Adagio in G minor

The Adagio in G minor is a 1958 by the Italian musicologist and composer Remo Giazotto issued, allegedly based on fragments Tomaso Albinoni, but composed for strings and organ. It is one of the most popular works of " classical music ".

Origin and authorship

The Adagio in G minor, first appeared in 1958 at the Milan music publisher Ricordi under the title remo Giazotto: adagio in sol minore per archi e organo su due spunti tematici e su un basso numerato di tomaso albinoni (lowercase in the original). In the preface, it was stated that the piece was part of a Albinoni'schen Trio Sonata in G minor, without opus number, of which only a printed figured bass and two handwritten fragments of the 1st violin ( a total of six cycles) were handed down. These fragments had been the editor Remo Giazotto sent immediately after the Second World War by the State Library in Dresden, after he (included in the monograph Tomaso Albinoni, Milan 1945) its thematic list of works Albinoni had already been published. Giazotto was first exposed to the basso continuo, and supplemented by a brief introduction and then prepared on the basis of using the existing fragments of melody a melodic context. Since the figured bass a " accentuated mystical atmosphere " creates, the editors have deemed it appropriate to rely on the thorough bass of the organ instead of the harpsichord.

Both on the title page and in the preface the piece was thus made ​​clear as a composition Giazottos identified ( in a copyright notice it said in addition, the Adagio is protected by applicable copyright original composition). In the onset soon after the publication success of the work nevertheless almost always Albinoni was mentioned only as a composer and arranger as Giazotto; occasionally the name Giazottos even fell away completely.

While the question of authorship was ultimately irrelevant to the general public, the musicology of the original sources became interested. In the years 1968 to 1978 between the Saxon State Library in Dresden, several music researchers and the Ricordi publishing house took a correspondence here on instead, but was inconclusive: From Giazotto no further information about his sources was obtained, and the Saxon State Library found that the " Albinoni attributed to alleged fragment of the so famous Adagio is not in our music collection and was present also never here ." The Adagio is apparently " A to Z" is a " fiction " Giazottos.

1992 Giazotto expressed in a letter to the music journalist Piero Buscaroli again on the genesis of the work. Unlike his preface of 1958, he now wrote that he had the fragment found in early 1940, when his book was completed in Albinoni manuscript among the materials that had been sent to him by German libraries for his studies. It had " a note " traded to, "on which the four bars of the theme and the figured bass were " (the latter contradicts his earlier statement that the figured bass he was present printed). In order to disperse, he had worked out the issue to a tune, as he had earlier in his composition teacher Paribeni need to do.

In Giazottos discount his last assistant Muska Mangano was a photocopy of a photograph of a handwritten note sheet that corresponds to this description. It actually contains the figured bass and just six strokes of the violin part of the Adagio, but comes from more recent times, probably from the first half of the 20th century. It bears the German title " Albinoni 's Trio Sonata in G minor " and a stamp, on which only the words " Dresden. Photo of " legible. Whether it comes from a Dresden library, or was only photographed in Dresden, who has made ​​it and whether it is a real composition Albinoni, must remain open.

Musical character

The Adagio is divided into three parts. After an eight-bar, only the basso continuo of organ and deep pizzicato strings supported introduction, the high strings a set with a elegiac melancholy, mainly from descending motif consequences of existing and multiple sequenced melody. This part is repeated. It is followed by a cadenza -like middle section, in which a solo violin with the rest basso enters into a dialogue. The third and final part is a variation of the first part (including the introduction) with several short performances of the solo violin and a passionate oscillation of the string ensemble at the end.

Even the length of the piece ( Duration 7-12 minutes) shows that there can hardly be a baroque sonata; but above all it is the ( late) romantic style with which she clearly refers the work of the 19th or 20th century. Both melodically and harmonically, it is more reminiscent of Puccini or Mascagni than Albinoni. The main theme (which was already included in Giazottos suspected source) also has a striking resemblance to a passage from the first movement of Mozart's Horn Concerto in E flat major, K. 495, and with the theme of the second movement ( Adagio sostenuto ) from the Piano Trio No. 1 in major op 33 by Louise Farrenc. The descending melodic line is also found in the Adagio ma non troppo ( dolente Arioso ) of the 3rd movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31 A flat major, Op 110

Effect and reception

Although stylistically very different from the Adagio Albinoni's genuine works, there was a significant contributor to the rediscovery of this two centuries largely forgotten Baroque composer. Numerous chamber orchestras and ensembles took it into their repertoire and recorded it on vinyl or CD, often in combination with other works of Albinoni. There were arrangements for a variety of formations ( from the brass ensemble up to the guitar solo ). Even rock bands took up the piece and adapted it in their style, such as Ekseption (1970 ), Renaissance (1974 ), The Doors ( 1978), Yngwie Malmsteen (1984 ) and Muse ( 2006). Similarly, it has been used in several films, including The process (1962), Red Sun (1970) Rollerball ( 1975), Moonbase Alpha 1 ( Season 1, Episode 23, 1976), Gallipoli ( 1981), Flashdance (1983 ), Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) and Show Me Love (1998).

Meanwhile, the Adagio is one of the most famous and popular pieces of " classical music " and is in most compilations of Baroque "hits" included. According to the musicologist Wulf Dieter Lugert and Volker Schütz likely Giazotto " as copyright composer of the most deserving by far the contemporary composer of the last 50 years of his ."