61. Tre minuetti per quartetto ad archi

Due to an erroneous supposition by Hopkinson, it was thought for a long time that the three Minuetti had only been published shortly before 1893. In fact, they were published much earlier, in 1884. The periodical La Musica Popolare of 15 December 1884 (Anno III, No. 12, p. 192) contains a review of the publication of the setting for string quartet and the piano four-hand arrangement, and they had already been advertised in the November issue. From the spring of 1884 at the latest, Puccini maintained relations with the Milanese seller and publisher of sheet music, Alessandro Pigna (see Marchetti 1973, Nos. 37 ff.), who also provided occasional employment for Giacomo’s brother Michele.
However, the autumn 1884 time frame for the publication does not mean that the pieces were also created then. From the existence of 61.C.1, it can be concluded that the work was finished quite some time before going to press (otherwise Puccini would probably have given a printed copy to the dedicatee). Therefore, it can be assumed that the Minuetti were composed between the completion of Le Villi (60) and Puccini’s occupation with the first performance of that opera, i.e. in the first months of 1884.
The manuscripts 61.B.2, 61.C.2, 61.C.3, and 61.C.4, preserved together in an old folder, prove that right after the composition, and perhaps still prior to publication, Puccini attended to the production of the instrumental parts, thus enabling performances of the Minuetti by string orchestras. Whether such performances actually took place remains unknown.
Among the dedicatees of the first edition, Carlo Carignani (1857-1919) is best known as Puccini’s lifelong friend and arranger of the piano-vocal scores for all his operas from Edgar (62) to the Trittico (84). Augusto Michelangeli (1832-1892) was a prominent violinist in Lucca, who taught at the Istituto musicale Pacini. He also conducted at the Teatro del Giglio and headed a dance band, in which the young Puccini occasionally played piano (see Landucci 1905; Lombardi 1976, p. 17; Giovannetti 1958). The most interesting dedicatee is Vittoria Augusta di Borbone.Note: *See Saro Giadice, La Villa Reale di Marlia (Lucca: Scuola tipografica Artigianelli, 1938); Antonio Archi, Gli ultimi Asburgo e gli ultimi Borbone in Italia 1814-1861 (Bologna: Cappelli Editore), 1965, pp. 405 ff.; Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1970), Vol. 12, p. 488; and Burke’s Royal Families of the World (London, Burke's Peerage, 1977), Vol. 1, p. 529.  She was the daughter of Carlo di Borbone, brother of Ferdinando II, the penultimate King of the Two Sicilies. Carlo had made an enemy of his family for his unbefitting marriage to Penelope Smith, an Irish woman with whom he dallied for many years in Europe. As a vigorous advocate of the new Kingdom of Italy, he was permitted to return there. After his death, his widow was given the title of Principessa di Capua and the royal Villa Marlia (a short distance north of Lucca). Her daughter, Vittoria Augusta (1838-1895) was very popular with the Luccan people. Puccini probably only knew her from afar, but in the spring of 1884 he endeavoured to obtain her permission to dedicate one of the three minuets to her (see Marchetti 1973, Nos. 43 and 46).Note: *According to an unpublished letter in the private collection of Peter Ross, Bern (Switzerland), some years later (in March 1892), on the occasion of Puccini’s journey to the performance of Edgar (62) in Madrid, Vittoria Augusta put at his disposal “una commendatizia per Sua Maestà la Regina Reggente di Spagna [a letter of recommendation for Her Majesty the Governing Queen of Spain]."The fact that he finally inscribed a version of “her” minuet for piano for the princess (61.C.1), may have had the practical reason to be easier for her to play or have performed.
Puccini reused minuet No. 2 for the exuberant initial subject played by the orchestra in the opening bars of Manon Lescaut (64), which is why it was omitted in the later printings. The other two minuets (originally Nos. 1 and 3) contain only brief and barely recognizable similarities to the music Puccini wrote for the minuet scene in Manon Lescaut (Act 2, before fig. 14).
As indicated on the title pages of 61.E.2, 61.E.2a, and 61.E.2b, the Parisian publisher Heugel acquired the rights to the Minuetti for France, Belgium and Spain from the original publisher, Pigna. Toward the end of 1898, Heugel issued them (also without the original No. 2). In view of the success of the first French performance of La Bohème (67) on 13 June 1898, Heugel may have regarded the Minuetti as well-considered publications with popular appeal and high sales potential. Soon thereafter, Puccini’s usual Italian publisher, Ricordi, also planned a publication of the Minuetti. According to MRL, the Ricordi plate numbers must have been assigned around the summer of 1899. However, the production of the full score, instrumental parts, and the piano arrangements, was delayed until 24 May 1901. It is possible that Ricordi was prevented from publishing them sooner due to legal complications, which became irrelvant with Ricordi’s acquisition of the small publishing house of Pigna around that time.
The possibility of performing the Minuetti with a string orchestra is not only corroborated by 61.B.2 and 61.C.3, but also by an advertisement printed in Heugel’s periodical, Le Ménestrel of 2 October 1898 (p. 349), issued on the occasion of the publication of 61.E.2: “Faciles à jouer dans les orchestres en doublant les parties [easy to be performed by orchestras by doubling the parts].”