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Dallapiccola and the Organ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Extract

Early in the Summer of 1969, having just completed an organ transcription of Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera (‘Musical Notebook of Annalibera’) by Luigi Dallapiccola, I wrote to the composer—who was then in residence at the Dartmouth Congregation of the Arts in Hanover, New Hampshire—describing my work and seeking his advice for revisions. His reply, written in English and dated 9 July 1969, stated in part:

It is very interesting to know that you saw some possibilities of an organ transcription of the Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera, but since I do not play the organ it would be very difficult for me to judge the real value and importance of your transcription.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

page 15 note 1 By Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Milan, by whose kind permission the music examples in this article are reproduced.Google Scholar

page 17 note 1 Milan: Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, 1957.Google Scholar

page 17 note 2 Brindle, Reginald Smith, Serial Composition (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 15.Google Scholar The exposition of the original series of the Quaderno Musicale in Brindle's textbook, as in Vlad's monograph, is faulty. Since Brindle devotes a number of pages to a discussion of this work and obviously admires it greatly, it is doubly unfortunate that his initial error should invalidate almost every conclusion he draws: see pp. 8-9, 41, and 105n.; also exx. 10, 11 and 59.

page 18 note 1 Rufer, Josef, Composition with Twelve Notes (New York: Macmillan Company, 1954) pp. 180181 Google Scholar

page 18 note 1 It should be emphasized that neither the original 1952 version for piano nor the three huge frescoes for mixed chorus and orchestra which are the Canti di Liberazione has had a significant role to play in the transcription for organ. Indeed, until well after the organ version had been completed to Dallapiccola's satisfaction, I was as unaware of the existence of the first piano version, on the one hand, as of the relation of the Canti di Liberazione to the Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera, on the other. Because neither version was ever voluntarily mentioned by the composer in his letters, he apparently did not consider them significant or necessary sources for study In carrying out the revisions he proposed in the organ score.

page 19 note 1 Nathan, Hans, ‘Luigi Dallapiccola: Fragments from Conversations’ (The Music Review, November, 1966, p. 306)Google Scholar

page 19 note 2 Nathan, , op. cit., p. 303.Google Scholar

page 19 note 3 Arnold Schoenberg Letters, ed. Stein, Erwin (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1965), p. 236.Google Scholar

page 20 note 1 Quoted in Rufer, Composition with Twelve Notes, p. 180.Google Scholar

page 21 note 1 Organ Registration in Theory and Practice (Rock, Glen, New Jersey: J. Fischer & Bro., 1957), p. 14.Google Scholar

page 22 note 1 Busoni, Ferruccio, ‘Value of the Transcription’, in The Essence of Music and Other Papers (London: Rockliff, 1957), pp. 8788.Google Scholar