Luigi Dallapiccola and Musical Modernism in Fascist Italy
Music since 1900 Series

Luigi Dallapiccola is widely considered a defining figure in twentieth-century Italian musical modernism, whose compositions bear passionate witness to the historical period through which he lived. In this book, Ben Earle focuses on three major works by the composer: the one-act operas Volo di notte ('Night Flight') and Il prigioniero ('The Prisoner'), and the choral Canti di prigionia ('Songs of Imprisonment'), setting them in the context of contemporary politics to trace their complex path from fascism to resistance. Earle also considers the wider relationship between musical modernism and Italian fascism, exploring the origins of musical modernism and investigating its place in the institutional structures created by Mussolini's regime. In doing so, he sheds new light on Dallapiccola's work and on the cultural politics of the early twentieth century to provide a history of musical modernism in Italy from the fin de siècle to the early Cold War.

Preface; 1. Modernism before fascism; 2. The true spirit of Italian music; 3. Fascist modernism; 4. Protest music?; 5. The politics of commitment.

Ben Earle is a Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, where he teaches the history, analysis and aesthetics of music. Before moving to Birmingham he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge and held a Junior Research Fellowship at St John's College, Oxford. His research interests lie in Italian and British music of the mid-twentieth century and his articles and reviews have appeared in a number of edited volumes and also in the journals Music and Letters, Music Analysis, Radical Musicology and Il saggiatore musicale. He is a member of the editorial board of Music Analysis. This is his first book.