The Birds, P. 154

• Gli uccelli (The Birds), P.154, is a 1928 orchestral suite based on Baroque keyboard pieces by French and Italian composers. Apart from the first movement (Preludio), each of the original keyboard pieces depicts a type of bird: dove (La columba), hen (La gallina), nightengale (L’usignuolo), and cukoo (Il cucù).¹
• Gli uccelli was also choreographed as a ballet in 1933.²

La columba

• This movement is a free arrangement of “La Colomba,” a keyboard work by Jacques de Gallot.³
  • Jacques Gallot was a member of a French family of lutenists active in 17^th C. Paris. Gallot published a lute method with a collection of lute pieces, Pièces de luth composées sur differens modes. Other compositions by Gallot survive in manuscripts.⁴
• Listen for Respighi’s imitation of doves cooing, depicted in in muted strings, harp and woodwinds.⁵

1.  John C.G. Waterhouse, Janet Waterhouse and Potito Pedarra, “Respighi, Ottorino,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 7, 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000047335. 
2. Ibid.
3. “Gli Uccelli (Respighi, Ottorino),” IMSLP, accessed January 7, 2020, https://imslp.org/wiki/Gli_Uccelli_(Respighi%2C_Ottorino). 
4.  Monique Rollin, “Gallot family,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 7, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000010582. 
5.  Salvatore Di Vittorio, liner notes to Respighi: Gli uccelli / Trittico botticelliano / Suite in G Major, Kyler Brown, Chamber Orchestra of New York, Salvatore di Vittorio, Naxos 8.573168, CD, 2014.