Monday, 13 December 2021

La Bellezza della Nuova Musica by Emanuele Arciuli

 

La Bellezza della Nuova Musica

by Emanuele Arciuli

Emanuele Arciuli is an Italian classical pianist, best known for his recordings of 20th Century and contemporary repertoire, and his collaboration with living American and Italian composers.  La Bellezza della Nuova Musica (“The Beauty of New Music”) published by Edizioni Dedalo as part of their series Le Grandi Voci is an essay in which Arciuli gives us some personal views about post-war classical music.  At under 80 pages, it cannot and – to be fair – does not purport to be some comprehensive introduction to the repertoire (for that, The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross remains the go-to text).   Arciuli does however briefly cover the main schools and genres such as serialism, the 60s avantgarde, spectralism, minimalism and post-modernism, up to the present, with an epilogue in which he mentions several Italian composers who have written specifically for him. Arciuli provides several intriguing pointers for further exploration, starting from the musical examples which may be accessed through the QR codes in the text.  What certainly shines through is Arciuli’s open-mindedness and infectious enthusiasm – whether it’s for the thornier works of the 60s (Boulez, Stockhausen) or the oft-maligned American minimalists.   I’ve had an interest in contemporary classical music for years, and yet I found this essay informative and illuminating.  

80 pages
Published October 2020 by Dedalo

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