Italian 20th Century Music: The Quest for Modernity

Description

Italian 20^th Century Music offers a long-needed overview of Italian music in the modern era and provides us a glimpse of forgotten musical treasures that have for too long waited re-discovery.

When Guiseppe Verdi died in 1901 he left behind him a clear message: Italian music was badly in need of reform and this could only be done by ‘looking back to move forward’ – by passing over the transient developments of the 19^th century to search for the real roots of Italian culture. Some composers took heed, but many clung to the opera lirica and verism of the recent past. The situation was not helped by the conservatism of Mussolini’s fascist government, which favoured writers of popular opera at the expense of innovators.

The years following the Second World War saw the fall of the monarchy and a general opening up of the outside world. Despite the innate conservatism of the Italian public, which continued to hamper a full expression of Italian radicalism in music, Italian composers were at last able to express themselves freely and many began to be rightfully acknowledged by important international institutions, above all during the groundbreaking Darmstadt courses, and later in the post-serial post-modern musical culture that dominated the end of the century.

From Mascagni and Tosti to Dallapiccola and Petrassi, from Maderna, Berio and Nono to Morricone, Einaudi and Fedele, this is an intriguing account of a tumultuous century and an important contribution to the history of music in the 20^th century.