Common-tone Tonality in Italian Romantic Opera

Some compositional techniques usually associated with German Romantic music, such as tonal pairing and the frequent use of chromatic mediants, may have originated in Italian opera. These techniques are traced from Rossini’s Tancredi (1813) to Verdi’s Il trovatore (1853). Similarities to pre-tonal and twentieth-century neoclassical music are considered. In studying and teaching nineteenth-century music, theorists should broaden their focus beyond the Austro-German repertoire. The notion of “common practice” is misleading and should be abandoned.