Il Trittico, Turandot, and Puccini's Late Style

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Andrew Davis is Associate Professor of Music Theory and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. Davis Il Trittico, Turandot, and Puccini’s Late Style Indiana INDIANA University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis www.iupress.indiana.edu 1-800-842-6796 Musical Meaning and Interpretation Robert S. Hatten, editor Giacomo Puccini is one of the most frequently performed and best loved of all operatic composers. In Il Trittico, Turandot, and Puccini’s Late Style, Andrew Davis takes on the subject of Puccini’s last two works to better understand how the composer creates meaning through the juxtaposition of the conventional and the unfamiliar—situating Puccini in past operatic traditions and modern European musical theater. Davis asserts that hearing Puccini’s late works within the context of la solita forma allows listeners to interpret the composer’s expressive strategies . He examines Puccini’s compositional language with insightful analyses of melody, orchestration, harmony, voice-leading, and rhythm and meter. Jacket illustration: Half-portrait of Giacomo Puccini, ca. 1908. Courtesy the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-107386) Author photo by Thomas Campbell, University of Houston Music and meaning in Puccini’s last works Music Puccini’s Late Style Andrew Davis Il Trittico, Turandot, and Il Trittico, Turandot, and Puccini’s Late Style Il Trittico, Turandot, and Puccini’s Late Style Trittico.indb 1 7/2/10 10:32 AM A Theory of Musical Narrative Byron Almén Approaches to Meaning in Music Byron Almén and Edward Pearsall Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early NineteenthCentury Italian Opera Naomi André Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy William Echard Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert Robert S. Hatten Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation Robert S. Hatten Intertextuality in Western Art Music Michael L. Klein Is Language a Music? Writings on Musical Form and Signification David Lidov Pleasure and Meaning in the Classical Symphony Melanie Lowe The Musical Topic: Hunt, Military, Pastoral Raymond Monelle Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: The Construction of Musical Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber Jairo Moreno Deepening Musical Performance through Movement: The Theory and Practice of Embodied Interpretation Alexandra Pierce Expressive Forms in Brahms’s Instrumental Music: Structure and Meaning in His Werther Quartet Peter H. Smith Music as Philosophy: Adorno and Beethoven’s Late Style Michael Spitzer Music and Wonder at the Medici Court: The 1589 Interludes for La pellegrina Nina Treadwell Debussy’s Late Style Marianne Wheeldon Music a l Mea ning a nd Int er pr et a t ion Robert S. Hatten, editor Trittico.indb 2 7/2/10 10:32 AM Indiana University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis Il Trittico, Turandot, and Puccini’s Late Style Andrew Davis Trittico.indb 3 7/2/10 10:32 AM This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA www.iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu© 2010 by Andrew Davis All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalogingin -Publication Data Davis, Andrew C., [date–] Il trittico, Turandot, and Puccini’s late style / Andrew Davis.    p. cm. — (Musical meaning and interpretation) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-35514-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Puccini, Giacomo, 1858–1924. Trittico. 2. Puccini, Giacomo, 1858–1924. Turandot. 3. Opera—20th century. I. Title. ML410.P89D33 2010 782.1092—dc22 2010003084 1 2 3 4 5   15 14 13 12 11 10 Trittico.indb 4 7/2/10 10:32 AM For my family, without whom none of this would be possible Trittico.indb 5 7/2/10 10:32 AM Trittico.indb 6 7/2/10 10...