SKU: A0.898494

Full score. I am a frequent visitor to the Protestant Cemetery in Testaccio, Rome. Shelley, Keats and Corso are buried there among other expatriates who adopted the city of Rome as their own. I am a not a huge fan of the music by Ottorino Respighi, whose work, like the Pines of Rome, reminds too much of Hollywood music scores. But I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered on YouTube a chamber work he wrote for mezzo-soprano and string quartet called “Il Tramonto.� The vocal and string writing are exquisite, quite beautiful and heart-felt. When I looked at the source of the text I saw that it was an Italian translation by Roberto Ascoli of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. That immediately inspired me to do my own musical setting of this poem. Two reasons. One, it has a Rome connection. Two, two of my favorite subjects in music are all there in one poem: love and death. Unfortunately I did not find the original English version to be sufficiently “musical.� The archaic language was a bit leaden and convoluted. On the other hand, the Italian translation is so much more lyrical and transcendental. I divided the poem into five parts. At the end I decided to tag on a text I have wanted to set for quite some time: Media Vita. I think the subject of this Latin text fits beautifully as a coda or “apotheosis� to Il Tramonto. I. Moderato … Già v’ebbe un uomo II. Andante … Ora è sommerso il sole III. Adagio … Il given e la dama giacquer tra il sonno IV. Moderato … Neri gli occhi ma non fulgidi più V. Adagio … Ho tal retaggio che la terra non dà VI. Apotheosis: Largo … Media Vita Enjoy!!!