Goffredo Petrassi

Goffredo Petrassi (* July 16, 1904 in Zagarolo, † March 3, 2003 in Rome) was an Italian composer.

Goffredo Petrassi was in his youth a choir boy in the Roman church of San Salvatore in Lauro. He developed his musical skills to self-taught by studying all available scores as an employee of a music store. He then took private lessons with Alessandro and Vincenzo di Donato Bustini. Eventually he joined the composition class at the Conservatorio di S. Cecilia Bustini. In 1936 he became a member of the Accademia di S. Cecilia and 1939 teacher of composition at the Conservatorio di S. Cecilia, where in 1960 he finally took the master class in composition.

From 1937 to 1940 Petrassi was general director of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, 1947-1950 artistic director of the Academia Romana Filamonica and from 1954 to 1956 he was president of the International Society for Contemporary Music. In 1978 he was awarded the international Antonio Feltrinelli Prize.

Stylistic issues

In his music Petrassi came from neoclassical approaches and found out about the encounter with the serialism to its own style. His eight orchestral concerts were created between 1934 and 1972. Thus they span nearly the entire spectrum of Petr Assis stylistic development. In the first concert, he was still clearly under the influence of neo-classicism. But here already echoes of Paul Hindemith and Alfredo Casella became clear.

Petr Assis course of development towards increasingly strong formation of a quite personal and free speech has taken place relatively slowly. It is noteworthy that this conversion is analogous to Petr Assis approach to twelve-tone music of the Second Viennese School. The early works are influenced by Stravinsky and Hindemith. It is returned to the Italian vocal and instrumental traditions of the Renaissance and early Baroque through Casella. In the thirties Petrassi writes music that is characterized by vibrant, musically concertante ductus. This music is based on an extended tonality, on Mixturklängen, it costs from open fifths and convinces by its freshness and luminosity.

The vocal music

With his vocal music Petrassi unfolded great effect. Here also his deeply felt humanism is felt. In an effort to revive the madrigal style, he took a central position. Especially with the atmospherically impressive "Noche Oscura " cantata from 1950 Petrassi has found an entirely personal language. But the style-defining influences of Stravinsky, reminiscent of the Oedipus Rex or the Symphony of Psalms, are not to be missed.

The second creative period

The main work of the second creation, the dramatic madrigal Coro di Morti for male choir, three pianos, brass and percussion (1940 /41) his language assumes the attitude of a message that aims to transcendent areas. This work is one of the main stations in Petr Assis life's work. With the change in the expression naturally combines a modification of its musical elements at all. This is most evident in the harmony that differentiates more and more. As before, the extended tonality is retained; the ideal sound remains linear- melodic; Renewals of Renaissance and early Baroque combine with contemporary ideas. But then discovered Petrassi 1945, the movement and incorporates them into his music: his ballet The portrait of Don Quixote is the evidence and is proof of a richer, fuller imaginative relation to timbre.

In his cantata Noche oscura for mixed choir and orchestra Petrassi still solves more consequences than before in the cantata Coro Morti. Was Petr been Assis topic in the early works mainly diatonic, so he now classifies the pitch space chromatically from. Thus, the harmony is indeed extended, but their tonal bonds veiled. The term will is in the foreground; the approach to twelve-tone music is performed, not quite real, but virtual. Yet but twelve-tone music is with him not based on the design, but it plays a decisive always give role. The twelve-tone music is strictly applied than in the past, the contrapuntal ties reach a new peak.

Major works

  • Partita for Orchestra ( 1932)
  • First orchestra concert (1933 /34)
  • The ninth Psalm for mixed choir and orchestra (1939 /40)
  • Piano Concerto (1936 /39)
  • Magnificat for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra (1939 )
  • Coro di Morti for male choir, three pianos, brass and percussion (1940 /41)
  • Quattro inni sacro for tenor, bass and orchestra ( 1942)
  • La Folia di Orlando, Ballet (1942 /43)
  • The portrait of Don Quixote, ballet (1945 )
  • Il Cordovano, opera (1950 )
  • Sonata da Camera for Harpsichord and ten instruments ( 1948)
  • Morte dell'Aria, opera (1950 )
  • Noche oscura, cantata for chorus and orchestra (1950 )
  • 2 Orchestra Concert (1951 )
  • Nonsense for choir a cappella (1952 )
  • 3 orchestral concert Récréation concertante (1956 /57)
  • 4 Orchestral Concert (1954 )
  • 5 Orchestra Concert (1954 )
  • 6th Orchestra Concert Invenzione concertanta (1956 /57)
  • Serenata for five instruments (1958 )
  • String Quartet (1958 )
  • String Trio (1959 )
  • Flute Concerto (1960 )
  • Propos d' Alain, cantata for baritone and 12 players (1960 )
  • 7 Orchestra Concert (1961 /64)
  • Estri for 15 instruments (1967 )
  • Tre per sette for three players on seven wind instruments (1967 )
  • Composer of classical music ( 20th century)
  • Composer ( opera )
  • Italian composer
  • University teachers ( Conservatorio Santa Cecilia )
  • Born in 1904
  • Died in 2003
  • Man
List of Italian composers Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Neoclassicism (music) Perfect fifth Diatonic scale Chromatic scale Integrated Authority File
270897
de