The Origins of Italian Dodecaphony

Author(s): Reginald Smith Brindle

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 97, No. 1356 (Feb., 1956), pp. 75-76
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/938020
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February 1956 THE MUSICAL TIMES
but he continuedsinginguntil March 1852, when
he made his last public appearance at one of the
Wednesdayconcerts.
Braham had marrieda Miss Bolton of Ardwick,
near Manchester, in 1816. Three of his sons
made music their career, but the boy of whom
The Origins
ofItalianDodecaphony
By REGINALD
MANY of us may have asked ourselveswhy
the home of bel canto should have become
the strongholdof twelve-notemusic, and
how the seeminglyirreconcilablegap between
Puccini and Maderna has come about. Is this a
trueevolutionof Italian cultureor, as some would
say, the devilryof an artisticallyinsincereclique?
My own questions on this subject put to several
twelve-notecomposers never received a clear
answer. In facttheyreceivedno sortof answerat
all, whichwas, ofcourse,to be expected,foraware-
ness of the spiritualand intellectualfactorswhich
motivatean artist'screationsmay neverriseabove
his subconscious.
I believe the reasons for dodecaphonyin Italy
to be no otherthan the forcesbehind any other
true,progressiveartisticdevelopment-thenatural
evolutionof the art itself,nursedand urgedon by
the political and social climate needed for its
incubation and growth. Often, however (and
particularly in thiscentury),the changingpolitical
tenets of a society preventa natural maturing.
Thus atonalism,rejected by Nazis, Fascists and
Communists, was repeatedly threatened with
extinction,onlyto floweragain in the freermental
climate prevailingafterthe war. Dodecaphony,
then,is the resultof thesetwoconverging forces-
musicalevolutionand politico-socialdevelopment.
Atonal music in Italy is alreadyfortyyears old,
for Casella made himselfextremelyunpopular
with his atonal effortsof 1915-18. Riccardo
Nielsen tried it in the 'twenties,and the veteran
Puccinihimselfshowedenthusiastic interestduring
the riotous 'Pierrot Lunaire' performancesin
1924; but obviouslyat this time both music and
societywere unpreparedforsuch radical changes.
To studythe evolutionwhichhas changed the
musical atmosphereof Italy from the parochial
verismo of the 'nineties to the cosmopolitan
progressiveness of today,we mustgo back to 1909.
It was then that Casella determinedto dedicate
himselfto the re-creationof the Italian musical
language. His difficulty was to decide on the
formulato adopt forthis' reform' and it was only
in 1924 that,with his' Partita', he founda style
which, allying itself to the current European
anti-romanticmovement,providedan alternative
to verismothroughthe re-creationof the instru-
mental style and forms of the seventeenthand
eighteenthcenturies. The truthor falsityof the
concepts of this so-called 'neo-classicism' is
irrelevantin thisconnection. What mattersis the
fact that it formed a barrier against verismo,
restoredcounterpointand instrumentalism to the
Italians,and fosteredthe desirefora more ' classi-
cal' spiritthan Italian music had aspired to for
many decades.
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75
Nancy Storace was the mother,took orders and
eventuallybecame a minorcanon of Canterbury,
changinghis name to Meadows. Afterhis retire-
mentBraham wentto live at The Grange,Bromp-
ton, where he died on 17 February 1856, and
was buriedin Bromptoncemetery.
SMITH BRINDLE
Neo-classicism, however, had the defects of
turningitsback on musicalevolution,and (withits
anti-romanticconcepts) of ' freezing' melody,
thusdeprivingItalian composersof thatexpansive
lyricismwhich has always been their birthright.
Harmonic adventurousnesshas always been a
characteristicItalian traitand graduallyCasella's
ideal of diatonic clarity became obscured by
chromaticcomplexity. With Petrassi's 'Coro di
Morti ' (1940-41) the neo-classicstylecame faceto
face withatonalism. About thistimewe findneo-
classical composers beginning to realize the
illogicalityof weddingformsand formulasof the
past to a quasi-atonal language which demanded
verydifferent means of expression. Furthermore,
the povertyof melodic expression was making
itselffelt. In short,Italiancomposersbegan to feel
the need of a greater,more universalmeans of
self-expression; and it was in thisperiod,from1942
to theend ofthewar,thattheybeganto turnto the
twelve-note techniqueas the onlyadequate means
of interpreting theirfeelings.It is throughdodeca-
phony that lyricismhas been restoredto Italian
music(such stupendousexamplesas Dallapiccola's
'Greek Lyrics' and the Andante of Peragallo's
violin concertocannot be refuted)and that at the
sametimetheirharmonicadventurousness has been
set freeto explorea whole new world.
Casella's neo-classicismnow appears as a neces-
sary cauterizingprocess, eradicatingthe shallow
verismoand preparingthewayfora new,truerand
more virileaesthetic.
Let us now see how dodecaphonyis related to
(and resultsfrom) social-politicalhistory. It is
not difficult to trace a close connectionbetween
music and historyin Italy, especially since the
uprisingsagainstAustriandomination;but here it
will be enoughto mentionthe anti-romantic, anti-
Germanicmovementwhich followedthe 1914-18
war. The neo-classicalstyle,whichlooks towards
the past ratherthan to the future,followedon the
heelsof Fascism, whichhad the same conceptions
of art in general; but towardsthe end of twenty-
one yearsofFascism, some composerswerebegin-
ning to fretat a curbingof theirprogressivein-
stinctswhichamountedin the end to nothingless
than spiritual imprisonment. Hence the over-
whelmingfeelingofartisticliberationwhenFascism
collapsedin 1943,and thespontaneousadoptionof
a virile, new aesthetic by the more progressive
composers. Dallapiccola's tripartite' Canti di
Prigionia', 'II Prigioniero'and 'Canti di Libera-
zione' provide only one obvious example of the
way dodecaphonyto these composers symbot':r-
freedom-not only of the body, but of the spirit-
afteryears of oppression.
I should like here to stresstwo points. In the
76 THE MUSICAL TIMES
firstplace, composerswho adopted dodecaphony
in theseyearstook a big risk; therewas no pros-
pect of performances,for dodecaphony then
seemeda lost cause. Theiract neededcourageand
faith. Secondly, there was no question of a
'clique', for Italian composers are far too in-
dividualisticto workin suchclose collaboration.
To theEnglishobserverViennaand theViennese
school seem worlds apart from Italy. We are
inclined to regard the Alps as a barriersharply
dividingGermanicand Latin races and cultures,
but in so doing we overlook simplegeographical
and historicalfacts. Italy has knownlong periods
of Austrianrule which have necessarilybrought
interchangesof culture,and though racially and
artisticallyat loggerheads,the clash of tempera-
mentshas been artistically fruitful.Dallapiccola's
birthplace,Pisino, was then within the Austro-
HungarianEmpire; partsof the Venetoare nearer
ViennathanRome, not onlygeographically, butin
An Anglo-Russian
Opera
Cui's 'A FeastinPlagueTime'
By M. MONTAGU-NATHAN
IN a volume entitled 'The Russian Opera'
(1914) the late Mrs. Rosa Newmarch,one of
theearliestwritersin thiscountryon thesubject
of Russian music-then a closed book to all but
themostprogressive musicologists-statedthatthe
text of Cui's 'A Feast in Plague Time' was
derivedfrom'a curious poem by Pushkinwhich
he pretendedto have translatedfrom Wilson's
" City of the Plague "'. Well-informed readersof
that book must have wondered whereinlay the
pretence. Pushkin's'Feast in Plague Time' is a
translationof a fairlybriefepisodeconsistingof ten
pages from ProfessorJohn Wilson's long play
'A City of the Plague', which extendsto some
hundredpages of blank verse. It seems veryun-
likely that there was already a published trans-
lation of Wilson's work,and more or less certain
that Pushkin,who was familiarwith the English
language,translatedtheplay himself.Thereare, it
is true,certaindeviationsfromWilson's text,but
it maysafelybe assumedthatsuch alterationswere
deemed, for one reason or another,imperative.
Russian support of the belief that therewas no
' pretence' on Pushkin'spartcomes fromEiges in
his volume 'Music in the Life and Work of
Pushkin' (Muzgiz, Moscow, 1937). Accordingto
this authoritythe poet did not consistentlybind
himselfto a literaltranslationof Wilson, and he
adds that in some instances Pushkin actually
improvedupon thepoeticvalue of Wilson'slines-
furnishing textualexamples.
Wilson's long poem describes in tragic and
melancholy detail the circumstances of the
devastatinghavoc caused by the London plague of
1665. Pushkin'stranslatedextractdeals onlywitha
banquet attended by a number of revellersin
defiance of their dreadful environment,proto-
types of those who attended the historic Hell-
Fire Club's orgiesat MedmenhamAbbeya century
or so laterunderthe presidencyof Francis Dash-
wood, Lord Despencer. The presidinggenius at
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February 1956
racial temper and aesthetic outlook. It is not
surprising, therefore,to findthatthe most radical
dodecaphonicgroup (Togni, Maderna and Nono)
belong to the Veneto area; and to observe, as
one movessouth,an ever-increasing smoothing-off
process,untilbythetimeNaples is reached,dodeca-
phonymay be indistinguishable fromconventional
music.
Art is oblivious of frontiers;it thrives and
evolves throughthe clash of cultures. But if its
virilitycomes throughtheseinvasions,its strength
lies in a stabilityformedbytheconstancyofmental
climatesgeneratedby the same nativesoil and air.
The Italian adoptionof dodecaphonyhas therefore
givennewlifeto Italian music,buttheconstancyof
Italian temperaments has made it a typicalItalian
art. This adoption has already borne fruitof a
singularlyItalian character and of a benignity
whichhas rescuedthe twelve-note' system' from
thatariditywhichthreatenedits extinction.
the earlier festivitywas Edward Walsingham,
another young nobleman. The motto of the
Medmenhamorgiastswas ' Fay ce que voudras',
which may be regardedas the equivalent of an
address to Walsingham by one of the young
revellerswho, recallingthe death fromplague of a
fellowmember,invitesthe assembledcompanyto
'drink unto his memorywithacclamation,and a
merrypeal such as in life he loved'. During the
feast Walsinghamcalls upon his mistress,Mary
Gray, to 'oblige' with a song embodyingher
'native melodies'. Wilson's version of the res-
ponse musthave proved somethingof a poser for
Pushkin, for Russian readers could hardly be
expectedto understandthe fullsignificanceof this
ditty:
'I walked by mysel' ower the sweet braes of
Yarrow
When the earth wi' the gowans o' Julywas
drest,
But the sang o' the bonny burn sounded like
sorrow,
Round ilka house cauld as a last simmer's
nest '.
Pushkin'sversionis not even a paraphrase:
'There was a timewhenin our homeland
Christmasfilledthe churchesof God
In the schoolhouse the children's voices
resounded
And the scytheand swiftsickle
Flashed in the sun-bathedfields'.
But this compromisefails to affordentiresatis-
factionto the assembledcompany. The Master of
the Revels expresses approval; but one of the
femininerevellers,crudelydescribedby Wilson as
' 2d woman', is exceedinglyscornfulof the mrood
of Mary's song and goes so far as to voice her
hatred of 'the dun dull yellow of that Scottish
hair!' And later a young man speaks with no
smalldisrespectof' thoseScottishdittiesframedof
sighs', vociferouslydemanding a recital of a