YorkSpace has migrated to a new version of its software. Access our Help Resources to learn how to use the refreshed site. Contact diginit@yorku.ca if you have any questions about the migration.
 

Fascist Disenchantment and the Music of Goffredo Petrassi

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorde Val, Dorothy
dc.creatorMacaluso, Alessia Angela Elda
dc.date.accessioned2017-07-27T13:58:07Z
dc.date.available2017-07-27T13:58:07Z
dc.date.copyright2017-04-07
dc.date.issued2017-07-27
dc.date.updated2017-07-27T13:58:07Z
dc.degree.disciplineMusic
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractGoffredo Petrassi (1904-2003) was one of many Italian composers who navigated the period of Italian Fascism from the height of its following to its demise. He celebrated the early years of the regime through music, and benefitted from prestigious official appointments. From this, he was able to shape and implement cultural policy, and enforced some of the regimes coercive laws upon the musical world. After the alliance between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in 1939, particularly when Italy entered the Second World War, he used music to express his disillusionment. Petrassi is regarded as one of the most significant composers of his generation, yet few writings in English address the Fascist era itself in terms of music, much less the development of Petrassis compositional style within its socio-political framework. This dissertation contends that political events influenced Petrassis aesthetic journey, and that his initial support of and eventual opposition to the regime found expression in his works. Petrassi believed that art was always a spiritual autobiography (autobiografia spirituale). Hence, the methodology uses primary sources, musical analysis, and comparisons with composers such as Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975) to authenticate that Petrassis unique sound was a product of musical influences adapted to the shifting politics of Fascism. With a focus on choral music, particularly on Petrassis choice of texts, musical selections are contextualized in relation to socio-political circumstances of the years 1930 to 1950. After Fascism, Petrassis work captured his search for spiritual revival and artistic reinvention. His response to modernity is examined, as is his effort to compose alongside the avant-garde, which began an artistic struggle within him. Drawing on autobiography, personal writings, interview transcripts, as well as my own interviews, I present a fuller picture of Petrassi than is currently available, as he negotiated phases of the political regime in order to survive and maintain some personal integrity. Accordingly, this dissertation validates Petrassis music as an expression of his inner and outer worlds, and contributes to the understanding of Petrassis creative evolution as he responded to new currents in composition during one of the least studied periods of Italian musical history.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/33621
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectEuropean history
dc.subject.keywordsGoffredo Petrassi
dc.subject.keywordsPartita per orchestra
dc.subject.keywordsSalmo IX
dc.subject.keywordsCoro di morti
dc.subject.keywordsNoche oscura
dc.subject.keywordsItalian Fascism
dc.subject.keywordsMussolini
dc.subject.keywordsAesthetics
dc.subject.keywordsArtistic identity
dc.subject.keywordsWar and politics
dc.subject.keywordsModernism
dc.subject.keywordsNeoclassicism
dc.subject.keywordsSerialism
dc.subject.keywordsTwelve-tone technique
dc.subject.keywordsAvant-garde
dc.subject.keywordsLuigi Dallapiccola
dc.subject.keywordsOttorino Respighi
dc.subject.keywordsIldebrando Pizzetti
dc.subject.keywordsNorma Beecroft
dc.subject.keywordsEnnio Morricone
dc.subject.keywordsMusicology
dc.subject.keywordsTwentieth-century music history
dc.subject.keywordsItalian music history
dc.titleFascist Disenchantment and the Music of Goffredo Petrassi
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Macaluso_Alessia_AE_2017_PhD.pdf
Size:
7.41 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.83 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.38 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download

Collections

Music

All items in the YorkSpace institutional repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved except where explicitly noted.