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The Music of Luigi Dallapiccola.

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The Music of Luigi Dallapiccola. By Raymond Fearn. (Eastman Studies in Music.) Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2003. [xviii, 303 p. ISBN 1-58046-078-X. $90.] Music examples, list of compositions, bibliography, index.

English readers have long awaited a definitive book on the life and works of Luigi Dallapiccola. While American and British writers have produced a number of important articles and essays and a handful of unpublished doctoral dissertations on specific works from Dallapiccola's oeuvre, there is to date neither a full-scale biographical study nor a critical examination of his compositional output. Raymond Fearn seeks to fill this serious gap for English readers of twentieth-century music history by providing a study of the complete works of Dallapiccola documented with information about their historical context. The book complements Dietrich Kamper's study of twenty years ago (Gefangenschaft und Freiheit: Leben und Werk des Komponisten Luigi Dallapiccola [Koln: Gitarre + Laute Verlag, 1984]) and Mario Ruffini's recent sourcebook (L'opera di Luigi Dallapiccola: Catalogo Ragionato [Milan: Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, 2002]).

The real strength of Fearn's book is found in its historical and biographical side, providing the reader with much information and detail that has never been made available in print. Especially in the first chapter, the author provides a wealth of information about Dallapiccola's musical training and background and aspects of his musical life and literary activity in Italy prior to the Second World War. The book also includes very full discussions of Dallapiccola's literary sources and the role that Laura Dallapiccola played in helping him to make judicious textual choices.

Fearn has consulted a wide range of both primary and secondary source...

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