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Appian^{[pronunciation?]} of Alexandria (Ancient Greek: Ἀππιανός Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Appianós Alexandreús; Latin: Appianus Alexandrinus; ca. AD 95 – ca. AD 165) was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.

He was born circa 95 in Alexandria. He tells us, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Aegyptus (Egypt), he went to Rome circa 120, where he practised as an advocate, pleading cases before the emperors (probably as advocatus fisci),^[1] that in 147 at the earliest he was appointed to the office of procurator, probably in Egypt, on the recommendation of his friend Marcus Cornelius Fronto, a well-known litterateur. Because the position of procurator was open only to members of the equestrian order (the "knightly" class), his possession of this office tells us about Appian's family background.

His principal surviving work (Ῥωμαϊκά, known in Latin as Historia Romana and in English as Roman History) was written in Greek in 24 books, before 165. This work more closely resembles a series of monographs than a connected history. It gives an account of various peoples and countries from the earliest times down to their incorporation into the Roman Empire, and survives in complete books and considerable fragments.^[1] The work is very valuable, especially for the period of the civil wars.

The Civil Wars, five of the later books in the corpus, concern mainly the end of the Roman Republic and take a conflict-based approach to history.

Life[link]

Little is known of the life of Appian of Alexandria. He wrote an autobiography that has been almost completely lost.^{[citation needed]} Information about Appian is distilled from his own writings and a letter^[which?] by his friend Cornelius Fronto. However, it is certain that Appian was born around the year AD 95 in Alexandria, the capital of Roman Egypt. Since his parents were Roman citizens capable of paying for their son’s education, it can be determined that Appian belonged to the wealthy upper classes.^{[citation needed]}

It is believed that Appian moved in 120 to Rome, where he became a barrister. In the introduction to his Roman History, he boasts “that he pleaded cases in Rome before the emperors.” The emperors he claims to have addressed must have been either Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius and definitely Antoninus Pius, for Appian remained in Egypt at least until the end of the reign of Trajan (117). In the letter of Cornelius Fronto, it is revealed that a request on behalf of Appian to receive the rank of procurator occurred during the co-regency^[which?] between 147 and 161. Although Appian won this office, it is unclear whether it was a real job or an honorific title. The only other certain biographical datum is that Appian's Roman History appeared sometime before 162. This is one of the few primary historical sources for the period.

Works[link]

Appian began writing his history around the middle of the second century AD. Only sections from half of the original 24 books survive today. The most important remnants of Appian's work are the five books on the Civil Wars—books 13-17 of the Roman History. These five books stand out because they are the only comprehensive, meticulous source available on an extremely significant historical period, during which Roman politics were in turmoil because of factional strife.

Especially notable is this work's ethnographic structure. Appian most likely used this structure to facilitate his readers' orientation through the sequence of events, which occur in different places and are united only by their relationship to Rome. A literary example of this can be found from Appian’s Civil Wars (part 5 of 17). It states, “And now civil discord broke out again worse than ever and increased enormously....so in the course of events in the Roman empire was partitioned....by these three men: Antony, Lepidus, and the one who was first called Octavius....shortly after this division they fell to quarrelling among themselves...Octavius...first deprived Lepidus of Africa...and afterward, as the result of the battle of Actium, took from Antony all the provinces lying between Syria and the Adriatic gulf."

One might expect that a historical work covering nine centuries and countless different peoples would involve a multitude of testimonials^{[clarification needed]} from different periods. However, Appian's sources remain uncertain, as he only mentions the source of his information under special circumstances. He may have relied primarily on one author for each book, whom he did not follow uncritically, since Appian also used additional sources for precision and correction.^{[citation needed]} At our present state of knowledge questions regarding Appian’s sources cannot be solved.^{[citation needed]}

Editions[link]

• Editio princeps, 1551
• Schweighauser, 1785
• Bekker, 1852
• Ludwig Mendelssohn, 1878–1905, Appiani Historia Romana, Bibliotheca Teubneriana
• Paul Goukowsky, 1997-, Appien. Histoire romaine (Greek text, French translation, notes), Collection Budé.
• Carsana, Chiara (ed.). Commento storico al libro II delle Guerre Civili di Appiano (parte I). Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2007. 309 pp. (Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università di Pavia, 116).

English translations:

• W. B., 1578 (black letter) – possibly William Barker – used by Shakespeare
• J. D[avies], 1679
• Horace White, 1899 (Bohn's Classical Library);
• Book I edited by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson, 1902.
• Books XIII-XVII (Civil Wars), trans. John Carter, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1996

References[link]

• William Smith (ed) (1870), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol 1, pp. 247–248

External links[link]

• Appian's Foreign Wars at Livius.org
• Appian's Civil Wars at LacusCurtius
• Works by Appian at the Internet Archive
• Review of Paul Gourkowsky and Phillippe Torrens, eds., Appien: Histoire romaine. Tome X, livre XV: Guerres civiles, livre III in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

File:Respighi Trittico Botticelliano.png

Use of the Phrygian mode on A in Respighi's Trittico Botticelliano (Botticelli Triptych, 1927).^[1]  Play (help·info)

Ottorino Respighi (Italian pronunciation: [ottoˈriːno resˈpiːɡi]; 9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome (Le fontane di Roma); Pines of Rome (I pini di Roma); and Roman Festivals (Feste romane). His musicological interest in 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century music led him to also compose pieces based on the music of this period. He also wrote a number of operas, the best known being La fiamma.

Biography[link]

Ottorino Respighi was born in Bologna, Italy. He was taught piano and violin by his father, who was a local piano teacher. He went on to study violin and viola with Federico Sarti at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, composition with Giuseppe Martucci, and historical studies with Luigi Torchi, a scholar of early music. A year after receiving his diploma in violin in 1899, Respighi went to Russia to be principal violist in the orchestra of the Russian Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg during its season of Italian opera. While there he studied composition for five months with Rimsky-Korsakov. He then returned to Bologna, where he earned a second diploma in composition. Until 1908 his principal activity was as first violin in the Mugellini Quintet. In 1908-09 he spent some time performing in Germany before returning to Italy and turning his attention entirely to composition. Many sources indicate that while he was in Germany he studied briefly with Max Bruch, but in her biography of the composer, Respighi's wife asserts that this is not the case.^[2]

During the second decade of the twentieth century Respighi was active as a performer and composer. His compositions began to draw attention, and in 1913 he was appointed as teacher of composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1917 his international fame began to spread through multiple performances of the first of his Roman orchestral tone poems, Fountains of Rome. In 1919 he married a former pupil, the singer Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo. From 1923 to 1926 he was director of the Conservatorio. In 1925 he collaborated with Sebastiano Arturo Luciani on an elementary textbook entitled Orpheus. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Italy in 1932.

A visit to Brazil resulted in the composition Impressioni brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions). He had intended to write a sequence of five pieces, but by 1928 he had completed only three, and decided to present what he had. Its first performance was in 1928 in Rio de Janeiro. The first piece is a nocturne, "Tropical Night", with fragments of dance rhythms suggested by the sensuous textures. The second piece is a sinister picture of a snake research institute, Instituto Butantan, that Respighi visited in São Paulo, with hints of birdsong (as in Pines of Rome). The final movement is a vigorous and colorful Brazilian dance.

On the ship back home from Brazil, Respighi met up by chance with Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. During their long conversation Fermi tried to get Respighi to explain music in terms of physics, which Respighi was unable to do. They remained close friends until Respighi's death in 1936.^[3]

Apolitical in nature, Respighi attempted to steer a neutral course after Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922. His established international fame allowed him some level of freedom but at the same time encouraged the regime to exploit his music for political purposes. Respighi vouched for more outspoken critics such as Arturo Toscanini, allowing them to continue to work under the regime.^[4]

Feste Romane, the third part of his Roman trilogy, was premiered by Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1929; Toscanini recorded the music twice for RCA Victor, first with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1942 and then with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1949. Respighi's music had considerable success in the USA: the Toccata for piano and orchestra was premiered (with Respighi as soloist) under Willem Mengelberg with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in November 1928, and the large-scale theme and variations entitled Metamorphoseon was a commission for the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Respighi was an enthusiastic scholar of Italian music of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. He published editions of the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Antonio Vivaldi, and of Benedetto Marcello's Didone. Respighi generally kept clear of the musical idiom of the classical period. He preferred combining pre-classical melodic styles and musical forms (like dance suites) with typical late 19th century romantic harmonies and textures.

He continued to compose and tour until January 1936, after which he became increasingly ill. A cardiac infection led to his death by heart failure on 18 April that year at the age of 56. A year after his burial, his remains were moved to his birthplace Bologna and reinterred at the city's expense.

Works[link]

Opera[link]

• Re Enzo (1905)
• Semirâma (1909)
• Marie Victoire (completed in 1913, but not produced until 2004)
• La bella dormente nel bosco (1922)
• Belfagor (1923)
• La campana sommersa (1927)
• Maria egiziaca (1932)
• La fiamma (1934)
• Lucrezia (1937) (completed posthumously by his wife, Elsa, and his pupil Ennio Porrino)

Ballet[link]

• La Boutique fantasque (1918), which borrows tunes from the 19th century composer Rossini. Premiered in London on 5 June 1919.
• Sèvres de la vieille France (1920)
• La Pentola magica (1920)
• Le astuzie de Columbina (1920)
• Belkis, Regina di Saba (1930), his last work for ballet

Orchestral[link]

• Symphonic Variations (1900)
• Preludio, corale e fuga (1901)
• Aria for strings (1901)
• Suite for strings (1902)
• Suite in E major (Sinfonia) (1901 rev. 1903)
• Burlesca (1906)
• Ouverture carnevalesca (1913)
• Sinfonia Drammatica (1913–14)
• The Roman trilogy (three symphonic poems evoking Roman places and times of day)
  • Fountains of Rome (1915–1916)
  • Pines of Rome (1923–1924)
  • Roman Festivals (1928)
• Ancient Airs and Dances
  • Suite No. 1 (1917), based on Renaissance lute pieces by Simone Molinaro, Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei), and additional anonymous composers.
  • Suite No. 2 (1923), based on pieces for lute, archlute, and viol by Fabrizio Caroso, Jean-Baptiste Besard, Bernardo Gianoncelli, and an anonymous composer. It also interpolates an aria attributed to Marin Mersenne.
  • Suite No. 3 (1932), arranged for strings only and somewhat melancholy in overall mood. It is based on lute songs by Besard, a piece for baroque guitar by Ludovico Roncalli, lute pieces by Santino Garsi da Parma and additional anonymous composers.
• Ballata delle Gnomidi (Dance of the Gnomes) (1920), based on a poem by Claudio Clausetti
• Rossiniana (1925) - free transcriptions from Rossini's Quelques riens (from Péchés de vieillesse)
• Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows) (1925), four movements of which three are based on Tre Preludi sopra melodie gregoriane for piano (1919)
• The Birds (1927), based on Baroque pieces imitating birds. It comprises Introduzione (Bernardo Pasquini), La Colomba (Jacques de Callot), La Gallina (Rameau), L'Usignolo (anonymous English composer of the seventeenth century) and Il Cucu (Pasquini)
• Trittico Botticelliano (1927)
• Impressioni brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions) (1928)
• Metamorphoseon Modi XII: Tema e Variazioni (1930)

Concerto[link]

Piano

• Piano Concerto in A minor (1902)
• Fantasia Slava (1903)
• Concerto in modo misolidio (Concerto in the Mixolydian mode) (1925)
• Toccata for Piano and Orchestra (1928)

Violin

• Leggenda for Violin and Orchestra P 36 (1902) ^[5]
• Humoreske for Violin and Orchestra P 45 (1903) ^[6]
• Concerto in la maggiore for Violin and Orchestra (1903), completed by Salvatore Di Vittorio (2009)
• Concerto all'antica for Violin and Orchestra (1908)
• Poema autunnale (Autumn Poem) for Violin and Orchestra(1920-5)
• Concerto gregoriano for Violin and Orchestra (1921)

Miscellaneous

• Suite in G major for Organ and Strings (1905)
• Adagio con variazioni (1920), for Cello and Orchestra
• Concerto a cinque (Concerto for Five) (1933), for Oboe, Trumpet, Piano, Viola d'amore, Double-bass, and Strings

Vocal/Choral[link]

• Christus (text by Respighi) (1898–99), Biblical cantata for soloists, chorus and orchestra
• Nebbie (1906), voice and piano
• Stornellatrice (1906?), voice and piano
• Cinque canti all'antica (1906), voice and piano
• Aretusa (text by Shelley) (1910–11), cantata for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
• La Sensitiva (The Sensitive Plant, text by Shelley) (1914), for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
• Il Tramonto (The sunset, text by Shelley) (1914), for mezzo-soprano and string quartet (or string orchestra)
• Deità silvane (Woodland Deities, texts by Antonio Rubino) (1917), song-cycle for soprano and small orchestra
• Cinque liriche (1917), voice and piano
• Quattro liriche (Gabriele d'Annunzio) (1920), voice and piano
• La Primavera (The Spring, texts by Constant Zarian) (1922) lyric poem for soli, chorus and orchestra
• Lauda per la Natività del Signore (Laud to the Nativity, text attributed to Jacopone da Todi) (1930), a cantata for three soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor), mixed chorus (including substantial sections for 8-part mixed and TTBB male chorus), and chamber ensemble (woodwinds and piano 4-hands)

Chamber/Instrumental[link]

• String Quartet in D major in one movement (undated)
• String Quartet No. 1 in D major (1892–98)
• String Quartet No. 2 in B flat major (1898)
• String Quartet in D major (1907)
• String Quartet in D minor (1909) subtitled by composer "Ernst is das Leben, heiter ist die Kunst"
• Quartetto Dorico or Doric String Quartet (1924)
• Tre Preludi sopra melodie gregoriane, for piano (1921)
• Violin Sonata in B minor
• Piano Sonata in F minor
• Variazioni, for guitar
• Double Quartet in D minor (1901)
• Piano Quintet in F minor (1902)
• Six Pieces for Violin and Piano (1901–06)
• Quartet in D major for 4 Viols (1906)
• Huntingtower: Ballad for Band (1932)
• Several instrumental sonatas
• String Quintet for 2 Violins, 1 Viola & 2 Violoncellos in G minor (1901, incomplete)
• Organ works

Note: The bulk of these chamber compositions have not been published and are in manuscript at the conservatories in Bologna and Rome. Three string quartets (1907, 1909 and 1924), the Huntingtower Ballad, and the Piano Quintet have been published.

Biographical sources[link]

• Respighi, Elsa (1955) Fifty Years of a Life in Music
• Respighi, Elsa (1962) Ottorino Respighi, London: Ricordi
• Nupen, Christopher (director) (1983) Ottorino Respighi: A Dream of Italy, Allegro Films
• Barrow, Lee G (2004) Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936): An Annotated Bibliography, Scarecrow Press
• Viagrande, Riccardo, La generazione dell'Ottanta, Casa Musicale Eco, Monza, 2007
• Daniele Gambaro, Ottorino Respighi. Un'idea di modernità nel Novecento, pp. XII+246, illustrato con esempi musicali, novembre 2011, Zecchini Editore, ISBN 978-88-6540-017-3

References[link]

External links[link]

• OttorinoRespighi.it (Italian)
• Amici di Respighi (Italian)
• Fondo Ottorino Respighi (Italian)
• Chamber Orchestra of New York "Ottorino Respighi"
• Free scores by Ottorino Respighi in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Ottorino Respighi String Quartet in D Major (1907) Sound-bites and discussion
• Free scores by Respighi at the International Music Score Library Project
• Ottorino Respighi at Find a Grave

Malcolm David Ross (born 1942) is a linguist and professor at the Australian National University. He has published work on Austronesian and Papuan languages, historical linguistics, and language contact.

External links[link]

• ANU site
• Curriculum Vitae

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