- Franco Evangelisti
Franco Evangelisti (born
January 21 ,1926 inRome , died thereJanuary 28 ,1980 ), was an Italiancomposer specifically interested in the scientific theories behind sound.Biography
Evangelisti abandoned engineering studies in order to dedicate himself to musical composition. In 1948 he became a student of Daniel Paris in Rome and
Harald Genzmer at the Musikhochschule of Freiburg, where he pursued a course in advanced composition. From 1952 to 1960 he took part in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neuen Musik, where he had the opportunity of meetingWerner Meyer-Eppler of theUniversity of Bonn , thanks to which he began to be interested inelectronic music . At the invitation ofHerbert Eimert , in 1956 he worked in the electronic studio of theWestdeutscher Rundfunk inCologne .In 1957, the orchestral conductor
Hermann Scherchen invited him to work in the Studio of Experimental Electroacoustics ofUNESCO inGravesano , where he became involved withbiophysics and explored the possibility of directly translating brain impulses into sonic vibrations.In 1958, together with
Karlheinz Stockhausen andLuigi Nono , he inaugurated the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio inWarsaw , where in the following year he was invited to hold some seminars on electronic music. In 1959 he was brought by the promoters, to the International Week of New Music inPalermo . The following year, together with other musicians such as Francisco Pennisi andAldo Clementi , he founded the Nuova Consonanza association and, later, theimprovisation group of the same name.He moved to Berlin for two years (1966–68), hosted by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and the
Ford Foundation . On returning to Rome, he held a course in experimental electronic composition at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia. In 1972 the obtained an assignment of leading the course in electronic music at the Alfredo Casella Conservatory in Aquila. In 1974 he was appointed professor of electronic music at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, a post which he held until his death. In those years he gave concerts with the Improvisation Group Nuova Consonanza, in Italy as well as in foreign countries, and continued with conferences and seminars on the “new music”. Compositional activity became less therefore, in order to leave space mostly for research and for theoretical development. At the end of 1979, after nearly twenty years’ work, he finished his book "Dal silenzio a un nuovo mondo sonoro" (From Silence to a New Sonorous World). He died in Rome on28 January 1980 ."Translated from the Italian Wikipedia"
In the early 1960s he famously attacked the lesser followers of the
Darmstadt School of composers, of which he was generally reckoned to be a member, accusing them of being merelydodecaphonic police .Compositions (selective list)
* "Quattro fattoriale (4!)", little pieces for violin and piano (1954–55)
* "Ordini", for 16 instruments (1955)
* "Incontri di fasce sonore", electronic composition (1956–57)
*"Random or Not Random", for orchestra (1956–62)
* "Proporzioni", structures for solo flute (1958)
* "Aleatorio", for string quartet (1959)
*"Spazio a cinque", for voices, 5 percussionists, and electronics (1959–61)
* "Campi integrati no. 2", game for 9 instruments (1959–79)
*"Condensazioni", for orchestra (1960–62)
* "Die Schachtel" (The Box), pantomime, for mimes, projections, and chamber orchestra, on a text by Franco Nonnis (1962–63)
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