111. Cadenza e Basso in Sol

On 11 March 1881, about three months after beginning his composition lessons with Antonio Bazzini (see ENOGP Ep. 1, no. 6, p. 10), Puccini wrote to his mother: "This evening I have to study for tomorrow, because I have my lesson with Bazzini and I must write a string quartet" (ibid., no. 10, p. 14). On the basis of the surviving musical sources that can be assigned to this period, it is plausible that these were not quartets in the traditional sense of the term, but rather counterpoint exercises in the form of string quartets, such as 111, 112, and 113.