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Michelangelo and Music: The Fame of a Poet

Author(s): Richard Fabrizio


Source: Italica, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Jun., 1968), pp. 195-200
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Italian
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/478301
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MICHELANGELO AND MUSIC:
THE FAME OF A POET

Often in determining the fame of a poet tangible evide


is provided by the number, the quality, and the influen
editions and translations of his work. How profoundly one
has infiltrated its sister might be still another method of sho
the extent of that " bubble reputation." Indeed this cr
artistic method has the advantage of yielding fresh insight
odd glances both into the original work and into the hi
of taste. Reinterpretation of Dante, for instance, throug
mirror of music and painting has covered a course from
romanticism of Liszt's Dante Symphony to the fragme
images of Rauschenburg's illustrations for the Commedia
is by no means surprised by Dante's immense influence on
other arts. But what if Dante had been primarily a paint
a sculptor who merely dabbled in poetry and the effect of
poetry, mutatis mutandis, had been equally as strong? T
precisely the case with Michelangelo's poetry, and one is no
little overwhelmed to find the effect it has had on music and
musicians.

More noticeable among scholars than among composers


has been the " relative obscurity " of Michelangelo's poetry.'
All be it, Enrico Bevilacqua's comment that musicians used
Michelangelo's poetry only to graft their works to a sure source
of success has at least some truth in it.2 Hugo Wolf no doubt
was awed by the fact that the poems he was setting were not
merely poems but poems by Michelangelo.3 But it is no less
true that in an era in which artists are less kind to the
Renaissance than they were wont to be, leading composers l
Dallapiccola in Italy, Nicholas Flagello in the U.S.A.
particularly Benjamin Britten in England, have turned
more to the emotion-loaded poetry of Michelangelo.4 Comp
have responded to the struggle, to the pensive and grim asp
of life which dominate Michelangelo's oeuvre. Titles like Be
Mechin's Le Tombeau (1931), Flagello's Contemplazioni (19
Pfitzner's Das Dunkle Reich (Op. 38) are indicative of t

195
5

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196 RICHARD FABRIZIO

position. " Chiunche nasce a morte arriva " was of


interest to the composers. This ballade with its grimn
horror was scored by Pfitzner, Trunk, Wolf, Dallap
Vycpalek.5
Michelangelo was the great sculptor to Hugo Wolf. For
him the problem of scoring was not only translating poem qua
opem into music. He felt that the poetry of a sculptor must
somehow be sculpturesque: sculpture implying a medium that
is ponderous and monumental. Therefore, Wolf concluded that
" a sculptor must certainly sing bass;" 6 and so when he came to
set Michelangelo's poems, he naturally scored them for bass
voice. Whether all sculpture actually demonstrates such heaviness
is suspect in the light of the open and geometric work of the
constructivists. The decided preference, however, of the composers
who have glanced at Michelangelo's poetry seems to indicate
such feeling. Michelangelo's prime regard for sculpture, according
to the composers, was in conformity with a basically somber
attitude toward life. Thus the scores are replete with markings
like " ged:impft," " sehr ruhig," and " piu lento." That zestful
and ironic debate in poetry between Strozzi and Michelangelo
on La Notte was put into music by Theodore Streicher.7 But
" night," with its gloomy connotations, clouds the music. Liszt
confirmed this disposition when he included the poem as an
epigraph above the second of his Trois odes funebres. Nor
is the baroque struggle in the poetry ignored: frequently the
lieder are to be sung or played " etwas zogernd " or " agitato ."
Spiritual conflict haunts the poems. Broken, photomontage
glimpses of such plaguing feeling are attempted in Dallapiccola's
dodecaphonic Tre poemi (1949).
The whole range of the poetry, from the love to the
confessional poems, is represented in music. Approximately 30%
of the works are scored. Composers have done their share to
bring the poetry a much deserved attention. Recordings of
Britten, Flagello, and Wolf have given the poems a larger
audience than they might have otherwise enjoyed.8 More than
thirty composers from Norway to Italy, from the U.S.A. to the
U.S.S.R. have set the poems.9 Of these Wolf has been the most
influential. He intended to set a complete cycle but completed

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MICHELANGELO AND MUSIC 197

only three. Yet these three are recalled in the works of


Courvoisier, Schoek, and Trunk.10 Composers have also initiated
interest in Michelangelo's poetry. In Czechoslovakia - where
no translator has yet produced an edition of the poems-one
composer, Ladislav Vycpalek (b. 1882), has set a Czech translation
of " Chiunche nasce a morte arriva " to music. Tyuitchev
(1803-1873), the great Russian metaphysical poet, has translated
at least one of Michelangelo's sonnets, and this appears in the
popular Myaskovsky's Sonnet, for voice and piano, Op. 8b.
One of the ironies of the history of the poetry in music
is that Michelangelo was flattered but not particularly stirred
by the contemporary settings of his poems. The frottolist
Tromboncino, the madrigalist Jacob Arcadelt, Costanzo Festa,
and Jean de Conseil set various of the poems. Indeed in
Tromboncino's Fioretti di frattole, Bk. II, 1518, for the first
time a poem (G 12) by Michelangelo appeared in print. In
a letter to Sebastiano del Piombo, Michelangelo says of Festa's
and Conseil's compositions: " they are considered wonderful
things to sing; the words didn't merit such a setting " (Aug.,
1533)."1 He repeats these words almost exactly when he writes
to Luigi del Riccio about Arcadelt's setting: 2 " it is considered
to be beautiful " (May/June 1542). Such diplomacy and humility
in these letters contrasts with the sharp irony of his reply to
Aretino who had suggested a master plan for The Last Judgment.
While feeling safe within the bounds of his own media
(sculpture, painting, architecture), Michelangelo suffered from
insecurity when it came to the arts of sound (poetry and music).
But not only through the poetry has Michelangelo entered
into the world of music. Although outside the strict limits of
this paper, Michelangelo's stature as the ultimate artist has also
inspired composers. Several operas are based on this aspect of
Michelangelo. In each of the operas listed below he alone is
capable of completing impossibly complex pieces of sculpture
or paintings. In a two-act anonymous drama, Michelangelo e
Rolla (Torino, 1927?), Michelangelo is a judge in a sculpting
contest: " I1 giudizio di Michelangelo e un ordinato emanato del
cielo " (Act II, Sc. 2). Rolla is a sculptor, a genius. He is
prevented by social and artistic circumstances from entering his

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198 RICHARD FABRIZIO

masterpiece in the competition. Michelangelo solve


artistic problem by being the one man able to fix
Rolla's statue. But Rolla poisons himself unaware th
meantime Michelangelo has also solved his social pr
spite of his genius Rolla suffers misfortune. This story
have provided the basis for three operas: i. Federic
Michelangelo e Rolla, with libretto by Commarrano, p
in Florence on 30 March 1841 and revived in Florence on 18
April 1786;13 2. Temistocles Solera's Michelangelo e Rolla or
Genio e Sventura, performed at Padua in 1843,14 and 3.
C. Buongiorno's Michelangelo e Rolla, performed at Kassel and
Piacenza on successive nights in 1903. One opera, Nicolo Isouard's
Michel-Ange (1802) with text by Etienne Delrieu, neatly solves
two issues in the Michelangelo biography: it gives him a female
lover and it brings him to Spain. Fiorina, daughter of the famed
painter, Perugino, is in love with Michelangelo, who has been
away in Spain for a number of years. A series of comic
contrivances typical of the eighteenth-century novel allows
Michelangelo, secretly returned from Spain, to surreptitiously
complete a painting which, at a contest judged by (among others)
Leonardo da Vinci, wins him the hand of Fiorina from the
snares of her guardian Scopa. Gerard, to whom the opera is
dedicated, is evidently compared to Michelangelo, a symbol for
the great artist.
To catalogue the musical analoques to Michelangelo would
be an impossible task. Both Felix Witting and Giuseppe
Marchiano, for instance, compare him to Beethoven, while
Albert Schweitzer compares Bach's Christ lag in Todesbanden
to a painting by Michelangelo in which we " see a knot of bodies
in conflict." 15 After more than four hundred years the musical
interest in Michelangelo has not abated.
RICHARD FABRIZIO

New York University

Robert J. Clements, The Poetry of Michelangelo (New


P- 3.
2 Enrico Bevilacqua, " Michelangelo scrittore " (fasc.), Milano-Roma,
1926, p. 642.

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MICHELANGELO AND MUSIC 199

3 Ernest Newman, Hugo Wolf (New York, 1909), pp. 216


4See Luigi Dallapiccola, Tre poemi (1949), for voice and chamber
orchestra; Benjamin Britten, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22, for
tenor and piano; Nicholas Flagello, Contemplazioni di Michelangelo (1960?),
for soprano and orchestra.
5 In the sixth part of Pfitzner, Das Dunkle Reich, Op. 38, for chorus,
orchestra, and organ; in the second part of Trunk, Von der Verginglichkeit,
Op. 16, for male chorus and organ; in the second part of Wolf, Drei Gedichte
von Michelangelo, 1898, for bass voice and piano; in the second part of
Dallapiccola, Tre poemi, for voice and chamber orchestra; in the second
part of Vycpilek, In Memoriam, Op. 18, for unaccompanied chorus.
6 Newman, Hugo Wolf, pp. 216-217.
7See song five in Theodor Streicher, Zwolf Lieder (1922?), for voice
and piano. Streicher also set (for the poems see Michelangelo, Rime, ed.
E. N. Girardi, Bari, 1960-hereafter refered to as G followed by the number
of each poem as given by Girardi): G 32, G 293, G 274, G 87, G 247, G 8,
G 7, G 4, G, 288 G 290, G 294, G 298.
8 See Britten, Seven Sonnets (G 84, G 98, G 89, G 60, G 95, G 59,
G 41) on H.M.V. B 9302 and C 3312, or London Records LL 1204; Flagello,
Contemplazioni (G 8, G 45, G loo, G 301), Serenus Records, SRE 1005 and
SRS 12005; Wolf, Drei Gedichte (G 54, 11 65-72; G 21; G 76), Electrola
E 91 0002.
9 Those not specifically mentioned in the text are: Denmark: Niels
Vilhelm Gade (1817-1890), Michelangelo, Op. 39, an overture. England:
William Henry Harris (b. 1883), Michelangelo's Confession of Faith;
William Platt (1867-?), Six Songs, 1895?, for voice and piano, contains G 89,
France: Jeanne Leleu (b. 1898), Six Sonnets de Michel-Ange (Paris, 1925).
Germany: Hugo Kaun (1863-1932), " Die Augen stets der Schonheit zugetan "
(G 107), for mixed chorus [see Richard Schaal, Hugo Kaun (Regenburg,
1946)]; Richard Strauss (1864-1949), Fiinf Lieder, Op. 15, for middle voice
and piano, contains G 138; George Vollerthun (b. 1876), " Beati voi, che
su nel ciel godete " (G 134), Op. 1i, No. 1. Italy: Ildebrando Pizzetti
(b. 1880), Tre liriche, 1944, for voice and piano, contains G 87. Lichenstein:
Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901), Gesdnge altitalienischer Dichter, Op. 129,
for voice and piano, contains G 119. Netherlands: Matty Niel (b. ?),
Drei Lierden, 1961?, for voice and piano, contains G 102. Norway: Olav
Fartein Valen (1887-1952), Sonetto di Michelangelo, Op. 17, No. i, for
orchestra, contains as an epigraph the first seven lines of G 76. Switzerland:
Hans Haug (b. 1900), Michelangelo (text by Michelangelo, Bibel, Goethe,
Milton, Holderlin), 1937?, oratorio for soloists, double-chorus, organ, and
large orchestra; Erich Schmid (b. 1907), Michelangelo-Gesinge, Op. 12, for
baritone and piano. U.S.S.R.: Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (1856-1916), Ter-
zetti, Op. 23, contains a sonnet by Michelangelo.
'0 For Walter Courvoisier see his Zwei Sonette von Michelangelo
[G 66, G 290] und alt-italienisches Sonett (Dante?), Op. 18, for voice and
piano, and see also Theodor Kroyer, Walter Courvoisier (Munich, 1929),
pp. 40-43; for Othmar Schoeck see his Zwei Gesdnge nach Dante und
Michelangelo, Op. 9, for baritone and piano, his fiinf Liedern (Michelan-
gelo, Hesse, Anacreon, Goethe), Op. 31, for voice and piano, and also see
Hans Corrodi, Othmar Schoeck (Fraunenfeld, Switzerland, 1956), pp. 29-30,

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200 RICHARD FABRIZIO

p. 116, pp. 416-417; for Richard Trunk see his Von der Ve
Op. 16, part two is a setting for G 21 for male chorus and
also Alfons Ott, Richard Trunk (Munich, 1964), pp. 36-37.
1 All quotations from Michelangelo's letters refer to t
E. H. Ramsden (Stanford, 1963). Festa's composition has not b
For further information on Festa see: Alfred Einstein, The Italian Mad-
rigal, trans. Krappe, Session, and Strunk, 3 vols. (Princeton, 1949), I, 157;
Herman-Walter Frey, " Michelangelo und die Komponisten seiner Madri-
gale," Acta Musicologica, XXIV (1952), 147-198, and Leto Puliti, " Lettera ad
Aurelio," in Aurelio Gotti, Vita di Michelangelo (Firenze, 1875), II, 95-96.
Jean de Conseil wrote two or more pieces using the rime, but they also
have not been discovered. On Conseil see Herman-Walter Frey and Leto
Puliti.

12 Jacob Arcadelt (c. 1505-c. 1567), Primo libro de' madrigali a quatro
voci (Venezia, 1543). G 93, G 147 Part I, and G 147 Part II were scored.
The music for the first has not been found; the others are found in a
modern edition: Tre madrigali di Michelangelo Buonarroti posti in musica
da Bartolommeo Tromboncino e da Giacomo Archadelt (Firenze, 1875).
See also Alfred Einstein, The Italian Madrigal, I, 161-162; Herman-Walter
Frey, "Michelangelo," in Acta Musicologica, XXIV (1952), 147-198; Achille
Lauri, "Madrigali di Michelangelo," in Rivista Musicale Italiana, Anno 50,
Fasc. II (April-June, 1948), 131-134; Achille Lauri, " Nel IV Centenario di
Vittoria Colonna," in Rivista Musicale Italiana, Anno 50, Fasc. II (April-
June, 1948), 124-131 [reprinted in the same magazine, Anno 50, Fasc. I
(April-June, 1951), 142-15,, under the title, " Poesia e musica nella Roma
Rinascimentale "]; Leo Puliti, " Lettera," in Gotti, Vita di Michelangelo,
II, 92-93. See E. L. Ramsden (II, 255) who believes that G 93 was commis-
sioned for a Florentine festival, the feast of St. John the Baptist, which
was celebrated on June 24.
13 For complete information on the cast of the first performance see:
F. De Villars, Notices sur Luigi et Federico Ricci (Paris, 1886), pp. 61-62.
14 For details of Solera's life see: Raffaello Barbiera, Figure e figurine
del secolo che muore (Milano, 1899), pp. 313-399.
15 Felix Witting, Michelangelo und Beethoven (Strassburg, 1916); Giu-
seppe Marchiano, Michelangelo e Beethoven (Milano, 1955); and Albert
Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, trans. Ernest Newman (New York, 1952), II, 161.

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