3. I figli d'Italia bella (Cessato il suon dell'armi)

The first modern performance of the cantata, on 6 June 2003 in Lucca, and the first recording, conducted by Riccardo Chailly in 2004, were both made using 3.E.1, which was prepared from the parts in 3.B.1.
Prior to 2003, the only hint of the existence of this hymn had appeared in Carlo Paladini’s early biography of Puccini published in Ricordi’s house magazine Musica e musicisti. The autograph score 3.B.2 was identified in 2019 by Gabriella Biagi Ravenni in the Puccini Collection of the Library of the “Luigi Boccherini” Conservatory in Lucca (see Biagi Ravenni 2020, pp. 215-219). Subsequently, the parts for Piccolo and First Flute also emerged in the Puccini Archive.
Puccini composed the piece to participate in the composition competition announced for the 1877 Provincial Exhibition of Lucca, adhering to the requirements set out in the call for submissions, which specified “un preludio o sinfonia a piacere del Compositore [a prelude or symphony at the composer’s discretion]” and a solo part “per Tenore o per Basso, esclusa la voce di donna [for tenor or bass, excluding the female voice". In addition to Puccini, among the contestants in the competition was his friend Carlo Carignani, who later became the arranger of the piano solo and piano-vocal scores of Puccini’s operas.
The judging committee, chaired by Massimo Quilici and composed of Carlo Marsili, Luigi Nerici, Paolino Petri, three former pupils of Michele Puccini (Giacomo’s father), did not award a prize to any of the entrants. Later, Puccini and Carignani wrote a very deferential letter to the committee, in which they expressed their “vivo desiderio [...] di poter udire eseguite le loro prime fatiche [strong desire […] to hear their first efforts performed]” and, to this end, requested support for the preparation of the necessary materials (see ENOGP Ep. 1, no. 1, pp. 3-4). The same letter reveals the motto Puccini chose to identify his composition: “Vagliami il buon voler s’altro non vale".
Puccini probably received the requested contribution, as suggested by the existence of 3.B.2, and he may also have secured a performance of the piece.
The text, required by the competition notice and written by V. Bacci, stipulated the distribution of the stanzas between soloist and chorus that Puccini followed in his setting.