4 more easily than a tenor or soprano.7 “A te” lies mainly between F4 to D5; 2 Gabriela Biagi Ravenni and Michele Girardi, “Giacomo Puccini,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, vol. 15 (New York: Macmillan, 1994), p. 567. 3 Ibid. 4 Michael Kaye, The Unknown Puccini, p. 13. 5 Giacomo Puccini, introduction to Songs for Voice and Piano, ed. Michael Kaye (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), p.