Ballata delle Gnomidi: Full Orchestra, Conductor Score

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) wrote the orchestral work BALLATA DELLE GNOMIDI (THE BALLAD OF THE GNOMIDES) in 1920, after he had already begun to gain international attention for his orchestral tone poem, FONTANE DI ROMA. Based on a poem by Claudio Clausetti, this work tells the tale of a society of grotesque gnomes and their ritual where two females select a hapless male, drag him to their bedchamber for a fatal ménage à trois while the rest of the of gnome horde waits outside, then wait until morning where they throw the male's corpse over a seaside cliff before dancing in a mad frenzy with the other gnomes. Despite the poor reception at the April 11, 1920, premiere in Rome under Bernardino Molinari's baton, the work was taken up by Arturo Toscanini and Fritz Reiner, with later critics comparing Respighi's use of orchestral effects depicting whoops, shrieks, and cackling laughter to Bernard Hermann's use of the violin glissandos to depict murder in the film Psycho. Instrumentation: 2+2(Piccs).2+1(EH).2+1(BCl)+1(Eb).2+1(CBsn): 4.3+1(PiccTpt).3.1: Timp.Perc(5-6): 2Hp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set). Reprint edition.