Chapter 10 - Rhythms and redemption in La fanciulla del West

Summary

Waltz in, waltz in, ye little kids, and gather round my knee,

And drop them books and first pot-hooks, and hear a yarn from me. […]

O little kids, my pretty kids, down on your knees and pray!

You've got your eddication in a peaceful sort of way;

And bear in mind thar may be sharps ez slings their spellin’ square,

But likewise slings their bowie-knives without a thought or care.

Bret Harte, “The Spelling Bee at Angel's” (1878)

This scene of rough-hewn Wild West types competing in a spelling bee, and getting their “eddication,” conjures up images of David Belasco's 1905 Girl of the Golden West. The homey narrator of Harte's poem, who does not in fact “sling his spellin’ square,” manages standard orthography for the words “waltz” and, later, “rhythm,” (as well as “pray”), which point to salient aspects of Puccini's La fanciulla del West as well. This opera's score has a rhythmic vitality that is most evident in the many dance patterns in the work (waltz, polka, bolero), but not only there: archival material presented below shows the emphasis that Puccini placed on rhythm and meter in the work as a whole. In this chapter, we will examine some of the rhythmic and metric aspects of the score, which are in dialogue with Puccini's use of some source materials; lastly, we will touch upon the Wagnerian influences at work in the opera's theme of redemption.

“[the heart is] the metronome within us.”

Puccini, as quoted by Ricci

Rhythmic structures in Italian opera have traditionally been tied to textual verse forms. Indeed, Puccini often requested specific verse forms from his librettists. But then, as Ashbrook and Powers observe, “once he got what he wanted he chopped and altered lines out of all metric recognition, to suit preconceived musical passages.” And one need only observe the neatly rhyming quinari and settenari lines opening the libretto of Tosca—scattered all over a chaotic musical scenetta—to conclude how little control the poetic structures can maintain over the forms and rhythmic patterns of Puccini's music. This divergence could have been the result of a progressive Wagnerian influence—musical prose and Versmelodie trumped traditional poetic meters. But whatever the cause, poetic meters had a diminished influence by Puccini's mature years.