Assorted songs

For Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), song was the very lifeblood of his art. Yet the creation of opera involves so many more aspects (such as dramatic pacing, orchestration, and ensemble numbers) that these tend to be equally critical in forming our assessment of Puccini. To listen, then, to his songs for solo voice and piano is to enter the composer’s workshop where melodies are pared down to the barest essentials: captivating melodic shape coupled with simple piano accompaniment. Their emotionality can only be described as fairly restrained in comparison to the fervent expressivity that so marks his stage works. These songs remain much less well-known within Puccini’s total oeuvre even though several were the very seeds from which the mature operas blossomed.
Likely his first ever song, A Te opens with a simple lilting accompaniment that almost immediately grows more agitated; note the piano’s throbbing rhythm as the voice begins. The tortured passion is strongest over the first two stanzas, after which the mood becomes more jubilant and assured. What one notices is the preeminence of the voice in carrying the tension. Where Schubert or Schumann might allow the piano to offer sideline commentary or deeper hints of conflicting emotions, A Te trades emotional shading for clarity of expression.
The text of his Salve Regina is loosely based on the ancient Latin hymn. In Puccini’s hands it becomes a quasi-religious aria, simple and powerful in appeal. Moments call to mind the sublime harmonic textures of Mascagni’s Intermezzo to Cavalleria Rusticana. It was written early in his years at the Milan Conservatory, a time when the composer was clearly still cutting his teeth in writing original operatic material.
Storiella d’amore is a more developed work and would be partly recycled for a scene in his opera Edgar. It opens with a lengthy piano prelude, followed by five stanzas that, while similar in content, avoid strict repetition of a strophic setting. As in the following Sole e Amore, we are now very close to the operatic world we expect from Puccini. The melody of Sole e Amore is rhythmically flexible, allowing for a rushing-on and holding-back that mimics the breathless quality of his finest arias. Similarly, the carefully placed high leaps sparkle in a song that lasts barely two minutes. Puccini clearly recognized the value of his work here, for he drew upon this song when composing the Act III quartet of La Bohème some six years later.
Both E L’uccelino and Terra e Mare are quite short: the former is written in a buoyant vein that attempts to mimic bird call, while the latter strives for greater subtlety and range in its expression. The harmonic turns of Terra e Mare sound as if they were written by an older, more experienced composer. Yet the two songs are roughly contemporaneous; Terra e Mare postdates E l’uccelino by just three years. Both emerged in the aftermath of Bohème and in the midst of work on Tosca.

(c) Jason Stell