61. Tre minuetti per quartetto d'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. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Minuetti were composed at different times. The autograph parts for nos. 1 and 2 (61.B.2), prepared for performance by a string orchestra, were most likely created with a possible performance by the Società Orchestrale Boccherini of Lucca in mind. The other parts (61.B.3 and 61.C.3-61.C.4), containing only Minuet no. 1, may instead have been produced to suit the orchestra’s requirements once the young Puccini’s proposal for the concert of 18 September 1881 was accepted and the decision made to include only one of the two Minuetti in the programme (see the announcement in Il Fedele, 17 September 1881, and the reports in Il Fedele and Il Progresso, 24 September; see also Tovani 2010, pp. 31-32, 52).
The orchestral materials and the performance of Minuetto no. 1 testify to Puccini’s connections with the civic milieu at the end of his Lucca training, as further evidenced by the dedications of nos. 1 and 2 to Vittoria Augusta di Borbone and Augusto Michelangeli in 61.E.1. From the existence of 61.C.1, it can be concluded that at least part of the series was completed quite some time before going to press (otherwise Puccini would probably have given a printed copy to the dedicatee). No. 1 was also performed in Lucca by the Società Orchestrale Boccherini on 22 February 1892 (see Il Figurinaio, 28 February 1892).
Vittoria Augusta di Borbone was the daughter of Carlo di Borbone, brother of Ferdinando II, the penultimate King of the Two Sicilies.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.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 the Minuetto no. 1 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.
Augusto Michelangeli (1832–1892) was a prominent violinist in Lucca, who taught at the Istituto Musicale Pacini. He had been Puccini’s violin teacher during his first two years of study at the Istituto Musicale Pacini (1868-69 and 1869-70). At the time of the dedication he was the president and leading figure of the Società Orchestrale Boccherini, founded in 1874; 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 manuscripts 61.B.2 and the other extant copies of the Minuetto no. 1 (61.B.3 and 61.C.3-61.C.4), preserved together in an old folder, would suggest that, before publication, the ‘Luccan’ Minuetti nos. 1 and 2 – the first one in particular – circulated in performances by string orchestras.
A ‘Milanese’ Minuet, presumably different from the two preceding ones and therefore most likely no. 3, is mentioned by Puccini in an unpublished letter to Alfredo Soffredini, then adviser to the publisher Pigna, dated 13 June 1884: “Mando subito i miei minuetti me ne manca uno che manderò da Milano nel prossimo luglio [I am sending my minuets right away; one is missing, which I will send from Milan next July].” This letter provides the only terminus ante quem for dating the third piece of the series. At the same time, it bears witness to the ongoing negotiations with Pigna for the publication of the Minuetti.
The dedicatee of no. 3, 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).
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 irrelevant 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.2-61.B.3 and 61.C.3-61.C.4, 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].”