THE GENERATION OF THE (18)80s: TURNING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD

Abstract

In the first few decades of the 20th century, Italy found itself at the center of a great political and cultural unrest. A climate of fierce nationalism in Europe eventually led to World War I and the establishment of a fascist regime spearheaded by Benito Mussolini. Infiltrating every aspect of individual and intellectual life, external forces pressured Italian musical institutions to re-exert their dominance through a restoration of their perceived glorious musical past. Composers born in the 1880s were reaching compositional maturity around this time, and they undertook the task of creating a new Italian sound. United by their affinity for early music and the clarity and simplicity it possesses, and a conservative turn towards the past and away from the dangers of experimentalism, a group of six composers known as the “Generazione dell’Ottanta” (Generation of the 80s) began implementing certain techniques cultivated from that earlier style in their instrumental music in order to achieve this endeavor. This dissertation examines the techniques employed by the composers in the Generation of the 80s through an analysis of the social, political, and musical influences that they experienced. Mussolini’s fascist government, while not imposing strict constraints on artistic expression analogous to those placed by Stalin’s regime on Prokofiev and Shostakovich, urged Italian composers at the time to reach back to the purity of early Italian compositions. I show how the Generation of the 80s implemented compositional techniques from such works in their effort to create a nationalist style and a new Italian sound. In particular, I argue that the Generation of the 80s’ interest in and analysis of Gregorian chant and celebrated Baroque and Classical era compositions encouraged them to emphasize the perfect fifth as a melodic motif. This analytical observation, when combined within a fuller framework of the style and forms of the works presented in the three dissertation recitals, invokes a clear sense of the new Italian sound. This new Italian sound signifies an important ideological shift in Italy’s musical timeline. The Generation of the 80s believed that Italy’s grand operatic tradition had ended, resulting in the necessity to return Italian instrumental music to the prominent position it inhabited during the Baroque period. Yet, unable to distance themselves completely from their vocal tradition, the Generation of the 80s’ style contains a propensity for song, in addition to the transparency afforded by Gregorian chant and perfect fifths. Their implementation of these elements and their willingness to go in a new musical direction fostered Italy’s rise to prominence in cinematic composition during the middle of the 20th century.