midicnMusic History 中文

Alfredo Casella

The organiser who brought Italy into modernism, neoclassical at the piano

ModernPianoSonata Form

Who he was

Alfredo Casella (1883–1947) was born in Turin, moved with his family to Paris as a boy, and studied piano and composition at the Paris Conservatoire before touring Europe as pianist and conductor. He returned to Italy in 1915, founded the Italian Society for Modern Music and later the Corporation of New Music, and introduced Stravinsky, Bartók, Schoenberg and Mahler to Italian audiences. He taught at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and died there in 1947.

His place

He was the organiser and spokesman of Italian music in the twentieth century: he wrote criticism attacking the closed world of Italian opera and offered alternatives in his own works. His style passed through three stages, beginning under Mahler and French impressionism, turning neoclassical after the First World War, and absorbing twelve-tone techniques late in life. A Notte Alta belongs to the early phase, the B-A-C-H ricercari to the neoclassical experiments. The early works still carry Mahlerian scoring and French harmony, and sound almost like another composer from the neoclassical pieces.

What to hear

Listen first for movement of texture. A Notte Alta has almost no melody, only rolling arpeggios and short motives; hear how pressure gathers in the low register. Then the transformation of four notes: the ricercari turn B-A-C-H into canon, inversion and toccata, one cell becoming different genres. Then contrast of touch — the three movements of Sinfonia, Arioso e Toccata behave like three different instruments. Finally modern harmony for children, since Op.35 proves dissonance need not mean difficulty.

Key works

Influence

Casella matters half through his music and half through institutions: the concert series and publishing ventures he built gave Italian listeners their first systematic contact with contemporary music. His neoclassical piano works are seldom played now, yet nearly every postwar Italian composer benefited from the ground he cleared. His criticism still reads sharply and remains a first-hand source for the situation of Italian music.

Listen in the library

A Notte Alta, Op.30C121:16《深夜》Op.30，听不安的琶音在低音区滚动，旋律始终找不到落点（C1）Details2 Ricercari sul nome B-A-C-H, Op.52C15:35《B-A-C-H 主题两首里切尔卡》Op.52，听四个音被拆成卡农与托卡塔（C1）DetailsSinfonia, Arioso e Toccata, Op.59C123:32《交响曲、咏叙调与托卡塔》Op.59，三个乐章三种触键，托卡塔像机器（C1）Details11 Pezzi Infantili, Op.35C10:50《十一首儿童小品》Op.35，短小，调性清楚，听现代和声怎样写给孩子（C1）Details

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

  • 卡塞拉生平、巴黎求学与意大利新音乐团体，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 的 Casella 条目；本文为原创表述
  • 意大利新古典主义与卡塞拉钢琴作品的体裁，参通行二十世纪意大利音乐研究；实例说明由本站撰写

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.