Domenico Corigliano: Dieci composizioni vocali da camera, for Voice and Piano

Ten chamber vocal compositions by Domenico Corigliano, edited by Flavia Colagioia. The volume presents the works for voice and piano with an extensive bilingual introduction, sung texts and editorial documentation.

Edition notes

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Fonti musicali Archivio musicale dell’Abbazia di Montecassino, Montecassino: Domenico Antonio Corigliano, La rosa. Cantatina per soprano e pianoforte, ms. 5-C-6. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Si desti l’ardore. Arietta per soprano e pianoforte, ms. 5-C-22r. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Ah se col pianto mio. Cavatina con recitativo, ms. 5-C-23. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Partant pour la Syrie. Romanza francese, ms. 5-C-23n. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Tu mi chiedi, o bella Nice. Romanza, ms. 5-C-23-P. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, L’appuntamento. Cantata per soprano, ms. 5-C-6-m. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Oreste alla tomba di Clitennestra. Monologo drammatico, ms. 5-D-13/13.

Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica San Pietro a Majella, Napoli: Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Oh quante amabili. Cavatina con accompagnamento di pianoforte, ms. Cantate 190@03. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, La partenza. Canzone per voce sola di soprano con accompagnamento di pianoforte, ms. Arie 86(2)@03. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Lo stral già non spezzai. Canzonetta con accompagnamento di pianoforte, ms. Arie 156(7)@01.

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Note on the edition This introduction provides a musicological account of Domenico Corigliano and his vocal chamber works, elucidating their historical context, compositional genres and stylistic characteristics. The sections devoted to the manuscript sources and the editorial principles adopted in transcribing the ten works offer a conc ise account of the relationship between the source readings and the edited text. Together, they provide the scholarly foundation for a performing edition intended to foster both musicological research and the wide dissemination of this repertoire through performance.

1.1. Biographical outline Domenico Corigliano (Rignano Garganico, 17 January 1771 – Naples, 22 February 1838) came from a noble Apulian family and received his musical education in Naples, where he studied at the Collegio dei Nobili, run by the Somascan Fathers. 12 From an early age he showed a strong inclination towards music, which he also cultivated through independent study of the works of Pergolesi, Jommelli and Durante: models that contributed decisively to the formation of his compositional language 13 and to his adherence to the late eighteenth-century Neapolitan tradition. In 1795 he was admitted as a Knight of Justice to the Order of Jerusalem, and in 1797 he moved to Malta to fulfil the obligations attendant upon that status; the French occupation of the island in 1798, however, forced him to return to Italy, marking a decisive turning point in his life. 14 His return to Naples, amid profoundly altered political and cultural circumstances, placed him in a musical environment in which late eighteenth-century idioms still coexisted with new tendencies associated with the emergence of Italian Romantic opera. Wi thin this setting, Corigliano found his principal sphere of activity in sacred and chamber music. In Naples he participated actively in the city’s musical life, initially as a composer and subsequently in an institutional capacity: in 1815 he was appointed a member of the Real Deputazione di Teatri e Spettacoli, while in 1827 he was named governor of the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella, a position he nevertheless relinquished a few weeks later. 15 Alongside his compositional activity, he undertook extensive work transcribing and preparing reductions of theatrical works by composers such as Mayr, Rossini, Mercadante and Donizetti. In doing so, he contributed substantially to the dissemination of the operatic repertoire in domestic and chamber settings, while demonstrating his continuing engagement with contemporary audiences’ tastes. His output, now estimated at more than seven hundred compositions, encompasses sacred music, operatic reductions and, above all, a substantial body of vocal chamber music (ariettas, cantatinas, duets, canzonettas and romanzas), which constitutes the most original and significant part of his catalogue. 16 Although esteemed by his contemporaries, including those beyond Italy, as attested by the Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review and Fétis’s Revue musicale, Corigliano was subsequently

12 Gabriele de Villarosa, Memorie dei compositori di musica del Regno di Napoli, Napoli, Dalla Stamperia Reale, 1840, p. 56. 13 Corigliano Cav. Domenico de Marchesi di Rignano, in Poliorama pittoresco, year II, first half (1837), Napoli, Tipografia e Litografia del Poliorama Pittoresco, 1846–1847, pp. 327–328. 14 Carlo Schmidl, Dizionario universale dei musicisti, vol. II: M–Z, Milano, Casa Editrice Sonzogno, n.d., p. 252. 15 Salvatore Villani, La vita e le opere di Domenico A. Corigliano. Biografia – Catalogo alfabetico delle composizioni, in Domenico A. Corigliano. Compositore e Cavaliere di Giustizia. Atti del convegno (Rignano Garganico, 13–18 dicembre 2016), ed. by Salvatore Villani, Rignano Garganico, Centro Studi Tradizioni Pugliesi, 2016, pp. 11–30. 16 Il fondo musicale dell’Archivio di Montecassino, ed. by Giovanni Insom, Montecassino, Abbazia di Montecassino – Istituto di Bibliografia Musicale, 2003, vol. II.

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excluded, by degrees, from the nineteenth -century canon, and his place in music historiography long remained marginal. It is precisely this silence that now calls for a renewed investigation of his career and his vocal chamber works, capable of restoring his place within both the Neapolitan tradition and the Italian salon romanza of the nineteenth century.

1.2. Corigliano and vocal chamber music in early nineteenth-century Naples Corigliano’s activity belongs to the vibrant musical world of early nineteenth- century Naples, at a moment of transition between the eighteenth -century legacy of the Neapolitan school and the new expressive sensibility that would characterise the Romantic era. 17 Within this context, alongside the central place occupied by music theatre, the practice of vocal chamber music enjoyed increasing success in aristocratic and bourgeois salons, private circles and domestic musical academies, where intimate conditions of listening encouraged more inward and measured forms of expression. The numerous collections of ariettas, cantatinas and short duets published in Naples, Milan and abroad, together with the manuscript circulation of chamber works in various Italian centres, confirm that this repertoire constituted an essential complement to contemporary theatrical production, rather than a merely minor derivative of it. Corigliano’s profile comes into sharper focus within this intermediate space between the art -music tradition, musical sociability and amateur practice. While his work as an arranger and transcriber of operas by composers such as Mayr, Rossini, Mercadante and Donizetti attests to direct engagement with the contemporary theatrical repertoire, the most personal and coherent aspect of his output emerges above all in the vocal chamber works, where the voice occupies the centre of a controlled, elegant idiom closely attuned to the poetic text. In contrast to the elaborate apparatus of opera, salon music calls for more compact proportions, a less ostentatious vocal manner and a subtler integration of melodic line, text and accompaniment. This is the perspective adopted in the present publication. Given the breadth of Corigliano’s catalogue, preserved largely in manuscript, it was decided to concentrate on ten compositions for voice and piano deemed particularly significant for their generic variety, musical quality and stylistic representativeness. The corpus comprises an arietta, a canzonetta, two cavatinas, a cantatina, a cantata, a canzone, a dramatic monologue, an Italian romanza and a French romance. The selection is thus more than a simple anthology: it seeks to illuminate certain essential aspects of the composer’s aesthetic, namely the centrality of the voice, the relationship between music and words, the balance between cantabile expression and restraint, the intended chamber setting and the piano’s role as an expressive interlocutor. At the same time, it offers an initial representative sample of a much larger catalogue, which bibliographical and archival sources identify as one of the most substantial contributions to vocal chamber music in the Neapolitan area during this period.

1.3. The vocal chamber works: genres, intended uses and circulation Domenico Corigliano’s vocal chamber music constitutes one of the largest and most coherent strands of his compositional activity, documented principally in the music collection of the Abbey of Montecassino and in other Italian and European collections. Thi s corpus includes strophic ariettas, more expansive cantatinas,

17 Giorgio Sanguinetti, Decline and Fall of the “Celeste Impero: the Theory of Composition in Naples During the Ottocento, in Studi musicali, XXXIV (2005), no. 2, pp. 451–502.

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duets, canzonettas and romanzas, often setting sentimental verse in keeping with the contemporary tradition of the Italian salon romanza.18 Preserved largely in manuscript, the repertoire bears witness to a widespread practice of salon music cultivated in aristocratic and bourgeois settings and within forms of cultivated sociability distinct from, yet complementary to, the theatrical sphere p roper. The vocal writing reveals a sustained concern for cantabile expression and clarity of declamation, while the piano part ranges from straightforward chordal accompaniment to passages of greater thematic independence, in which the instrument enters into dialogue with the voice. The surviving evidence points to the predominantly domestic and chamber use of these compositions, conceived for solo voices accompanied by piano or small instrumental ensembles, and performed both by accomplished amateurs and by professionals active in the city’s musical circles. Their varying levels of difficulty, from relatively accessible pieces to works of more pronounced virtuosity, suggest a flexibility of purpose, accommodating different degrees of technical proficiency and a range of performance contexts, from private soirées to semi -public concerts in intimate venues. The presence of copies, transcriptions and adaptations in several archives, together with the dedication of individual works to members of the aristocracy or prominent figures in musical life, indicates a circulation extending beyond Naples and places Corigliano’s vocal chamber music within a broader network of cultural exchange. In this respect, these compositions occupy a borderland between high art and music intended for wider consumption, serving as a privileged site of mediation between operatic writing and nineteenth-century domestic music -making. This liminal position helps to explain both the pervasive presence of Corigliano’s compositions in the musi cal practice of his time and their subsequent marginalisation within a historiographical narrative centred almost exclusively on opera. Against this background, the small group of works for voice and piano on which the present edition concentrates represents a circumscribed portion of a larger catalogue that remains, to a considerable extent, unexplored and unavailable in modern editions. The present selection therefore seeks to offer an initial representative sample of this output, documenting its formal variety and stylistic identity while opening the way to future systematic investigation of Corigliano’s vocal chamber music as a whole.

2. State of Research and Prospects for Rediscovery 2.1. The Modern Rediscovery: Studies, Editions and First Performances The rediscovery of Domenico Corigliano is a recent process whose contours are still taking shape. Following occasional nineteenth-century references to him as one of the most eminent ‘amateur’ composers of his day, his name all but disappears from twentiet h-century music historiography, remaining associated chiefly with his role as copyist and custodian of the autograph of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. 19 Only a handful of brief encyclopaedia entries and passing references in general studies of Neapolitan music recall his activity as a composer of ariettas and cantatinas for the city’s salons, without addressing either his catalogue or his stylistic profile systematically. Only in recent decades has scholarly attention to nineteenth -century Italian vocal chamber music and to the manuscript holdings of the Abbey of Montecassino created the conditions for an initial reassessment. Within this framework, the Mo ntecassino sources must be considered in close conjunction with the manuscripts held in the Library of the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples,

18 See La romanza italiana da salotto, ed. by Francesco Sanvitale, Torino, EDT – Ortona, Istituto Nazionale Tostiano, 2002, which provides a comprehensive overview of the genre and its social and poetic context. 19 See G. Insom (ed.), Il fondo musicale dell’Archivio di Montecassino, vol. II, Montecassino, Abbazia di Montecassino – Istituto di Bibliografia Musicale, 2003.

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which provide significant further documentation of Corigliano’s vocal chamber output. The inventorying and description of the Montecassino music collection marked a decisive stage, furnishing a firm documentary basis for identifying Corigliano’s vocal corpus and reconstructing its relationship with the Neapolitan tradition. Alongside this work, contributions to local historiography and informed writing for a wider readership have brought to light the scale of his manuscript legacy (more than seven hundred c ompositions) and his position at the intersection of aristocratic culture and urban musical life. Local historical studies and research into the musical culture of southern Italy have also begun to recover the connections between the composer, his Apulian origins and the Neapolitan scene, highlighting the distinctive position of a figure rooted in an aristocratic milieu yet active in the city’s circles most attuned to contemporary musical developments. In performance, an essential role has been played by initiatives promoted by Salvatore Villani, who has renewed interest in the Quindici Cantatine per Soprano e Pianoforte and organised some of their first modern performances, accompanied by public presentations and dedicated listening sessions. These experiences have demonstrated the full viability of Corigliano’s repertoire in present-day concert settings and brought an i nitial body of materials into circulation (transcriptions, live recordings and programme notes), providing a catalyst for further research. Despite these signs of renewed interest, a comprehensive survey of Corigliano’s vocal chamber music is still lacking, both in cataloguing and in analysis; nor are there, at present, wide-ranging critical editions or studies devoted specifically to his contribution to the Italian salon romanza. His vocal chamber output thus remains a promising but little -cultivated field, without either systematic critical editions or a coherent account of its modern performance history.

2.2. The present project: doctoral research, performance practice and music editing This volume arises at the intersection of doctoral research and the wish to provide a first edition, prepared to rigorous scholarly standards, of a selection of Corigliano’s vocal chamber works. At its centre is an investigation conducted directly on the m anuscript sources and complemented by examination of the surviving materials, with the aim of reconstructing the repertoire’s context of production, intended uses and principal stylistic characteristics. From the outset, musicological analysis has been clo sely interwoven with active performance practice, through which interpretative hypotheses developed at a theoretical level have progressively been tested. In this sense, the study and preparation of a representative group of works for voice and piano, with a recording in view, have served as an experimental workshop: collaboration with the pianist and decisions concerning tempo, articulation and dynamics have made it possible to test the viability of the transcriptions, the coherence of editorial solutions and the practical realisation of the relationship between poetic text and musical phrasing. The difficulties encountered in Corigliano’s manuscript transmission have informed the editorial principles adopted, with due regard both for textual rigour and for the requirements of informed performance practice. The recording project, currently in preparation, represents the natural culmination of this process: the recording of the selected works, based on the edition presented here, will provide an aural test of textual and interpretative decisions, as well as a means of bringing the repertoire to a wider audience. The interaction between score, rehearsal and recording makes it possible to observe how editorial decisions affect the development of an interpretatio n and the perceived balance between voice and piano. The musical edition presented here therefore constitutes the present focal point of a unified project: grounded in archival research and stylistic analysis, and in dialogue with an evolving experience of performance, it seeks to make part of Corigliano’s vocal chamber output available in an accessible and critically established form, offering performers a reliable resource while opening the way to further study. The decision to concentrate on ten pieces allows scholarly depth to be combined with practical feasibility, establishing a working model that may subsequently be extended to other parts of the catalogue, with the eventual prospect of a more comprehensive critical edition and a dedicated body of recordings. In this respect,

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the volume constitutes the first stage in a process of revival which, originating in the academic context of doctoral research, seeks to restore Corigliano to a lasting place in the nineteenth-century chamber repertoire, both in concert life and in scholarship. The present volume forms part of a doctoral research project involving the Universitat Politècnica de València and the University of Udine, in which Corigliano’s life and output are being examined systematically from biographical, music-historical and analytical perspectives.

3. The musical sources 3.1. Montecassino and San Pietro a Majella The Music Archive of the Abbey of Montecassino holds the principal body of sources relating to Corigliano, bequeathed to the Abbey together with the autograph of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.20 The collection, described in Giovanni Insom’s catalogue, documents the composer’s output extensively and provides one of the principal points of reference for reconstructing his catalogue of vocal chamber works. For the purposes of this edition, however, the source base extends beyond Montecassino to include the Library of the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples, which holds further Corigliano manuscripts relevant to the selected corpus. The ten works published here derive from these two principal repositories: seven survive in manuscripts held at Montecassino (La rosa, Si desti l’ardore, Ah se col pianto mio, Partant pour la Syrie, Tu mi chiedi, o bella Nice , L’appuntamento, Oreste alla tomba di Clitennestra ), while three are held in the Library of the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella ( Oh quante amabili , La partenza, Lo stral già non spezzai). Taken together, these sources encompass autographs, contemporary copies and manuscripts prepared for practical use, exhibiting varying degrees of completeness and notational finish. The manuscripts held in these two repositories have been examined and used as the sources for the transcriptions of the works edited here. In addition to these two main collections, further evidence of Corigliano’s activity survives in other Italian and European institutions, including the Milan Conservatoire and a number of municipal and music libraries, where copies and transcriptions of arias, ariettas and vocal chamber pieces often appear in miscellaneous collections. Although these materials fall outside the corpus of ten works published here, they confirm the wider circulat ion of Corigliano’s repertoire and help to define its historical and documentary profile more precisely.

3.2. Problems in the transmission of the musical text The exclusively manuscript transmission of Corigliano’s music presents certain specific textual problems. These include evident notational errors (missing or redundant accidentals, inconsistent rhythmic values, and imprecisely positioned syllables and slur s), as well as local discrepancies between the vocal part and the accompaniment. In the absence of alternative witnesses, individual cases have been resolved through stylistic analysis and consideration of the internal coherence of the musical phrase, with intervention confined to unequivocal errors and the notation of the principal manuscript otherwise retained. Deletions and overwriting in the autographs also suggest that some pieces underwent revision during composition, with targeted alterations to particular cadences, vocal passages or piano figurations. The editorial work on the ten pieces

20 On the bequest of Corigliano’s music archive to the Abbey of Montecassino and the presence of the autograph of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, see I Regesti dell’Archivio, vol. X, ed. by Tommaso Leccisotti and Faustino Avagliano, Roma, 1975, p. XXXVIII.

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presented here has proceeded from an awareness of these issues: the need to establish a coherent, performable text is balanced against respect for the ambiguities and tensions inherent in an unstandardised manuscript transmission. The criteria adopted in resolving individual problems will be set out in the chapter on editorial principles.

4. The corpus of ten works edited here 4.1. Criteria for the selection of the corpus The selection of the ten works edited here was based on three principal criteria: the reliability of the sources, generic variety, and significance in terms of style and performance. With regard to documentary evidence, preference was given to works preser ved in complete, well-preserved autograph manuscripts, for which the musical text and the composer’s expressive markings can be established with confidence. A single principal manuscript was adopted as the basis for each piece, and the interventions required to establish the edited text were concentrated upon that source. In formal terms, the corpus was assembled to encompass a broad range of the chamber genres cultivated by Corigliano: arietta, canzonetta, cavatina with and without recitative, cantatina, cantata, canzone, dramatic monologue, Italian romanza and French romance. This selection makes it possible to examine both the recurring features of his aesthetic (the centrality of the voice, the balance between cantabile expression and restraint, and the piano’s role in dialogue) and the distinctive characteristics of each genre. Finally, consideration was given to the works’ viability in contemporary performance. The selection includes pieces whose technical and expressive qualities, despite their origins in the salon, make them suitable for present -day concert and teaching use, providing performers and scholars with a coherent body of works on which to base further research and editorial projects.

4.2. The ten compositions within Corigliano’s catalogue These ten compositions are presented not simply as individual pieces, but as a catalogue in miniature through which the principal features of Corigliano’s vocal chamber output may be observed on a smaller scale: its generic variety, its relationship with contemporary models, its treatment of voice and piano, and the range of affects it brings into play. La rosa – cantatina for soprano and piano La rosa was the first work I studied systematically, and from the outset it established itself as a particularly revealing point of entry into Corigliano’s chamber music. The few modern accounts describe it as a successful romanza in nineteenth -century Neapolitan salons, almost a hit of its day. 21 Its sectional form (recitative, Andante, Larghetto and a concluding Largo), its attentiveness to the poetic text, and the way in which voice and piano shape a continuous expressive arc make it an intimate drama in miniature, displaying many characteristic features of Corigliano’s writing: the rhetoric of silence, restrained cantabile expression, and a preference for introspective rather than theatrical lyricism. More than an accomplished example, it is a smallscale distillation of his aesthetic, and consequently occupies a central position within the corpus.

21 See Rosanna Cafiero, Maria Caraci Vela, Angela Romagnoli, Gli affetti convenienti all’idee. Studi sulla musica vocale italiana, Napoli, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1993, p. 433.

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Si desti l’ardore – arietta for soprano and piano Si desti l’ardore represents the most concentrated and sharply focused aspect of Corigliano’s arietta writing. Its unified form, its steady yet tense Andante, its progressively expanding vocal line that never culminates in virtuosity, and the piano’s support and renewal of the dynamic arcs make it an ideal case study for observing how Corigliano constructs a lyrical monologue around a single dominant affect. More clearly than elsewhere, this work reveals his ability to bring words, melody and accompaniment together in a compact expressive gesture, perfectly suited to the salon yet equally capable of sustaining attentive listening in a concert setting.

Lo stral già non spezzai – canzonetta from Sei ariette With Lo stral già non spezzai we enter the lighter, more songful world of the canzonetta. Here Corigliano works with short forms, readily memorable melodies and a simpler piano accompaniment, without sacrificing refinement of phrasing or the subtle interplay of text and music. The pie ce was selected because it demonstrates his ability to adapt his writing to a more immediately accessible, almost popular idiom, while retaining the same concern for the balance between voice and instrument that is found in his more ambitious works.

Tu mi chiedi, o bella Nice – Italian romanza Tu mi chiedi, o bella Nice stands at the heart of Corigliano’s Italian romanza writing. Its amorous text, syllabic and songful vocal line, softly arpeggiated accompaniment and continuity of affect place it in direct dialogue with the emerging tradition of the salon romanza, though from a perspective still rooted in the Neapolitan school. This piece was selected because it brings the relationship between Corigliano and contemporary models (Asioli, Blangini, Rossini and Donizetti) into exemplary focus, reveal ing affinities and divergences within a genre central to his output.

Partant pour la Syrie – French romance With Partant pour la Syrie, the French romance comes into view, attesting to Corigliano’s receptiveness to international repertoires and to the sentimental sensibility cultivated in France. Here the composer does not write an original text, but reworks, as a romance for voice and piano, a celebrated and widely circulated Napoleonic chanson, dating from the early nineteenth century, with music by Hortense de Beauharnais and words by Alexandre de Laborde. The decision to include this piece reflects the wish to highlight his ability to adapt his idiom to a foreign-language text while retaining the formal clarity and harmonic transparency characteristic of his writing. The French romance provides an apt counterpoint to the Italian works, offering another manifestation of the lyrical monologue and a different balance between voice and piano.

Oh quante amabili, dolci scintille – cavatina In Oh quante amabili, dolci scintille , the cavatina form, without recitative, affords Corigliano scope for broader melodic expansion and a particularly refined handling of dynamic nuance. The piece was selected because it shows clearly how he animates the cavatina as more than a self-contained number borrowed from

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opera: it becomes a chamber work in which the voice unfolds in supple phrases, supported by a piano part that alternates fullness and attenuation according to an essentially chamber-musical logic.

Ah se col pianto mio – cavatina with recitative Ah se col pianto mio represents the more plaintive and introspective side of the corpus, grounded in the topos of weeping as a means of amorous persuasion. The measured recitative, followed by Larghetto and Andante espressivo sections, traces a path from inward confession to more insistent supplication, while remaining within the bounds of chamber music. This piece was included because it permits close examination of the way Corigliano transforms the rhetoric of the aria with recitative into a salon form, i n which every dynamic and agogic nuance becomes an essential part of the emotional discourse.

La partenza – canzone for soprano voice La partenza introduces the themes of farewell and separation, so prominent in the eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury tradition. The choice of this piece reflects the wish to include a work in which the canzone, with its strophic structure, acquires a powerful narrati ve dimension, conveyed principally through harmonic colour and pianistic figuration. Within Corigliano’s chamber corpus, it is also one of the longest and most elaborate pieces, ending with the return of the opening section as a refrain. This is a recognisable yet never mechanical reprise, since the performance practice of the period calls upon the performer to vary its dynamics, articulation and agogic nuances. In this respect, La partenza exemplifies what has here been termed the rhetoric of silence: expressive intensity is conveyed not through declamatory outbursts but through the gradual attenuation of the discourse, its suspensions and its fading conclusions, in which the music seems to hold back rather than proclaim itself.

L’appuntamento – cantata for soprano With L’appuntamento, we enter the domain of the chamber cantata proper, articulated in several sections and encompassing a more complex interplay of affects. This work was included because it offers a paradigmatic example of Corigliano’s handling of larger forms, while prese rving chamber proportions and the unmistakable centrality of the voice, consistently supported by a piano part that does more than fill out the texture: it comments upon and anticipates the text. The cantata also shows how the composer i ntegrates elements of the galant tradition with a sensibility already orientated towards early Romanticism.

Oreste alla tomba di Clitennestra – dramatic monologue Oreste alla tomba di Clitennestra represents the dramatic summit of the corpus: an operatically conceived monologue transposed into a chamber setting. The choice of this work responds to the need to include a piece in which expressive tension approaches theatrical intensity, while remaini ng within vocal and pianistic proportions appropriate to the salon. Its more impassioned vocal writing, though always free of gratuitous virtuosity, and its dense piano accompaniment provide an important test of the extent to which Corigliano’s chamber music can accommodate and transform the tragic language of opera.

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Considered together, these ten compositions thus trace a path from the most immediately accessible canzonetta to the tragic monologue, offering a privileged vantage point from which to examine Corigliano’s adaptation, within chamber music, of formal, melod ic and rhetorical strategies that historiography has hitherto attributed almost exclusively to the major opera composers.

5. Stylistic features of the vocal chamber works 5.1. The centrality of the voice: vocal writing, tessitura and text In Corigliano’s vocal chamber compositions, the voice occupies a structurally central position: it is never merely the vehicle for a superimposed melodic line, but the site at which the musical construction takes shape from the poetic text. The ten works e dited here demonstrate this with particular clarity: throughout, the required range remains modest, with predominantly middle -to-upper tessituras and limited excursions into the upper register, serving expressive emphasis rather than virtuosity for its own sake. The writing calls for a well-trained soprano, whose task is chiefly to control legato, intonation and the quality of phrasing rather than to display exceptional power or agility. The melodic line proceeds largely by step, reserving wider intervals for key words in the text, and is organised into regular phrases that closely follow verbal syntax. This holds equally for the more compact ariettas ( Si desti l’ardore, La rosa ) and for the larger forms (La partenza, L’appuntamento), in which successive sections do not disrupt the unity of the discourse but extend it into a continuous arc. The relationship with the words remains consistently attentive: natural accentuation, syllabic distribution, the placement of appoggiaturas and small agogic inflections ar e conceived to keep the text intelligible, through a form of pitched speech that retains its cantabile quality. In this respect, Corigliano’s vocal output occupies a borderland between accompanied recitative and the salon romanza, favouring an intimate lyrical monologue in which the voice narrates before it sings in the theatrical sense.

5.2. Form, harmonic language and the rhetoric of silence In formal terms, Corigliano’s vocal chamber compositions reveal the legacy of the eighteenth-century galant cantata, while reshaping its organisation towards greater fluidity. Alongside ariettas and canzonettas of relatively simple design, often cast in cl ear binary or ternary structures, there are multi -sectional works (La Partenza, L’appuntamento, Oreste alla Tomba di Clitennestra) in which the transition between recitative, Andante, Larghetto and Largo corresponds not to rigidly self -contained blocks, bu t to a continuous modulation of affect. Form thus tends to follow the logic of inward discourse rather than that of the theatrical number, with a sense of expressive continuity that brings these works close to the later model of the salon romanza. 22 The harmonic language is rooted in a clear Classical tonality, yet is continually enlivened by sequences, modulations to related keys and discreet chromatic inflections that colour the discourse without compromising its fundamental transparency. In many pieces one can discern what, in the course of this research, I have termed the rhetoric of silence: evaded cadences, suspensions, significant rests and sudden thinning of the piano texture create moments of suspension in which tension never fully erupts, but resolves into a rarefied melancholy. This particularly evident feature distinguishes Corigliano’s writing both from the

22 For a general account of nineteenth-century music, see Mario Carrozzo and Cristina Cimagalli, Storia della musica occidentale, vol. 2, Roma, Armando, 2001.

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more overt brilliance of much contemporary salon music and from the dramatic emphasis of opera, suggesting a form of inward lyricism that would characterise much of the nineteenth-century Italian romanza.

5.3. The piano as a partner in dialogue and contemporary models In all the compositions edited here, the piano acts as a genuine partner in dialogue with the voice, rather than as mere harmonic support. The right-hand figurations (arpeggios, broken chords and brief figurations that fill out the texture) and the left -hand lines, often descending and strongly characterised in harmonic terms, contribute decisively to the shaping of dynamic arcs, climactic points and passages of textural attenuation. In numerous passages, the piano’s phrasing anticipates the vocal entry or prolongs its echo, creating a play of call and response that moves beyond simple accompaniment towards expressive commentary and countermelody. In the larger works, such as L’appuntamento, La partenza and Oreste alla tomba di Clitennestra, the piano introduces, prepares or prolongs the affective states evoked by the voice, at times assuming an almost narrative function. This is particularly evident in introductory sections and codas, where the piano distils or renews the principal motifs, condensing into a few bars the emotional trajectory traced by the vocal part. This conception of the relationship between voice and piano shows clear affinities with the romanza tradition cultivated by composers such as Asioli and Blangini, while also engaging with the operatic culture of the period, whose techniques and repertoire Corigliano knew intimately through his extensive activity as an arranger. In several instances, a proximity to Rossini, Donizetti or the early Bellini can be perceived in the melodic contours and treatment of cadences; nevertheless, the absence of spectacular effects, the choice of restricted ranges and the emphasis on a controlled expressive intimacy mark a clear distance from the stage. Although the piano writing draws upon gestures and formulae derived from opera, it relocates them within a more intimate acoustic and social space, in which the dialogue between voice and instrument replaces the interplay between soloist and orchestra. It is precisely in this balance of continuity and divergence in relation to contemporary models that the ten compositions assembled here offer an original contribution to the history of Italian vocal chamber music around the turn of the nineteenth century, revealing a composer who, in the quiet of the salons, explored solutions that the generation of the great opera composers would bring fully into view through publication and historiography.

6. Editorial principles 6.1. General editorial principles and the use of sources The edition of the ten works presented here rests upon the principle of minimal intervention: the proposed text remains as close as possible to the notation and intentions embodied in the sources, making explicit only those corrections necessary to musical coherence and legibility for the modern performer. The editor’s function is not to rewrite Corigliano, but to make the workings of the manuscripts transparent, clarifying problematic passages and providing practical support for singers and pianists. For e ach composition, a principal manuscript held either in the Music Archive of the Abbey of Montecassino or in the Library of the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples has been identified and adopted as the basis for transcription. Its sequence of sections, indications of tempo, dynamics and character, and overall disposition of the vocal and piano writing have been respected. Where the manuscript presents evident material errors (missing or superfluous accidentals, inconsistent rhythmic values or un justifiable discrepancies between vocal part and accompaniment), targeted corrections have been made, while otherwise retaining the text as transmitted by the source. From this perspective, the edition is intended to serve as a reference text for performan ce and

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study, providing reliable access to the sources without burdening the score with intrusive editorial intervention, and allowing the reader to assess clearly the extent of the decisions taken.

6.2. Musical notation, poetic text and expressive markings The musical notation has been modernised only to the extent necessary to ensure ease of reading, without altering either the sounding pitches or the rhythmic structure conceived by Corigliano. The vocal parts, notated in soprano clef in the sources, have b een standardised in treble clef without transposition, while the piano writing retains its original disposition in treble and bass clefs, with internal clef changes only for particularly high or low passages. Dots, ties and rhythmic groupings have been reg ularised where the manuscript notation is ambiguous, avoiding interventions that might modify the underlying rhythmic design. The poetic text has been transcribed according to the source readings, expanding only unambiguous abbreviations and introducing mi nimal normalisation of apostrophes, accents and punctuation, confined to cases of orthographical uncertainty or potential ambiguity. Syllabic underlay in the vocal part has been rendered more consistent than in the manuscripts, with syllables distributed according to prosody and metrical scansion, especially in repetitions or refrains; in uncertain cases, alignment between verbal stress and melodic line has guided the solution. Where subsequent stanzas appear in the sources only as continuous text separate from the music, as in Partant pour la Syrie and, in analogous form, other works in the corpus, the text of each stanza has been aligned in full with the vocal line, and the relevant bars written out in full notation, making the strophic structure explicit and facilitating the performer’s work. Dynamics, articulations and agogic markings have been reproduced in their entirety; intervention has been confined to their graphic placement, made more systematic above the vocal line or between the piano staves, and to the standardisation of terminology where the original notation presents minor variants without substantive significance. No new expressive indications have been added, in keeping with an approach that allows performers a degree of freedom consonant with the chamber character of the repertoire.

7. The edition, performance practice and contemporary reception 7.1. General interpretative considerations Corigliano’s vocal chamber compositions require the performer to combine technical vigilance with expressive restraint. Although confined to modest ranges and devoid of spectacular virtuosity, the vocal writing demands careful control of legato, intonation , breath management and register transitions, together with particular attention to the balance between verbal clarity and continuity of the melodic line. In the more elaborate works, such as L’appuntamento or Oreste alla Tomba di Clitennestra , the shaping of broad expressive arcs requires a unified conception of phrasing, avoiding the fragmentation of the discourse into isolated episodes and allowing the overall affective trajectory to be perceived. In matters of agogics and dynamics, the principal challenge lies in finding a balance between impetus and restraint. The indications of tempo and character suggest a sustained inner energy, yet one always contained within a chamber scale, remote both from metronomic rigidity and from exaggerated theatrical pathos. Collaboration with the pianist is decisive: shared breathing, the coordinated handling of subtle rubato, rallentandos and suspensions at cadences largely determine the success of a piece, whose life depends upon a delicate balance between word, sound and silence.

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7.2. The edition as a resource for modern performance The present edition is conceived first and foremost as a practical resource for the modern performance of Corigliano’s compositions. The editorial choices (modernised notation, regularised syllabic underlay and clear placement of dynamics and articulations) are intended to minimise obstacles to reading, enabling singers and pianists to concentrate on interpretative decisions rather than on deciphering the manuscript. The discussion of sources and editorial principles in the preceding sections provides the framework within which to read the musical text presented here, without encumbering the scores with apparatus or additional markings. The scores thus remain visually uncluttered, while the information needed to contextualise editorial decisions is gathered in the volume’s accompanying prose. In this respect, the edition presents itself as a source-informed performing edition: its graphic clarity and restrained intervention make it suitable for concert and teaching use, while its sustained reference to the manuscript evidence enables readers to investigate, and where necessary reconsider, individual readings. It is hoped that this balance between practical utility and attentiveness to the sources will foster a genuine reintegration of these works into the repertoire, as living contributions to Italian chamber music of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries rather than as archival curiosities.

7.3. Prospects for further research and revival The edition of these ten pieces represents only an initial step towards a broader revival of Corigliano’s vocal output. The catalogue reconstructed to date, with dozens of further ariettas, cantatinas, romanzas and chamber works still unpublished, offers f ertile ground for further source -critical, analytical and performance-based investigation, through which the working model developed here may be extended to other parts of the repertoire. A more systematic mapping of the sources, beginning with the Monteca ssino collection and the materials held in other Italian and European archives, would make it possible, for example, to establish more precisely the relative chronology of the compositions, their differing intended uses and the degrees of reworking revealed by comparison between divergent versions of the same piece. Looking ahead, dedicated recordings, the inclusion of these works in concert programmes and concert series, and their integration into training for singers and pianists may help to restore Corigliano to a prominence more commensurate with the significance of his contribution. A recording cycle organised around thematic groups (for example, narrative cantatinas, romanzas on French texts and dramatically conceived monologues) would make it possible both to document the repertoire coherently and to offer differentiated interpretative models, responsive to the various subgenres of vocal chamber music. From a pedagogical perspective, these works offer ideal material for the study of Italian diction, breath management, engagement with the poetic text and reciprocal listening between voice and piano, serving as a bridge between the operatic tradition and chamber music. Numerous avenues of research remain open: systematic comparison with the chamber output of Corigliano’s contemporaries; analysis of the networks through which manuscripts circulated between Naples, southern Italy and other European centres; and investigation of the relationship between the salon works and the operatic reductions that constit ute the other half of his musical profile. Further work might address the practice of dedication and the aristocratic and bourgeois figures for whom these works were intended, as well as their reception beyond Naples in the light of copies identified in ot her collections. In parallel, closer comparative analysis of formal structures, melodic contours and harmonic solutions across a broader corpus of compositions would allow Corigliano’s position within the constellation of the Italian salon romanza to be defined more precisely. Within this framework, the edition of his vocal chamber compositions is more than an isolated achievement: it offers a starting point for a comprehensive reopening of the Corigliano dossier, inviting a reassessment of a composer who, from the margins of the canon, may help to redraw aspects of the

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history of the salon romanza and nineteenth-century Italian vocal music. The hope is that this first editorial undertaking will encourage new research, new performances and new opportunities for listening, restoring Corigliano’s works to their rightful place within the still partially unmapped landscape of nineteenth-century chamber music.

XXXI B ibliography Villarosa de, Gabriele, Memorie dei compositori di musica del Regno di Napoli , Napoli, Dalla Stamperia Reale, 1840. Corigliano Cav. Domenico de Marchesi di Rignano, Poliorama pittoresco, year II, first half (1837), Napoli, Tipografia e Litografia del Poliorama Pittoresco, 1846–1847, pp. 327–328. Schmidl, Carlo, Dizionario universale dei musicisti, vol. II: M–Z, Milano, Casa Editrice Sonzogno, n.d. Villani, Salvatore, ‘La vita e le opere di Domenico A. Corigliano. Biografia – Catalogo alfabetico delle composizioni’, in Domenico A. Corigliano. Compositore e Cavaliere di Giustizia. Atti del convegno (Rignano Garganico, 13–18 dicembre 2016) , ed. by Salvatore Villani, Rignano Garganico, Centro Studi Tradizioni Pugliesi, 2016, pp. 11–30. Il fondo musicale dell’Archivio di Montecassino, ed. by Giovanni Insom, 2 vols, Montecassino, Abbazia di Montecassino – Istituto di Bibliografia Musicale, 2003. La romanza italiana da salotto, ed. by Francesco Sanvitale, Torino, EDT – Ortona, Istituto Nazionale Tostiano, 2002. Sanguinetti, Giorgio, ‘Decline and Fall of the “Celeste Impero”: the Theory of Composition in Naples During the Ottocento’, in Studi musicali, XXXIV (2005), no. 2, pp. 451–502. I Regesti dell’Archivio, vol. X (Aula II: Capsule LXIX– LXXV), ed. by Tommaso Leccisotti and Faustino Avagliano, Roma, 1975. Cafiero, Rosanna – Caraci Vela, Maria – Romagnoli, Angela, Gli affetti convenienti all’idee. Studi sulla musica vocale italiana, Napoli, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1993. Carrozzo, Mario – Cimagalli, Cristina, Storia della musica occidentale, vol. 2, Roma, Armando, 2001.

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Musical sources Music Archive of the Abbey of Montecassino, Montecassino: Domenico Antonio Corigliano, La rosa. Cantatina per soprano e pianoforte, MS 5-C-6. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Si desti l’ardore. Arietta per soprano e pianoforte, MS 5-C-22r. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Ah se col pianto mio. Cavatina con recitativo, MS 5-C-23. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Partant pour la Syrie. Romanza francese, MS 5-C-23n. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Tu mi chiedi, o bella Nice. Romanza, MS 5-C-23-P. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, L’appuntamento. Cantata per soprano, MS 5-C-6-m. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Oreste alla tomba di Clitennestra. Monologo drammatico, MS 5-D-13/13.

Library of the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella, Naples: Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Oh quante amabili. Cavatina con accompagnamento di pianoforte, MS Cantate 190@03. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, La partenza. Canzone per voce sola di soprano con accompagnamento di pianoforte, MS Arie 86(2)@03. Domenico Antonio Corigliano, Lo stral già non spezzai. Canzonetta con accompagnamento di pianoforte, MS Arie 156(7)@01.

Editorial contribution: Flavia Colagioia.