Courtesy of “The Musical Quarterly.”
Alfredo Casella.
(Italian)
Photograph, Mendoza Galleries.
Arnold Bax.
(English)
Photograph, Bertam Pach.
Eugene Goossens.
(English)
Composers of Today.
Italy and the New Order
For many centuries Italy has been known as producing the opera of the world. Of late years opera has not been considered the highest form of musical art, so with the coming of the 20th century, a group of composers has been working in Italy, trying to get away from the old opera writing and to develop along the line of orchestral and chamber music.
Alfredo Casella (1883) is perhaps responsible for this movement for he lived in Paris for many years and came in contact with Debussy’s music and the modern movement there. One of his earliest works to attract attention in America was War Films, a series of orchestral pictures that were very real. He has written piano pieces, chamber music and orchestral works and one of his latest is a ballet, in which it looks as though he were leaving his path of dissonance for in this he has used folk song as a basis for a new and delightful expression.