Siciliana
The siciliana
History and notable examples
In a 2006 book, Raymond Monelle found musicologists' attempts to trace the style to any authentic tradition in Sicily inconclusive, though he did trace its origins back to Italian Renaissance madrigals from the 1500s, in triple time with dotted rhythms.[3] These madrigal rhythms may themselves derive from the dactylic hexameter of the epic poetry of ancient Greece and Rome.[4]
Baroque era
The siciliana was firmly established as a signifier of a pastoral context in the operas of Sicilian-born Alessandro Scarlatti, though only two of his slow arias in 12
8 are actually titled "aria siciliana" in the scores. Monelle notes that the texts of Scarlatti's siciliana arias are generally lamenting and melancholic.[3] Several written references to the genre are known from earlier in the 1600s;[5] and sicilianas are described in musical dictionaries since 1703.
Further examples of Baroque sicilianas are found in
Classical era
Works in siciliana rhythm appear occasionally in the Classical period. Joseph Haydn, perhaps inspired by the bucolic associations of the genre, wrote a siciliana aria for soprano in his oratorio The Creation, "Nun beut die Flur das frische Grün" ("With verdure clad the fields appear"), to celebrate the creation of plants. For Mozart, the hesitating rhythm of the siciliana lent itself to the portrayal of grief,[7][8] and some of Mozart's most powerful musical utterances are tragic sicilianas: the aria for soprano "Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden" ("Ah, my heart, 'tis gone forever") from The Magic Flute, the F-sharp minor slow movement of the Piano Concerto, K. 488, the F minor Adagio from the Piano Sonata, K. 280, and the finale of the String Quartet in D minor, K. 421. In a more cheerful A major, he used a siciliana as the opening theme of his Piano Sonata, K. 331.
Other examples of Classical sicilianas are the third movement of Domenico Cimarosa's Oboe Concerto, the last movement of Carl Maria von Weber's Violin Sonata No. 5, and the second movement of Anton Reicha's Clarinet Quintet in F major, Op. 107.
The guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani (1781–1829) was very fond of the siciliana style and frequently composed in it. A notable example is the second movement of his Guitar Concerto No. 1 in A major, Op. 30. Another siciliana written for guitar (with vocal) is Franz Xaver Gruber's renowned Christmas carol, "Silent Night".[5][9]
Romantic era
At the beginning of the
Hélène's aria, "Merci, jeunes amies" ("Thank you, beloved friends") from Verdi's opera Les vêpres siciliennes is another example of a siciliana, suited to its setting, and is referred to as such in the score, even though it is popularly called a bolero. The opening aria of Mascagni's masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana is the Siciliana "O Lola".
Ernest Chausson composed a sicilienne as the second movement of his Concerto for Piano, Violin, and String Quartet, Op. 21 (1892). The orchestral suite from Pelléas et Mélisande by Gabriel Fauré includes his well-known Sicilienne, which he had composed for an incomplete project in 1893.
20th–21st centuries
Examples of sicilianas in 20th-century music include Igor Stravinsky's Serenata from his ballet Pulcinella, Ottorino Respighi's Siciliana from "Ancient Airs and Dances", Suite No. 3, and Malcolm Arnold's Siciliano from the Little Suite No. 1 for Brass. Sergei Rachmaninoff utilized siciliana style and rhythms in three of his Op. 32 Preludes for piano: the B-flat minor (No. 2), the B minor (No. 10), and the B major (No. 11). Maurice Duruflé's Suite for Organ (Op. 5) contains a Sicilienne notable for its Impressionist harmonies,[11] and another prominent example is the middle movement of Paul Hindemith's Organ Sonata No. 2.[12]
Hungarian composer
Notes
- ISBN 0198166389.
- ISBN 978-0199841578.
- ^ ISBN 978-0253347664.
- ISBN 978-1561592630.
- ^ ISBN 978-1561592630.
- ^ Michelle Edelman (2001). Contrasts and Comparisons from Baroque to Modern: Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata.
- ^ Daniela Carvalho Broderick (2009). The use of the siciliana as grief topic in Mozart's keyboard works (DMA thesis). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- ^ Mítia D'Acol (2022). Constructing Pamina's "Ach ich fühl's" as a Siciliana Lament. Mozart Society of America and Society for Eighteenth-Century Music, Joint Conference (PDF). Salzburg.
- ^ Gerlinde Haid (1994). Siciliano als Typus weihnachtlicher Volksmusik. 175 Jahre "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" (in German), p.135–146. Salzburg.
- ISBN 978-0954012342.
- ISBN 0-8108-4351-X.
- ^ Blair Sanderson (2005). Review: Hindemith/Schoenberg/Pepping Organ Works. AllMusic.
- ISBN 978-1461664246.
- ^ Hugo Luis (2016). "Influences et origines de la musique de John Williams". En Quête d'Histoire (in French).
- ^ Christophe Loup. "La sicilienne en musique". Apprendre Le Solfege (in French).