34a. Scherzo-Trio

Although the available sources cannot be precisely dated, the orchestration, musical transition, and general structure annotated in 34a.B.1/2 suggest that Puccini conceived the orchestral version of the Scherzo and the Trio in Fa (without completing the orchestration of the Trio) as two segments of a single composition during his final year as a student at the Milan Conservatory.

In autumn 1883, Puccini repurposed the Scherzo, trasformed into a waltz, for the introductory scene of Le Villi (60, see No. 2 of the current edition of Le Villi, from fig. 7+9). Much later, he used the subject of the Trio in the first act of Madama Butterfly (74, from fig. 32+6).