Musical Vision of the Eternal City

Marcin Trzęsiok

Abstract

Roman Triptych by Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) is a musical impression of the Eternal City: each of the tone poems – Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928) – contains four part-images evocatively described in a literary commentary contained in the score. The object of musical meditation involves not solely the monuments and views of Rome, but also the town’s history (including episodes of antiquity and the Middle Ages) as well as urban folklore. This dazzling musical vision, characteristic for its masterly instrumentation, is entwined with dilemmas from the Respighi epoch. The composer belongs to the so-called generazione dell’ottanta, i.e. a formation of composers striving towards a renaissance of Italian instrumental music and hence opposing the degeneration which, in their opinion, affected European music under the impact of the expressive subjectivism of German compositions. Certain aspects of the role which they ascribed to Italy were concurrent with Fascist conceptions. An assessment of Respighi’s actual ideological involvement, however, remains an open question – his aesthetic attitude assumed shape prior to 1922 and the composer did not take a stand regarding political issues.