31. Adagio

This is very likely a draft for the slow movement of the string quartet, on which Puccini worked during his studies (see 34, 50, 52, and 56). Puccini used this music for the waltz in the introduction of Le Villi (60) (after fig. 11). A reminiscence of it is found in the cancelled part of the Preludio sinfonico in A major (see NOTES to 32), which is why 31 probably must be dated earlier than the Preludio. Slightly different arrangements for string quartet have been made by Giorgio Magri and Wolfgang Ludewig.