Musiche vocali da camera: addenda e corrigenda
Carlida Steffan
Abstract
The paper presents new findings and evidences about Bellini’s vocal chamber music. Two autograph manuscripts concerning Odia la pastorella and Dolente immagine di Fille mia recently surfaced in the auction market; unfortunately, no complete reproduction was made available for study. Odia la pastorella was previously known thanks to print edition, published in New York in 1944. The reproductions included in the auction catalogue allow to establish that the editor made several arbitrary interventions. No autograph was previously known of the Sei ariette published by Ricordi in 1831. A manuscript of Malinconia, ninfa gentile, recently bought by an Italian collector, shows a number of compositional emendations. Still, the printed version has further small changes, whose nature is worth discussing. The arietta Guarda che bianca luna, which Bellini should have composed in Palermo in 1832, was added to his catalogue as the musicologist Ottavio Tiby transcribed a manuscript he could examine in a private collection in the 1950s, even if no manuscript copy is known. However, the song appears in a collection that the composer Vincenzo Gabussi published in 1826 in Milan for Ricordi, and should be attributed to him. This article discusses the relationship between Bellini and Gabussi and questions the forms of circulation of the chamber vocal repertoire, which may have produced this erroneous attribution.
Keywords
Vincenzo Bellini’s vocal chamber music new findings and evidences – Odia la pastorella – Dolente imagine di Fille mia – Malinconia, ninfa gentile – Guarda che bianca luna – Sei ariette per camera – Ricordi – Ottavio Tiby – Vincenzo Gabussi – Vocal music collections
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