Jun 1, 2019

Nino Rota's La Strada and Dvorak's Serenade for Strings

We often have classical radio on while we do the dishes after dinner. A couple of nights ago we were listening to the Larghetto from Dvorak's Op. 22 Serenade for Strings (1875), when I recognized a familiar melody - the main theme from Fellini's "La Strada" (1954, music by Nino Rota).

I can't resist this tune-detective stuff. Here's the opening to "La Strada." The theme starts at 0:24, right after the Dino De Laurentiis fanfare; the first phrase of the theme is cut off. Regardless of its derivation, it's a beautiful piece of writing :




The theme recurs throughout the movie. If you haven't seen it, or haven't seen it lately, the full film can be viewed here.


And here's the Larghetto from the Dvorak:





Of course, I wasn't the first person to notice the derivation. More info can be found on the Wikipedia entry for "La Strada." 

Update 8/29/22: I ran across another possible inspiration for the "La Strada" theme - "Suite Castellana" by Federico Moreno Torroba, written in 1926 for Andrés Segovia. It's completely plausible that Nino Rota had heard either or both of these pieces. The theme occurs at 1:40 in this recording:







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5 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 7, 2023 at 8:36 AM

    Hello, sir. I have no idea if you still maintain your blog here in March, 2023, but this morning I was listening to my local classical music station (WRCJ, Metroplitan Detroit's ONLY (is that pathetic or what) classical music radio station), and Dvorak's Serenade for Strings was being spun. As I listened to the recurring theme of this piece of music, my mind pretty quickly went to... "La Dolce Vita"!! No, wait, not that..."La Strada".

    I googled "Serenade for Strings + La Strada" and hit upon your website. Always nice to find affirmation of my suspicions about composers being, ahem, inspired by earlier works.

    Best wishes to you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 12, 2023 at 11:08 AM

    I am listening to the Dvorak piece right now and noticed the same thing. I looked it up and found this post. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeannie MyersSeptember 1, 2023 at 7:42 AM

    I saw La Strada as a child. Always love that theme. Listening to classical radio right at this moment and decided to look up whether someone posted it and here you are! Yes, definitely stolen.quoted from Dvorak.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 26, 2023 at 9:23 AM

    And I can confirm that tonight have had the same feeling listening to a live concert in Modena, Italy

    ReplyDelete
  5. FélixérieJune 3, 2024 at 2:42 AM

    Hi there, just another person making randomly the connection and discovering through your blog that it's indeed a thing!
    thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete