Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
Vocal Music | Piano | Organ | Chamber Music | Orchestral | Articles and Commentary | Poems and Stories | Miscellany | FAQs
Sole e amore - (1993) Giacomo Puccini
for high voice and piano
Il sole allegramente
Batte ai tuoi vetri. Amor
Pian pian batte al tuo cuore,
E l'uno e l'altro chiama.
Il sole dice: O dormente,
Mostrati che sei bella.
Dice l'amor: Sorella,
Col tuo primo pensier pensa a chi t'ama![ 2 pages, circa 1' 30" ]
Giacomo Puccini
Although stated as "misattributed" to Giacomo Puccini in a translation cited as in Gateway to Italian Art Songs (Alfred Publishing Co., edited by John Glenn Paton), the The Unknown Puccini (Michael Kaye, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987) and other sources suggest otherwise, with a listing of his setting as "Sole e amore è una romanza per voce e pianoforte di Giacomo Puccini."
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (1858-1924) is an Italian composer whose operas, such as La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. Indeed Italian opera is in part defined by his works. Some of his melodies, such as "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi and "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot, have become part of modern culture.
Puccini is usually regarded as the successor of Giuseppe Verdi. His compositional style has been not often investigated by musicology and music theorists who center their focus on the supposed avant-garde; this avoidance is based in a faulty perception that his work, with its emphasis on melody and evident popular appeal, lacked "seriousness." A similar prejudice beset Rachmaninoff during his lifetime, it has been noted. Puccini's gift for melody has made his work both memorable and enduringly popular. Many melodies are simply made of sequences from the diatonic scale, perhaps one reason why the "serious" musicologists and theorists have placed his work somehow beneath the Second Viennese School and following avant garde trends, a shortsighted effort in my opinion. As with Wagner, whose use of leitmotifs and orchestral colors has been said for have influenced Puccini, his operas make up a part of the backbone of opera repertoire without which opera, as an art, would be far less appealing and popular.
Whether the text is assuredly Puccini's or is misattributed to him, as some say, the text is charming. I chose therefore to compose a setting within some of the grammar as Puccini used it, for my own amusement and with a nod of appreciation to this maestro.
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.
