abstract: This paper and its accompanying recital examine three solo vocal works by Italian composer Alfredo Casella (1883-1947): "Larmes" from Cinq Mélodies (Op. 2); "Mort, ta servante est à ma porte" from L'adieu à la vie: Quatre lyriques funèbres extraites du "Gitanjali" de Rabindranath Tagore (Op. 26); and "Amante sono, vaghiccia, di voi" from Tre canzoni trecentesche (Op. 36). Each of these songs is discussed as representative of Casella's three compositional periods. A fourth song, "Ecce odor filii mei" from Tre canti sacri per baritono et organo (Op. 66), is also examined, as an end-of-life composition. Some of the more important solo vocal works composed in each period are mentioned to show where the four selected songs fit into Casella's compositional output and to suggest music for further study or repertoire. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2014

Little scholarship exists about the extent of musical nationalism in the works of twentieth-century Italian composer Alfredo Casella (1883-1947). Casella’s output, which is divided into three stylistic periods – 1902-1913, 1914-1920, and 1921-1946 – display varying styles and influences, such as an extension of French, German, and Russian romanticism and Schoenbergian atonality. Yet nationalistic expression simultaneously pervades each stylistic period: The first period portrays nationalism through the use of folk material and forms, as does the second, which also uses programmatic elements in an atonal context. The third stylistic period, to which previous scholars have given the most attention, expresses nationalism by alluding to past Italian Baroque and Classical composers and forms. This thesis explores how Casella’s nationalistic tendencies pervade all three stylistic periods and evolved over the course of his career, culminating in his third stylistic period. A close reading of Casella’s own writings – which will explore how his ideologies reflected the political and cultural views in Italy at the time – and score analysis of representative works from each period will reveal in Casella’s works “a music unquestionably Italian in idiom" (Alfredo Casella, 21+26, 41).

The compositions to be considered in this study have been divided into three periods, corresponding with certain times in the life of Alfredo Casella. There is enough consistency of style in the compositions of each period to justify this division. The first period, characterized by lyricism and virtuosity, includes the works written in Paris after Casella left the Paris Conservatory. The second period, with its chromaticism and dissonance, comprises his output during the first years after his return to Italy. The third period begins with the close of World War I. In this period Casella returns to a classic style which is firmly embedded in an extended tonal system. The compositions of this period combine various ideas and styles gathered through the years and blend them into works marked by maturity, sincerity, and originality.

The neo-classic movement in Italy, which gained momentum in the early 1920's, was rooted in an instrumental style patterned after that of the Baroque era. The term "new classicism," proposed by Ferruccio Busoni in 1920, represented a reaction against the extreme chromaticism and large performance forces of the late nineteenth century. The pianistcomposer Alfredo Casella, after earlier periods in which he was influenced by such diverse composers as Mahler, Debussy, and Schoenberg, soon became the chief spokesman for the neoclassic movement in Italy. Casella considered the Sinfonia, Arioso and Toccata his most important work for the piano, because of its size and musical content. It is notable for its usage of thematic transformation, much of which is based on the interval of a fourth or fifth. This study includes a formal outline of each movement, showing sectional divisions and tonal regions, as well as illustrations of thematic transformation and intervallic patterns. Also discussed are the work's neoclassic style characteristics, including counterpoint, pandiatonicism, modality, and linear cadential treatment.