PIANO MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE FASCIST ERA by KARIN MARIA DI BELLA .Mus., The University of Western Ontario, 1994 Mus., Washington University in St. Louis, 1996 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (School of Music) We accept this thesis as conforming tp—^-fre-^required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA January 2002 © Karin Maria Di Bella, 2002 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of Vancouver, Canada Date DE-6 (2/88) Abstract This thesis investigates Italian instrumental music (specifically piano music) during the two decades between the two World Wars, the period of Italian fascism under Mussolini's rule. After two centuries of opera domination in that country, instrumental music, especially an up-to- date brand of it, was sorely lacking. A number of composers recognized this need and began to effect changes in the instrumental music scene, some with more success than others. Most of these composers are not well known to the general music public today. The pressing question is, to what extent the fascist government and its culture had an effect on the development of music during this period. Were there Italian bureaucratic equivalents to those sanctioned by the Nazis in the world of art? What was the extent of musical censorship? Did the fascist regime influence the music of the composers writing under it? Is there a musical style which can be labelled "fascist"? In order to answer these questions, the proper context must be presented. In the first chapter the history of fascism is explored, followed by a general survey of music and its particular development and influences during the first half of the twentieth century. The remaining chapters (3-8) explore the contributions of the major composers in Italy active during fascist rule, with special emphasis on the piano works of these composers. Chapter 9 presents Conclusions. Works for analysis were chosen from the entire period of 1919 to 1944, and represent different compositional camps, from the conservatives (Respighi and Pizzetti) to the progressives (Casella and Malipiero), the older generation (the 1880's generation) to the younger (Dallapiccola and Petrassi), and one Jewish study (Castelnuovo-Tedesco). Aside from the analysis of the works, sources for the study were books, articles, and theses in English and Italian. Results of the study reveal there to be no direct effect of fascist policies on the music of the period unde its rule. Not only was there no coherent basis of stylistic censorship (apart from racial bans on Jewish composers beginning in 1938, regardless of style), but, consequently, there does not exist a fascist musical style nor specific compositional traits. The music evolved rather independently, resulting from Italian music's peculiar historical position. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iv Preface vi Acknowledgments ix Dedication xi Chapter I A Short History of Italian Fascism 1 Chapter II The Musical Scene in Italy during the First 8 Half of the Twentieth Century La Generazione dell'Ottanta 11 Stylistic Traits: Neoclassicism, Gregorian 19 Chant, "Dannunzianesimo" The Effects of Fascism on Culture and Music 22 Chapter III Alfredo Casella 33 The First Period: to 1913 34 The Second Period: 1913-1920 37 When in Rome ... 41 The Società di Musica Moderna and Music 4 3 during the War The Third Period: 1920-1944 45 The Corporazione delle Nuove Musiche 51 Casella's Involvement with Fascism 54 Piano Compositions of the '30s and '40s 58 Due Ricercari sul nome "B-A-C-H" (1932) 61 I. Funèbre 63 II. Ostinato 69 Chapter IV Gian Francesco Malipiero 80 Compositional Style 84 First Period: to 1920 89 Second Period: the 1920s 92 Illustration of the Second Period: 94 Cavalcate I. Récalcitrante (Somaro) 97 II. Dondolante (Camello) 104 III. Focoso (Destriero) 107 Third Period: 1930s and later 116 Approach to the Piano 118 Malipiero and Casella 119 Malipiero's Involvement with Fascism 121 Chapter V La Generazione dell'Ottanta: 124 The Conservatives Ildebrando Pizzetti 124 Pizzetti's Piano Music 128 Pizzetti's Involvement with Fascism 133 Ottorino Respighi 135 Tre preludi sopra mélodie gregoriane 142 I. Molto lento 143 II. Tempestoso 152 Respighi's Involvement with Fascism 162 Chapter VI The Next Generation: Goffredo Petrassi 163 and Luigi Dallapiccola Goffredo Petrassi 163 Petrassi's Involvement with Fascism 171 Luigi Dallapiccola 175 Compositional Style 180 Music for Solo Piano 187 Sonatina Canonica 18 9 I. Allegro comodo 190 IV. Alla marcia; moderato 199 Chapter VII Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco 210 Style 212 Piano Works 214 Piedigrotta 1924, Rapsodia Napoletana 216 I. Tarantella scura 216 II. Voce luntana 221 Chapter VIII Conclusion 230 Bibliography 23 6 Appendix A Recital Programs 24 6 Appendix B Recordings 2 55 PREFACE The connections between politics and cultural life have become an important topic of research in recent years. In particular, the influence of dictatorial regimes in the 1930s and '40s on various aspects of life, especially cultural issues, has generated a proliferation of studies. Slowly the music world is grasping Wagner's public anti- semitic views.1 Restrictions imposed by the Soviet regime on its composers have been documented, notably in the case of Dmitri Shostakovich.2 The links between politics and music and France have also come to light in a recent publication.3 Perhaps hidden under the more obvious blanket of the effects of Nazism, Italian fascism and its culture have become a general subject of research only more recently. The one-hundreth anniversaries of an influential generation of composers in Italy born in the 1880s and which, consequently, was fully active during the fascit period, sparked interest in the music of these composers. Italian- language studies of the music between ca.1920-1945, as well •'•Paul Laurence Rose, Wagner, Race and Revolution (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992); Marc Weiner, Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995) . 2Laurel E. Fay, Shostakovich: A Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 3Jane F. Fulcher, French Cultural Politics and Music: from the Dreyfus Affair to the First World War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) . as of the political implications of the period for culture, began to appear during this decade. The first major text to treat this matter comprehensively is the study by Fiamma Nicolodi, Musica e musicisti nel Ventennio fascista which appeared in 1984.4 This book followed a publication under Nicolodi's supervision of the proceedings of a convention surrounding the composers of the "Generation of the 1880s," published in 1981.5 An English-language source comparable in scope with Nicolodi's work emerged in 1987, Music in Fascist Italy by Harvey Sachs.6 A similar project exploring the world of visual art in fascist Italy has just been released in the year 2000.7 Information concerning instrumental music of the fascist period in Italy is scant, and emphasis on piano music even more so. Many articles in addition to the sources mentioned above deal with piano music of the time in limited ways. Furthermore, much of the useful information to be found on the topic exists in Italian or even in German. 4Fiamma Nicolodi, Musica e musicisti nel Ventennio fascista (Fiesole: Discanto Edizioni, 1984). 5Fiamma Nicolodi, ed., Musica italiana del primo novecento, "La generazione dell '80." Atti del convegno Firenze 9-10-11 maggio 1980 (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1981). 6Harvey Sachs, Music in Fascist Italy (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987). 7Emily Braun, Mario Sironi and Italian Modernism : Art and Politics under Fascism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). The present study is an attempt to offer an overview of piano music for the period between the end of the First World War and the end of the Second in Italy, spanning roughly the years 1918-1945. The political climate is crucial to the understanding of the cultural life of the time, and, therefore, much space is given to this subject. From the sizeable amount of solo piano music composed by important Italian composers active during this time, selected works or movements will be presented and analyzed, with emphasis on the possible connections between the composers' political positions and the style of their works for solo piano. A topic such as music for a specific instrument during a period of political volatility undoubtedly brings with it a set of expectations. Many assumptions concerning music in the fascist period exist, possibly, out of comparison with information surrounding Nazi censorship and attitudes in Germany. The following pages attempt to show that despite certain similarities, the two movements are substantially different from one another with respect to attitudes toward music. In the end, it is hoped that knowledge of the period may open possibilities of repertoire that have been unjustly overlooked or forgotten. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to Robert Silverman, for endless hours of patience, musical guidance, more than a few bad.jokes, and for the suggestion of this topic. To Vera Micznik, for her diligence, scrupulous scrutiny, intelligence, class, and friendship. In addition to this fine faculty, the University of British Columbia's Main Library greatly facilitated my access to their recordings collection, which houses many of the musical works mentioned in this study.