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The String Quartet in Italy After 1945

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07494467.2013.814899

1477-2256

Marco Mazzolini,

Linguistic Studies and Language Acquisition

AbstractThis text is a thorough examination of the different approaches to the string quartet in Italy after World War II. Starting from the perspective of the single pieces, the article discusses the features of each author in a more general way. Philosophical and stylistic aspect are considered, with the aim to make clear the main features of the compositional thought.Keywords: BerioLuciano (1925–2003)CastaldiPaolo (1930–)CastiglioniNiccolò (1932–1996)ClementiAldo (1925–2011)CorghiAzio (1937–)DodecaphonyDonatoniFranco (1927–2000)FedeleIvan (1953–)FrancesconiLuca (1956–)GervasoniStefano (1962–)MadernaBruno (1920–1973)ManzoniGiacomo (1932–)NonoLuigi (1924–1990)PetrassiGoffredo (1904–2003)RomitelliFausto (1963–2004)ScelsiGiacinto (1905–1988)SciarrinoSalvatore (1947–)SerialismString QuartetStroppaMarco (1959–) Notes1 The Primo Quartetto (1944), based on an intensive use of chromaticism, although not in a serial sense, appears closest to tradition: nevertheless, the meaning that Scelsi attributes to form is the same that features in the subsequent quartets (cf. Scelsi, 2010, p. 87).2 In the text of a lecture held in Darmstadt on 25 February 1954, after an invitation from the Akademie für Tonkunst (quoted in Fein, 2001, p. 211).3 Malipiero, although open and generous toward the new musics, would have liked to find in them 'a stronger tie, a wider scope', and Berio replies: 'I think that Form finds its own properties and its specific "laws" in the nature and in the very features of a given sound fact' (Geyer, 2011, pp. 85–87: she makes a mistake in inverting the chronology of the letters).4 In the presentation notes for performances at the Incontri musicali (March 1957), the Venice Biennale (1958) and the Festival of Italian Music of the Juilliard School of Music, organised with the Italian Institute of Culture (May 1968), as well as in an interview with Rossana Dalmonte and the paper presented at a conference on Maderna that took place in Bologna in 1983 (Bruno Maderna ai Ferienkurse di Darmstadt).5 Regarding matters relating to the reception of Bruno Maderna's work, especially those related to the topos of his italianità in the Darmstadt epoch, cf. Garda (1989, pp. 76–81).6 In truth, Berio had composed a study for string quartet at Tanglewood in 1952 based on a freely atonal structure with an essentially Viennese descendency, but permeated with Bartókian influence. There remains the concept of motif-based elaboration, applied to a reduced collection of primary modules: some intervals (in particular the minor/major third), a certain rhythmic motif (the first appearance of the cello). The insistent concentration on the irreducible elements tends to corrode and fragment the acoustic space, in a certain way distorting the very sense of elaboration. In this way, with a peculiar vitalistic impatience, Berio seeks to free himself from a rhetoric that has not yet completely elaborated the post-Expressionist residues.7 This piece had a long gestation, from being commissioned by Grinnell College (September 1962) to its first performance (25 November 1964) and its final version (July 1966), which contains considerable variants.8 'Memoria' and 'patria' are the only words, in Part I of Diario polacco N. 2, in which the 'monody' of the four female voices opens into a chord, cf. bb. 16–18 and 22–23.9 Tà erotikà: the erotic.10 'MOMENTS = FRAGMENTS, that have within themselves something of the infinite, that in relationship among themselves (and freed from the regular succession of the words of the book) from another "infinity" – unutterable? Utterable?', thus wrote Nono in a letter to H. J. Nagel, artistic director of the Beethovenfest in Bonn, on 9 April 1980 (cited in De Benedictis & Rizzardi, 2001, Vol. I, p. 485).11 Kairòs: the opportune or 'supreme' moment.12 'The pauses are pauses of thought, of seeing, pauses of listening, of feeling, pauses of physical, spiritual, psychic activity. [...] And thus what follows speech is something like a moveable mirror, the prism of the pauses, from which both are perceived "contemporarily"'. (Nono's words from De Benedictis & Rizzardi, 2001, Vol. II, pp. 454–455)13 'My quartets certainly do not seem to be born of a determined plan; however, each time they take their position in the crucial moments, in the periods of change' (Restagno, 1990, p. 69).14 'By musical material I do not mean, for example, the two notes C and D, but the relation that exists between C and D. The musical material, therefore, is made up of nothing more than relations and the manipulation of those relations means that the code is applied to the material to transform it into another thing' (Donatoni, in Restagno, 1990, p. 27).15 Epoché: the suspension of judgement.16 As well as the three works discussed, in his catalogue are Tribute (1988), Canone (1997), Quartettsatz (1997), and Satz (1998).17 Matthew, 18:3. And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (King James Version)18 Analogously, in the last quarter of the last bar of Quartetto N. 4, one gets a glimpse of Quartetto N. 6.19 'Fedele's work often rests on the dialectic relation between two compositional logics: that of the ars combinandi and that of the ars componendi' (Stoianova, 2011, p. 27).20 Romitelli put it this way, presenting a performance of 24 June 2000 at the Espace de projection at IRCAM; cf. the audio documentation of the presentation and the concert held at the IRCAM Médiathèque (oai:ircam.fr:multimedia:AU01280200).