CJ Replay: Choral Music of Rossini

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “From Youth to the ‘Sins of Old Age:’ The Choral Music of Rossini,” by William Braun)

 

While a student, Rossini wrote some sacred music and a secular cantata for tenor, chorus, and orchestra, entitled Il pianto d’Armonia sulla morte d’Orjeo, for which he won an academic prize and the opportunity of performance in August, 1808. It is obviously a student work, but one that shows the promise of things to come. As Richard Osborne, Rossini’s most recent biographer, points out:

 

“Much of the part-writing for chorus is wooden and the writing for tenor solo lacks Rossini’s later melodic fluency. Perhaps he was striving too hard for a certain ‘German’ cut to the phrasing and harmony. There is, though, some characterful orchestral writing, with lovely wind solos and a glimpse of Rossini’s newfound love, the solo cello.”

 

Rossini wrote a number of similar “occasional” cantatas throughout his career, although oftentimes they did

not survive in their original form. Rossini, never one to waste an idea, would take some of the ideas which began in his (or other composers’) works and remake them into new compositions. Such is the case with the choral triptych Trois Choeurs religieux of 1844 (subtitled La Foi, L’Esperance, La Charite). The first two pieces of this set were revisions of choruses taken from the incidental music for Edipo a Colono (written around 1816). The third piece was written at the request of the publisher Troupenas to complete St. Paul’s trinity of moral imperatives: faith, hope, and charity. These pieces are scored for SSA chorus and piano (the third piece contains a short soprano solo).