Sweet Thunder
Music and Libretti in 1960s Italy

This book offers a detailed examination of the literary influences behind the experimental music of five twentieth-century Italian composers: Luigi Dallapiccola, Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio, Giacomo Manzoni and Armando Gentilucci.

Introduction 1. Twentieth-Century Italian Music in the Context of European and American Experimentalism from Verismo to the Seventies 2. Luigi Dallapiccola's Ulisse (1960–68) 3. Luciano Berio's Laborintus II (1965) 4. Armando Gentilucci's Strofe di Ungaretti (1967) 5. Giacomo Manzoni's Parole da Beckett (1970) 6. Bruno Maderna's Ausstrahlung (1971) 7. Conclusion