It was in the eventful year, then, of 1813—the year of “Il Figlio per Azzardo”, with its obbligato accompaniment for lamp-shades of “Tancredi” and of “L’Italiana in Algeri”—that Rossini was writing one morning in bed, when the duet on which he was engaged fell from his hands.
H. Sutherland Edwards, The Life of Rossini: Mit Portrait, United Kingdom, Hurst & Blacxett, 1869, pp. 62-63.
“Nothing easier”, an ordinary composer would say, “than to pick it up again.”
“Nothing easier”, said Rossini, “than to write a new one in its place.”
Rossini would not get out of bed for a mere duet. He set to work and composed another, which did not resemble the original one in the least.
A friend called. “I have just dropped a duet,” said Rossini, “I wish you would get it for me. You will find it somewhere under the bed.”
The friend felt for the duet with his cane, fished it out, and handed it to the composer.
“Now which do you like best?” asked Rossini; “I have written two.”
He sang them both. The friend thought the character of the first was most in keeping with the dramatic situation. Rossini was of the same opinion, and decided to turn the second duet into a trio.
He finished his trio, got up, dressed, sent the two pieces to the theatrical copyist, and went out to breakfast.
A duet under the bed
by
Tags:
Featured Content
Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio (Hob. XV, No. 25) “Gypsy Trio”
I. Andante II. Poco Adagio III Rondo all’Ongarese Chamber music in the eighteenth century was written for and performed for the aristocracy. Music was an aesthetic pleasure: thus an emphasis was placed on musical balance and clarity in the context of an expressive style: evident particularly in the first two movements of this trio, which […]
Fresh ideas of building arts communities"Music is its own language, and, while that language is universal, it is also intensely personal. There are many ways of building communities around the arts. Sometimes you just do it very quietly – with a few people at a time." This blog outlines a touching correspondence between a family and pianist Andre Watts. "Creative […]
Playing with fantasy“Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.” – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology Quoted at QuotationsBook
The effect of Tchaikovsky’s music on his patronessNadyezhda Filaretovna von Meck was Tchaikovsky’s patroness. In March 1877 she wrote of the effect of Tchaikovsky’s music on her. The work being described is a Marche Funèbre on a theme from Oprichnik (this work is now lost). It is so superb that, as I had hoped, it elevates and transports me into a […]
Art to be virtuousAny artist knows that the space between the stage where the work is too unformed to have committed itself and the stage where it is too late to improve it can be as thin as a needle. Genius perhaps consists in opening out this needle-like area until it covers almost the whole of the working […]
Stravinsky on composition“For me, as a creative musician, composition is a daily function that I am compelled to discharge. I compose because I am made for that and cannot do otherwise … I am far from saying that there is no such thing as inspiration; quite the opposite. It is found as a driving force in every […]
Nietzche on Art“We have art in order not to die of the truth.“ Friedrich Nietzsche, notebook from the Spring-Summer of 1888, 16 [40]
The power of critics“Critics sometimes say, about this or that new work – it should betaken up by all our major orchestras and recorded. It never is. Critics have great power, but they have no power.” Ned Rorem (2000) Lies: A Diary 1986-1999. Cambridge: MA: Da Capo Press, p.27.
The musician’s contribution to the world“As musicians, we are already doing something for the world … We make it more flowing? … Through music”. Pianist Lang Lang Shirley Apthorp, “Piano Man”, The Australian, May 14 2011.
Waiting for inspirationThe composer does not sit around wait wait for inspiration to walk up and introduce itself … Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel. — George Gershwin Isaac Goldberg. Tin Pan Alley. New […]