Ottorino Respighi

Related Link: Respighi Society Web Page

Respighi is one of the great orchestrators of the twentieth century, and his love for “technicolor” displays of instrumental brilliance find their greatest expression in the so-called “Roman trilogy” – three works which vividly express aspects of the city of Rome in music. The first symphonic poem, The Fountains of Rome, is in four sections, each of which portrays a different Roman fountain and its surrounds at the optimum time of day to appreciate it. Respighi followed a study of the fountains with the Pines of Rome, which is well known for the final section where the pine trees along the Via Appia seem to bear witness to an apparition from the past, of a Roman legion marching into the city. The third symphonic poem, Roman Festivals combines disparate images of festivities such as the revelry in Piazza Navona at Epiphany, and the gladitorial games (atrocities?) once held in the Circus Maximus.

The excerpt below is the soft, delicate opening to The Fountains of Rome, with the fountain of Valle Guilia depicted in the quiet oscillation of the muted violins (which at one point are divided in five parts, with the violas) against a backdrop of gradually awakening sound in the melodies of the oboe, followed by clarinet and other winds.