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Pines of Rome (Italian title: Pini di Roma) is a four-movement tone poem for orchestracompleted in 1924 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. The piece, which depicts pine trees in four locations in Rome at different times of the day, is the second of Respighi’s trilogy of tone poems based on the city, along with Fountains of Rome(1917) and Roman Festivals(1928). It premiered on 14 December 1924 at the Augusteo Theatre in Rome with Bernardino Molinariconducting the Augusteo Orchestra.

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Background

Pines of Rome is the third tone poem for orchestra in Respighi’s collection of works. Similar to that of a symphony, the piece is a suite of fourmovements, each depictingpine trees located in different areas in the city of Rome at different times of the day.Respighi wrote a short description of each movement.

Structure

Pines of the Villa Borghese (I pini di Villa Borghese,allegretto vivace)

This movement portrays children playing by the pine trees in the Villa Borghese gardens, dancing the Italian equivalent of the nursery rhyme “Ring a Ring o’ Roses” and “mimicking marching soldiers and battles; twittering and shrieking like swallows”. The Villa Borghese, a villa located within the grounds, is a monument to the Borghese family, who dominated the city in the early seventeenth century.

The Pines Near a Catacomb (I pini presso una catacomba,lento)

In the second movement, the children suddenly disappear and shadows of pine trees that overhang the entrance of a catacomb dominates. It is a majestic dirge, conjuring up the picture of a solitary chapel in the deserted Campagna; open land, with a few pine trees silhouetted against the sky. A hymn is heard (specifically the Kyrie ad libitum 1, Clemens Rector; and the Sanctus from Mass IX,Cum jubilo), the sound rising and sinking again into some sort of catacomb, the subterranean cavern in which the dead are immured. An offstage trumpet plays the Sanctus hymn. Lower orchestral instruments, plus the organ pedal at 16′ and 32′ pitch, suggest the subterranean nature of the catacombs, while the trombones and horns represent priests chanting.

The Pines of the Janiculum (I pini del Gianicolo, lento)

The end of the third movement features the song of a nightingale, similar to this one, which Respighi incorporated into the score

The third is a nocturne set onJaniculum hill. The full moon shines on the pines that grow on the hill of the temple of Janus, the double-faced god of doors and gates and of the new year. Respighi took the opportunity to have the sound of a nightingale recorded onto a phonograph and requested in the score that it be played at the movement’s ending, the first of such an instance in music. The original score also mentions a specific recording that references a Brunswick Panatrope record player. According to author Martin Brody, the nightingale was recorded in the yard of the McKim Building of theAmerican Academy in Romesituated on Janiculum hill.

The Pines of the Appian Way(I pini della Via Appia, tempo di marcia)

Respighi recalls the past glories of the Roman republic in a representation of dawn on the great military road leading into Rome. The final movement portrays pine trees along the Appian Way in the misty dawn as a triumphantlegion advances along the Via Appia in the brilliance of the newly-rising sun. Respighi wanted the ground to tremble under the footsteps of his army and he instructs the organ to play bottom B♭ on 8′, 16′ and 32′ organ pedal. The score calls for six buccine– ancient circular trumpets that are usually represented by modern flugelhorns, which are sometimes partially played offstage. Trumpets peal and the consular army rises in triumph to theCapitoline Hill.