A Toccata of Galuppi’s
What do we know about this poem?
What does the title tell us?
Context: Baldassare Galuppi
Baldassare Galuppi (18 October 1706 – 3 January 1785) was an
Italian composer. He achieved international success, spending
periods of his career in London and Saint Petersburg, but his main
base remained Venice.
Throughout his career Galuppi held official positions with charitable
and religious institutions. He composed a large amount of religious
music. He was also highly regarded as a virtuoso performer on and
composer for keyboard instruments. After his death his music was
largely forgotten. His name was brought back to public notice by this
poem.
Prior to the 18th century, Venice was one of the main trading
centres in Italy. It later fell into decline and lost its
independence but before this was one of the most stylish
and cultured cities in Italy (architecture, art, literature – as
well as gambling and other excesses.) The poem imagines
Galuppi in Venice at this time, surrounded by its decadence
and success.
A toccata is a virtuoso piece of
music typically for a keyboard or
plucked string instrument
featuring fast-moving, lightly
fingered sections, generally
emphasizing the dexterity of the
performer's fingers.
Context: ‘A Tocatta’
Galuppi did not write any piece with the name
‘Tocatta’; the name of the poem refers to the fact
the speaker is either playing or listening to a
piece by Galuppi. Which piece is unknown.
Commentators have remarked on the musicality of the poem. Browning was trained
extensively in music, both in composition and musical theory. Professional musicians and
musicologists have been dismissive of his use of musical terms, but the music scholar
Deryck Cooke writes of the poet's precise grasp of fine musical detail in this work.
Browning was a fan of Galuppi and believed that his music contained a warning against
frivolity and an indulgent lifestyle. A warning ignored by his contemporary audience.
The speaker: unlike the poet, he has never been out of England, and is picturing life in 18th
century Venice through his response to Galuppi's music. The speaker's remarks on Venice
include “typical bits and snatches of commonplace, second-hand information” and
“misunderstandings that would be characteristic of an Englishman who really knows very
little about Venice.” (Robert Schweik, critic). He even gives Galuppi the wrong first name
(“Baldassaro” for the correct “Baldassare”). He is more interested in science than the arts.
(Cf. context – scientific discoveries and a shaken faith in the stories of the Bible.)
Language and Imagery
First name (incorrect)
I
Oh Galuppi, Baldassaro, this is very sad to find!
I can hardly misconceive you; it would prove me deaf and blind;
But although I take your meaning, 'tis with such a heavy mind!
church
Annual ritual: the
Doge throws a
ring into the water
to represent a
bond between the
city and the water
(Venice was a sea
power)
II
Here you come with your old music, and here's all the good it brings.
What, they lived once thus at Venice where the merchants were the kings,
Where Saint Mark's is, where the Doges used to wed the sea with rings?
III
Ay, because the sea's the street there; and 'tis arched by . . . what you call
. . . Shylock's bridge with houses on it, where they kept the carnival:
I was never out of England — it's as if I saw it all.
Reference to Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant
of Venice’ – Rialto bridge over the Grand
Canal is thought of in terms of English
literature
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Venetian
magistrate
Carnival season
IV
Did young people take their pleasure when the sea was warm in May?
Balls and masks begun at midnight, burning ever to midday,
When they made up fresh adventures for the morrow, do you say?
V
Was a lady such a lady, cheeks so round and lips so red, —
On her neck the small face buoyant, like a bell-flower on its bed,
O’er the breast's superb abundance where a man might base his head?
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15
VI
Well, and it was graceful of them — they'd break talk off and afford
— She, to bite her mask's black velvet — he, to finger on his sword,
While you sat and played Toccatas, stately at the clavichord?
Precursor of the piano;
strings hit by metal
pins
Evokes a mood of
tenderness or grief
The chords Galuppi is using in the music:
The musical equivalent of
a sigh
Notes held from one chord over to
another, producing discord
VII
What? Those lesser thirds so plaintive, sixths diminished, sigh on sigh,
Told them something? Those suspensions, those solutions — "Must we die?"
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Those commiserating sevenths — “Life might last! we can but try!”
The resolution of
the discord in the
next chord
As ‘sixths’ – create mild discord
VIII
"Were you happy?" — "Yes." — "And are you still as happy?" — "Yes. And you?"
— "Then, more kisses!" — "Did I stop them, when a million seemed so few?"
Hark, the dominant's persistence till it must be answered to! ‘dominant seventh’: the
reminder of the discord which
needs to be resolved (death)
IX
So, an octave struck the answer. Oh, they praised you, I dare say!
"Brave Galuppi! that was music! good alike at grave and gay!
"I can always leave off talking when I hear a master play!"
Excellent
Final resolution of the discord:
a sense of finality. The end of
the music (and of life?)
25
Silently
X
Then they left you for their pleasure: till in due time, one by one,
Some with lives that came to nothing, some with deeds as well undone,
Death stepped tacitly and took them where they never see the sun.
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XI
But when I sit down to reason, think to take my stand nor swerve,
While I triumph o'er a secret wrung from nature's close reserve,
In you come with your cold music till I creep thro' every nerve.
XII
Yes, you, like a ghostly cricket, creaking where a house was burned:
"Dust and ashes, dead and done with, Venice spent what Venice earned.
The soul, doubtless, is immortal — where a soul can be discerned.
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XIII
"Yours for instance: you know physics, something of geology,
Mathematics are your pastime; souls shall rise in their degree;
Butterflies may dread extinction, — you'll not die, it cannot be!
XIV
"As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop,
Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop:
What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?
XV
"Dust and ashes!" So you creak it, and I want the heart to scold.
Dear dead women, with such hair, too — what's become of all the gold
Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.
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45
Imagery
•
•
•
•
Death
Sexuality
Religion/spirituality (the soul)
Musical form and meaning
Form
• Dramatic monologue
• The speaker speaks to Galuppi and to the young
Venetian lovers. He creates their speech and also
imagines Galuppi and his music speaking to him.
• As the poem goes on, the speaker becomes
increasingly depressed – at the beginning he
considers himself equal to Galuppi through his
scientific studies and appreciation of music; by
the end he finds Galuppi reminds him of the
fragility of his own existence.
Structure
• The structure of the poem parallels the idea of a toccata:
– Rhyming triplets, each forming a stanza (15 in total)
– Trochaic meter, with 8 stressed syllables in each line
– Both of these are difficult to sustain throughout an entire
poem
• Rhyme scheme and meter stay consistent throughout:
fifteen syllables per line, resulting in 7.5 poetic feet and
creating a masculine rhyme at the end of each line. This is
unusual, and keeps the word stress consistent. It emulates
the structure of a toccata.
• A toccata shows off the skill of the performer; this poem
shows off Browning’s poetic skill.