Siciliana
Encyclopedia
The siciliana or siciliano is a music
al style or genre often included as a movement within larger pieces of music starting in the Baroque period
. It is in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time
with lilting rhythms making it somewhat resemble a slow jig
, and is usually in a minor key. It was used for aria
s in Baroque opera
s, and often appeared as a movement in instrumental works. The siciliano evokes a pastoral mood
, and is often characterized by dotted rhythms.
inconclusive, but traces its origins to madrigal
s in triple time with dotted rhythms.
, though only two of his slow arias in 12/8 are actually titled "aria siciliana" in the scores. Monelle notes that texts of Scarlatti's siciliana arias are generally lamenting and melancholic. From 1703, sicilianas are described in musical dictionaries.
Other examples of baroque sicilianas are found in J. S. Bach music (e. g., in the Concert for clavicembalo n 2 in E).
, perhaps inspired by the bucolic associations of the genre, wrote a siciliana aria for soprano
in his oratorio
The Creation, "Nun beut die Flur das frische Grün" ("With verdure clad the fields appear"), to celebrate the creation of plants. For Mozart
, the hesitating rhythm of the siciliana lent itself to the portrayal of grief, and some of Mozart's most powerful musical utterances are tragic sicilianas: the aria for soprano "Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden" from The Magic Flute
, the F sharp minor slow movement of the Piano Concerto, K. 488
, the F minor Adagio from the Piano Sonata, K. 280, and the finale of the String Quartet in D minor, K. 421.
The third movement of Domenico Cimarosa
's Oboe Concerto is a siciliana. Other examples of sicilianas are featured in the last movement of Carl Maria von Weber
's Violin Sonata No. 5 and the second movement of Anton Reicha
's Clarinet Quintet in F major, Op. 107.
The 18/19th century guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani
(1781-1829) was very fond of the siciliana form and frequently composed in it. A notable example of this is in the second movement of his Guitar Concerto No. 1 in A major, Op. 30.
wrote a siciliana as the nineteenth variation in his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
for solo piano (1861). The second of Moritz Moszkowski
's Trois Morceaux poétiques, Op. 42 (1887), is a Siciliano.
Hélène's aria, "Merci, jeunes amies" from Verdi
's opera Les vêpres siciliennes
is another example of a siciliana, suited to its setting, and is referred to as such in the score, even though it is popularly called a bolero
.
's Serenata from Pulcinella
, Ottorino Respighi
's Siciliana from "Ancient Airs and Dances
", Suite No. 3, and Malcolm Arnold
's Siciliano in the Little Suite No. 1 for Brass. The Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande
by Gabriel Fauré
also contains a well-known siciliana. Maurice Duruflé
's Suite for Organ (op. 5) contains a sicilienne. Rachmaninoff utilized siciliana style and rhythms in three of his Op. 32 Preludes for piano, the B minor (Op. 32, No. 2), the B minor (Op. 32, No. 10), and the B major (Op. 32, No. 11).
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
al style or genre often included as a movement within larger pieces of music starting in the Baroque period
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
. It is in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
with lilting rhythms making it somewhat resemble a slow jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
, and is usually in a minor key. It was used for aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
s in Baroque opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s, and often appeared as a movement in instrumental works. The siciliano evokes a pastoral mood
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
, and is often characterized by dotted rhythms.
History
Raymond Monelle finds musicologists' attempts to trace the style to any authentic tradition in SicilySicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
inconclusive, but traces its origins to madrigal
Madrigal (music)
A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....
s in triple time with dotted rhythms.
Baroque era
The siciliana was firmly established as a signifier of a pastoral context in the operas of Alessandro ScarlattiAlessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.-Life:Scarlatti was born in...
, though only two of his slow arias in 12/8 are actually titled "aria siciliana" in the scores. Monelle notes that texts of Scarlatti's siciliana arias are generally lamenting and melancholic. From 1703, sicilianas are described in musical dictionaries.
Other examples of baroque sicilianas are found in J. S. Bach music (e. g., in the Concert for clavicembalo n 2 in E).
Classical era
Works in siciliana rhythm appear occasionally in the Classical period. Joseph HaydnJoseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, perhaps inspired by the bucolic associations of the genre, wrote a siciliana aria for soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
in his oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
The Creation, "Nun beut die Flur das frische Grün" ("With verdure clad the fields appear"), to celebrate the creation of plants. For Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, the hesitating rhythm of the siciliana lent itself to the portrayal of grief, and some of Mozart's most powerful musical utterances are tragic sicilianas: the aria for soprano "Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden" from The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, the F sharp minor slow movement of the Piano Concerto, K. 488
Piano Concerto No. 23 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major is a musical composition for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was finished, according to Mozart's own catalogue, on March 2, 1786, around the time of the premiere of his opera, The Marriage of Figaro...
, the F minor Adagio from the Piano Sonata, K. 280, and the finale of the String Quartet in D minor, K. 421.
The third movement of Domenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...
's Oboe Concerto is a siciliana. Other examples of sicilianas are featured in the last movement of Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
's Violin Sonata No. 5 and the second movement of Anton Reicha
Anton Reicha
Anton Reicha was a Czech-born, later naturalized French composer. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Beethoven, Reicha is now best remembered for his substantial early contribution to the wind quintet literature and his role as a teacher – his pupils included Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz...
's Clarinet Quintet in F major, Op. 107.
The 18/19th century guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani was an Italian guitarist, cellist and composer, and is considered by many to be one of the leading guitar virtuosi of the early 19th century.- Biography :...
(1781-1829) was very fond of the siciliana form and frequently composed in it. A notable example of this is in the second movement of his Guitar Concerto No. 1 in A major, Op. 30.
Romantic era
In the Romantic era BrahmsJohannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
wrote a siciliana as the nineteenth variation in his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No...
for solo piano (1861). The second of Moritz Moszkowski
Moritz Moszkowski
Moritz Moszkowski was a German Jewish composer, pianist, and teacher of Polish descent. Ignacy Paderewski said, "After Chopin, Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano"...
's Trois Morceaux poétiques, Op. 42 (1887), is a Siciliano.
Hélène's aria, "Merci, jeunes amies" from Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's opera Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe, which was written in 1838 and offered to Halevy and Donizetti before Verdi...
is another example of a siciliana, suited to its setting, and is referred to as such in the score, even though it is popularly called a bolero
Bolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
.
20th century
Examples of sicilianas in 20th century music include Igor StravinskyIgor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Serenata from Pulcinella
Pulcinella (ballet)
Pulcinella is a ballet by Igor Stravinsky based on an 18th-century play — Pulcinella is a character originating from Commedia dell'arte. The ballet premiered at the Paris Opera on 15 May 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet. The dancer Léonide Massine created both the libretto and choreography,...
, Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
's Siciliana from "Ancient Airs and Dances
Ancient Airs and Dances
Ancient Airs and Dances is a set of three suites composed by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi.- Suite No. 1 :Suite No. 1 was composed in 1917...
", Suite No. 3, and Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
's Siciliano in the Little Suite No. 1 for Brass. The Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (Fauré)
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80 is a suite derived from incidental music by Gabriel Fauré for Maurice Maeterlinck's play of the same name. He was the first of four leading composers to write music inspired by Maeterlinck's drama...
by Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
also contains a well-known siciliana. Maurice Duruflé
Maurice Duruflé
Maurice Duruflé was a French composer, organist, and pedagogue.Duruflé was born in Louviers, Eure. In 1912, he became chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, where he studied piano and organ with Jules Haelling...
's Suite for Organ (op. 5) contains a sicilienne. Rachmaninoff utilized siciliana style and rhythms in three of his Op. 32 Preludes for piano, the B minor (Op. 32, No. 2), the B minor (Op. 32, No. 10), and the B major (Op. 32, No. 11).