LJ: Ottorino Resphigi

Ottorino Resphigi was a composer influenced by the Impressionist Era. He is Italian, and remained neutral during the rise of Mussolini. He studied in Russia and Brazil. Ottorino also composed ballets, operas, vocal/choral pieces, orchestral, and chamber music.

Context: Written in 1916, Fountains of Rome was meant to depict a certain scene to an audience. It is a symphonic poem. The four major sections are supposed to depict different scenes different fountains in Rome. One is at dawn, one is in the morning, one is at noon, and one is at sunset.
Melody: The melody is very conjunct at the beginning, as it moves mostly stepwise.
Pitch: The range of pitch is very limited within the first section up until 5:34, when instead of staying within the staff bars and an octave, many jumps and leaps are made.
Structure: A new section of the piece begins at 5:34, and is very different than the previous one before it. A new section also begins at 6:06, though does not bear much resemblance to the other two sections. A new section begins at 7:49, as well, with a darker and more sinister tone than the others. A new section starts at 10:34 with the clarinet introducing the other parts, and it is more soft than the previous section.
Timbre: In the beginning, all that is playing sounds like mostly a clarinet, flute, and possibly a violin. In the section beginning at 5:34, it is primarily aerophones, with flutes and brass. Then at 6:06, it switches back to flute along with violin, viola, and bass, along with some aerophones like trumpet as well. The tone in the section beginning at 7:49 takes on a much darker tone than the other two.
Dynamics: The dynamics are fairly soft in the beginning, then when the new section is introduced at 5:34, the piece goes from a piano to a forte rather abruptly. The chordophones crescendo at 7:15 even louder.  At 10:34, the piece is drastically piano again, in a much more soothing way.
Texture: The piece is polyrhythmic, as most of the parts move at different rhythms. The piece is very legato at the beginning, and then becomes more frantic and the tempo picks up at 5:34, when a new section begins. This then takes on more of an allegro tempo. There are some parts of the piece where some instruments do play the same part.