Pines of Rome

Composed by the leading representative of the more recent Italian instrumental music, 'Pines of Rome' (1924), together with 'Fountains of Rome' and 'Roman Festivals', forms the Roman Trilogy. In the second symphonic poem consisting of four movements, Respighi set the atmosphere of various places in Rome planted with pine trees into sound: I. Children playing between the pine trees of the Villa Borghese, II. Melancholy chant from the shadows of the pine trees surrounding the entrance of a catacomb, III. Nightingales in the tops of the pine trees of the Ianiculum, and IV. Morning mist over the Via Appia in the tragic landscape of the Roman Campagna.