Giuseppe Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri:

Early History and Programming Considerations,

Analysis, and Interpretation

by

Irina Georgieva

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Musical Arts

Supervised by Professor William Weinert

Department of Conducting and Ensembles

Eastman School of Music

Rochester, New York

2012

Contributors and Funding Resources

This work was supervised by a doctoral research committee consisting of Prof. William

Weinert (advisor) and Professor Mark Scatterday of the Department of Conducting and

Ensembles and Professor Melina Esse of the Musicology Department. All work for this

doctoral research project was completed independently by the student.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor William Weinert, my doctoral

research project advisor and mentor, for his immense help during the process of writing

this paper. I would also like to extend my thanks to Professor Mark Scatterday and

Professor Melina Esse, who provided me with feedback, research suggestions, and

advice. Finally, I wish to thank my editors Sally Parker, Amy E. Boyle Johnston, and

Stefan Tsonchev.

Table of Contents

Abstract p. 1 Chapter 1 Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Composition, First Performances, and Programming Considerations p. 2 Chapter 2 Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Analysis p. 22 Chapter 3 Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Practical Aspects and Interpretation Decisions p. 59 Appendix I p. 87 Appendix II p. 94 Appendix III p. 96 Appendix IV p. 97 Appendix V p. 100 Bibliography p. 103

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Abstract

Giuseppe Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri (Four Sacred Pieces) is a collection of four pieces

composed independently of one other and later combined into a set. Because these four

pieces have different compositional styles and performing forces, one of the first

questions conductors face is whether to present Quattro Pezzi Sacri in its entirety or as

individual works. The uniqueness of this set is best revealed through an understanding of

the conditions under which it was created, its formal structure, its early history and the

tradition of its performances.

Chapter 1 examines the conditions under which Quattro Pezzi Sacri was originally

composed and performed. This serves as a guide to aid conductors in decisions regarding

programming. Chapter 2 is devoted to detailed formal analysis of the set necessary for the

successful planning of rehearsals preceding its performance. Chapter 3 highlights specific

performance issues of Quattro Pezzi Sacri. Sources such as the recording history of the

pieces—as well as research of articulation, tempo, and ornamentation—will help

conductors make decisions for their own interpretation of the set.

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Chapter 1

Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Composition, First Performances,

and Programming Considerations

Over an eight-year period Verdi composed four sacred pieces: Laudi alla Vergine (1888),

Ave Maria sulla scala enigmatica (1889), Te Deum (1895-96) and Stabat Mater (1896).

Examining the events that led to the composition of these individual sacred works, later

assembled into a collection called Quattro Pezzi Sacri, helps clarify the first significant

issue conductors face: whether to program the four works individually or as a set. The

initial dilemma presented is related to the unusual nature of the set: the four pieces are

linked neither by liturgical subject nor performing forces. Another element of the set that

prevents uniformity is that it is composed in two different languages: Italian and Latin.

The common theme that binds them together is that all four are sacred works.

Verdi’s text selections are unique. Even though the Ave Maria, Stabat Mater, and Te

Deum had been used in Catholic Masses for centuries, they were not assembled before

Quattro Pezzi Sacri. Even though Verdi composed the four pieces independently from

each other, he combined the for their premiere. Understanding the early history of

Quattro Pezzi Sacri and placing it within the context of its time provides insight to the

very nature of the dilemma.

Unlike other European countries, where vocal and instrumental music occupy roughly

3

equal status on the cultural scene, Italy has favored vocal music over instrumental for

centuries. Beginning in the Renaissance, secular vocal music gained preference over

sacred music very gradually and steadily. Opera became a favorite genre of composers,

performers, and listeners alike, from the time it first appeared c. 1600. Over the next three

centuries, opera came to overshadow sacred vocal music and instrumental genres, gaining

a virtual monopoly on the musical scene during the nineteenth century.

The strong presence of opera in Italy influenced the composition of non-operatic music.

The growth of the genre culminated with the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and

Verdi. Its influence became notable in non-operatic genres as well. Sacred music of this

period should be understood as existing within an operatic context. A number of

nineteenth-century Italian sacred works were written by composers who penned operatic

masterpieces: two examples are Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Verdi’s Requiem. The

practice of writing both operatic and sacred scores was not limited to the acknowledged

masters of the time. Minor composers during that era worked within both genres.

The composition of Quattro Pezzi Sacri was preceded by nearly five decades of Verdi’s

career as opera composer. The set, therefore, belongs to a group of nineteenth-century

sacred works heavily influenced by opera. Three of the four pieces incorporate operatic

elements. Aria-like themes and bold dramatic gestures, long pauses, sudden contrasts in

texture, dynamics and orchestration, all of which are common for stage dramas and

present in Verdi’s operas, are also seen in Quattro Pezzi Sacri.

4

Verdi began the 1880s with two sacred works: Pater Noster, for a cappella choir, and

Ave Maria, for solo soprano and string quartet. By 1888, he had produced Laudi alla

Vergine Maria based on the last canto from Dante’s Paradiso. Laudi was the first

completed work of the future Quattro Pezzi Sacri. The Ave Maria sulla scala enigmatica

was completed next (1889), the Te Deum (1895-96) and the Stabat Mater (1896) were

written last. Together the four works constitute Quattro Pezzi Sacri.

During the composition and the premiere of Quattro Pezzi Sacri, Verdi was connected to

three important figures: Giulio Ricordi, Arturo Toscanini, and Arrigo Boito. Ricordi who

published the scale used in the Ave Maria actively pursued the composer to publish the

sacred pieces. Toscanini met with Verdi before the Italian premiere of Quattro Pezzi

Sacri to discuss their interpretation and later made a large number of recordings of the Te

Deum. Regular correspondence between Verdi and Boito, specifically during the days

preceding its premiere contains a significant amount of information regarding the

composition of Quattro Pezzi Sacri.

Boito’s presence in Verdi’s life was most pronounced during the composer’s mature

years. Verdi met Boito––a poet, librettist, and composer––in the spring of 1862 in Paris,

where they worked together on a cantata for the Great London Exhibition. In the 1860s

they differed both politically and artistically, leading Verdi to avoid Boito for years.

Their friendship and partnership did not begin until fifteen years after the London

Exhibition when their artistic paths brought them together again. In 1887 Boito wrote the

5

libretto for Verdi’s Otello.1 Verdi began to consult Boito on various professional matters.

In their correspondence to each other, each man expressed his interest in librettos, sacred

texts and their appreciation for music written in stile antico.

Verdi studied counterpoint rigorously from an early age, and his music holds elements of

the old style, as well as the operatic style. The result is a unique combination that defines

Verdi’s compositional style. His interest in stile antico and the works of composers that

lived during the Renaissance is expressed in his letters to Boito. In a letter, dated October

5, 1887––written two years before Verdi began working on the Ave Maria––he shares his

appreciation for composers known primarily for sacred music such as Palestrina,

Victoria, Allegri, Carissimi, Lotti, and Marcello.2

Composed for four female voices and premiered with four singers, Laudi was among

Verdi’s most successful small-scale works, instantly loved by audiences and usually

encored at concerts. Later, Verdi decided that it would be suitable for women’s chorus,

and for over a century Laudi has been performed and recorded as a choral piece. It also

appears by itself more frequently than as a part of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri set. The

attractiveness of the piece stems from its melodic richness and harmonic simplicity as

well as from its duration of approximately seven minutes, a convenient duration for

programming it by itself as well as in the context of the set, by balancing the lengthy

Stabat Mater and Te Deum. 1 George Martin, Verdi, His Music, Life, and Times (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1983), 510-12. 2 Marcello Conati and Mario Medici, The Verdi-Boito Correspondence, trans. William Weaver 2 Marcello Conati and Mario Medici, The Verdi-Boito Correspondence, trans. William Weaver (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 124.  

6

A number of logistical issues surround the performance of Laudi as a part of the Quattro

Pezzi Sacri set. Laudi demands a large amount of rehearsal time during which the male

singers are not involved. Because Quattro Pezzi Sacri is long enough for a half-concert

program this inconvenience can be eliminated in three ways. One option requires a

second conductor and an additional rehearsal room. When only one choral group

performs all four of the Pezzi Sacri, a piece for male chorus can be programmed during

the second half of the concert.

A second option is to use an additional women’s chorus in the half presenting Quattro

Pezzi Sacri, and again in the second half of the concert. This creates the inconvenience of

having a second women’s chorus on stage, which only performs one short piece in the

first half of the program. A third option is to use four soloists as Verdi first envisioned.

This solution would create even more contrast between Laudi and the surrounding pieces,

Stabat Mater and Te Deum, since it does not require an additional women’s chorus or a

second conductor for the rehearsals of the set.

The history of Ave Maria, which Verdi composed after Laudi, begins with the Gazzetta

Musicale di Milano’s publication of a scale (Example 1) in August 1888. Composer

Adolfo Crescentini, a professor at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna and vice president of

the Academia Filarmonica created the scale. In the article Crescentini invited composers

to harmonize his scale and to send their harmonizations to the Gazzetta.3 Following the

publication of the scale, the Gazzetta Musicale di Milano published an article titled

3 Marcello Conati, “Le Ave Marie su Scala Enigmatica di Verdi dalla Prima alla Seconda Stesura (1889–1897),” Rivista Italiana di Musicologia,12 (1978): 282.

7

“Harmonic curiosity” presenting several harmonizations by different composers,

including Crescentini himself (Example 2).4 Giuseppe Cerquetelli and Vittorio Norsa

were among the composers whose harmonizations were made public. All the

harmonizations employed keyboard texture, in which the scale was used as a cantus

firmus or basso continuo in the left-hand part, while the harmony, consisting of simple

chords, was placed in the right-hand part.

Example 1. Adolfo Cresentini’s scale published in Gazzetta Musicale di Milano.

The only exception was the version by Ottorino Varsi, who transposed the scale from C

to F and moved it from the bass to the tenor part. Conati’s article, in which he follows the

history of Verdi’s Ave Maria––presents Crescentini’s and Varsi’s harmonizations, as well

as the earlier version of Verdi’s Ave Maria.5 Varsi’s work, called Contrapunto a Quattro

Parti Reali, was published in Gazzetta Musicale di Milano in October 1888. As seen in

Example 3, his four-part counterpoint is very similar to Verdi’s Ave Maria.

As seen in Example 1, the irregular pattern of half steps, whole steps, and augmented

seconds in the scale Crescentini created differs from the patterns of the major and minor

modes known in the traditional Western tonal system. This scale is similar to the unusual

4 Conati, “Le Ave Marie su Scala Enigmatica,” 282. 5 Conati, “Le Ave Marie su Scala Enigmatica,” 284.

8

scales that came into favor among composers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth

centuries. Debussy, Stravinsky, and Bartok, to name a few, often employed scales that

originated in non-Western sources such as the folk traditions of Eastern Europe and Asia.

That a group of Italian composers should show an interest in an exotic scale published in

a music magazine, therefore, was not unusual.

Example 2. Adolfo Crescentini’s harmonization of his scale.

In his article, Marcello Conati follows the detailed correspondence between Verdi,

Ricordi, and Boito, while presenting the events that led to the publication of the piece.6

Verdi, who regularly received the Gazzetta Muscale, took up the composition of Ave

Maria several months after Varsi’s harmonization was published. The question whether

Verdi was familiar with Varsi’s harmonization, however, remains unanswered.

At the end of February 1889, Verdi and Boito met in Milan to discuss the curious musical

scale, published in Ricordi’s Gazzetta. In Verdi’s first letter to Boito (March 6, 1889)

6 Ibid., 284.

9

regarding this scale, Verdi shares his plan to use it in a piece. He asks Boito to send him

his harmonization of the scale, which Verdi threw into the fire before leaving Milan.

While Verdi remembered well the harmonization and voicing of the first half, he forgot

the harmonization of the second half, “specifically the voices harmonizing the pitches B,

A-sharp, and G-sharp.”7

Example 3: Ottorino Varsi’s harmonization of Crescentini’s scale.

7 Conati and Medici, The Verdi-Boito Correspondence, 134-35.

10

Verdi had started to plan a piece with words, an Ave Maria. “It would be the

fourth!…this way I could hope, after my death, to be beatified.”8 The first three Ave

Marias are the prayer Salve Maria in I Lombardi (1843), the setting of Dante’s text for

soprano and strings (1880), and Desdemona’s prayer in the last act of Otello (1887), all in

Italian. The new Ave Maria would be the first using the traditional Latin setting of the

prayer. In his letter Verdi outlines the formal plan of the piece, describing how he intends

to use the scale. Boito sent him the two pages of the harmonization that he had copied, 8 Antonio Baldassarre and Matthias von Orelli, Giuseppe Verdi Lettere 1843-1900 (Bern: Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, 2009), 144.

11

accompanied by a letter stating it will take many Ave Marias for the Holy Spirit to

forgive Verdi for Iago’s Credo.

One month later, Verdi and Boito met in Milan to discuss Falstaff, the new libretto Boito

was about to write for Verdi. The Gazzetta Musicale di Milano announced the new work

in progress about a year later. Verdi was completely involved with the composition of his

new opera, and the completion of Ave Maria was set aside until 1895, when Giuseppe

Gallignani asked Verdi to send him a sacred piece. Gallignani, who was about to play a

crucial role in the history of the Ave Maria, was the director of the Parma Conservatory.

He was involved with the revival of sacred music in Italy and had previously held

positions as Maestro at the Duomo in Milan (1884-1886) and director of the journal

Musica Sacra. In 1894 Gallignani became one of the main organizers of a concert series

devoted to music written in stile antico.

After persuading Verdi to send him a sacred piece for his concert series, Gallignani

finally received the Ave Maria.9 The premiere of the new work took place at the end of

June 1895 at the Parma Conservatory by a choir of twelve students conducted by

Gallignani himself in front of a small audience. Verdi was not present at this

performance. The Parma version of Ave Maria was preserved and catalogued at the

library of the Parma Conservatory in May 1895. As seen in Appendix I, there are small

differences between the 1895 version of Ave Maria and the one published in 1898 as part

of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri set. Even though the two versions are very similar, only the

9 Charles Osborne, The Letters of Giuseppe Verdi (London: Victor Collancz Ltd., 1971), 259.

12

second one was published by Ricordi and included in the set. This is the version analyzed

in Chapter 2.

A favorable review by the director of the library was published at the Gazzetta Musicale

di Milano in July 1895, following the first performance. While the review motivated

Ricordi to publish the Ave Maria, Verdi’s response was negative. To him Ave Maria was

only a joke: a puzzle to solve for his own amusement. For several years Ricordi

continued to pursue Verdi to publish the Ave Maria, but his attempts were to no avail

until immediately before the premiere of Quattro Pezzi Sacri in 1898.

A friend of Verdi’s, Camille Bellague––the music critic and editor of the newly founded

(1895) French music journal La Tribune de Saint-Gervais––heard the Ave Maria played

at the piano by the composer himself during a visit to Sant’ Agata. Bellague expressed a

desire to publish the score, referring in his letter to the piece as “le bel Ave Maria (alla

Palestrina).” Verdi’s response is unknown, but a portion of a letter, probably to Ricordi or

Boito, survives. In it he insists that Ave Maria is not real music: it is “tour de force,” a

“charade,” and “it is better if buried.”10

Ave Maria is without a doubt one of the most harmonically challenging pieces many

conductors would ever approach. Even though it is the shortest piece in the set, when

programmed as a part of the set, its tuning demands the majority of rehearsal time. Ave

Maria followed by the Stabat Mater creates a strong dramatic contrast. This contrast is

10 Conati, “Le Ave Marie su Scala Enigmatica,” 301.

13

evident outside of the context of the set as well. Its uniqueness lies in the extremely

advanced harmonic language and the simple chorale-like rhythm.

During the discussions involving the Ave Maria, Verdi was already interested in a new

sacred text. In February 1896 he wrote to Boito “Eureka! I’ve found a Te Deum! No

less!”11 Verdi had been working on the Te Deum during the months preceding the letter.

He and Boito discussed earlier settings of the liturgical text. Tebaldini delivered to the

composer the Te Deum for double chorus and organ by Victoria from the library at

Bologna. He was yet another musician interested in performing Verdi’s Ave Maria in

Padua in November for the inauguration of a new concert hall. In his response Verdi did

not give him an answer about the Ave Maria. He was interested only in the new Te Deum

project.12

In the fall of 1896, a year after the first performance of Ave Maria, Verdi began work on

a Stabat Mater. Verdi’s letter to Boito, in which he expresses his new interest, is missing

but Boito’s reply survives. In a letter dated November 9, 1896, Boito says that he will

copy for Verdi the stanzas of the “joyous” Stabat Mater, Stabat Mater speciosa, a version

of the famous sequence by Jacopone da Todi, which was not commonly used in church

services and is therefore much less familiar. In this letter Boito copies the first three

stanzas.13 After considering both versions, Verdi finally decided to use the traditional

Stabat Mater dolorosa.

11 Conati and Medici, “The Verdi-Boito Correspondence,” 235. 12 Silvia Mendicino, “Il Te Deum di Giuseppe Verdi: Genesi, Contesto Storico e Sigificato Socio-Culturale,” Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, 41 (2006): 307-31. 13 Conati and Medici, “The Verdi-Boito Correspondence,” 240-42.

14

In the spring of 1897 Ricordi resumed his requests for the publication of “the charade,”

and in the summer Verdi finally agreed. He had not kept his Parma copy, and––unaware

that it was preserved in the library of the Liceo––he recomposed the piece. Verdi’s initial

conditions under which Ave Maria was to be published were that it could be published

only in Gazzetta Musicale without the composer’s name and under the title Scala

Enigmatica Harmonizzata a Quattro Parti.

During Verdi’s work on the recomposition of the Ave Maria, Boito also began to

persuade the composer to publish the piece, along with the already composed Stabat

Mater, Laudi, and Te Deum. In July 1897 Verdi passed through Milan on his way to

oversee the progress of the construction of his Home for Retired Musicians. During this

visit Ricordi resumed his attempts to convince Verdi to publish the sacred pieces, and this

time Verdi agreed. That month the composer worked on the final revision of the Pezzi

Sacri in his cottage in Sant’ Agata, and in October the manuscripts were sent to Ricordi.

Stabat Mater and Te Deum are the two most frequently performed and recorded pieces of

the Quattro Pezzi Sacri set. The Te Deum is especially attractive for conductors who plan

a concert involving a large chorus and a symphony orchestra. While Ave Maria and

Laudi can be performed equally successfully by both a chamber group and a large chorus,

Stabat Mater and Te Deum can only be programmed for large choirs of at least one

hundred singers to balance the full-size orchestra.

15

One reason the Te Deum is the most widely performed of the four pieces is the variety of

compositional styles it contains: a chant at the beginning of the piece expands into a

texture reminiscent of a Gabrieli-like antiphony. Fortissimo entrances by the orchestra

mark the beginnings of a number of big choral sections, aria-like tunes, a double-subject

fugue exposition, a cappella sections, and even a brief solo soprano recitative are used in

a piece of approximately fourteen minutes. Te Deum certainly is one of the pieces of the

19th-century choral repertoire with dramatic intensity, which effectively keeps the

listener’s attention until the last note of the piece.

During the month of November 1897 Boito—who together with Ricordi had been

planning for a long time to have these pieces performed—went to Paris to arrange their

premiere with the director of the Orchestra at the Opera, Paul Taffanel.14 (Taffanel was

the conductor of the French premiere of Otello in October 1894). When Verdi sent

Ricordi the second packet including the Laudi and the Stabat Mater, he included a letter

in which he expressed great sorrow to part with the pieces. They would not be on his desk

anymore; they would no longer exist only for him. After his wife died he started to think

more about his own death. Verdi was especially attached to his Te Deum and thought of it

as an intimate confession. He wanted the score to be buried with him.

In January 1898, the final version of Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri was ready and Ricordi

sent the parts to Paris, where they were to be premiered in April. However, the pieces to

be performed numbered three not four. During the preparation for the premiere of

Quattro Pezzi Sacri, Verdi had decided to omit the Ave Maria. The first performance of 14 Martin, Verdi, His Music, Life, and Times, 556-57.

16

the three sacred pieces took place on April 7, followed by a performance the next day at

the Concert Spirituel in Paris. Verdi had planned to go to Paris for the first performance,

but his health was fragile and his doctor advised him against the trip. Very rarely was

Verdi not present at a premiere of his work. At the end of March, Boito went to Genoa,

where he and Verdi looked at the Quattro Pezzi Sacri together. On March 29, Boito left

for Paris, and Verdi was already sending him instructions about the rehearsals and the

performance.

Over the following several days Verdi wrote to Boito frequently, sometimes twice a day,

describing in meticulous detail sections from the Stabat Mater, the Laudi, and the Te

Deum, to which Taffanel had to attend with special care.15 Some of his letters read:

In the Stabat towards the end, when the chorus has “Quando corpus morietur” extremely piano, so as to reach the entrance of the harps morendo and piano, etc., etc… In the Laudi from Dante, there is only to observe the dynamics and phrasing, as, for ex. at m. 31 on the word “pace” and others as well, etc… And the phrase in 3ds and 4ths should be very sweet and cantabile on the words “La tua benignitade”… In the Te Deum, the main points are: The beginning of the hymn as far as the “Sanctus” of the Sopranos, who fade away in a morendo, ending with the harmonics in the violins.16

Two days later, on April 1, Verdi sent another letter with directions to Boito, in which he

describes a liberty he had taken in writing a certain scale in the Te Deum:

Dear Boito,

15 Conati and Medici, The Verdi-Boito Correspondence, trans. William Weaver, 250. 16 Ibid., 250.

17

In the scale (m. 62) the C really should be natural, but I prefer the C-flat because it has greater expression, can be more easily sung, and better prepares the resolution to G-flat. In any case it will be another liberty taken, as on the penultimate measure of the Stabat, where the F in the orchestra should be sharp and I have written F natural.17

The next day, Verdi sent Boito a telegram, which was expanded into a letter:

At the beginning, on the first phrase Stabat Mater, etc., I would like from all a mezzoforte voice, sorrowful, hollow, detached… But if the intonation is unsure then let’s have them all full voice, provided only they finish the phrase diminuendo morendo, and here they can even be off-pitch… In the cantabile of the baritones (m.36) even just six voices would be enough, but secure ones… Here also I had hoped for an effect by means of mass of about 24 or 30 voices with that high lament in the violins…which will not happen…18

In a letter Boito wrote to Verdi, which is missing, he says that the choir was

disappointing. Only part of the Opera Chorus was singing at the concert, and members of

Societe Chorus were added to strengthen the Opera Chorus. The four soloists for the

Laudi, however, were approved by Boito, so Verdi felt confident about the performance

of this piece.

Verdi and Boito broadly discussed the beginning of the Te Deum. Verdi finally reached a

conclusion that an organ prelude should be used for the Paris performance. He writes in a

letter dated April 3:

… A prolonged E pedal would reveal too clearly to the public any faulty intonation.

17 Ibid., 251. 18 Ibid., 253.

18

Instead, a prelude with full organ, forte, seems something attached to the piece. A prelude of 12 or 16 measures, based on tonic and dominant pedals to fix well in the choristers the key of E minor.19

Later the same day, another letter to Boito reads:

Dear Boito, I wrote you this morning at 8; I am writing you again at 5 about the beginning of the Te Deum. I am still of the opinion that, as the choristers need support, the lesser evil is a definite organ prelude a tutto ripieno. Further, also have the organ anticipate the first notes of the liturgical chant (Example 4), like this:

Example 4. A prelude composed for the premiere of the Te Deum.

Then continue the prelude for 8 or 10 measures, always based on the tonic and dominant, and end like this (Example 5):20

Example 5. A continuation of the prelude.

In a letter sent the next day Verdi asks Boito to keep watching over certain sections of the

Stabat Mater, Laudi, and the Te Deum, most of which are the pianissimo passages in

these works. He wanted Taffanel to take special care of these sections. Verdi’s own

19 Ibid., 254. 20 Ibid., 255.

19

experience as a conductor probably led him to the conclusion that these choral sections,

might cause some problems.

One day before the premiere, Verdi writes:

Dear Boito, We are almost there! Tomorrow evening, the fateful evening! From your own letters I understand (I, who am suspicious) that many effects will not come off! And I am not speaking only about the beginning of the Te Deum. Taffanel writes that the choruses are difficult!! Except for a few passages, they are not at all difficult, but they are very demanding. Naturally, inasmuch as there are no solo main parts, it is necessary for someone to enunciate the words well. We could close an ear to the bad choruses of the Opera for Othello because there were three colossuses who acted and declaimed splendidly the words of the drama. But in a psalm for choruses, the choruses are protagonist. What will be, will be… I repeat, but it is painful to realize and to know there are passages that could produce an effect… but will not. I cite one (and not one of the best, all modesty aside): the Salvum fac in E-flat in the Te Deum, so well prepared, so centrally situated and resonant for all the parts, should produce in those 16 measures a sure effect, even winning applause. Similarly at other points. But whatever happens, I will always be grateful for the immense testimony of friendship you have given me going to Paris. And I am also grateful to all those who have touchingly lent themselves to the performance of these pieces. It is no one’s fault if the main part, the chorus, is not adequate. I will write no more letters, only a telegram or two…21

In the spring of 1898, the Pezzi Sacri had their Italian premiere in Teatro Regio in Turin,

under the direction of Toscanini, a young but very well-known conductor. Aristide

Venturi was the chorus master. The concert was a part of a series celebrating the fifteenth

anniversary of the Statuto, the progenitor of the Italian constitution. Toscanini and the

chorus master visited the composer to talk about the first Italian performance of the Pezzi 21 Ibid., 257.

20

Sacri. The concert took place on May 26, 1898, and was repeated on May 28 and 30. At

all three concerts the Laudi was encored. Verdi was not present at these performances.22

Toscanini performed the Pezzi Sacri many times during his career, including the first

Milanese performance at La Scala in 1899. He recorded the Te Deum with the New York

Philharmonic (1931), the Vienna Philharmonic (1937), the BBC Symphony (1938), the

NBC Symphony (1940, 1945, 1948, and 1954), and at La Scala. Therefore, Toscanini’s

recordings serve as a link to Verdi’s ideas of his music and their analysis in Chapter 3

might help conductors with their interpretation decisions.

Soon after their premiere, the three sacred pieces were performed in England in

September 1898 at the Cathedral of Gloucester; in Germany, also in September, in

Cologne; and in January 1899 by the Berliner Philharmonic. Italian performances took

place in April 1899 in Milan, at La Scala, conducted by Toscanini; in Pesaro’s Liceo

Musicale in May 1899 with conductor Pietro Mascagni; and in Rome’s Academia di St.

Cecilia in April 1890 under Stanislao Falchi. At all these performances Ave Maria was

excluded.23 While the first Italian performance of Ave Maria is unknown, its first

European performance reflected in the Gazzetta Musicale of November 1898 took place

on November 13, 1898, in Vienna during the premiere of the entire Quattro Pezzi Sacri

set, under the baton of Richard von Porger.

22 Ibid., 267-8 23 Conati, “Le Ave Marie su Scala Enigmatica,”306-7.

21

The Ave Maria and the Stabat Mater are the least frequently performed of the four pieces.

As a relatively short piece involving large choral and orchestral forces, the Stabat Mater

tends to provide logistical and artistic difficulties when included in orchestral programs.

The most frequently performed and recorded of the four pieces is the Te Deum, in which

Verdi’s operatic style is interwoven with his interpretation of church style, including the

use of Gregorian chant. The a cappella Laudi is also occasionally performed in concerts

featuring women’s choruses.

As the history of composition and early performances of Quattro Pezzi Sacri confirms,

they have been accepted equally successfully as individual pieces as well as a set. Verdi’s

initial intention was for them to exist only for him. However, for the benefit of

performers and listeners alike they have enjoyed success since the time they were first

performed. Even though Quattro Pezzi Sacri is not performed frequently enough as a set

due to the difficulty of Ave Maria and the logistical issues that Laudi presents, the set is

very effective when programmed in its entirety. One of the benefits of performing the

complete set is informative: audiences do not necessarily connect Verdi’s name with

small-scale sacred works.

22

Chapter 2

Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Analysis

Formal and especially harmonic analysis of any piece of music is vital for the success of

the rehearsal process. Understanding the form of a piece is necessary for a conductor in

order to informatively present it as well as to plan strategically the rehearsals. The diverse

compositional styles of Quattro Pezzi Sacri will lead to different rehearsal approaches. In

this chapter I analyze the form, harmonic language, melodic and rhythmic profile, and

articulation of Verdi’s music. Through the analysis I will show that even though Verdi

employs different compositional approaches, he keeps returning to stile antico and the

rules which Palestrina followed three hundred years earlier.

Ave Maria

The origins of Ave Maria, also known as Hail Mary, and the Angelic Salutation of the

Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, can be traced back to the eleventh century. Used in

both liturgy and private devotions, it is the most widely used prayer of the large number

of Marian Prayers.24 The form of the prayer known today was standardized in the

sixteenth century (Figure 1).

24 The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, “The Mary Page,” http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/prayers/mpray01.html#angelus (accessed August 28, 2012).

23

Figure 1. Ave Maria, Latin text and translation.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, Blessed art thou among women, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Holy Mary, Mother of God, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, pray for us sinners, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. now and in the hour of our death. Amen.

Verdi’s setting of Ave Maria is the shortest of the four pieces—it has only 71 measures

and is approximately five minutes long—but when prepared for a performance with the

rest of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri, it demands a significant portion of the rehearsal time. Ave

Maria’s advanced harmonic language, as well as the non-traditional scale on which the

piece is based, present a number of serious tuning issues for singers. The analysis I

provide in this chapter aims to help conductors solve one of the biggest problems of Ave

Maria, namely, its tuning (Example 6, Enigmatic Scale).

Example 6. Crescentini’s scale.

The overall form of Ave Maria is very regular: it consists of two sections of thirty-two

measures each, and a coda. The entire text appears twice, once per section, and no entire

lines of the poetic text are repeated. The only repeated word in the entire piece is “Ave,”

when used in the cantus firmus parts. In the descending form of the scale, the repetition

24

of “Ave” helps distribute the notes of the scale between the stressed and non-stressed

syllables of the text.

An analysis of the scale itself, and the text it carries, shows that Verdi is following the

rules of Renaissance voice-leading; he gives the stressed syllables more importance than

the unstressed by elongating them. As discussed in Chapter 1, Verdi was initially

interested in the scale only as a curious puzzle, and the approach he chose to solve it lies

in the rules of sixteenth-century part writing. Voice leading and the treatment of intervals

here, therefore, belong to the old tradition of the Renaissance, a period to which Verdi

repeatedly returned when setting sacred texts.

As seen in Figure 2, each of the two sections is divided evenly in two, each half

containing the entire scale in its ascending and descending forms. In each of its four

appearances the scale serves as a cantus firmus, and in each sixteen-measure section it

appears in a different part: mm. 1-16 in the bass, mm. 17-32 in the alto, mm. 33-48 in the

tenor, and mm. 49-64 in the soprano. Finally, the last seven measures, set to the text

“Amen,” serve as a coda, which does not use textual or harmonic material from the rest of

the piece.

In the A section the scale is built on the pitch C, and the sections begin and end on a C-

major chord. In the B section the scale is presented on F. Section c begins and ends on an

F-major chord. This chord begins section d as well; however, section d ends on a B-flat

25

major chord. The Amen starts on D-flat major, the Neapolitan sonority of the home

tonality (C), and modulates back to C-major.

Figure 2. Ave Maria, Form.

Understanding the harmonic language of Ave Maria is crucial when approaching this

piece. Analyzing the chord progressions in the context of traditional Western modes is

irrelevant. The distribution of intervals (whole steps, half steps, and augmented seconds)

differs significantly from that of the major, minor, or any other mode or scale used

before, therefore, the scale has to be learned on its own outside of the context of the

piece. The ascending and descending forms of the scale are different: scale degree four is

raised in the ascending version but not in the descending one. Some of the tuning issues

of the scale itself are based on the fact that singers intuitively attempt to compare it to

more familiar scales and modes.

In the ascending form of the scale, the raised scale degrees four and five form a tritone

and an augmented fifth, above the tonal center respectively. One challenge regarding

singing an ascending scale with raised fourth, fifth, and sixth degrees is to sing the

seventh and, especially, the eighth degrees in tune. When learning the scale, singers often

!"#$ % & '"()*$)++,*-./0"1* ) 2 . ($-)*3#-* $$4,5657 $$4,5869: $$4,996;< $$4,;=67; $$4,7>685?)#/,.)##@01A,/B-,*.)+- &)** %+/" C-1"# D"?#)1"/"1)+,.-1/-# ' ' E E6&6!+)/ F6!+)/6'

%$-1/-G/ %H-,I)#0),J."$?+-/-,?"-$K

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26

sing these two scale degrees sharp, sometimes ending the scale on C-sharp. Mm. 4-8, in

which the bass carries the scale degrees 4-8, present the first place in Ave Maria where

the tuning can be easily compromised. During the rehearsal process, the conductor must

continuously point out the tendency of the scale to “pull up” and “stretch out” the final

two half steps of its ascending form. Singers must concentrate on lowering the intervals

leading to the top of the scale, especially the seventh and the eighth, so that it begins and

ends on the same pitch.

Tuning of the descending form of scala enigmatica, and especially the second tetrachord

(F E D-flat C) is somewhat less challenging. This tetrachord is not unfamiliar in Western

music. It is a part of the harmonic minor and it has been frequently used in pieces that

aim to impose Eastern, and especially Middle Eastern, character. In his own Aida, Verdi

employs this tetrachord. The singers who have been exposed to it recognize it and thus

relate to it.

In the descending version of the scale, the fourth degree is the same as the subdominant

of the major and minor modes and, when used in the bass part, provides the conditions

for a plagal cadence. Verdi uses this quality of the chord (F minor) at the close of the first

sixteen-measure section of the piece. This traditional ending, especially in settings of

early sacred music, gives a calm close to a section of harmonic turbulence.

The lowered second degree in the descending scale of the bass part provides an

opportunity for the use of a Neapolitan-like sonority, which Verdi employs in the

27

penultimate measure of the section described above. Even though the chord is not in its

most common first inversion, it hints at the color usually achieved by the conventional

Neapolitan chord.

While there are a few vertical sonorities in Ave Maria that can be analyzed by using the

tools of the traditional Western tonal system, the most appropriate approach to

understanding how this piece is built is to analyze it using the laws of Renaissance

counterpoint. Some of the most important rules of Renaissance polyphony address the

approach to perfect intervals, especially octaves and fifths. Analyzing this piece as a

combination of lines moving into and out of these intervals helps solve most of its tuning

challenges. It also turns the attention of the singers toward the perfect intervals rather

than to the advanced harmony that is impossible to analyze in a tonal context.

Verdi strictly follows the sixteenth-century voice-leading rules: melodies are moving

mostly by steps, and when leaps occur, they are filled in with a stepwise motion in the

opposite direction, as in mm. 1-3 of the soprano part (Example 7) and in mm. 27-28 of

the tenor part (Example 8). There are some exceptions in which Verdi follows a leap with

larger intervals (mostly thirds and fourths), as in the alto part in m. 56, shown in Example

9. While not exactly foreign to the style, instances like this are rare in Renaissance

counterpoint, as they are in Verdi’s Ave Maria.

Example 7. Ave Maria, mm. 1-3, soprano.

28

Example 8. Ave Maria, mm. 27-28, tenor.

Example 9. Ave Maria, mm. 56-57, alto.

In compositions based on sixteenth-century counterpoint, each voice has a distinctive

melodic shape. By following the rules on writing a melody in this style, the result is a

well-balanced line in terms of intervals, melodic outline, and rhythm. Lines usually begin

and end with a slow rhythm, and fast-moving voices are accompanied by voices moving

slower. Verdi strictly follows this convention. In Example 10 (mm. 29-32), the tenor line

has a varied rhythm, which brings expressivity at the close of the first section of the

piece. The rest of the voices move slowly and do not distract the listener from the melody

in the tenor line.

Example 10. Ave Maria, mm. 29-32, tenor.

29

When three voices move together against a long note in the cantus firmus, the result is

homophony (Example 11), which is one of the two predominant textures in the

Renaissance. Palestrina, whose works Verdi owned and studied, wrote his motets and

Mass settings in a style that was a coherent blend of homophony and imitative

polyphony. In his compositions, the points of imitation alternate with sections of pure

homophony. Verdi does the same in Ave Maria.

Example 11. Ave Maria, mm. 9-12, homophonic section.

The second section (Example 12, mm. 33-64) starts as a typical Renaissance motet: a

point of imitation (mm. 33-35) is followed by homophony (mm. 37-38) in which the

Soprano and the Bass move in contrary motion using the same rhythm on the words

“gratia plena.” Many compositions or sections of compositions by Renaissance

composers begin in a similar way.

30

Example 12. Ave Maria, mm. 33-64, point of imitation.

The next two examples are from the opening measures of Palestrina’s Ave Maria

(Example 13) and mm. 49-53 from Verdi’s Ave Maria (Example 14). Although the

rhythm here is obviously different, the general principles of voice-leading and the

balance among the parts in the two works are achieved in a similar fashion. In both

examples, the voices move together for two measures, after which each of them assumes

an individual rhythmic profile.

Example 13. Palestrina, Ave Maria, mm. 1-6.

31

Example 14.Verdi, Ave Maria, mm. 49-53.

Approaching the intervals of octave and fifth is a carefully handled matter in Renaissance

polyphony. When parts move into perfect intervals, parallel motion is avoided

completely, relative motion is rarely used, and oblique and contrary motions are strongly

preferred. In Ave Maria all perfect intervals are approached correctly by strictly

following the rules of sixteenth-century counterpoint. Figures 3-7 list all the octaves and

fifths used in the piece, the pairs of voices that form them, and the type of motion through

which they are approached.

Figure 3. Octaves approached through contrary motion.

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32

Figure 4. Octaves approached though oblique motion.

Figure 5. Fifths approached through contrary motion.

Figure 6. Fifths approached though oblique motion

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33

Figure 7. Fifths approached through similar motion.

In section B of Ave Maria, the number of octaves approached through contrary motion is

significantly smaller (mm. 33-67). This is because the harmonic language in this section

is even more advanced than it is in the first two sections. In the first sixteen measures of

Ave Maria, all the octaves appear on downbeats except those in m. 6 and m. 8. The

octaves that are placed on downbeats have a stronger structural function than the ones in

m. 6 and m. 8, between the soprano and the tenor parts, which are employed in passing

motion (Example 15). This section is even more harmonically advanced than the first. It

also contains more seventh chords than triads.

Example 15. Ave Maria, mm. 6-8. Octaves in passing motion between soprano and tenor.

!

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34

As seen in the tables, the preferred motion for approaching perfect fifths is oblique, while

the preferred motion for achieving octaves is contrary. In addition, close examination of

voice-leading shows that sequence, which is not a widely used technique in Renaissance

polyphony is used very sparingly here as well (Example 16, mm. 45-48). Awareness of

the location of the octaves and fifths leads to purity in intonation and helps solve a

number of tuning issues. The search of these intervals while singing Ave Maria can be

incorporated in the rehearsal technique by conductors in combination with other, more

linear approaches.

Example 16. Ave Maria, mm. 45-48. Sequence.

A different strategy for rehearsing Ave Maria, which can be especially effective in the B

section of the piece (mm. 33-64), is tuning to the root of chords formed by the linear

relationships of individual parts. While the chord progression do not follow any harmonic

pattern used in the Western tradition, this approach brings variety to the rehearsal

process, offering an alternate way to look at the same section of music. To achieve good

35

tuning, a conductor should take advantage of all the places in Ave Maria where a tonal

center exists. For example, if the downbeat of m. 48 is approached with the expectation

of the F-major harmony, there is a better chance of sustaining this harmony in the

transition from m. 48 to m. 49. In the early stages of the rehearsal process, the approach

based on chords and their roots can benefit from the use of the piano, playing only the

roots of the chords.

Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater Dolorosa is a liturgical sequence consisting of twenty three-line stanzas

telling the story of Virgin Mary mourning her son at the foot of the cross. Liturgical

sequences belong to the section of the Mass before the reading of the Gospel. Each

liturgical sequence is meant for a specific feast day, and Stabat Mater is sung, chanted, or

said on feasts commemorating the Virgin Mary.

In the late Middle Ages and in the Early Renaissance, a large number of sequences were

employed in the liturgy; however, the Council of Trent forbade many of them and only

four were restored: Dies Irae, Veni Sancte Spiritus, Lauda Sion Salvatorem, and Stabat

Mater, the last to be written. All four have many similarities, not only in their function

and place in the liturgy but also in the way they are constructed.

The poetic feet and the rhyme scheme of the four sequences are similar. Three of them,

Veni Sancte Spitius, Lauda Sion Salvatorem, and Stabat Mater, share the same rhyme

36

scheme: aab ccd, etc. Veni Sancte Spiritus and Lauda Sion have three-line stanzas with

the poetic feet described above, as well as four-line stanzas with the following rhyme

scheme: aaab cccd, etc. In terms of rhyme scheme, Dies Irae differs from the rest of the

sequences; its lines are organized in the following fashion: aaa, bbb, etc.

The sequences also have a strict number of syllables per line, shown below. The three

numbers refer to the number of syllables in the first, second, and third lines, respectively:

Lauda Sion 8-8-7 Stabat Mater 8-8-7 Veni Sancte Spiritus 7-7-7 Dies Irae 8-8-8.

The poetic feet of all four sequence hymns is a combination of trochees: / * and a dactyl

/ * *. The first two lines of each stanza of the Stabat Mater are set in trochaic tetrameter:

/ * | / * | / *| / * and the last stanza is a combination of trochaic dimeter: / * | / * and a

dactyl: / * *. In musical terms, the trochee is counted “ONE and,” and the dactyl, “ONE

and–a.” The trochaic tetrameter in the first two lines of each stanza is a combination of

four trochees, or “ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and,” while the trochaic

trimeter in the last line of each stanza is a combination of trochees, or “ONE and TWO

and THREE and.” Another way to describe musically the poetic feet is by looking at the

trochee as a simple meter and the dactyl as a compound meter. The syllable count, rhyme

scheme, and poetic feet of Stabat Mater are shown in Figure 8.

Poetry is an important dimension of vocal music. Understanding the poetic meter of a

vocal composition helps conductors understand better how words and music work

37

together. A complete analysis of a vocal piece, therefore, must involve an analysis of its

poetic feet. Whether a composer follows the poetic scheme strictly in his rhythmic and

metric interpretation of the poem or not is to be discovered only after analyzing the poetic

meter.

In Appendix II Stabat Mater is divided into twenty phrases based on the stanzas of the

poem, given with their harmonic profile, the Latin text, and the English translation of the

poem. Figure 9 shows the relationship among the sections of the form. There are many

phrases with either a strong melodic or a textural sense of closure; however, these are not

always harmonically stable. Therefore the division of the piece is based on melodic,

poetic, and harmonic factors.

Figure 8. Stabat Mater, poetic meter.

When performing Stabat Mater, the conductor should be aware of the multiple word-

painting devices Verdi uses throughout the score. There are a number of musical gestures

rhyme rhyme

scheme scheme

poetic feet Trochaic tetrameter Trochaic tetrameter / * | / * | / * | / * / * | / * | / * | / *

text Sta-bat Ma-ter Do-lo- ro-sa Cu-jus a-ni-mam ge-men-temsyllable count

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

poetic feet Trochaic tetrameter Trochaic tetrameter/ * | / * | / * | / * / * | / * | / * | / *

text Ju-xta Cru-cem la-cri-mo-sa con-tri-sta-tam et do-len-temsyllable count

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 8

poeti feet Trochaic trimeter Dactyl Trochaic trimeter Dactyl / * | / * | / * * / * | / * | / * *

text Dum pen-de-bat fi-li- um Per-tran-si-vit gla-di ussyllable count

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7b d

Stanza 1 Stanza 2

a c

a c

38

and sonorities, which for centuries have been related to pain, suffering, struggle, and

death. In this work Verdi uses almost all of them. The most common interval used to

express these afflictions is the augmented fourth. Here it is used a number of times,

especially at structurally important moments such as beginnings and ends of sections.

Another interval used to express suffering is the diminished seventh. A good example of

the way Verdi uses a diminished seventh is found in m. 20, described below. Many

phrases throughout the piece outline diminished seventh chords.

A third distinct gesture in the context of the somber sonority of the piece is the

descending, lament-like scale built of half steps. The first example of such a scale is seen

in the alto line in mm. 16-18 (Example 17). It is important for the conductor to be

familiar with the gestures described above in order to express the true character of the

piece.

Example 17. Stabat Mater, descending lament theme, mm. 16-18.

The overall form of Stabat Mater consists of seven sections, shown in Figure 9. This

division is based on the dramatic content of the text and the way Verdi expresses it

through the elements of the form.

39

Stabat Mater begins with open fifths (G and D) in strings, bassoons and French horns.

The somber sonority in the low registers of the instruments is interrupted by the chorus,

which sings in unison an augmented fourth above the tonic (G). The striking sonority

signals the listener that a tragedy is about to unfold. All three lines of the first verse are

set in unison, each with its own rhythmic profile and articulation. Here Verdi

meticulously marks the dynamics.

Figure 9. Stabat Mater, form.

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40

The choral opening is challenging in several different ways. The diminuendo starting as

soon as the first note is sung (m. 4) is not easy to achieve. Choirs tend to drop to subito

piano instead of following the decrescendo suggested by Verdi. The diminuendo in m. 10

presents a similar challenge, although there is more time to achieve it.

The second stanza (mm. 13-25) is set to unclear harmony and meter: the parallel thirds in

the violins may easily lead away from G. The pitches of the first violin part in m. 4 (C#-

D) recall the opening sonority of the chorus (C#-D). The first two measures of this

section have silent downbeats, followed by a chain of syncopations that cause a

temporary shifting of the downbeat to the second half of the first beat. Only on the

downbeat of m. 15, when the chorus enters, does the listener regain the sense of a

downbeat.

The text of the second stanza is set differently from that of the first: the first two lines are

part of a descending line divided among alto, tenor, and bass in quarter notes. The third

line creates a dialogue in double-dotted rhythms between high (ST) and low (AB) voices.

This stanza contains several of the dramatic musical gestures depicting pain and

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41

suffering: the lament figure in the alto part (m. 16-17) and the diminished sevenths

between the pairs of voices (mm. 20-21).

A challenging section for the choir is the descending scale in mm. 15-19, migrating from

one voice to another, starting with half steps in the alto, a major tetrachord in the tenor,

and two whole steps in the bass. Singing descending intervals is generally problematic,

especially when a series of half steps is sung in pianissimo. A solution to the intonation

problems here is having the singers perform one or two additional parts, thus achieving a

sense of the entirety of the chromatic line and the role of their own part in it.

While the approach suggested above is useful during rehearsals, it can partially be done

in concert as well. Conductors may resort to revoicing this section to achieve the desired

uniform dynamic and tone color. For example, a group of tenors may start with the altos

in m. 15; the altos can continue singing the tenor line, and the tenors may sing again with

the basses. Mm. 20-21 may present difficulties for the tenors and the sopranos because of

the register, the double-dotted rhythm, and the pianissimo dynamic.

The third stanza (mm. 25-32) brings back the harmonic instability and unresolved

dissonances (a deceptive resolution to A-flat major instead of C major). The end of the

first line of the third stanza (m. 25) occurs on an unsettling G-flat major chord in first

inversion. The following two measure of harmonic instability (mm. 25-26) are similar to

m. 15; however, this time the altos sing a cappella a short descending motif containing

two half steps, followed by the tenors in a similar fashion as in the previous section.

42

The last two lines of the third stanza (mm. 28-32) bring a place of harmonic stability in

the four-part, hymn-like writing for the first time in this piece. This section ends on a

bright C-major chord, which paints the word unigeniti (only-begotten). Of the first thirty-

two measures of the piece, almost half are harmonically unstable. Capturing the character

of the opening section of the work is supported by meticulous dynamic and articulation

markings.

The second section (AII) has a more uniform structure. The three-measure orchestral

introduction begins with a silent downbeat and a chain of syncopations, following three

beats of rests at the end of the previous section (m. 32). The rhythmic profile here is very

similar to that in mm. 13-19. This section, compared with the first thirty two measures, is

much less challenging for the choir. However, a problem may occur in the orchestra as

well; for a relatively long time (mm. 33-47) the strings and woodwind play a chain of

syncopations, which may result in rhythmic misalignment.

Stanzas five (mm. 47-54) and six (mm. 53-59) begin with the same melodic four-note

motif (Example 18), which is the first occurrence of melodic repetition in the piece. The

novelty stems from the poetic text. Both verses begin with the same word: “Quis.” Verdi

builds the form around the text, relating specific words to specific melodic motifs, which

in a way results in Leitmotif technique.

43

Example 18. Stabat Mater, mm. 47-51.

44

The last portion of section A includes stanzas 7 and 8. Stanza 7 begins with the words

“for the sins of his people,” reminiscent of the text of another sequence hymn, Dies Irae.

Here Verdi uses a trumpet call as he does in the Dies Irae of his Requiem. Later, when

setting the eighteenth stanza, the one concerned with Judgment Day, Verdi uses the same

rhythm in the trumpets that he uses in the second stanza of his Dies Irae, Quantus tremor

est futurus. The texture of the two examples is also similar. In both of them, the trumpets

are exposed uninterrupted and unobstructed by any other instruments. Trumpets are used

in a similar way in the beginning of stanza 20 (m. 173-174) with the text “when my body

dies.”

At the beginning of the following section (mm. 174-204), Verdi uses silent downbeats for

three measures, as he already has done before in mm. 33-35. A single part (bass, m. 174)

on a single pitch with a very simple rhythm begins the last stanza of the poem: “when my

body dies.” From this point on, the text is set in the most operatic and pictorially

descriptive way possible. As the other parts join to sing the second line of the stanza,

45

“grant that to my soul is given,” the strings play whole notes doubling the chorus. When

the last line, “the glory of paradise,” appears, Verdi changes the roles of orchestra and

chorus; the chorus sings whole notes, ascending slowly until reaching the final G-major

chord, in which the sopranos sing a high-B, the highest note they have sung so far.

Meanwhile, Verdi introduces a new instrument, the harp (m. 185). Saving the harp for the

final measures of the piece and the line of the text referring to paradise is one of many

text-painting devices Verdi uses in his work to achieve a high dramatic effect. As the

harp appears, the orchestra starts a gradual crescendo from pppp. Over the next seven

measures, both instruments and voices reach tutta forza, and at this point the rhythm

begins to slow down as the texture becomes gradually thinner.

During the last eight measures of the Stabat Mater, the dynamic is at its softest extreme

again, pppp. The motion of the orchestra slows down to quarter notes as it descends

quietly to the dominant of the home key, where the voices meet the instruments for a

final “Amen” on the dominant pitch. The low strings, horns, and low winds have the last

word, as they keep descending by using the opening motif of the chorus from m. 4 (C#-

D-G-D).

Laudi alla Vergine Maria

Laudi alla Vergine is a four-part a cappella setting for treble voices of the first seven

stanzas of Canto XXXIII, the last canto of Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso. Paradiso is the

46

final part of the trilogy Commedia Divina, following the Inferno and the Purgatorio.

Similar to the Inferno, which has nine circles, and the Purgatorio, which has nine levels,

the Paradiso has ten celestial spheres through which Dante, led by his beloved Beatrice,

travels on his way to the afterlife. In Paradiso, Dante embodies the power of the Holy

Spirit by emphasizing the number three: there are thirty-three canti, three lines per stanza,

and thirty-three syllables per stanza.

Each stanza of Dante’s Paradiso follows the metric structure shown in Figure 10:

Figure 10. Laudi alla Vergine, poetic meter.

The text and translation of the first seven stanzas of the poem are provided in Appendix

III, and the form chart is given in Figure 11. The chart shows the overall form of Verdi’s

Laudi, the predominant type of texture in each section, the key areas and types of

cadences, as well as the appearance of specific stanzas and lines of the poem. The form

chart provides the most significant elements of the form and therefore can be a useful tool

during the conductor’s preparation.

Dactylic monometer Trochaic tetrameter / * * | / * | / * | / * | / * | Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio, Dactylic monometer Trochaic tetrameter / * * | / * | / * | /*| / *| umile e alta più che creatura, Dactylic trimester Trochaic monometer / * * | / * *| / * * | / * termine fisso d'etterno con- siglio. !

47

The analysis of Laudi in this chapter focuses on elements of both stile antico and the

operatic tradition seen in the texture, themes, and harmonic language. Even though Ave

Maria and Laudi share certain features such as careful voice leading and a strict approach

to the octaves and fifths in contrary and oblique motion, the two pieces could not be more

different in character. The analysis here focuses on those features of Laudi that contribute

the most to its unique style.

Compared with the Ave Maria, where all leaps are carefully filled in with a stepwise

motion in the opposite direction according to the principles of sixteenth-century

counterpoint, Laudi alla Vergine employs this approach more freely. It does so in

combination with other techniques, such as inversion, augmentation, motivic

transformation, and a preference for specific melodic intervals. While the typical melodic

intervals here are the usual seconds, thirds, and fourths, Verdi also employs two types of

melodic motion that make Laudi different from the rest of the Sacred Pieces: semi-

recitation and a large number of leaps of fifths and sixths. These two types of motion also

give the piece a melodic lyricism that makes it appropriate for solo as well as choral

performances. While preparing Laudi, the conductor must not forget that it was originally

meant for four soloists.

The recitation around a single note and the larger melodic leaps could pose tuning

difficulties, becoming problematic in choral rehearsals and performances. There are two

main types of recitation in the Laudi. One is performed simultaneously by all parts as a

48

result of repeated chords or slowly moving harmonic motion (mm. 1-8); in the other, a

single part has a declamatory section within the context of imitation (mm. 28-30) or

parallel motion in the remaining parts (mm. 32-35). These sections must be rehearsed

with the overall goal of improving the intonation with every repeat of the pitches of the

declamation.

Other types of melodic motion that may cause potential tuning difficulties are the

melodic ascending and descending fifths and sixths. Figure 12 lists the measure numbers

and the individual parts in which fifths and sixths occur. Where a single part enters after a

rest and forms one of these intervals is considered to be a melodic interval. In these cases,

the melody starts from one part and continues into another. Examples of short melodic

motifs (three to four notes each) that outline a melodic sixth are also included in the table.

Analyzing the texture of Laudi and anticipating the issues that may occur in the different

textures is an important part of a conductor’s preparation. Here, unlike in Ave Maria, all

types of texture are present: homophonic, unison, imitative, and non-imitative

polyphonic. The varying textures present opportunities for different approaches to the

score during rehearsal, as described below.

49

Figure 11. Laudi alla Vergine, form.

measure 1 4 5 8 9 14stanza-line 1-1 1-2 1-3key area G V4/2/A A V/Acadence IACtexture H P H

measure 15 18 19 20 21 26stanza-line 2-1 2-2 2-3key area A IV/Acadence IACtexture H

measure 27 28 29 31 32 33 36 37 41stanza-line 3-1 3-2 3-3 4-1,2key area D A f#cadencetexture P M H

measure 42 47 48 53stanza-line 4-2,3 5-1 5-2key area E D V7/Fcadencetexture P H P

measure 57 58 60 61 64 65 67 69stanza-line 5-3 6-1 6-2 6-3key area G IV/G Bcadencetexture H M H

measure 70 72 73 74 75 76 77 82 83 86stanza-line 7-1 7-2 7-3key area Gcadence IACtexture H

TextureH HomophonyP PolyphonyM Mixed

50

Figure 12. Laudi alla Vergine, melodic fifths and sixths.

Homophonic texture is the most common in Laudi. Most homophonic sections start with

three parts while the fourth is added later, as in mm. 1-4 and mm. 5-8, where A2 and A1,

respectively, are added halfway into the phrase. Another example is the section

encompassing the two six-measure phrases in mm. 15-26. In mm. 61-69, three parts are

grouped together against one: the phrase begins with strict homophony with S1, S2, and

A2 (mm. 61-64), in which A1 comes in m. 63 with a recitative-like declamation. A

variation on the same idea can be found in mm. 65-69, where the three parts work

together rhythmically as well as harmonically. A1 enters slightly later than before,

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51

however, as it modifies the overall rhythm of the phrase by introducing a chain of

syncopations.

In the homophonic sections containing a delayed entrance of a single part, that part has its

own melodic and rhythmic profile. This should favor a linear approach in rehearsing.

There are a few purely homophonic sections that involve all parts at all times (mm. 21-

26, mm. 37-41, mm. 57-60, mm. 70-end, with the exception of m. 77). A vertical

approach should be used in the multiple homophonic sections of Laudi, where Verdi

introduces an alternation of octaves and fifths in outer parts on successive downbeats

(mm. 3-5, 12-14, and 21-23). The rehearsal strategy for these sections should involve

isolation of the outer parts, which carry the perfect intervals, and individual tuning for the

rest of the parts.

One of the polyphonic sections requiring special attention is the imitation in mm. 27-30.

It is based on a combination of several techniques, including motivic transformation,

mirror and augmentation. The first motif in S1 (m. 27) is modified by A2 in the following

measure. The modification here is similar to that of a tonal answer in fugue; however,

unlike a tonal answer, both parts here begin on the same pitch. The motif in the alto is

further modified in two ways, by an inversion in A1 in m. 29 and by a rhythmic

elongation of the first note of the motif (A1 and A2, m. 29). This section (mm. 27-36) is

one of the most challenging to tune. The melodic outline of the above discussed motif

(diminished fourth), the series of repeated notes (S1, mm. 28-32, and A1, mm. 31-35),

and the descending lines accompanying them often result in tuning difficulties.

52

The following section (mm. 42-53) has a mixed texture with prevailing imitation. The

parts are divided into groups of two: the alto parts introduce an imitation of a motif which

begins with a descending fifth, and the two soprano parts sing a motif built by seconds.

The descending fifths in the alto parts, especially in A2, create tuning issues due to the

low tessitura of the motif.

Harmonically, Laudi is a balanced mix of flexible motion through multiple keys, tonal

ambiguity caused by unresolved seventh chords (like the one in m. 53), and chromatic

motion for extended sections (for example, mm. 27-36). Transitions between phrases

must be given special attention during the rehearsal process. The almost complete lack of

perfect authentic cadences in Laudi contributes to the sense of continuous forward motion

and even a certain unsettledness until the very last measures of the piece. In the majority

of the cadences, the fifth of the chord is placed in the top part (m. 14, m. 26, m. 41, m. 69,

m. 82). This particular voicing of the cadences, along with the melodic characteristics

discussed above, are signature features of Laudi.

Te Deum

Te Deum is the longest and most complex of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri. It resembles Laudi

and the Stabat Mater in its quasi through-composed form and differs from them greatly

due to the nature of its motivic development. Unlike the rest of the Pezzi Sacri, the Te

53

Deum contains a motif, M1,that is used over the course of the piece. It serves as a link

between sections that are otherwise independent of each other.

The great thematic variety in the Te Deum, as well as the almost omnipresent M1 (Figure

13), result in a form that is best described as a fusion of two forms of contrasting nature:

through-composed and strophic. A significant number of the themes here are designated

to specific sections of the poem, therefore, they are never repeated, thus creating a

through-composed form, while the continuous occurrence of M1 results in a strophic-like

form. The type of form used here by Verdi is similar to the cyclic form, used so

frequently by the Romantic generation starting with Beethoven. Although on a smaller

scale than in a symphony, the motif in the Te Deum acts very much like the main theme

of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or the idee fixe in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

Appendix IV provides the text of the Te Deum and its literal translation. An analysis,

provided in Appendix V, includes the formal structure of the piece, its key areas, the text,

textures, and occurrences of M1.

Verdi’s Te Deum belongs to a large group of sacred works not meant to be performed at

church. This vast category includes concert Mass and Requiem settings, as well as

countless motets and Psalm settings written for the concert hall. Although these works

have sacred texts, they do not employ any liturgical references. However, Verdi’s Te

Deum uses a significant variety of devices that refer to liturgical context, such as chant,

reciting tone, highly imitative eight-part polyphony, and antiphonal choral style.

54

Verdi employs a larger number of operatic features in the Te Deum and the Stabat Mater.

Abrupt key changes, unresolved dissonances, unexpected silence, fast-running scales, and

frequent chromaticism are a part of the musical language here. One of the most

challenging aspects of the preparation of the Te Deum is achieving balance and contrast

between the sacred and the secular elements of the work. As in the case of any choral

piece of the length and scale of the Te Deum, a choral conductor would address certain

sections more than others. In this analysis, I will discuss the more challenging portions of

this work and the difficulties they may present.

Figure 13. Te Deum, motif M1.

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55

The Te Deum moves through several key areas, as outlined in Appendix V. The opening

line of the poem is set to a chant in a hypoaeolian mode. The first pitch is E, which is also

the very last pitch of the piece, played only by low strings. This common pitch is the only

connecting element between the opening and the closing sections of the piece.

Stylistically, each of them represents a tribute to a different tradition, namely the

liturgical and the operatic.

The opening fifteen measures of the Te Deum have the potential to present a number of

tuning difficulties, due to the voicing of the chords and the delicately soft dynamics, as

well as the lack of orchestral accompaniment. Tonal awareness on the part of the singers

is highly necessary for the success of this portion of the piece. The longer a cappella

opening followed by a loud orchestral and choral tutti is similar to the opening of the

Sanctus from Bruckner’s Mass in E minor, which is one of the most challenging

examples in the choral literature up to its time. Both Verdi’s Te Deum and the Bruckner’s

Sanctus refer to stile antico, and coincidentally, in the Te Deum, the full orchestra comes

in on the word Sanctus.

The “Sanctus” section of Te Deum (mm. 16-41) is one with a relatively small number of

technical challenges. The following section (mm. 42-64), however, may present some

significant difficulties for proper tuning. Here, Verdi uses M1 as an introduction to the

words Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus. Later, it is seen in the choral as well as the

instrumental parts both as a main focus of the texture as well as a background for new

56

themes and motifs. The section introducing M1 is relatively challenging due to the large

number of independent melodic lines and its increasingly polyphonic texture.

Verdi gradually modifies M1, bringing its four additional versions outlined in Figure 13.

All versions of M1 are listed with added letters a, b, c, d, and e, respectively. M1a is the

original motif. M1b is the second half of M1a, which Verdi begins to use independently

of its first half. M1c has the rhythmic and overall melodic profile of M1a. However, it

has a modified opening interval; here, the major second of M1a is replaced by a perfect

fourth. M1d begins with a descending major second, rather than ascending, and retains

the second half of M1a. M1e deviates the most from M1a, including its overall melodic

contour.

The next large section (mm. 89-185) is among the most challenging ones in the piece and

needs to be addressed early in the rehearsal process. In m. 98, Verdi starts to build a thick

and highly polyphonic fabric with a double subject in which two different motifs appear

in stretto (m. 102, T1, and m. 103, S1). This kind of relationship, in which the second

motif acts as a counter-subject of the first, is seen in polyphonic genres such as two-part

invention and double fugue. The two parts of the motif always appear in the same metric

and harmonic relationship except for the last three entries of the motif, in which its

second part is missing (mm. 134-136). Figure 14 lists the occurrences of the double

subject and the parts to which it is given.

57

Figure 14. Te Deum, double subject.

The parts not involved in the double subject create a free counterpoint around it by

employing ascending and descending scales and large leaps. These easily present tuning

challenges. The section ends with all voices in unison against a busy chromatic triplet

motion in the orchestra.

The closing section of the Te Deum (mm. 202-239) is very similar to the closing section

of the Stabat Mater (mm. 180-204). Each begins with a simple hymn-like homophonic

texture in pianissimo, set against chords in whole notes in the orchestra. Even the rhythm

of these two sections is almost identical. In m. 213 the orchestra accelerates to eighth-

notes, then to sixteenths, and finally to tremolo, while ascending until reaching one of the

highest tessituras so far (m. 216), followed by a gradual descent. In a similar fashion, in

m. 186 of the Stabat Mater, the orchestra begins to ascend in eighth-notes, then triplets,

then sextuplets, until it reaches the climax in m. 192, after which it begins to descend.

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58

After nine measures of silence, the chorus makes its last statement, “In te speravi” (mm.

231-233), followed by a six-measure orchestral closing in pianissimo. The piece ends on

a unison low E. Similarly, in the Stabat Mater, the chorus sings its final Amen after eight

measures of rests, and during the next four measures the orchestra reaches the final

unison G also in the low tessitura.

The wide-ranging levels of compositional devices used in Quattro Pezzi Sacri lead to a

variety of challenges associated with the purely practical side of rehearsing and

performing the set. An analysis of the set, therefore, helps the conductor with a careful

and highly strategic approach of the pieces. Therefore the aim of this chapter is to help

conductors focus on the challenging sections of the set early on in the rehearsal process.

59

Chapter 3

Quattro Pezzi Sacri: Practical Aspects

and Interpretation Decisions

The final chapter of this paper deals with practical matters regarding the interpretation of

Quattro Pezzi Sacri. Three of the most significant elements of nineteenth-century

performance practice are observed here: articulation—and more specifically

accentuation—tempo, and portamento. Conductors interpret these elements with a large

degree of individuality. An analysis of several recordings here will demonstrate the

flexibility with which conductors have treated these elements in the past.

Articulation discrepancies

The manuscripts of Stabat Mater, Laudi, and the Te Deum are not known to have

survived. Ave Maria surfaced in October 2012 when Toscanini’s estate auctioned off the

score along with other manuscripts by Verdi including Falstaff. Verdi, however,

supervised the printing of the first published edition by Ricordi, which was used as a

source for the later editions of the set. The first edition contains a number of

discrepancies; articulation marks such as slurs, staccatos, and accents often appear in

individual parts or pairs of parts, but not in the parts that double them.

60

One of the most commonly used types of articulation in Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri is

the slurred staccato, which, as Clive Brown points out originates in string playing, where

The staccato notes under a slur are performed on a single bow stroke rather than separate

bows.25 In the nineteenth century this articulation was also common in vocal scores.

Verdi used it multiple times in Quattro Pezzi Sacri as well as the Requiem and his operas.

In many cases the slurred staccato appears in one of several doubling parts in the texture,

which creates articulation irregularities. One of the decisions a conductor must make

therefore is whether to unify the articulation in performance or follow strictly the

composer’s remarks.

An example of such articulation discrepancy is found in m. 9 of the Ave Maria (Example

19). The slurred staccato in the soprano part here does not match the rest of the parts of

the homophonic texture. A similar discrepancy is a staccato which appear over only one

out of four parts in the same type of texture. The second type of non-uniform articulation

appears in m. 3 of the Laudi (Example 20 ).These types of articulation are common in

Quattro Pezzi Sacri and constitute a large part of the inconsistencies present in the set.

Discrepancies in the Stabat Mater and the Te Deum are seen in the vocal as well as in the

instrumental parts. An example is m. 123 in the Stabat Mater, where the staccato in the

cello part is not reflected in the doubling bassoon. It occurs again in m. 55 in the Te

Deum; the bass clarinet, the bassoons and the celli play in unison, while the slurred

staccato is placed only over the bass clarinet and the cello part. 25 Clive Brown, Classical and Romantic Performance Practice, 1750-1900. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999), 240.  

61

Example 19. Ave Maria, m. 9, articulation discrepancy.

Example 20. Laudi, m. 3, articulation discrepancy

In multiple cases in which similar articulation discrepancies occur, the conductor must

decide whether to regularize the articulation by copying the already existing articulation

marks over the unmarked doubling parts or to follow strictly the instructions written in

the score. Many conductors would regularize the articulation by copying what the

composer marked in one part in its doubling or similar parts, but there are exceptions.

Dennis Vaughn, for example, insists that composers such as Verdi and Puccini meant to

62

use irregular articulations in their music.26 He asserts that the articulation discrepancies

bring to the score qualities such as unpredictability, freshness, and subtlety.

Accentuation

Accentuation here is considered a separate category of articulation due to the significant

role of the accents used in Quattro Pezzi Sacri. In his chapter on accentuation, Brown

places the accents in two distinct groups: metric accent, which is a result of the different

weight of the beats in a measure, and rhetorical accent, an expressive accent that

emphasizes certain elements of the texture.27 In the same chapter he points out that

composers placed accents on appoggiaturas and other types of dissonances in order to

imply weight.

The accents also can be divided into four categories: accents that bring out part of the

texture, thereby creating a dramatic effect; accents that bring out an important word or a

syllable; accents that are used to help with the tuning process, and accents that help

sustain a steady tempo. The majority of the accents in Quattro Pezzi Sacri seem to fall

simultaneously into more than one of these categories.

The two types of accents Verdi uses are the hairpin (>) and le petit chapeau (^). In his

study of nineteenth-century accents, Brown finds that after the 1860s Verdi began to use

26 Dennis Vaughan, “The Inner Language of Verdi’s Manuscripts,” Musicology Australia: 5, no. 1 (1979): 68. 27 Clive Brown, Classical and Romantic Performance Practice, 1750-1900. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999), 9.

63

these types of accents more frequently than he had previously, and in the majority of

cases he used them interchangeably, as seen in the Libera me from his Requiem.

Brown cites Quantz, who states that the “degree of accent is determined by the intensity

of the dissonance.”28 Other writers, such as Leopold Mozart, support this view in their

treatises on performance practice. Manuel Garcia was one of many musicians of the

nineteenth century who continued this tradition and insisted that dissonances in vocal

music should be accented.

In the Ave Maria, Verdi uses accents that belong in part to the rhetorical group: they

emphasize a certain portion of the texture, even though the accented note is not

necessarily a dissonance. The function of the accents here is to support specific chord

tones and to bring out the expressivity of the texture; therefore, accents that play an

expressive role also have a practical function.

The largest number of accents in the Ave Maria occurs on notes in individual parts. The

table in Figure 15 shows the measures, the beats, and the specific parts in which the

accents occur. As seen in the table, nine of the eleven accents occur on the last beat of the

measure. In the two cases of accents occurring on the third beat, it also is the last note of

the measure of the respective part.

28 Clive Brown, Classical and Romantic Performance Practice, 1750-1900. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999), 36.  

64

Figure 15. Ave Maria, accents

Why did Verdi choose to use accents on these pitches? Observation of the placement of

the accents on specific syllables of the poem proves that a relationship between important

words and the accents does not exist. Furthermore, most of the accents are placed not

only on weak syllables but on weak beats. The answer therefore certainly lies elsewhere.

An analysis of the harmonic structure and the vertical intervals of the Ave Maria shows

that Verdi was aiming to accent notes that otherwise would sound weak in the context of

the chords surrounding them. Verdi was aware of the tuning difficulties the Ave Maria

would present to choirs, and one of the likely reasons for adding accents was not only for

expressive purposes and dramatic effect, but also for emphasizing certain elements of the

chords, thus helping to achieve harmonic clarity.

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65

For example, in m. 3 of the Ave Maria, the accented note on the fourth beat of the

soprano part forms a perfect fifth above the E in the bass, while the alto part forms a

minor third. As discussed in Chapter 2, tuning perfect intervals during the rehearsal

process is crucial for a successful performance of the Ave Maria. Therefore, the accent on

B in the soprano part may be viewed as creating a perfect fifth with the bass part serving

as a focal point to the vertical harmony.

The alto part in the same measure contains an accent on G, which forms a minor third

with the E in the bass part. Due to the purely physical nature of sound, and more

specifically, the nature of the overtone series, minor thirds in the context of a chord often

sound impure, especially when they occur in inner voices as in the case of the alto part

here. As known in acoustics, the lower an overtone in the harmonic series, the stronger its

presence in the musical fabric.

The fourth overtone of the harmonic series forms a major third (E-G-sharp) with the

fundamental pitch, which here conflicts with the minor thirds in the chord (E-G), leading

to tuning challenges. The accent therefore strengthens the pitch in the alto part and helps

balance the chord. The G in the alto part forms an augmented fourth with the C-sharp in

the tenor. Augmented fourths are among the intervals with the most challenging tuning.

Therefore, agreeing with the principles of acoustics, the accent used in the alto part serves

to solve potential problems between the alto and the tenor. The rest of the examples in the

Ave Maria are similar; they serve as a guide to tuning the vertical sonorities.

66

Another possible interpretation of the accents on the last beats of the measures is the

tempo. Amateur musicians, such as the singers in the choirs for whom Verdi wrote, often

tend to speed up toward downbeats, which results in tempo modification of the last beats

of the measure. Perhaps by using accents on specific tones of the chords in the last part of

the measure, Verdi creates weight to the sonorities on beat four, thus preventing an

unintentional change of tempo.

As seen in the Accent Table, Verdi uses both > and ^. In the first 27 measures there

appears to be a relationship between the beat of the measures and the types of accents

placed on them. All the accented weak beats and the relatively strong beat in m. 27 are

marked ^, while the downbeat of m. 10 is given >. The accents employed in the rest of

the piece, mm. 52-58, are all >, although the nature of the texture and the harmonic

language are similar to the earlier sections. In the last section of the piece Verdi does not

distinguish between them.

The accents in the Laudi are similar to those in the Ave Maria. As seen in Figure 16, they

are used in weak parts of the measures and, in the majority of the examples, in only one

part. On the two occasions in which all four parts are accented (m. 10 and m. 74), they

are in unison. In m. 3, the accented pitch in the second alto part is the minor seventh in

the G major-minor chord in third inversion, which is acoustically the weakest part of the

chord, especially when present in parts other than the S1. As he does in the Ave Maria,

Verdi uses an accent on the note, which if sung timidly might create tuning problems.

67

Figure 16. Laudi, accents.

If the accents in Laudi are to be categorized, all of them would fall into one of the

following groups of chord tones:

• thirds: m. 18, m. 24, and m. 32;

• unisons: m. 20 and m. 74;

• dissonances: major second/ninth in m. 35, the minor seventh in m. 46, the

diminished fifth, in m. 51, and the major second/ninth, in m. 81; and

• roots: the D-major chord in first inversion in m. 32, and the E-major chord in

second inversion (m. 78).

The accentuations of the Stabat Mater and the Te Deum are discussed simultaneously due

to the similar nature of the two works. As seen earlier, both pieces are written for a

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68

chorus and full orchestra, and they are significantly longer than the Ave Maria and the

Laudi. The presence of accents here is much more prominent.

The Stabat Mater and the Te Deum contain a large number of accents over individual

parts in homophonic texture. In these cases, just as in the two a cappella works, the

accents should be used as tools to perfect tuning. An example of accents of this kind is

seen in mm. 142-143 in the Te Deum. Here, in m. 142 the accented parts are the Sopranos

and the altos of both choruses. This is one of the two a cappella sections of the Te Deum

and is treated similarly to the two a cappella pieces in the set.

The character of the S1 and A1 pitches in the context of the harmony is unstable, as it

was in the a cappella works; here they have the seventh and the third of the chord. The

two respective parts in Choir II are accented as well, most likely due to balance issues. In

m. 143 similarly, the accented pitches are the third and the seventh in the soprano and the

alto of Choir I respectively, and the female parts of Choir II are also accented to match

the articulation.

Accents used in the orchestra do not always appear in all doubling parts; therefore, the

conductor must decide whether or not to place accents in order to regularize the

articulation. Yet another concern regarding accents is observed in motifs that appear

multiple times. As seen in the form table of the Te Deum in Chapter 2, a motif first seen

in m. 122 occupies a large portion of the piece. The accents used in its appearances are

69

not always consistent and therefore could be corrected by the conductor to create

uniformity.

Conductors often change articulations to achieve desired qualities requested by the

composer. The use of accents that otherwise do not appear in the score is one such

liberty. Accented articulation is often helpful in passages containing syncopation, dotted

rhythms, and scales in fast tempos, to name a few. All four pieces contain places where

conductors might choose to add accents. A good example is the phrase beginning in m.

117 of the Te Deum. In this particular example the orchestral tutti provides a thick texture

of triplets in fortissimo-marked staccato, while the chorus has dotted rhythm (m. 118). In

examples like this one, the chorus needs to add accented articulation in order to match the

character of the orchestra.

Elsewhere in the Te Deum, the fugal section beginning in m. 130 implies the use of

accents to achieve rhythmic clarity. Verdi uses > on the highest note of the subject; in its

first occurrence, m. 131 (Example 21), the A in the bass part and doubling instrumental

parts. These accents might be used for the remainder of the phrase both in the choral and

the orchestral parts.

Example 21. Te Deum, accent in the fugal subject.

70

However, the accent of the countersubject in the same section, first presented in the

clarinet part in m. 131 (Example 22), is seen neither in the tenor, which doubles the

clarinet, nor in its later occurrences. Over the course of the rehearsal process the

conductor might well unify the accents of this sections by adding missing accents in all

necessary parts.

Example 22. Te Deum, accent in the countersubject.

Tempo

Scholars and performers concerned with nineteenth-century performance practice often

face the issue of tempo. They use terms to signify tempo changes in music, for example,

tempo rubato (It; robbed time), tempo modulation, tempo modification, and tempo

fluctuation. These terms refer either to the tempo relationship among the different beats

in a given measure or to the changes within and among individual sections of a piece.

Brown asserts that there are practical reasons for different approaches to tempo

modification in solo versus ensemble works. Instrumental soloists, as well as solo

singers, whether accompanied by a piano or an orchestra, have the liberty to modify the

main tempo, while ensemble musicians cannot afford this freedom. The next section of

this paper therefore deals with the tempo concerns in relation to the performance of

Quattro Pezzi Sacri.

71

A common practice in nineteenth-century performances was the use of accelerando and

crescendo for ascending lines. As the century advanced, writers increasingly supported

the freedom of conductors to bend the boundaries of tempos suggested by the composers

themselves. Two main schools were present: one required a strict tempo with minor

deviations, and the other allowed a freer use of tempo modification.

When preparing a large-scale choral piece such as the Stabat Mater or the Te Deum, the

conductor can trace the performance tradition through the recorded history of the piece.

Early recordings provide clear evidence of how tradition has evolved. Jose Antonio

Bowen observed the tempos of several recordings of large-scale works including

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6.29 In his analysis of

recordings spanning more than 80 years he studied the similarities and differences among

these pieces as conducted by different conductors, in terms of temporal proportions

between sections of the works.

Bowen found no trend toward slower or faster tempo, despite the prevailing belief that

tempos became faster over the course of the twentieth century. If this is true for the years

following the first recordings of music, one can easily assume that the changes, which

occurred during the much shorter period preceding the first recordings, could not have

been much more significant.

29 Jose Antonio Bowen, “Tempo, Duration, and Flexibility: Techniques in the Analysis of Performance,” Journal of Musicological Research 16 (1996): 111-56.

72

Due to their different character and form, each of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri requires a

unique approach to tempo. Ave Maria, which is written in a stile antico texture

throughout, does not invite significant tempo modification among and within its sections.

The through-composed Stabat Mater, Laudi, and Te Deum, on the other hand, offer

multiple occasions for modifying the tempo. The recordings of these pieces show that

conductors employ a wide range of tempos to achieve expressiveness in the music and

the text.

Stabat Mater, Laudi, and the Te Deum are constructed by clearly defined sections

differing from each other in texture and voicing, as well as by rhythmic, melodic, and

harmonic profile. In their length and orchestration these works are comparable to the

symphonic movements written by Verdi’s contemporaries; as a result, concerns such as

tempo modification and proportion, which are much less relevant in the Ave Maria, have

an important place in the other three pieces of the set. Even though Verdi’s tempo

specifications are very sparse, a comparison of several recordings of the Stabat Mater,

Laudi, and the Te Deum made between 1940 and 1993 shows a wide range of tempo

changes.

In his letters to Boito preceding the premiere of the three sacred pieces, Verdi indicates

that their duration should be as follows: “Te Deum, less than 12 minutes, Stabat Mater,

less than 10, and Laudi, less than 5 minutes.”30 As seen in the table in Figure 17, the six

recordings of the set exemplify different degrees of freedom for using and modifying

30 Conati and Medici, The Verdi-Boito Correspondence, 248.

73

tempo. The durations of the pieces in the several recordings greatly differ from the

durations expected by Verdi, sometimes by as much as 50 percent.

One of the clearest examples of tempo changes that are not required by Verdi but are

employed by all conductors is seen in the first section of the Stabat Mater (mm. 1-32).

The recitative-like “O quam tristis et afflicta,” sung by the unaccompanied alto section

followed by the tenor section, is a textbook example of a tempo change that was not

specified in the score. Two main points of tempo modification are heard: m. 26 and m.

28. Fricsay’s tempo change is the most dramatic. At m. 10 (q= 72), he begins a gradual

accelerando that reaches its peak (q=80) at m. 25, and, after a significantly long pause the

new phrase (m. 25) is presented with a dramatic and sudden tempo change (q=44), while

the tempo in m. 28 changes back to its tempo from m. 25 (q=80).

As a result of the sudden tempo changes, as well as the long silence surrounding mm. 26-

28, the focus of the listener is shifted to mm. 25-27. As seen in Figure 18, the tempo

changes by the rest of the conductors here are also much slower compared with the

surrounding phrases, although not as dramatic as those heard in Fricsay’s recording.

While Fricsay, Abbado, Gardiner and Giulini (in his earlier recording) accelerate the

tempo at the end of m. 27, Giulini’s later recording as well as that of Reiner slow down

here even more before starting a slow-paced accelerando in m. 28. From this point on, the

74

tempos in all of the recordings, with the exception of Gardiner’s, accelerate toward the

end of this section (m. 32).

Figure 17. Quattro Pezzi Sacri’s duration in recordings made between 1940 and 1993.

Figure 18. Stabat Mater, tempi.

A clear tempo change in all six recordings that is not specified by Verdi is present in mm.

59-67 of the Stabat Mater. The downbeat of m. 59 marks the end of a quasi-homophonic

legato section and the beginning of a fanfare-like section with staccato sixteenth notes, as

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75

seen in Figure 19. The beginning of this section, as well as the sixteenth-note arpeggios

in m. 66, are places that invite the use of accelerando.

Figure 19. Stabat Mater, tempi.

For the purpose of this study, the question of how a particular section fits in the context

of the whole is crucial. In the climax of the Stabat Mater (mm. 156-157), the five

conductors make tempo choices that differ greatly from one another. The section begins

poco piú animato, which on all six recordings is achieved by a gradual accelerando

beginning in m. 128. At m. 149, however, half of the recordings continue speeding up

while the rest start to slow down as they approach the climax in mm.156-157. At the

climax point, Fricsay, Reiner, and Gardiner are in the range of q=108-112. They are also

the closest in terms of duration of the entire piece.

The rest of the recordings take a different approach toward the climax. Giulini’s tempo in

his earlier recording is q=92, while Abbado’s is only q=80, which was his tempo at m.

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76

128. Giulini’s later recording is unique in terms of tempo. Starting at q=72 in the

beginning of the sections he gradually slows down and at m. 156 he reaches q=66. His

tempo climax, q=92, appears in m. 160, where in fact Verdi asks for a slower tempo:

Meno animato, come prima. The differences in tempo choices in the six recordings are

listed in Figure 20.

In the Te Deum Verdi gives very little specific instruction regarding tempo modification.

Due to the semi through-composed form of the piece and the different characters of its

sections, decisions regarding tempo and tempo modification are arguably the most crucial

ones a conductor makes in its preparation. The Te Deum is the most frequently recorded

of the Quattro Pezzi Sacri. Its recording history extends approximately 80 years, and the

data presented by these recordings are a good source of information regarding tempo and

tempo modification, among other aspects of performance.

Figure 20. Stabat Mater, tempi.

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77

A good example of tempo flexibility is observed in the opening measure of the Te Deum.

Verdi’s own indication, senza misura, is followed by Sostenuto (q=80). The chant style

offers opportunities for freedom in tempo, as well as in the treatment of the individual

pitches of the chant. The recordings provide a variety of approaches. While Toscanini’s

earliest recording (1940) offers flexibility by combining the notes in groups of two and

three, in his later two recordings (1945 and 1948) the notes of the chant sound out more

individually, with more subtle sense of flow.

Fricsay’s first measure of the Te Deum contains a wide range of tempos. He starts off

slower with the bass portion of the chant (q =69-72) and accelerates the tempo with the

entrance of the tenors (q =132). He also takes a long pause between the first and second

measures and uses a great deal of tempo rubato in m. 2. Due to the free nature of the

opening measure, in Figure 21 its duration rather than its tempo is provided.

In the Te Deum, the 51-measure section from m. 87 to m. 138 shows a very flexible

approach toward tempo. In this particular section Verdi gives only two instructions

regarding tempo: un poco più sostenuto in m. 90 and Tempo I at the beginning of the

following section. As seen in column B of the tempo table in three of the nine recordings,

the tempo does not change, and on one of them (Giulini, 1963) it actually accelerates.

78

Columns C, D, and E are instances of different tempos on the recordings, and column F is

the beginning of the next section (m. 138), which is supposed to return to the tempo of

the second measure of the work. As the table displays, the differences in tempos within

individual recordings are in some cases within wide ranges, which is evidence of the

freedom with which some conductors took Verdi’s directions. The table also shows that

some of the conductors chose accelerando in mm. 130-138, while others went in the

opposite direction and slowed down the tempo. By comparing the Tempo I in m. 138 to

Verdi’s original tempo specified in m. 2 (q =80), Toscanini, Gardiner and Abbado come

the closest to Verdi’s tempo (Figure 21). However, in m. 2, which is meant to be the first

occurrence of Tempo I, all conductors choose significantly slower tempos (Figure 22).

Figure 21. Te Deum, tempi.

Verdi’s tempo mark for the Laudi reads Moderato, q=84, and for the rest of the piece he

requests some character changes, such as dolce (m. 25, m. 53, and m. 64), dolcissimo (m.

19, m. 35), morendo (m. 26 and m. 31), cantabile, dolcissimo e calmo (m. 61),

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79

allargando (m. 81), and poco allargando (m. 13). Only the last three may require a

tempo change. In the various recordings of the piece, a large number of changes are made

by most of the conductors.

Figure 22. Te Deum’s opening. Tempi.

Figure 23 represents the measure numbers of sections of the Laudi in which there are

significant tempo changes on the recordings. All conductors choose tempos much slower

than the one suggested by Verdi, and even Abbado, whose tempo is the closest one to

Verdi’s, expands the tempo range on its slower side down to q=60 at a couple of

occasions (from m. 61 on).

Figure 23. Laudi, tempo changes.

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80

Fricsay’s recording displays the most extreme tempo differences at the beginning of the

selected sections, as well as the widest ranges of tempos overall. He also takes liberties

such as double dotting (m. 37) and long fermatas over rests (m. 72). As discussed above,

the Laudi was originally meant to be performed by four unaccompanied women’s voices,

and the flexibility of four voices would be much more pronounced than that of any

ensemble. Fricsay’s recording of the piece captures this quality to a higher degree than

any other recording surveyed.

Portamento

Portamento di voce (It.), port de voix (Fr.), Trager der Töne (Ger.) or gliding of the voice

is an essential part of the singers’ vocabulary which has continued to receive an

increasing amount of attention from writers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first

centuries. One of the most common types of ornamentation in vocal music, it has been

applied mostly to solo singing and has been considered a trademark of operatic

performances. The treatises of eighteenth and nineteenth-century experts, such as Garcia

and Garaudé, have been edited, translated, and cited in all of the important writings

discussing portamento. While understandings of the nature of this device differ subtly,

generally it means to slide the voice from one note to another.

Among the authors who discuss the topic of portamento are Garcia, Vaccai, Corri,

Garaudé and Crelle. Garaudé and Garcia describe portamento differently in their

81

treatises.31 To Garaudé, the second note should always be anticipated when using

portamento, while Garcia offers more varieties of portamento, including the one

described by Garaudé. As Kaufmann points out in her article on portamento in singing,

one of Garcia’s most significant views on connecting intervals is that a singer can employ

one out of five types of motions: “carried” (porter), “connected” (lier), “marked”

(marquer), “pointed” (piquer), and “breathed out” (aspirer). While to Garaudé

portamento has the nature of an ornament, to Garcia it is a main part of the singers’

articulation vocabulary.

Even though many music writers have been attracted to the topic of portamento, very few

have touched on its application in choral singing. In his study of nineteenth-century

performance practice, Brown points out that many expression devices are rarely

employed by ensembles due to the challenges their application would present. While a

solo singer can use freedom and flexibility of expression through the use of portamento,

for example, choruses need to be taught the subtleties of expression judiciously and

carefully during a long rehearsal process.

Choral portamento is in the group of expression devices that many conductors avoid

unless the composer himself requested it. The reputation of portamento in choral singing

is related to a method of vocal production common among amateur singers, known as

scooping. While the two techniques have common qualities, such as sliding between the

31 Clive Brown, Classical and Romantic Performance Practice, 1750-1900. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999), 558-72.

82

notes and adding intermediate notes, the differences between them are prominent and

easily detectible.

Portamento has the potential to be as expressive in choral music as it is in solo singing

but it is rarely employed. It requires a great amount of ensemble listening and a precise

estimate of the time of departure from the first note and the speed of the sliding motion

toward the second note. The larger the interval and the longer the first note, the more

challenging it is to unify these events.

While Quattro Pezzi Sacri is often performed by professional choruses in which singers

are capable of achieving subtle nuances demanded in an expressive interpretation, the

skills of the musicians in the majority of choruses vary widely. The number of

professional choirs has always been and still is much smaller than the number of

professional orchestras. Choral musicians generally need much more rehearsal time in

preparation of a large-scale work, and often some of the subtleties of expression are

simply left out in service of clarity. When Verdi conducted his operas he often had

approximately thirty orchestral rehearsals, and then as it is now, choral singers needed

more rehearsal time than orchestral musicians.

To represent clearly the composer’s demands in a score, conductors often change the

articulation and sometimes even the rhythm of works they rehearse. Some of the most

common examples of this are substituting legato with non-legato, using rests in the

middle of dotted rhythms, even modifying the letters of words so the text is clearly

83

projected. To prevent an undesired portamento, or scooping, in many cases conductors

prefer to use a less connected type of articulation, while in the same example a solo

performer might use portamento.

Verdi’s request for portamento in Quattro Pezzi Sacri is limited to two places: m. 182 in

the Te Deum and mm. 125-126 in the Stabat Mater. In my opinion, however, it is safe for

conductors to employ portamento judiciously in more than these two cases. In Quattro

Pezzi Sacri, Verdi writes many examples of “choral arias,” expressive melodies given to

a certain section or sung in unison by several parts and accompanied by the orchestra.

The recordings of Quattro Pezzi Sacri contain examples of non-written portamento that

occur where the following three factors are present: large leaps, legato, and a relatively

long first note. In the Stabat Mater the first such place is m. 9. Even though the

descending diminished seventh here is not slurred, most of the recordings employ a

clearly audible portamento. The only two recordings that display no portamento are those

of Reiner and Gardiner. In Fricsay’s recording, the portamento is not evenly performed

by all parts, which means that it is either under-rehearsed or unintentional. Giulini’s

recording of 1963 contains a clear portamento, while in his later recording, as well as in

that of Abbado, the portamento is subtle.

The descending perfect fifth in m. 94 of the Stabat Mater is another appropriate place for

using portamento. Since the first note is only a quarter note, this gives the singer little

opportunity to slide slowly; portamento here needs to be more delicate and faster than the

84

one in m. 39. Indeed, of all of the recordings, only that of Gardiner shows a clear

connection of these two notes with no evidence of intermediate pitches. In the rest of the

recordings different degrees of portamento are observed.

In mm. 119-120 Fricsay performs a very slow portamento with anticipated second note,

which makes it a typical case of the portamento described by Garaudé. The portamento

takes place approximately on the second half of the last beat of m. 119 and the first pitch

of m. 120 is therefore strongly anticipated at the end m. 119. Fricsay’s recording is the

only one that employs portamento in this measure.

Laudi, written for four soloists, is similar to an operatic quartet although it lacks an

orchestral accompaniment. All the melodic lines are highly expressive and provide the

conductor with an abundance of opportunities to use portamento. There is a tendency

toward more flexibility in the earlier recordings than in the later ones. Fricsay, for

example, takes many liberties in the use of portamento. His interpretation of the Laudi is

dramatic and sounds more like an operatic ensemble than a prayer. He not only employs

portamento regularly, but he also tolerates a scoop in the alto part at the beginning of the

third beat of the opening measure.

Among the most obvious uses of portamento in Fricsay’s recording is the approach to the

last chord of the section, which ends in m. 14 by using a delicate portamento in all

moving parts. The second alto part in m. 42 has an expressive line that moves by a

descending fifth followed by an ascending minor sixth. In m. 45, both the second soprano

85

and the second alto move similarly by leaps in both directions. Fricsay employs

portamento in both places.

The subject in the first soprano part of m. 48, as well as its two imitations, is another

portamento spot on Fricsay’s recording. The descending fifth in the first soprano part in

m. 60 as well as the ascending fourth and the descending fifth in the second alto part in

m. 79 are analogous. The rest of the recordings employ portamento in some of the places

described above but to a more moderate degree. Abbado, for example, uses portamento in

m. 45 and m. 60.

In the Te Deum one can find many possibilities of using portamento. Most of the

conductors discussed here have chosen to allow its use to varying degrees. The only

portamento Verdi wrote in is found in m. 182, where voices and strings perform a melody

in unison. Out of nine recordings, the recordings by Toscanini from 1940 and 1945, as

well as those by Fricsay, Abbado, and to some extent Gardiner, use portamento, while

Toscanini’s 1948, Giulini’s two recordings, and Reiner’s do not employ the device.

Portamento is in the group of expression devices rarely required by composers.

Musicians, particularly in solo performances use portamento judiciously to add

expressivity, flexibility and beauty to music. Choral portamento is used very rarely and

only if specified in the score. There is no real tradition of choral portamento, therefore, in

order to be perfected its execution requires a significant amount of rehearsal time. The

86

available literature on portamento as well as the recording history can help a conductor

decide in what contexts it might be successfully used.

While the above discussion of the decisions that need to be made regarding performance

practice issues, such as accentuation, tempo, and portamento, is not by any means

comprehensive, it brings to light some of the most essential topics of the late nineteenth-

century music pertinent to Quattro Pezzi Sacri. Its aim is also to serve as a guideline for

conductors in their preparation for the rehearsal process of these pieces. The historical

details in Chapter 1, the analysis in Chapter 2, and the overview of the performance

practice issues in Chapter 3 aim to familiarize conductors with Quattro Pezzi Sacri and to

help them make informed decisions in their performance of the set.

I hope I have shown that Quattro Pezzi Sacri are among Verdi’s works which borrow

elements from several traditions and compositional genres and styles such as opera,

Renaissance motet, chant, antiphonal homophony and cantus firmus motet. Chapter 1,

which is focused on programming issues as well as the early history of the set, may help

conductors decide how to approach the pieces of the set. The analysis in Chapter 2 is

intended to assist conductors as they plan the rehearsals and to help them thoroughly

understand the structure of the set. The discussion of performance issues in Chapter 3

may encourage conductors to make interpretive decisions based not only on information

Verdi provides in the scores but on the performance tradition of the music of the late

nineteenth century as well.

87

Appendix I

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

Appendix II

Measures Tonal areas Latin text Literal English Translation

1--12 g--g 1. Stabat Mater dolorosa The grieving Mother Iuxta crucem lacrimosa stood weeping beside the crossDum pendebat Filius where her Son was hanging

13--25 g--G-flat 2. Cuius animam gementem Through her weeping soul,Contristatam et dolentem compassionate and grieving, Pertransivit gladius a sword passed

25--32 G-flat--C 3. O quam tristis et afflicta O how sad and afflicted Fuit illa benedicta was that blessed MotherMater unigeniti! of the Only-begotten

33--47 A-flat--f 4. Quae moerebat et dolebat, Who mourned and grievedPia Mater, dum videbat and trembled looking at the tormentNati poenas incliti of her glorious Child

47--53 V7 6/D-flat--V7/f 5. Quis est homo qui non fleret, Who is the person who would not weepMatrem Christi si videret seeing the Mother of ChristIn tanto supplicio? in such agony

53--59 V7/D-flat--B-flat 6. Quis non posset contristari, Who would not be able to feel compassionChristi Matrem contemplari on beholding Christ's MotherDolentem cum Filio? suffering with her Son?

59--67 (8) B-flat--e dim 7. Pro peccatis suae gentis For the sins of his peopleVidit Iesum in tormentis, she saw Jesus in tormentEt flagellis subditum. and subjected to the scourge

69--80 E--E 8. Vidit suum dulcem natum She saw her sweet offspringMoriendo desolatum dying, forsaken, Dum emisit spiritum while He gave up his spirit

89--95 V7/a--B 9. Eia Mater, fons amoris O Mother, fountain of love,Me sentire vim doloris make me feel the power of sorrow,Fac, ut tecum lugeam that I may grieve with you

96--102 B--B 10. Fac, ut ardeat cor meum Grant that my heart may burnIn amando Christum Deum in the love of Christ my Lord, Ut sibi complaceam that I may greatly please Him

95

103--111 E--V7/C 11. Sancta Mater, istud agas, Holy Mother, grant that the wounds Crucifixi fige plagas of the Crucified drive deep Cordi meo valide. into my heart

112--119 V7/C--E 12. Tui nati vulnerati, That of your wounded Son, Tam dignati pro me pati, who so deigned to suffer for me, Poenas mecum divide. I may share the pain

120--127 V7/C--C 13. Fac me tecum, pie, flere, Let me sincerely weep with you, Crucifixo condolere, bemoan the Crucified, Donec ego vixero. for as long as I live

128--135 V7/F--A 14. Iuxta crucem tecum stare, To stand beside the cross with you, Et me tibi sociare and gladly share the weeping, In planctu desidero this I desire

136--143 V7/F--F 15. Virgo virginum praeclara, Chosen Virgin of virgins, Mihi iam non sis amara be not bitter with me, Fac me tecum plangere let me weep with you

143--149 F--F 16. Fac, ut portem Christi mortem Grant that I may bear the death of Christ, Passionis fac consortem, share his Passion, Et plagas recolere. and commemorate His wounds

149--159 F--e dim 17. Fac me plagis vulnerari, Let me be wounded with his wounds, Fac me cruce inebriari, inebriated by the cross Et cruore Filii and your Son's blood

18. Flammis ne urar succensus Inflame and set on fire, 160-165 C-sharp--b dim Per Te, Virgo, sim defensus may I be defended by you, Virgin,

In die iudicii on the day of judgment

166-173 e-sharp dim--D 19. Christe, cum sit hinc exire, Let me be guarded by the cross, Da per Matrem me venire armed by Christ's death Ad palmam victoriae and His grace cherish me

174-204 f-sharp--G 20. Quando corpus morietur, When my body dies, Fac, ut animae donetur grant that to my soul is given Paradisi gloria. Amen the glory of paradise

96

Appendix III

Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio, Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, umile e alta più che creatura, Humble and high beyond all other creature, termine fisso d'etterno consiglio, The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,

tu se’ colei che l’umana natura Thou art the one who such nobility nobilitasti sì, che ’l suo fattore To human nature gave, that its Creator non disdegnò di farsi sua fattura. Did not disdain to make himself its creature.

Nel ventre tuo si raccese l’amore, Within thy womb rekindled was the love, per lo cui caldo ne l’etterna pace By heat of which in the eternal peace così è germinato questo fiore. After such wise this flower has germinated.

Qui se’ a noi meridïana face Here unto us thou art a noonday torch di caritate, e giuso, intra ’ mortali, Of charity, and below there among mortals se’ di speranza fontana vivace. Thou art the living fountain-head of hope.

Donna, se’ tanto grande e tanto vali, Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing, che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre, That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee, sua disïanza vuol volar sanz’ ali. His aspirations without wings would fly.

La tua benignità non pur soccorre Not only thy benignity gives succour a chi domanda, ma molte fïate To him who asketh it, but oftentimes liberamente al dimandar precorre. Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.

In te misericordia, in te pietate, In thee compassion is, in thee is pity, in te magnificenza, in te s’aduna In thee magnificence; in thee unites quantunque in creatura è di bontate. Whate'er of goodness is in any creature.

97

Appendix IV

Te Deum laudamus: O God, we praise Thee:

Te Dominum confitemur. We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.

Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur. Everlasting Father, all the earth doth worship Thee.

Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi Caeli et universae Potestates; To Thee all the Angels, the Heavens and all the Powers,

Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim all the Cherubim and Seraphim,

incessabili voce proclamant: unceasingly proclaim:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts!

Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae. Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory.

Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus, The glorious choir of the Apostles,

Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus, the wonderful company of Prophets,

Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. the white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee

Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia, Holy Church throughout the world doth acknowledge Thee:

Patrem immensae maiestatis: the Father of infinite Majesty;

Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium; Thy adorable, true and only Son;

Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum. and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

Tu Rex gloriae, Christe. O Christ, Thou art the King of glory!

98

Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius. Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.

Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, Thou, having taken it upon Thyself to deliver man,

non horruisti Virginis uterum. didst not disdain the Virgin's womb.

Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, Thou overcame the sting of death and hast

aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. opened to believers the Kingdom of Heaven.

Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, Thou sittest at the right hand of God,

in gloria Patris. in the glory of the Father.

Iudex crederis esse venturus. We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.

Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: We beseech Thee, therefore, to help Thy servants

quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.

Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints

in gloria numerari. in everlasting glory.

Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, Save Thy people, O Lord,

et benedic hereditati tuae. and bless Thine inheritance!

Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum. Govern them, and raise them up forever.

Per singulos dies benedicimus te. Every day we thank Thee.

99

Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, And we praise Thy Name forever,

et in saeculum saeculi. forever and ever.

Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. O Lord, deign to keep us from sin this day.

Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.

Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us,

quemadmodum speravimus in te. for we have hoped in Thee.

In te, Domine, speravi: O Lord, in Thee I have hoped;

non confundar in aeternum. let me never be put to shame.

100

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