"", SC 76, is a composition for choir, viola and

pump organ The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reed aerophone, free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ ...

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

that

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...

wrote in 1905. Commissioned by his publisher, Puccini set the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

antiphon An antiphon ( Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are usually taken from the Psalms or Scripture, but may also be freely compo ...

of the

Requiem mass A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is u ...

on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the death of

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

History

Puccini composed the work on a commission of his publisher

Giulio Ricordi Giulio Ricordi (19 December 1840 – 6 June 1912) was an Italian editor and musician who joined the family firm, the Casa Ricordi music publishing house, in 1863, then run by his father, Tito, the son of the company's founder Giovanni Ricordi. ...

on the occasion of the forth anniversary of the death of

. The autograph score is dated 14 January 1905, which is possible the day of composing. The work was first performed on 27 January 1905 by the choir of

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

in Milan, conducted by Aristide Venturi, at the chapel of the

Casa di Riposo per Musicisti The Casa di Riposo per Musicisti (literally 'rest home for musicians') is a home for retired opera singers and musicians in Milan, northern Italy, founded by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (whose statue is in the piazza outside the building) ...

that Verdi had founded. The composition was also performed on 29 December 1924 at a memorial concert for Puccini at the

Milan Conservatory The Milan Conservatory, also known as the Conservatorio di Milano and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, is a Music school, college of music in Milan, Italy. History The conservatory was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital ...

, and again on his 50th anniversary of death on 30 November 1974. The music was first published in 1976 by Elkan & Vogel in New York City, followed by a 1990 edition in Italy. A critical edition was published in 2005 by

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. the catalogue includes more than 26,000 works ...

in cooperation with the Fondazione Puccini and the Centro studi "G. Puccini" in Lucca, edited by Michele Girardi.

Composition

The composition is score for a three-part mixed choir, (

STB State Security (, ), or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that was considered oppositio ...

, with divided parts at times), a solo viola and

. The duration is about four minutes. The composition of 57 measures is in

D minor D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed ...

and

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

, marked ''

Adagio sostenuto In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given composition, and is often also an indication of the composition's character or atmos ...

''. It is in a ternary form, A B A'. The voices sing mostly in

unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

in the outer sections. In the middle section, the solo viola enters, and the divided voices respond to it; this feature reappears in a short coda. The main theme begins as an upward scale in nine steps which are

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, es ...

in the end. The musicologist Michele Girardi regarded this theme as an homage at the ''

Enigmatic scale The enigmatic scale () is an unusual musical scale, with elements of both major scale, major and minor scale, minor scales, as well as the whole-tone scale. It was originally published in a Milan journal as a musical challenge, with an invitatio ...

'' that Verdi had set in the

Ave Maria The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (from its first words in Latin), also known as the Angelic or Angelical Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical pa ...

from his '' Quattro pezzi sacri''. The complex harmonies change with every step of the scale, creating tension. Puccini would use a similar technique in the chorus "Ombra dolente, non farci del male!" in his opera ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...

''. The work ends with a

plagal cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999). ''The Harvard Concise Dicti ...

, with the choir ending on the

subdominant In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...

, while the organ returns to the tonic.

Text

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

References

External links

* *
"Giacomo Puccini Requiem aeternam SC 76, 1905"
Carus-Verlag * {{authority control Choral compositions Compositions by Giacomo Puccini 1905 compositions

History

Composition

Text

References

Further reading

External links