Pifa (piece of music)
Pifa is the title of a piece of music from the oratorio Messiah by Georg Friedrich Händel (part 1, no. 12). It is a pastoral (or “pastoral symphony”) for 3 violins , viola , basso continuo and two bassoons . The six voices play the same part in pairs ( octaves or unison in the bass ), so the composition is three-part. The calm, harmonious music brings to mind the Christmas story with the shepherds appearing in it.
designation
In a work guide to Handel's oratorio, Pifa is translated as “Pfeiferstück”. The name seems to go back to the piffero , an Italian wind instrument derived from the shawm . Musicians from the country ( pifferari ) used to come to the cities during Advent and make music with piffero and zampogna ( bagpipes ). However, Handel did not envisage pipe-like instruments or shawm instruments as melodic instruments , but violins.
The work is headed Piva in a manuscript . In Italian, piva is the name for a bagpipe (bagpipe). In his guide to Handel's Messiah, Calvin Stapert offers the interpretation that the sentence name Pifa emerged from the mixture of two Italian words: piva (bagpipes) and piffero (shawm).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Selection of “Christmas symphonies” from the Bornmann music publisher, see commentary on No. 3 (Georg Friedrich Handel).
- ↑ Claus Bockmaier: Handel's oratorios: A musical foreman . ISBN 3-406-44808-9 , p. 79
- ↑ Calvin Stapert: Handel's Messiah: Comfort for God's People . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8028-6587-8 , p. 101.