Among Cherubini’s very first Cantatas, including “La pubblica felicità” (performed in Florence Cathedral on 27 September 1774), and “Il trionfo dell’Arno”(performed at the Volterra San Filippo theatre on 26 August 1784), the latter apparently having been lost, “Amphion” occupies a very important place. It was probably composed in Paris, “pour la Loge olimpique”, a Masonic association to which Cherubini belonged right from his first appearance in the French capital and to which he was linked for the best part of his life. Cherubini also composed other similar works for the Loge olympique (Circé - in 1789, “Cantate pour l’inauguration de la Statue d’Apollon – in 1796 and the well known “Chant sur la mort d’Haydn” in 1805). “Amphion” was written to a text by Mirabeau (Gabriel Honoré Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau –1749/1791) who, although born into an aristocratic family, entered the Estates General and became a member of the National Assembly over which he presided until his death in 1791, before the fateful year 1793. Thus, although of noble extraction, he was thus an important part of the Revolutionary Assembly and a central figure in the troubled historical period that witnessed the gradual rise of the weaker classes. This was a period that led up to the bloodshed and horrors of the French Revolution but one that also represented a fundamental stage in the process that over the centuries was to lead to the constitution of a united Europe. The figure of Amphion in classical Greek mythology appears as a son of Zeus and Antiope and his name is linked to that of his twin brother Zethus in the construction of the walls of Thebes, as Homer narrates in his Odyssey. The construction was achieved through the magic force of the sounds that Amphion plucked out of his Lyre, symbolically emphasizing the absolute value, thus confirming the absolute prevalence of the spirit and Art which, through the magic force of the sounds of the Lyre, reaffirm the supreme value of the mind in general, even over matter, which becomes an obedient slave subjected to spiritual, artistic and creative forces. “Amphion” was called by Eumelus of Corinth the first performer of the Lyre and his name of linked also with Orpheus and Marsia, continuing to live also in Roman tradition in Virgil and Horace, although with different connotations. Cherubini, who was later to dedicate three choruses to the stage music for the death of Mirabeau (on a text by J.B. Pujoulx), with “Amphion” his first great symphonic-choral Cantata, which begins with an overture into which he would extensively delve many years later, in 1803, in his “Anacréon ou l’amour fugitif”. The work is well structured and is divided into long passages separated by (very short) recitatives. It makes use of an important instrumental texture involving the use of a complete woodwind section, brass (horns and trumpets) and tympani as well as strings treated with an incredible mobility for the period, leading to the creation of totally new atmospheres that sometimes, for long symphonic stretches, imitate Amphion’s Lyre through the exclusive use of a “pizzicato” by the first and second violins alone. The work also makes use of a chorus, in imitative polyphonic style, with four voices and a single solo tenor whose vocal range is fully exploited by means of a virtuoso but highly calibrated composition. “Amphion”, which was part of the group of Cherubini autographs saved during the catastrophe and collapse of the Third Reich was transferred from Berlin, where it was still part of the legacy to the King of Prussia made by the composer’s wife in exchange for a life annuity, to the Jagellonska Library (that is, of the Polish Kings) of Krakow, which still holds a copy (and therefore not an autograph) including the overture and the entire suite of vocal and instrumental passages that obviously have nothing in common with the choruses written by Cherubini in 1791. It would have been enough to make an appropriate reading of the French text which has indubitable references to the walls of Thebes in order to link them to the vast overture on which the following title appears: Alliance /de la Musique à la Maçonereie/Cantate/ Amphion élevans les Murs de Thèbe/au son de la Lyre/Composée à Paris pour la loge Olympique l’année 1786. The work is published here for the first time and, according to the authoritative source represented by Grove’s Dictionary, was never performed and thus can be considered an important new title to add to Cherubini’s unbounded creativity in all musical fields.
Pietro Spada
Pavona, 2005
(Translated by Ian McGilvray)
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