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.
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