Music for Band
Edited by
DENISE GALLO
BA 10502: Score and commentary
BÄRENREITER 2010
This collection contains the scores of five marches composed by Rossini for military band. Beyond making available to band directors these unfamiliar pieces, perhaps more important for musicologists are the appendices, critical apparatus, and preface that clarify how these marches fit into Rossini's life and into the social culture of the European, Ottoman, and even Mexican upper class and royalty, and how arrangements for pianoforte (several are included in the appendices) spread the music far beyond its original venue. As the author says in the acknowledgements (Score volume, p. XXX), "The rich narratives that accompany these pieces not only offer precious details about a part of Rossini's life that is still somewhat overlooked but add to an understanding of the notion of a musical dedication. More important, [the edition] suggests myriad paths for future research into the intriguing network of the contemporary social and political world in the mid-1800s."
CONTENTS
1-3 [Trois Marches militaires], composées et dédiées à S. M. Nicolas I.re Empereur de toutes les Russies
1. Passage du Balcan: Grande marche
2. Prise d'Erivan: Pas redoublé
3. Assaut de Varsovie: Pas redoublé
4. Marcia (Pas redoublé), composta per S. M. Imperiale il Sultano Abdul-Medjid
5. La corona d'Italia: Fanfare per musica militare, offerta a S. M. Vittorio Emanuele II
Appendix I
A. Two Pas redoublés for larger band (Nos. 3a, 2a), dedicated by Rossini to Oscar, Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway, and to Leopold I, King of the Belgians
B. Two Pas redoublés and a Marche militaire for piano, four hands (Nos. 2b, 3b, 1b), dedicated to Charlotte de Rothschild
C. Mariage de S. A. R. le Duc d'Orléans: Trois Marches militaires for piano, two hands (Nos. 2c, 3c, 1c)
Appendix II
Coro (in passo doppio) offerto alla Guardia Civica di Bologna (1848): original version of the March for Sultan Abdul-Medjid (No. 4)
Appendix III
<Four earlier versions of La corona d'Italia (No. 5) for piano, two hands, or for piano, four hands
A. Fanfare: the original version for piano, two hands (16 June 1858)
B. Fanfare (Transcription): the revised version for piano, two hands, No. 12 in the "Album pour Piano, Violon, Violoncello, Harmonium et Cor"
C. Petite Fanfare à quatre mains [I] (Transcription): the revised version for piano, four hands, with the parts in score format, No. 12 in the "Album pour Piano, Violon, Violoncello, Harmonium et Cor"
D. Petite Fanfare à quatre mains [II] (Transcription): the revised version for piano, four hands, with the parts on facing pages, No. 12 in the "Album pour Piano, Violon, Violoncello, Harmonium et Cor"