Edited by Carlida Steffan (2012)
One-volume set: score + critical commentary: pp. I-LIV, 1-196
NR 140185
The Edition collects all the vocal chamber music that, at the current state of research, can be included in the Bellini catalog. It is divided into sections that define the different types of compositions and their textual status.
Bellini wrote chamber vocal compositions throughout the course of his brief production career: for this reason, they come to us characterized by different aesthetic intentions depending on the function, places and performers for which they were conceived.
The private nature of most of these compositions, conceived for cultural gatherings or spread out as album sheets, implies both the fact that in some cases Bellini wrote multiple versions of the same composition, and their frequent dispersion in the maze of collecting private: only a limited number of these sources are still preserved in public institutions. An emblematic case is represented by the cavatina Dolente immagine di Fille mia, which comes with four different autographs, dedicated to four different recipients; however, for two of them we do not know the current location, even if their existence is indirectly attested.
The early death, at the peak of his notoriety, increased the charm (and commercial appeal) of the figure of Bellini. In the following years, publishers across Europe competed to publish posthumous editions of chamber pieces.
The editorial work thus made it possible to remove the crusts of the modern publishing tradition. On the other hand, the examination of the first printed versions provided valuable suggestions for the performance practice, often missing from the autographs.
Among the aims of the Critical Edition of Vincenzo Bellini’s Works there is also that of documenting, as far as possible, the compositional process of Bellini: the critical apparatus accounts for the erasures, remakes and compositional stages found in the autographs.
An important aspect of the research on vocal chamber music also concerned the poetic texts, some chosen and / or elaborated by Bellini himself, others suggested by his clients. The edition specifies for the first time the authorship of some and reconstructs the channels through which the majority of them reached the composer’s table.
These data have made it possible to shed light on the environments that favored the creation and marked the reception of Bellini’s corpus, but also allowed the adoption of correct criteria in the transcription and printing of the poetic corpus included in the volume.