VERDI, "THE MASTER OF FAST TEMPOS" ("il maestro dei tempi celeri"), AND THE METRONOME !!!
In 1844, Geremia Vitali offered a description of tempo that seems to reflect Verdi’s own idea:
"Il tempo è . . . un principio essenziale dell'arte: è la vita, l'anima, l'energia fisicomorale d'ogni frase e d'ogni idea: è la scintilla che muove e caratterizza le passioni e i sentimenti della melodia: è il nerbo che collega e sostiene le forme dell'armonia: è il sangue che circola nelle sue vene".
"Il tempo è . . . un principio essenziale dell'arte: è la vita, l'anima, l'energia fisicomorale d'ogni frase e d'ogni idea: è la scintilla che muove e caratterizza le passioni e i sentimenti della melodia: è il nerbo che collega e sostiene le forme dell'armonia: è il sangue che circola nelle sue vene".
("Tempo is . . . an essential principle of the art of music; it is the
lift, the soul, the internal energy of every phrase and every idea; it
is the spark that arouses and distinguishes the passions and the
sentiments of the melody; it is the nerve that connects and sustains the
forms of the accompaniment; it is the blood that flows within its
veins".)
[Geremia Vitali, “Proposta d’un nuovo mezzo per determinare con esatezza i tempi musicali,” Gazzetta musicale di Milano 3, no. 20 (1844): 79-80.]
Emanuele Muzio's letter of 20 May 1844 to Antonio Barezzi, in which he mentions articles concerning tempo by Vitali in the "Gazzetta musicale di Milano", testifies to Verdi's familiarity with the well-known musical journal and his interest in its ongoing debate concerning the matter of tempo.
The real problem, of course, was the lack of a precise means for measuring "movimento". The seemingly obvious solution - already in use in other countries - was the metronome. But in Italy in both theory and practice, resistance to the metronome was strong. Reluctance to change established habits, tradition, pride, and even the cost of the device accounted for the unwillingness of musicians in "Primo Ottocento" Italy to adopt it.
Despite objections, however, gradually the metronome began to meet with greater tolerance in Italy, as a series of articles by Luigi Casamorata in Ricordi's "Gazzetta musicale di Milano" during February and March 1846 attests. These essays declare the advantages of incorporating metronome markings into opera scores, explain how the metronome works, and explicitly instruct composers and performers on how to use the device and even how to construct one. Since Verdi subscribed to Ricordi's journal, he surely knew these essays, and there can be little doubt that he read them with an attentive eye. It was undoubtedly not a coincidence, the, that immediately upon the conclusion of Casamorata's series of essays Verdi added metronome markings to an opera for the first time - to "Attila".
[Vide: Casamorata, "Osservazioni, discussioni, proposte" - Gazzetta musicale di Milano 5, no. 9 (1 March 1846) and also no. 6 (8 February 1846), no. 11 (15 March 1846) and no. 13 (29 March 1846)]
In a letter of 30 March 1846, Muzio informed Barezzi: "Nei passati giorni abbiamo posto i tempi in tutto lo spartito [Attila] col Metronomo di Maelzel".
("In the past few days we have placed tempos in the entire score of 'Attila' using Maelzel's metronome".) Verdi did not write metronome markings in the autograph for "Attila" but rather wrote them on a separate folio. The autograph score for "Attila" contains no metronome markings. Instead, after relinquishing the score to his publisher, Francesco Lucca, Verdi wrote the metronome markings on a separate folio along with musical incipits for each major section. The autograph folio is currently in the Gisella Seldon Goth collection at the New York Public Library.From this point onward, incorporating metronme markings into his operas was one of Verdi's priorities. By July 1846 he had evidently assigned metronome markings to "I due Foscari". After this Verdi proceeded to write metronomic equivalents in the scores for his next two Italian operas: "Macbeth" and "I masnadieri". He omitted them from the work that followed, "Il corsaro" (this omission is not surprising, however, since Verdi neither attended the premiere nor participated in the publication of "Il corsaro", and the autograph contains little evidence of revision or of the meticulous attention to detail observed in other autographs!), but included them in "La battaglia di Legnano". He did not write them into his next score, "Luisa Miller", although he later added them to a manuscript copy for a performance in Milan. And Verdi wrote metronome markings into each of his scores from "Stiffelio" to "Falstaff", with the exceptions of "Rigoletto" and "La traviata".
Verdi's use of metronome markings is especially significant since, as a rule, no such measurements can be found in the autograph scores of operas by his Italian predecessors or contemporaries. It would appear that Verdi was one of the first major "Ottocento" composers to include metronome markings in his scores as a routine matter.
(Martin Chusid specifies: "None of the autographs or early piano-vocal editions for operas by Bellini, Donizetti, Pacini, or Mercadante that I have had the opportuinity to examine contains metronome markings. Rossini's Italian operas lack such markings as well, although, not surprisingly, his French scores do include them.")
In April 1844, Verdi wrote to conductor Leone Herz concerning the Viennese premiere of Ernani: “I advise you only that I do not like slow tempos; it is better to err on the fast side than to be too slow.”
("I tempi sono tutti segnati sullo spartito colla possibile chiarezza. Basta badare alla posizione drammatica ed alla parola, difficilmente si può sbagliare un tempo. Avverto solo che io non amo i tempi larghi; è meglio peccare di vivacità che languire". - Lettera di Verdi a Leone Herz, Milano, 18 aprile 1844, istruzioni per una messinscena di "Ernani" all'Opera di Vienna)
In one review of Verdi’s performance of the Requiem in 1877 Cologne, the critic noted the composer’s preference for fast tempos. Verdi came to be known as “the master of fast tempos” ("il maestro dei tempi celeri") according to Opprandino Arrivabene in 1870 (Letter of Arrivabene to Verdi, 17 March 1870), and his tendency toward fast speeds became one of his trademarks.
[cfr. :
- Roberta Montemorra Marvin - "Verdi and the Metronome" - Verdi Forum: No. 20, Article 2 (1992)
- Martin Chusid - "Verdi's Middle Period: Source Studies, Analysis, and Performance Practice" - University of Chicago Press, 1997
- Ick Hyun Cho - "Rediscovering Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem". Thesis Prepared for the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), University of North Texas, August 2003]
[The picture shows: LA MESSA DI VERDI SUL PALCOSCENICO DELLA SCALA (from left to right: Maini, Capponi, signora Waldmann, signora Stolz, Verdi) - Disegno dal vero del signor Osvaldo Tofani (1849-1915), incisione del signor Baldi, pubblicata nella "Illustrazione Universale" di Milano del 1874.
Verdi's Requiem - first performance at la Scala - 25 May, 1874. Three days after having played the Requiem Mass in the Church of San Marco, Verdi organized a performance at La Scala, with the same soloists: Teresa Stolz (soprano), Maria Waldmann (mezzo-soprano), Giuseppe Capponi (tenor), Ormando Maini (bass). With La Scala's choir ( for the occasion, 120 choristers) and the full orchestra, of course, directed again by the same Verdi. The success of the Requiem Mass was immense.]
[Geremia Vitali, “Proposta d’un nuovo mezzo per determinare con esatezza i tempi musicali,” Gazzetta musicale di Milano 3, no. 20 (1844): 79-80.]
Emanuele Muzio's letter of 20 May 1844 to Antonio Barezzi, in which he mentions articles concerning tempo by Vitali in the "Gazzetta musicale di Milano", testifies to Verdi's familiarity with the well-known musical journal and his interest in its ongoing debate concerning the matter of tempo.
The real problem, of course, was the lack of a precise means for measuring "movimento". The seemingly obvious solution - already in use in other countries - was the metronome. But in Italy in both theory and practice, resistance to the metronome was strong. Reluctance to change established habits, tradition, pride, and even the cost of the device accounted for the unwillingness of musicians in "Primo Ottocento" Italy to adopt it.
Despite objections, however, gradually the metronome began to meet with greater tolerance in Italy, as a series of articles by Luigi Casamorata in Ricordi's "Gazzetta musicale di Milano" during February and March 1846 attests. These essays declare the advantages of incorporating metronome markings into opera scores, explain how the metronome works, and explicitly instruct composers and performers on how to use the device and even how to construct one. Since Verdi subscribed to Ricordi's journal, he surely knew these essays, and there can be little doubt that he read them with an attentive eye. It was undoubtedly not a coincidence, the, that immediately upon the conclusion of Casamorata's series of essays Verdi added metronome markings to an opera for the first time - to "Attila".
[Vide: Casamorata, "Osservazioni, discussioni, proposte" - Gazzetta musicale di Milano 5, no. 9 (1 March 1846) and also no. 6 (8 February 1846), no. 11 (15 March 1846) and no. 13 (29 March 1846)]
In a letter of 30 March 1846, Muzio informed Barezzi: "Nei passati giorni abbiamo posto i tempi in tutto lo spartito [Attila] col Metronomo di Maelzel".
("In the past few days we have placed tempos in the entire score of 'Attila' using Maelzel's metronome".) Verdi did not write metronome markings in the autograph for "Attila" but rather wrote them on a separate folio. The autograph score for "Attila" contains no metronome markings. Instead, after relinquishing the score to his publisher, Francesco Lucca, Verdi wrote the metronome markings on a separate folio along with musical incipits for each major section. The autograph folio is currently in the Gisella Seldon Goth collection at the New York Public Library.From this point onward, incorporating metronme markings into his operas was one of Verdi's priorities. By July 1846 he had evidently assigned metronome markings to "I due Foscari". After this Verdi proceeded to write metronomic equivalents in the scores for his next two Italian operas: "Macbeth" and "I masnadieri". He omitted them from the work that followed, "Il corsaro" (this omission is not surprising, however, since Verdi neither attended the premiere nor participated in the publication of "Il corsaro", and the autograph contains little evidence of revision or of the meticulous attention to detail observed in other autographs!), but included them in "La battaglia di Legnano". He did not write them into his next score, "Luisa Miller", although he later added them to a manuscript copy for a performance in Milan. And Verdi wrote metronome markings into each of his scores from "Stiffelio" to "Falstaff", with the exceptions of "Rigoletto" and "La traviata".
Verdi's use of metronome markings is especially significant since, as a rule, no such measurements can be found in the autograph scores of operas by his Italian predecessors or contemporaries. It would appear that Verdi was one of the first major "Ottocento" composers to include metronome markings in his scores as a routine matter.
(Martin Chusid specifies: "None of the autographs or early piano-vocal editions for operas by Bellini, Donizetti, Pacini, or Mercadante that I have had the opportuinity to examine contains metronome markings. Rossini's Italian operas lack such markings as well, although, not surprisingly, his French scores do include them.")
In April 1844, Verdi wrote to conductor Leone Herz concerning the Viennese premiere of Ernani: “I advise you only that I do not like slow tempos; it is better to err on the fast side than to be too slow.”
("I tempi sono tutti segnati sullo spartito colla possibile chiarezza. Basta badare alla posizione drammatica ed alla parola, difficilmente si può sbagliare un tempo. Avverto solo che io non amo i tempi larghi; è meglio peccare di vivacità che languire". - Lettera di Verdi a Leone Herz, Milano, 18 aprile 1844, istruzioni per una messinscena di "Ernani" all'Opera di Vienna)
In one review of Verdi’s performance of the Requiem in 1877 Cologne, the critic noted the composer’s preference for fast tempos. Verdi came to be known as “the master of fast tempos” ("il maestro dei tempi celeri") according to Opprandino Arrivabene in 1870 (Letter of Arrivabene to Verdi, 17 March 1870), and his tendency toward fast speeds became one of his trademarks.
[cfr. :
- Roberta Montemorra Marvin - "Verdi and the Metronome" - Verdi Forum: No. 20, Article 2 (1992)
- Martin Chusid - "Verdi's Middle Period: Source Studies, Analysis, and Performance Practice" - University of Chicago Press, 1997
- Ick Hyun Cho - "Rediscovering Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem". Thesis Prepared for the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), University of North Texas, August 2003]
[The picture shows: LA MESSA DI VERDI SUL PALCOSCENICO DELLA SCALA (from left to right: Maini, Capponi, signora Waldmann, signora Stolz, Verdi) - Disegno dal vero del signor Osvaldo Tofani (1849-1915), incisione del signor Baldi, pubblicata nella "Illustrazione Universale" di Milano del 1874.
Verdi's Requiem - first performance at la Scala - 25 May, 1874. Three days after having played the Requiem Mass in the Church of San Marco, Verdi organized a performance at La Scala, with the same soloists: Teresa Stolz (soprano), Maria Waldmann (mezzo-soprano), Giuseppe Capponi (tenor), Ormando Maini (bass). With La Scala's choir ( for the occasion, 120 choristers) and the full orchestra, of course, directed again by the same Verdi. The success of the Requiem Mass was immense.]
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