Ottorino Respighi

"Original instrument" mavens have all but pornographized transcriptions of past music, a practice going at least as far back as Bach-the-Father. The basic problem has not been neglect of a heritage but the method, rather, of preserving it. As instruments themselves became more sophisticated and orchestras bulked up, composers adapted "old" music to contemporary means and idioms.

Among twentieth-century Italians -- notably G. F. Malipiero, Casella, and Respighi -- transcriptions were conservational as well as loving. In addition to three suites of Olden Airs and Dances ("antique" mistranslates the Italian "antico," plural "antiche") and also The Birds, Respighi transcribed and/or reconstructed music of Monteverdi, Vitali, Pergolesi, Cimarosa, and Marcello. While chiefly remembered today for his three tone poems in praise of Rome (Fountains, Pines, and Holidays), he seems from the evidence to have doted on past music, along with opera of course. Being Italian, he composed nine of them.

Concurrently with his large-scale works, he created a significant repertoire based on past music. His first suite of Olden Airs and Dances for the Lute was written in 1917; a second suite followed in 1924, and a third one in 1932 -- each one in four movements. Suite No. 1, overall in D major, is based on sixteenth-century sources collected and edited by Oscar Chiselotti. The opening movements are by known composers, the rest by Ignoto (aka Anonymous).

 I. Balletto detto "Il Conte Orlando" was composed in 1599 by Simone Molinari (1565? - 1615?), music director of the Cathedral at Genoa. Respighi's tempo for this "Ballet called 'The Count of Orlando'" is Allegro moderato. A slower middle part, in the minor, is based on the principal theme.

II. Gagliarda (galliard in French) was "a sixteenth-century dance in moderately quick triple-time . . . executed with exaggerated leaps that, toward the end of the century, took on features of gross obscenity" (Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music). This PG-rated specimen by Vincenzo Galilei (1520? - 1591, the astronomer's sire) dates from mid-century. It begins and ends Allegro marcato, with a sensuous Andantino in between.

III. Villanella, from the end of the century, is a serenely beautiful Andante cantabile with a slightly quicker and utterly charming middle part. The villanella was a Neapolitan rural song, created "as a reaction against the refinements of the contemporary madrigal" (Apel, op cit.).

IV. Passo mezzo was "a Pavana played less heavily with a lighter beat," according to one sixteenth-century source. This one begins Allegro vivo in 2/4 time. The connected Mascherada, marked Vivacissimo, was "a type of villanella designed to be sung during a masked ball or procession" -- here an obviously festive occasion.

-- Roger Dettmer