Suona la tromba
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"Suona la tromba" (The trumpet sounds) or "Inno popolare" (Hymn of the people) was a secular hymn composed by
Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
in 1848 to a text by the Italian poet and patriot Goffredo Mameli. The work's title comes from the opening line of Mameli's poem. It has sometimes been referred to as "Grido di guerra".


Background

The piece begins with the lines: "Suona la tromba — ondeggiano / le insegne gialle e nere." ("The trumpet sounds, the yellow and black flags are waving."), a reference to the yellow and black flag of the Austrian Empire. It was commissioned by Giuseppe Mazzini as a new battle hymn for the
Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...
when Italian nationalists sought independence from the Austrian Empire which controlled large portions of northern Italy. He persuaded Verdi to compose the music for it when Verdi visited Milan in May 1848, shortly after the Austrians had been driven from the city and other parts of
Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
. Mazzini commissioned the text from Mameli in June, asking him for a poem that would become the Italian "
Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du R ...
" and quoted Verdi's wish that the new anthem would "make the people forget both the poet and the composer". Mameli finished the poem in late August, and Mazzini immediately sent it to Verdi who was living and working in Paris at the time. Verdi sent the finished work, composed for a three part male chorus without accompaniment, to Mazzini on 18 October 1848. In the accompanying letter Verdi wrote:
I send you the hymn, and even if it is a bit late, I hope it will arrive in time. I have tried to be as popular and easy as I can be. Make use of it as you see fit: even burn it if you do not think it worthy.Daolmi, Davide (2011)
*Cori patriottici e inni popolari. Milano 1848"
booklet accompanying the CD ''Musica del Risorgimento'' recorded by the La Scala Chamber Orchestra.


Publication and performance history

In his letter to Mazzini of 18th October 1848, Verdi had recommended that if Mazzini wished to publish the hymn, he give it to Carlo Pozzi, an affiliate of Verdi's publisher Casa Ricordi. However, before the music reached Mazzini, the Austrian Empire had regained its lost territories and Milan's musical life was once again under the control of the Austrian censors. The numerous patriotic songs and anthems that had been published by Casa Ricordi and Casa Lucca during the brief revolution were withdrawn, with some of those editions destroyed.
Gossett, Philip Philip Gossett (September 27, 1941 – June 12, 2017) was an American musicologist and historian, and Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago. His lifelong interest in 19th-century Italian opera bega ...
(2009)
"'Edizioni distrutte' and the significance of operatic choruses during the Risorgimento"
in Victoria Johnson, Jane F. Fulcher, Thomas Ertman (eds), ''Opera and Society in Italy and France from Monteverdi to Bourdieu'', pp. 181-205. Cambridge University Press.
Mazzini did not try to have "Suona la tromba" officially published at that time, although in late 1848 a few copies of it were printed and circulated in Florence by the short-lived ''Associazione Nazionale per la Costituente Italiana'' (National Association for the Italian Constitution).Foletto, Angelo (7 February 1996)

'' La Repubblica''. Retrieved 19 September 2013 .
Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Antica e Moderna (2013)
"Verdi ritrovato: L'unico esemplare sopravvissuto della versione originale dell'Inno popolare di Giuseppe Verdi"
Retrieved 19 September 2013 .
Mameli died in 1849 at the age of 22. His earlier poem " Il Canto degli Italiani" (The Song of the Italians) later became the Italian National anthem. Verdi's score for "Suona la tromba" languished in the Casa Ricordi archives until 1865 when Mazzini gave it to the Milanese music publisher Paolo De Giorgi who brought it out as the first in a series of patriotic songs entitled ''Euterpe Patria''. Verdi's hymn is sometimes referred to as "Euterpe Patria", although the series also included songs by several other composers. As a courtesy, De Giorgi had also asked for Verdi's approval, but Verdi was not happy with the idea and
Francesco Maria Piave Francesco Maria Piave (18 May 18105 March 1876) was an Italian opera librettist who was born in Murano in the lagoon of Venice, during the brief Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Career Piave's career spanned over twenty years working with many of th ...
, acting on his behalf, tried to stop the publication. However, his 1848 letter to Mazzini in which he had written "Make use of it as you see fit" was interpreted as having given Mazzini the right to control the hymn's publication. De Giorgi then made the gesture of offering to abandon the project if Verdi agreed to write a new hymn to inaugurate a monument to the
Battle of Legnano The Battle of Legnano was a battle between the imperial army of Frederick Barbarossa and the troops of the Lombard League on May 29, 1176, near the town of Legnano in present-day Lombardy, in Italy. Although the presence of the enemy nearby wa ...
, knowing full well that Verdi would refuse. The publication of "Suona la tromba" went ahead and came with a piano accompaniment arranged by Angelo Graffigna. De Georgi also published an "economy edition" of the work, under the title "Grido di guerra" (War cry). There have been several subsequent arrangements of the hymn, some with orchestration, each tailored to popular tastes of the time.University of Chicago, Center for Italian Opera Studies
''Inno popolare'' "Suona la tromba"
/ref> Ricordi published the score arranged for chorus and orchestra in 1898 and also included the hymn in ''5 canti popolari del 1848'', an anthology of patriotic songs published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1848 uprisings. Nevertheless, "Suona la tromba" remained a relatively obscure piece until 1996. Students at the Milan Conservatory had unearthed the 1865 De Giorgi score in the conservatory's library, and it was performed by the City of Milan Chamber Choir in a broadcast by Rai 2 television on 7 February 1996. In 2011, the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, there were multiple performances of the work in commemorative concerts, and it was recorded by the
La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
Chamber Orchestra and Chorus for the CD ''Musica del Risorgimento''. The critical edition of the score, edited and annotated by Roberta Montemorra Marvin, was published by University of Chicago Press in 2007. In 2013, the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Antica e Moderna published what is claimed to be the sole surviving copy of the score printed in Florence in 1848 and found in 2011 in the private archive of the Italian pianist and conductor Antonello Palazzolo.


References

{{Giuseppe Verdi, state=collapsed Compositions by Giuseppe Verdi 1848 compositions