G. Francesco Malipiero (1882) has written two string quartets, one of which received the Coolidge Prize of the Berkshire Chamber Music Festival; in these he has broken away from the large sonata form. He has also written lovely songs.
Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880) has written two operas on texts by Gabrielle d’Annunzio called La Nave (The Ship) and Fedra. His most recent work, Fra Ghirardo was performed at the Metropolitan in 1929.
Ottorino Respighi (1879) wrote operas in true Italian fashion, but deserted them for chamber music and orchestral works. Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome, we hear often. His Violin Concerto in Gregorian Mode was played by Albert Spalding. His latest opera, La Campana Sommersa (The Sunken Bell) was given at the Metropolitan in 1928.
All these men show the traces of the Italian love of melody, with the influence of French impressionism, and German romanticism.
Two or three of these modern Italians now live in Paris, among them Santoliquido and Vincenzo Davico, both song writers.
And now Noah’s Ark has been put to music by a young Italian, Vittorio Rieti with wit and humor, in a work for orchestra, played in May, 1925, at the Prague Festival.
Manuel de Falla
In Spain, one man who has continued along the lines of Albeniz and Granados is Manuel de Falla (1876). He studied first with Felipe Pedrell, the father of the modern Spanish school. In 1907 he went to Paris where he met Debussy and Dukas. He wrote a ballet El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician). He combines a picturesque Spanish folk style with a modern way of writing music. One of his most attractive works is a scenic arrangement from a chapter in Don Quixote, Cervantes’ masterpiece, as Spanish as a Spanish fandango. It is a marionette ballet called El Retablo de Maese Pedro (Master Pedro’s Puppet Show). It is a charming work and you will like it. His writings have simplicity, and freshness, which can come only from deep study and so perfect a mastery of art that there is no self-consciousness. He is a true nationalist delighting in Spanish color; his music has nobility and humanness as well as charm.
The Netherlands
Clarence G. Hamilton says in his Outlines of Music History that Netherland composers are patriotically laboring for a distinctive school. Few names are known outside of Holland, with the exception of Alphonse Diepenbroek (1862–1921), Dirk Schaefer (1874), Sem Dresden (1881), James Zwart (1892), Julius Roentgen (1855), who has collected many of the Dutch folk songs, and Dopper, conductor and composer for orchestra.