OTTORINO RESPIGHI His Art Songs by Potito Pedarra The subject of Ottorino Respighis (Bologna, 1879 - Rome, 1936) vocal chamber music, less ambitious yet more genuine and varied (S.Martinotti) than the operatic one, has not yet been studied systematically, not even by the scholars and musicologists who have published many top-level essays on his music. The opportunity that is now offered does not consent a deep examination of the whole song production by Respighi, not according to the appropriate forms, a project that, one could say, is the lifelong dream of any musicologist devoted to the composers work. Nevertheless, I will take the challenge to study this subject and try to offer a listeners guide at the same time. Respighis art song production takes place in a controversial moment of the history of Italy during the first thirty years of our century: in those years this musical form, so popular especially in Germany, in Italy is suffocated by Operas spreading (Elio Battaglia). It is true that the German Lied and the Italian song are two musical forms of completely different type. While in Austria Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903) devoted himself almost exclusively to Lied composing, in Italy the canzone was still considered as a secondary chamber music form, just an entertainment, mere occasional music in a few words. Here, on the crisis, nearly total, of the Italian Lied, Ottorino Respighis experience was grafted, the musician being one of the most prolific composers of his generation. Until then this form was considered an almost exclusive prerogative of Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916), who, in spite of his not so far-sighted intentions, still seems to be the most genuine song-writer in Italy, for, at least from a historical point of view, he does not cover himself with any intellectual cloth, as his contemporaries do (Elio Battaglia). The lirica (song) represents for Respighi a sort of a composers intimate journal (A.Cant). Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo (1894 - 1996), the composers wife and biographer, writes: He who knows Respighis songs can say he knows very much of him, since they represent the world where he seeks shelter and in everyday life entrusts his hearts hidden secrets, when he lets his soul sing freely. An escape, as one could say nowadays, that allows him the expression of a state of mind, a feeling, a sensation, in only a few pages of music; for a short time, it keeps him away from the difficult tasks of full scores, where he passionately looks for his own musical path. It is so interesting to see how, on the one hand, in order to reach his first thorough symphonic piece, Fontane di Roma (1916), it took him fifteen years (years of the hardest work, research, study in all various fields of culture and in all different spiritual tendencies); on the other hand, in his songs (see Nebbie, 1906), he immediately achieved a perfect form and an absolutely personal language . The art song represents the first intimate core of his creative work, or the Ariadnes thread to follow and understand the varied and large study on the European late Romantic and early Twentieth century culture that Respighi did during his slow yet precise artistic training(S.Martinotti). A kind of reconnaissance he also made in the literary field, where one could clearly note the disquieting and ardent influence of either the late German Lied (certainly known during Respighis peregrinations throughout Europe) or the new French chanson.. It is demonstrated by the choice of texts of the songs included in this first CD: from an occasional encounter with the poetry of Ada Negri (1870-1945) to the great European classical tradition represented by Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822) until the Fourteenth centurys verses of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), from the decadent crepuscular Carlo Zangarini (1874-1943) and Francesco Rocchi, from the French symbolism Albert Samain (1858-1900) to that kind of Art Nouveau in Antonio Rubinos (1880-1964) fantastic poems. The first songs in Ottorino Respighis catalogue are composed between the end of 1896 and the beginning of 1897. The Casa Musicale Bongiovanni, or someone else, quotes Ada Negri as the poet. Yet four of them, Lultima ebbrezza (1896), Notturno(1896), Lagrime(1896) and Tanto bella (1897), are not found among those published by Negri, the little school teacher of Motta Visconti. No name of poet appears on the manuscripts, nor one could prove a private relationship between the musician and the poet and justify the presence of unpublished poems by Negri among Respighs papers: so, we cannot attribute those four poems to any poet, yet. It seems reasonable to think that the encounter between Respighi and Negris poetry dates back to the first ten years of this century, when she published her first book of poems, Fatalit (Fate). From this book he took Storia breve (1904) and Luce (1905), as well as the most celebrated Nebbie and Nevicata, and also Notte ( already set into music in 1905 as a duo for mezzo and baritone, later re-elaborated for solo voice and piano, and included in the collection Sei liriche, seconda serie, in 1912). The Sei liriche inedite (Six Unpublished Songs), recently published by Bongiovanni, show Respighis profound connection to the Nineteenth century, especially of the first four, Lultima ebbrezza, Notturno, Lagrime and Tanto bella. Being probably mere school works, they have surely inherited something from Conservatory teachers, and from the great models of the young composer. The style is generally modelled after Francesco Paolo Tosti, and they are composed for a tenor (soprano) voice. The last two songs, Storia breve (1904) and Luce (1905), date back to a later period, after he received his Conservatory degrees. They show more secure composition skills, abandoning the classic ABA form of the earlier songs and the high voice range. Particularly, Luce develops into an tude form. After the early experiences I have just described, we get to some of the most famous pieces among all Respighis songs: Contrasto, Invito alla danza and Stornellatrice on words by Carlo Zangarini: they are successful songs, especially the third title. Stolen (for one or two voices, ad libitum) from the opera Re Enzo, libretto by Alberto Donini, are on of the few parts the composer published for Bongiovanni, together with Canzone di Re Enzo, later inserted in Cinque Canti allantica. Ballata alla luna, still unpublished, comes out of Re Enzo, too, but its extrapolation from the opera is not due to the composers will, but to the renewed philological interest. The Cinque Canti allantica remind me of what happened a few years ago, when the composers widow, noticing the Cinque Canti on some of the concert programmes for the One Hundred Years Anniversary of Respighis death, showed her disappointment and regret saying I cannot understand why the singers insist on studying those songs... as to say There would be other songs more worthy that they ignore. Actually, they are a little thing of medium taste (R.Verti) not just for the quality of the music, that the historian does not criticise, but for that sense of assent to the sort of medium level, the musicians of the early Twentieth century used when they composed in a ancient style. (...) The vocal and instrumental line lacks of any direct reference to the past. As architect Alfonso Rubbiani gives back the town symmetrical facades in buildings that had never had one before, so in Cinque Canti allantica Respighi plays a gothic game: his ancient singing is this way, too, in quotes, and looks like a stage dcor, some liberty medievalism (...). One does not forget the suggestive power of this Five Songs, and their charming style, that gets a continuos success among audiences and interests many performers: this Respighi of minor level, yet not so occasional, with a few arpeggios, like a nice ornamental volute, he managed to hid the shocking weight of some diminished sevenths, which, in spite of the Boccaccio ballads, he could not abandon (R.Verti). The Second collection of Six Songs, Sei Liriche, Seconda serie (1912), Bongiovanni, somehow end the young years style in Respighis art song production. They were born during the association with soprano Chiarina Fino-Savio and represent one of the first attempts to model his music on the vocal and artistic resources of this sensitive singer. Respighi writes : (...) I hope that they will beautifully fit your voice. Notte, by Ada Negri, in the solo voice version, opens the collection. Then Su una violetta morta, for the second time in Respighis life the setting of a famous P.B.Shelleys poem (in the first collection we have in fact the Indian Serenade). Two French poems, Le repos en Egypte by the symbolist poet Albert Samain, and Nol ancien, the second setting of some ancient anonymous stanzas. At the end, two poems of decadent taste, Piccola mano bianca and Nel giardino, both by Francesco Rocchi. The best results in the whole song production is achieved in Deit silvane (1917) on five poems by Antonio Rubino poet, narrator, painter, designer, potter, and one would like to say it as Gajanus (Cesare Paglia) said, the most -ist ever. They belong to the composers mature period : as Nebbie and Stornellatrice are now and forever the most popular canzoni by Ottorino Respighi, Deit silvane are definitively the most representative of their composers art. Being preceded by some poemetti lirici on words by Shelley, Aretusa (1911), La Sensitiva (1914-1915) and Il Tramonto (1914), that anticipated his maturity in both the symphonic and the vocal works, they represent the non plus ultra in Respighis music for solo voice. In short, in them we can clearly recognise the composer of Fontane di Roma and can easily use an admirable description made by Massimo Mila for the symphonic master-piece: they have the happiness and the full of life of works being born in the right historical period. Gianandrea Gavazzeni in his essay Ricordi ed esperienze su Respighi (Memories and experiences on Respighi) writes: in the cycle Deit silvane one could hear the echo of the new discoveries of the French Songs deep influence, from Duparc to Severac, and until the extreme values of Faur, Debussy and Ravel.