Feste romane

Circenses

Il Giubileo

L’Ottobrata

La Befana

The orchestra Respighi uses to celebrate the “Roman Festivals” is even bigger and more varied than the ensemble he had previously assembled to evoke the poetic and historical associations of the “Fountains of Rome” and the “Pines of Rome.” The score calls for not only for the usual strings with triple woodwind and quadruple brass, harp and an extensive percussion section but also three buccini (Roman military trumpets), several kinds of bells, a mandolin, an organ and a piano to be played by two or four hands.

Circenses

A threatening sky hangs of the Circo Massimo, but the people are on holiday: “Ave Nerone!” The iron door opens and the strains of a hymn and the roaring of wild beasts float on the air. The crowd surges and trembles: unperturbed the hymn of the martyrs grows, dominates and then is lost in the tumult.

The first Roman holiday begins with a full-orchestral exclamation of “Ave Nerone!” (Hail Nero!) and the entry of the buccini to herald the opening of the Circenses, the somewhat unequal contest between Christian martyrs and wild beasts presented as a spectator sport in the Circo Massimo in the first century AD. The hymn tune mentioned by the composer in the short description given above is first heard in a modal melody on violins, the wild beasts on heavily percussive piano with lower brass and woodwind. Both grow in intensity and in pace until, at the first climax of the piece, the martyrs are torn apart - an event proclaimed by the buccini and more hailing of Nero, most fervently of all in massive augmentation in a still bigger climax near the end.

Il Giubileo

The pilgrims trail along their long road, praying. Finally from the summit of Monte Mario, to ardent eyes and gasping souls, the holy city appears : “Roma! Roma!” A hymn of praise bursts forth and the bells of all the churches ring out their reply.

Although there seems to be nothing in the music corresponding to the cries of “Roma! Roma!” the weary tread of the pilgrims is certainly identifiable in the limping figuration in the strings in the opening bars and their prayer is unmistakably represented by the Gregorian melody that makes an early appearance on clarinet and bassoon. As the chorale grows in strength the tread of the pilgrims quickens in their jubilant progress to an ecstatic climax signalled by the entry of the organ and confirmed by a prolonged peal of bells.

L’Ottobrata

The October festival in the Roman Castelli covered in vines: echoes of hunting, tinkling of bells, songs of love. Then in the mild evening air arises a romantic serenade.

L’Ottobrata is the most melodious and most appealing of the Feste romane. Beginning with a popular tune on the four horns, it echoes throughout with hunting calls. They are heard first on trumpets but after episodes featuring jingling horse bells and a Mediterranean love song high on violins, the reappear in a gradually receding cadenza on solo horn. The serenade is performed by the mandolin, not without another horn intervention but also with the sensuously exotic support of a solo violin and languorous woodwind.

La Befana

The night before Epiphany on the Piazza Navona: a characteristic rhythm of trumpets dominates the frantic clamour; above the swelling noise float, from time to time, rustic motives, a saltarello tune, the sound of a barrel organ, the cries of a showman, the rough song of a drunk, and the lively refrain in which is expressed the popular sentiment, “Lassàtece passà, semo Romani!” (Let us pass, we are Romans!)

Respighi’s Epiphany is his exuberant equivalent to Stravinsky’s Shrove-tide Fair in Petrushka, which inevitably comes to mind from time to time. All the events the composer describes in his note in the score are clearly to be heard in the music - the saltarello high on clarinets, for example, the barrel organ playing a waltz tune, the drunk on the trombone - all jostled by liberated bitonal harmonies, carefree rhythms and riotous orchestration. Clearly, we are missing something in this country by not celebrating Epiphany as the Romans do.

The third of Respighi’s Roman tone poems - following I Fontane di Roma (1916) and I Pini di Roma (1923) - Feste romane was completed in 1928 and first performed under the direction of Arturo Toscanini in New York in 1929.

Gerald Larner©