Tag Archives: Piccini

Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXIII

With The Periodical Overture No. XXIII, Robert Bremner issued the last of four works by Niccolò Piccinni (1728–1800) that he included in the long-running Periodical Overture series. Until this issue, Bremner had never featured the same composer four times in a row. However, all four of the Piccinni overtures were published within “Opera Quarta,” Bremner’s only all-Italian set during the twenty years of his enterprise. As Piccinni was one of the most performed opera composers in 1760s London, it explains why Bremner published four of his overtures in quick succession.

Periodical Overture No. XXIII shares many basic characteristics with the other three symphonies by Piccinni that Bremner published. All of them conform to an (unmodified) three-movement, fast-slow-fast structure, and they all employ solely the advertised eight-part ensemble of two violins, viola, basso, two oboes, and two horns. In addition, Piccinni uses the same tempo indication—“Allegro spiritoso”—for the first movements in all four symphonies. Nevertheless, the opening movement of Periodical Overture No. 23 offers some uncommon features as well. It is set in  3/4 metre, a time signature found in only eight of The Periodical Overtures’ first movements. Curiously, some manuscript copies of the oratorio version—La morte di Abele—employed  6/8 metre instead, presenting the same melodies but grouping their eighth notes differently.[1]

The form of the first movement was much more typical of the overall Periodical Overtures. It is a straightforward sonata form (without repeats), comprised of two distinct melodies. The first of its themes employs six-bar phrases that gradually ascend through arpeggiations of the tonic F major harmony for four bars before cascading downward rapidly for two measures. The lower strings provide a steady “drum 8ths” support throughout. Alternating bars of measured tremolos in the violins coincide with the long transition (m. 15) to the dominant. The second theme (m. 30) moves primarily downward, and it showcases rapid on-the-beat turns that create a “Scotch snap” effect.

Four emphatic chords—followed by a beat of silence for the full ensemble (m. 44–45)—signal the arrival at the development, which introduces several striking contrasts. It drops instantly to a piano dynamic level and it also omits the wind instruments for its entire duration of twenty-two measures. It also begins in the dominant’s parallel minor, creating quite a bit of drama on multiple fronts. The recapitulation (m. 68) shakes off all those features and returns to F major and the first theme in a robust forte for the full ensemble. A tonic version of the second theme is ushered in at measure 89, although the first theme will seize the spotlight a final time at measure 100. Piccinni then blends motifs from both of the themes in alternation as he approaches the cadence and the concluding set of four strong chords.

The central “Andantino” creates a very different atmosphere. Like the first movement’s development passage, the winds are tacet. The rondo structure alternates between two tonal centers—B-flat major (the first movement’s subdominant) and its own dominant (F major). The A refrain is filled with thirty-second notes and Scotch snaps with numerous short silences; its dynamic changes between piano and forte are abrupt and frequent. The first episode (m. 11) initially resembles the refrain, but B then moves on to some brief scales. The refrain reappears, largely unaltered, at m. 16, again in B-flat major. The C episode modulates back to F major once more (m. 22). Although C is also rhythmically dense with frequent rests, it is much more disjunct in character, and it remains at piano for a much longer stretch. Measure 27 then pulls us back to where we began, reestablishing B-flat major and reiterating the A refrain once again.

The closing “Allegro” movement’s form is a pattern that James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy label a “Type 1 Sonata.”[2] This pattern is sometimes called a sonatina; it is, essentially, a sonata form without development. It has much in common with the finales of the other Piccini works in Bremner’s series: it is full of bouncy energy in  meter that evokes a gigue. (Periodical Overture No. 22 employed  instead, but to similar effect.) The modulation from the tonic F major to the dominant C major is straightforward, but Piccinni keeps us guessing in many places with his use of irregular phrase lengths. Although the first theme (m. 1) and the second theme (m. 17) have much in common rhythmically, many of their phrases move in opposite directions. The recapitulation reestablishes F major at measure 39, and it reconciles the second theme to that harmony at measure 56. Heads are likely to nod along during the rollicking ending, and the appealing qualities of this sinfonia make it understandable why Piccinni chose to deploy it multiple times.

Alyson McLamore

Purchase the score and performance materials: https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/product/piccinni-piccini-niccolo-4/

All audio previews for this series (Nos. I–XXII on Bandcamp; XXIII onwards on YouTube): https://www.barnabypriest.com/editing-arranging/1169742-the-periodical-overtures-in-8-parts/ https://barnabypriest.bandcamp.com/music

Notes:

[1] https://rism.online/sources/400012152.

[2] James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 345–6.

Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXI

With this, the twenty-first instalment of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts, we continue Bremner’s publication of  overtures written by Italian composers whose music was all the rage in London towards the end of the 1760s. All 61 overtures, actually symphonies, in the complete series are being published monthly by Musikproduktion Höflich. Listen here before heading over to musikproduktion höflich to obtain your copy of the score and parts.

There is some uncertainty about the dating of Periodical Overture No. 21. In his seminal study of the series, David Wyn Jones cites a 24 September 1767 advertisement in The Public Advertiser.[1] However, that issue of the newspaper does not seem to contain any advertising at all by Bremner. Moreover, in an advertisement published three days earlier—on 21 September—Bremner lists the previous symphony, No. 20, as “just published,” with no mention of an upcoming No. 21.[2] It seems unlikely that Bremner would have issued two overtures in the same month, so it is more probable that the second symphony by Piccinni was introduced in October, November, or very early December. It is true that the first advertisement to mention Periodical Overture No. 21—which was published in the 8 December–10 December issue of The St. James’s Chronicle; or, The British Evening-Post—lists the overture (with other works) under the stock heading “New Music. This Day were published. . . .”[3] However, Bremner’s third symphony by Piccinni was announced only two weeks later—on 22 December—so it is possibly the case that Bremner had released No. 21 quite a bit earlier than 8 December and had not bothered to revise the language of the advertisement.

Although Periodical Overture No. 21 seems to have achieved only a tiny fraction of the popularity of its immediate predecessor, it did demonstrate a certain amount of staying power. Scholar Jenny Burchell has documented two performances that took place in concerts of the Edinburgh Musical Society in 1783, sixteen years after the symphony was published: one occurred on 2 May and the second on 16 June. Two years later, it was presented again, during a 24 June performance.[4]

The structural similarities between Periodical Overture No. 21 and the subsequent two Piccinni works, which both are known to have come from operas, are additional arguments for No. 21 having had a theatrical origin as well. It is in three movements, with the first marked as “Allegro spiritoso,” the identical tempo marking that is used for the opening in all four of Piccinni’s works in the Periodical Overture series. This F major work is structured as a sonata form without repeats, although it is “Haydnesque” in its re-use of the common-time, upward-zigzag first theme in the second tonal area of C major (m. 27). During the theme’s first appearance (m. 1), it is supported by a murky bass (m. 7) and then “drum 8ths” (m. 12). The bridge between the two harmonic areas, starting in measure 16, is peppered with subito contrasts between piano and forte, and the same is true for the development, which starts in measure 36 after three quick hammer blows mark the end of the exposition. Here, though, the contrasts are even greater, shifting suddenly between pianissimo and fortissimo. The opening theme returns at measure 46 and is reiterated at measure 62, driving to a final set of hammer blows in measure 70.

The central movement moves to the contrasting subdominant key of B-flat major, and it is set in a not-terribly-slow “Andante grazioso”; all three of the other Piccinni symphonies also employ some version of “Andante” in their second movements. All four also reduce the ensemble to strings alone, although this is true for over half of the symphonies in Bremner’s series. Within the ternary form, Piccinni’s A melody works its way downward gradually. The B theme (m. 20) makes use of numerous suspensions and dramatic dynamic contrasts. When the A theme returns (m. 32), it also features many sudden and dramatic dynamic changes.

Piccinni is again consistent in his use of bouncy, gigue-like, compound-subdivision finales. Three of the four closing movements—including Periodical Overture No. 21—are in  time, and two of the other symphonies are marked “Allegro,” while one is labeled “Presto.” Periodical Overture No. 21 perhaps straddles the line by calling for “Allegro Presto.” Returning to the F major home key, it travels a lively journey through a sonata form, starting with strong, ascending block chords in the upper strings and winds. The second theme (m. 35) features busy rising-and-falling sixteenth notes. The development (m. 44) drops to a hushed piano dynamic and reduced scoring of violins and violas only, sustained for eighteen measures. A subito return to forte and a quick downward scale set the stage for the recapitulation (m. 64) and the reprise of the block chords. Piccinni may also be emulating a little bit of Haydnesque playfulness by tossing in a “false reprise” of the second theme’s busy motif in the “wrong” key of C major at measure 90. It reappears in a clear, forte F major at measure 101, propelling the overture to its final emphatic triple-stop chords in the violins—again a characteristic shared by all four of the Piccinni Periodical Overtures.

Alyson McLamore

[1] David Wyn Jones, “Robert Bremner and The Periodical Overture,” Soundings 7 (1978): 74.

[2] The Public Advertiser, 21 September 1767, p. 1.

[3] The St. James’s Chronicle; or, The British Evening-Post, 8 December—10 December 1767, p. 2

[4] Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: Concert Management and Orchestral Repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799, Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities, ed. by John Caldwell (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996), 337, 344.