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During the last few years of his life Rossini wrote various small pieces mainly for the piano, which were never published. The purpose of this communication is to draw attention to one particular set of these. Their interest from the psychological point of view lies in their titles. By sketching the necessary details it is hoped to show that Rossini's life was dominated by incestuous fixation on his mother; and that in these piano pieces he is giving through the symbolism of the railway, expression to his unconscious conception of the primal scene: set to music this material may be regarded as unique.
Gioacchino Rossini was born in 1792, the only child of the town trumpeter of Pesaro and his wife, a singer in local opera. He received little formal education in anything but music owing to his parents' poverty and their many wanderings.
His musical genius became apparent at an early age, his first complete opera being produced when he was eighteen years old. His chief claim to fame to-day is the Barber of Seville, but it is not generally realised that he was a prolific composer. In fact, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-seven he wrote altogether thirty-six operas. His speed of composition was tremendous; the Barber of Seville is said to have been written in less than a fortnight. Toye says of him that “he was a great musician, more richly endowed by