(1879 - 1936)
Born in Bologna in 1879, Ottorino Respighi studied in his home city and spent his early twenties playing the viola in an opera orchestra in St Petersburg while studying composition with Rimsky-Korsakov. After several more years spent studying and performing in Germany and France, he settled permanently in Rome following his appointment as Professor of Composition at the Liceo (later Conservatorio) di Santa Cecilia in 1913. Promoted to the position of Director in 1924, he resigned two years later to concentrate on composing. It was in 1916 that Respighi completed Fountains of Rome, the first of three sets of musical ‘picture postcards’ of famous Roman tourist spots that soon made his international reputation: Pines of Rome followed in 1924, Roman Festivals in 1928. Brilliantly coloured orchestral showpieces, they reveal the composer’s easy assimilation of a variety of cosmopolitan influences with an innately Italianate melodic gift. Definitely no modernist, Respighi can yet claim to have invented electronic sampling with his inclusion of a recorded nightingale’s song in the score for the Pines.
Ottorino Respighi Composition Timpani and Percussion Requirements
Fountains of Rome
Timpani
Int'l 32/29/26 Prem 32/30/28
3 percussion
Clash cymbals, pedal glockenspiel C-C, triangle, D tubular bell
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Pines of Rome
Timpani
Int'l 32/29/26 Prem 32/30/28
4 percussion
Orchestral bass drum, clash cymbals, triangle, ratchet, tam tam, glockenspiel
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Three Botticelli Pictures
No Timpani + 1 percussion
Triangle, glockenspiel
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