Venice 18-III-1882-Treviso 1-VIII-1973
Initially a pupil of the Vienna Conservatory, then of the Music High School of Venice and M. E. Bossi in Bologna, he perfected in 1908 at the Hochschule in Berlin, passing in 1913 in Paris, where he entered a profitable contact with the local cultural environment, with box, Ravel and D 'Annunzio.
From 1921 to '24, he taught at the Parma Conservatory, then retired to Asolo, dedicated exclusively to composition; In 1932, he resumed teaching at the Venice Music High School, which he directed from 1939 to '52. Since 1936 he has taught the history of music at the University of Padua and has led the local Pollini Music Institute since 1938. After 1952 he retired to Asolo again, where he dedicated himself intensely to the composer's activity.
Formed in the wake of late German romanticism, then in contact with French impressionism and with the movement of ideas that tended to the beginning of the century to re-evaluate the Italian instrumental and vowel tradition, Malipiero gradually identified his very personal language. In the example of the Italian musicians of the 17th century, he denies every formal constriction, and his music takes place in free research, in an imaginative performance of false ideas, always new and free from any remote formalistic. Introduces the principle of freely alternating with songs of almost popular imprint in vocal music in vocal music. At the same time, the expressionist experience does not pass without leaving a lasting and beneficial impression on him, especially in particular theatrical production of the "1920s." In a later period, his music acquires a wider lyrical breath, while the denial of the form is allocated without, however, binding the musician's imagination in any way.
The harmonious language of Malipiero is considerably from the ancient Italian tradition, from which a fundamental diatonism and a loose articulation of the counterpointing lines draws.
Moreover, Malipiero knows it is intelligently to serve the most daring conquests of harmonious language, to the point of touching at the often atonality and position, while remaining basically in a characteristic area perhaps more than the ancient modality than of the shade. His work is vast and multifaceted and contains many pages of secondary or, in any case, less important. However, in his best works, Malipiero is undoubtedly, of his generation, the musician who, more than any other, knew how to give a characteristic physiognomy to the Italian music of the century. XX, drawing ferments of novelty and progress from the most genuine tradition (from Monteverdi to Vivaldi) and creating a personal and inimitable language.
Symphony N. 4 ("In Memoriam") (1946)
"It is not an epitaph, but you feel the presence of something that has disappeared": the symphony is dedicated to the memory of Natalia Kussevitzki, the wife of the famous conductor. It must be considered among the best pages of Malipiero. Structurally, the composition constitutes a compromise between the needs of the thematic evolution and those of the free musical invention. However, it remains typically Italian music, where the melodic intuitions reach admirable expressive peaks.
The times of the symphony are: "Moderate cheerful," "slow, funeral," "cheerful" (an absolute joke with tense and at times sardonic sounds), "slow" ('passes the procession of a funeral to the sound of a bell distant ') with six short variations.
