Mascagni–Cavalleria Rusticana, Intermezzo

Before we return to jazz, we would like to take one post to acknowledge Mascagni’s magnificent Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana. Here is a repeat of a post from a few years ago.

“May you live in interesting times was not a Chinese Blessing; it was more a warning that order is followed by disorder; that harmony is often followed by anxiety and sometimes despair. Yet, if we give up hope, we give up life. So, as we look out over the world and see so much enmity and strife, let us also shift our gaze back to beauty and joy. We do this best when we take a few minutes to watch a Chinese student orchestra play the Intermezzo from an Italian one-act opera (Cavallieria Rusticana), composed by Pietro Mascagni in 1890. Time and place melt away before the sunlight of the universal language of glorious music.”

We are including this to note that the orchestration relies mostly on strings (including the harp) and winds; however, toward the end, we see a french horn being used. It is likely that Louis Armstrong was using a trumpet instead of a french horn, playing it ever so softly, when he worked with Vendome.