Giacomo Manzoni

Giacomo Manzoni started to study composition in Messinain 1948 under the guidance of Gino Contilli, and continued from 1950 to 1956 atMilan Conservatory; in 1955 he obtained a degree in Foreign Languages andLiterature from the Bocconi University in Milan.

Hebegan his career as an orchestral player and choral director, and in 1956 wasthe editor of the journal of contemporary music «Il Diapason»; from 1958 to1966 he worked as the music critic of the newspaper «L’Unità», and from 1962 hetaught harmony and counterpoint at Milan Conservatory. From 1969 to 1974 hetaught composition at the G.B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna,moving afterwards to the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan until 1991. Manzoni was in residence inBerlin in1982 as a guest of the German Academic Exchange Service. Since 1988 he has helda special course in composition at the Fiesole School of Music. He has alsogiven seminars and courses in Pescara, San Marino, at the Universityof Parma, in Granada,Buenos Aires, Berlin,Vancouver, Córdoba, Santiago,Osaka, etc.

Amonghis principal compositions are the theatrical works La sentenza(Bergamo, 1960, Teatro delle Novità), Atomtod (Milan, 1965, PiccolaScala); the musical scenes Per Massimiliano Robespierre (Bologna, 1975,Teatro Comunale), from which the Suite Robespierre was derived; vocalcompositions with orchestra, including Ombre (alla memoria di Che Guevara)(1968), Parole da Beckett, (1971) for two choruses, three instrumentalgroups and magnetic tape, and Hölderlin (frammento) for chorus andorchestra (1972); other orchestral pieces include Insiemi (1967) fororchestra, Modulor for four orchestras (premièred at the Venice Biennalein 1979) and Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse (1977) for piano andorchestra, Scene sinfoniche per il Doktor Faustus (1984), DoktorFaustus - Scene dal romanzo di Thomas Mann (Milan, 1989, La Scala), Ildeserto cresce. Tre metafore da Friedrich Nietzsche for chorus andorchestra (1993) and, among his more recent works, Allen for reader andchamber orchestra (1996) and Moi, Antonin A. to texts by A. Artaud forlight soprano, reader and orchestra (Florence,1997).

Manzonihas also composed chamber works, including: Piccola suite (1952-55) forviolin and piano, Musica notturna (1966), Quadruplum (1968) fortwo trumpets and two trombones, a String Quartet (1971), and Hölderlin:Epilogo (1980) for ten instruments and Opus 50(Daunium) forten instruments and percussion (1984), and a second string quartet entitled Musicaper Pontormo (1995).

Hewas a member of the editorial board of the Dizionario, and later of the Enciclopediadella musica published by Ricordi (1964). In the same period he translatedinto Italian Philosophie der neuen Musik (Turin, 1959, Einaudi) and Dissonanzenby Adorno (Milan, 1959, Feltrinelli), and Harmonielehre by Schönberg(Milan, 1963, Il Saggiatore). He has also translated other didactic works bySchönberg as well as a collection of unpublished essays under the title Analisie pratica musicale (Turin, 1974, Einaudi).

In1975, in collaboration with L. Pestalozza and V. Puecher, he published PerM. Robespierre - Testo e materiali per le scene musicali (De Donato, Bari) to coincide withthat work’s first performance.

Manzonihas contributed essays on early and modern composers (Monteverdi, Brahms,Dallapiccola, etc.) and on various musical topics to many Italian and foreignpublications. In 1968 he was music editor of the journal «Prisma» and iscurrently a member of the editorial staff of the journal «Musica/Realtà». Therecording of Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse has won severalinternational prizes, and the composition Dedica received the AbbiatiCritics’ Prize for the best new Italian work of 1986.

In1991 Manzoni was awarded the Omaggio a M. Mila prize for his teachingactivity.