Vocal(/Choral) Piece of the Day, Installment 15:
"Mists" (Nebbie) Respighi/Hoffman, arr.;
Medium Voice and Orchestra
(or SATB Chorus and Piano or Orchestra)
(arr. 2018)
The dark, hauntingly beautiful, early secular song "Mists" (Nebbie) by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) composed to a text by his contemporary writer, Ada Negri (1870–1945), has been a part of my consciousness since I was a voice student of Wesley Copplestone at the Boston Conservatory of Music during the early 1980s. From the get-go, the words grab one's attention and refuse to let go until one has heard them out.
What struck me then and now is just how effective this song is. People often think of Respighi as a both an Italian nationalist and traditionalist composer. While the former is always true, the latter is seldom the case. From early on, he searched for ways to effectively break traditional rules of composition to serve his dramatic purposes. Here, he employs parallel octaves nearly throughout, and his accompaniment almost always matches the rhythmic and melodic content of the voice.
To me, the genius of "Mists" is how and when Respighi moves each pitch in the music of both performers, originally voice and piano. Looking at this song with my music theory hat ony, this may seem like a no-brainer of an observation, but one truly has to pay attention to each note in each octave to grasp the subtlety of how and when he begins to move previously static pitches, in which octave, and where they all move, all to paint the dramatic poem.
I am pleased to offer arrangements of "Mists" for concert performance in arrangements for medium voice and orchestra, and for mixed chorus and piano or orchestra, all of which are awaiting world premiere performances. Today, I am focusing on the version for voice and orchestra.
Scrolling Score on Youtube of the version for Medium Voice and Orchestra.
Scrolling Score on Youtube of the version for SATB Chorus and Piano.
Scrolling Score on Youtube of the version for SATB Chorus and Orchestra.
These arrangements are available for licensing from me, and for sale from Sheet Music Plus. Follow the various URLs to view the distributor's product pages for each version..
Medium Voice and Orchestra
NB: this version has a typo in the URL–orchstra. Sorry, I'm only human. I just endeavored to fix the URL with the distributor. If my effort works, then the functioning URL will become the following one.
SATB Chorus and Piano
SATB Chorus and Orchestra
I hope you enjoy "Mists". Thank you for your time and attention.
Stanley M. Hoffman, PhD
Link to my website: https://www.stanleymhoffman.com
Biography Published in Grove Music Online (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford University Press)
https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/browse?btog=chap&pageSize=20&sort=titlesort&subSite=grovemusic&t=music_People%3A18&t0=music_Topics%3A78
The "Stanley M. Hoffman Special Collection" was established at The Berklee College of Music Library Archive in January 2025. It will take whatever time is necessary for the archive to catalog my collection and make it available to the public.
Website: https://archives.berklee.edu
Yorumlar