Puccini’s rhythmic training encompassed more than learning traditional poetic patterns, however. As Baragwanath has observed, his education involved a study of rhythm that was directly tied to expression and Affekt. One of Puccini’s teachers in Milan, Amintore Galli, “[maintained] the distinction between a repetitive pulse, whether comprised of [poetic] feet or accents, and ritmo, which he defined as ‘an aesthetic ordering of a succession of musical values (figures).” In fact, in notes from this class, Puccini wrote down, “Music imitates man’s internal phenomena, and it is therefore an essentially subjective product [...] rhythms complete this phonetic [illegible] (images expressed by means of sounds) reproducing the same movements.” [emphasis added] [La musica imita i fenomeni interni dell’uomo, ed è perciò un prodotto essenzialmente soggettivo, [...] i ritmi completano questa [?] fonetica (immagini espressa per via di suoni) riproducendo gli stessi movimenti.] Perhaps Puccini took these ideas to heart, since his affective rhythmic “movements” were singled out for comment by Alaleona in a remembrance of the composer: Puccini—a true musician—was a fortunate creator of “motivegestures” [...] By saying ‘motive-gestures’ we mean not only exterior gestures, but also, and above all, the motions of the spirit; not only the “external dance” (“dance” in the usual sense of the word), but also that which I call (using an expression that is strange but not without meaning) “internal dance”: that is, the game, the contrast, the tumult of sentiments and passions. ([Puccini—musicista vero—è stato un felicissimo creatore di ‘motivi-gesto’ [...] Dicendo ‘motivi-gesto’ noi intendiamo non soltanto i gesti esteriori, ma anche e sopratutto i moti dell’animo; non soltanto la ‘danza esterna’ (danza nel senso abituale della parola) ma anche quella che io chiamo (con una espressione strana, ma non senza significazione) ‘danza interna’: cioè il gioco, il contrasto, il tumulto dei sentimenti e delle passioni.] Alaleona, “Giacomo Puccini”: 17-8.) Let us first consider Puccini’s “external dance” in this opera—that is, the representation of physical motion. At his most literal, Puccini aspires to rhythmic mimesis when he writes that the rhythm at I/58 should be played “imitating a horse’s gallop.” [Imitando il galoppo d’un cavallo] And, in a sketch housed at the Beinecke Library at Yale University, Puccini works out the rhythm for depicting the moment in Act II when Johnson re-enters Minnie’s cabin after being shot, lurching and stumbling: the composer writes, “Revolver shot off-stage” [colpo revolver interno] / “All[egr]o moderato agitato” / “irregular movement” [movimento irregolare] / “staggering from the wound” [traballamento del ferito] [Ex. 10.0] The irregularity of the rhythm is nevertheless apparent in both versions. And Puccini’s off-hand comment to the New York Times after Fanciulla ’s première—“My heart was beating like the double basses in the card scene” (which have rapid staccato sixteenth notes)—also speaks to a correlation of rhythm and physical impulse. [Quotation taken from: RECONDITE HARMONY - Essays on Puccini’s Operas by Deborah Burton - The Opera Series No. 3 - Patrick Smith, General Editor - Pendragon Press - Hillsdale, NY, 2012]
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:05:11 +0000
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