Sylvano Bussotti

Sylvano Bussotti (born October 1, 1931 in Florence ) is an Italian composer and artist.

Life

Bussotti had his first violin lessons with Margherita Castellani and studied counterpoint with Roberto Lupi and piano with Luigi Dallapiccola at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini . As a result of the war, he finished his studies without a degree.

In an autodidactic course he learned composition from 1949 to 1956 and then took private courses with Max Deutsch in Paris. There he also met Pierre Boulez and Heinz-Klaus Metzger , who introduced him to John Cage at the Darmstadt summer courses in 1958 .

In 1965 and 1966 he stayed in the USA at the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation . He received several awards in Italy in the 1960s (for example in 1967 at the Venice Biennale ) and lived in Berlin for a year in 1972 at the invitation of the DAAD . From 1975 to 1983 he was artistic director of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In the late 1980s he was music director of the Venice Biennale.

As a composer Bussotti belongs to the avant-garde . The compositions, some in graphic notation, often place great demands on the interpreters. His works for the stage (until 1976) became known as Bussotti opera ballet , here he was not only a composer, but also a director and often a stage and costume designer as well as a choreographer.

In addition to his extensive compositional work, Bussotti was also active as a writer, painter and graphic artist, sculptor, photographer and filmmaker.

Famous works

• 5 Piano Pieces for David Tudor (1959)
• Pour Clavier (1961)
• Torso (1963)
• La Passion Selon Sade (1966)
• Rara Requiem (1969)
• Lorenzaccio (1972)
• Bergkristall (balletto (1974), versione per orchestra (1979))
• Poesia di De Pisis (1975)
• Emergency Tempo (1976)
• La Racine (1980)
• Le bal Mirò (1981)
• L'Ispirazione (1988)
• Fedra (1988)

bibliography

• Paul Attinello: Signifying Chaos: A Semiotic Analysis of Sylvano Bussotti's »Siciliano« , in: repercussions 1/1992, pp. 84-110.
• Mario Bortolotto: Fase seconda. Studi sulla Nuova Musica , Einaudi, Torino 1969, especially the chapter "Le cinque tentazioni di Bussotti", pp. 201-226.
• Mario Bortolotto (ed.): "Sognato dalla storia": materiali per un "Lorenzaccio" , in: Lo Spettatore musicale , special issue, Bologna 1972 [contributions by Mario Bortolotto, Giorgio Manganelli, Salvatore Sciarrino].
• Moreno Bucci (Ed.): L'opera di Sylvano Bussotti. Musica, segno, immagine, progetto. Il teatro, le scene, i costumi, gli attrezzi ed i capricci dagli anni Quaranta al BUSSOTTIOPERABALLET , Electa editrice, Milano 1988.
• Francesco Degrada (ed.): Bussottioperaballet: Sylvano Bussotti e il suo teatro: Oggetto amato ─ Nottetempo , Ricordi, Milano 1976; [contains Bussotti: Cinque frammenti autobiografici , p. 13, Libretto von Nottetempo, interviews, various essays].
• Giuseppina La Face: Teatro, eros e segno nell'opera di Sylvano Bussotti , in: Rivista Italiana di Musicologia 9/1974, pp. 250-268.
• Alessandra Lucioli: Sylvano Bussotti , Targa Italiana Editrice, Milano 1988.
• Jürgen Maehder / Sylvano Bussotti, Turandot , Pisa (Giardini) 1983.
• Jürgen Maehder, BUSSOTTIOPERABALLET ─ Sviluppi della drammaturgia musicale bussottiana , in: Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana 18/1984, pp. 441-468.
• Jürgen Maehder : BUSSOTTIOPERABALLET ─ On the development of the musical dramaturgy in Sylvano Bussotti's work , in: Otto Kolleritsch (Ed.), Oper heute. Forms of Reality in Contemporary Music Theater , "Studies on Valuation Research," vol. 16, Universal Edition, Graz / Vienna 1985, pp. 188-216.
• Jürgen Maehder , "Odo un Sylvano" ─ On the role of the composer, director, stage and costume designer Sylvano Bussotti in contemporary music theater , program of the Frankfurter Feste, Alte Oper, Frankfurt 1991, pp. 16-63.
• Jürgen Maehder , quote, collage, palimpsest ─ On the text basis of music theater with Luciano Berio and Sylvano Bussotti , in: Hermann Danuser / Matthias Kassel (eds.), Musiktheater heute. International Symposium of the Paul Sacher Foundation Basel 2001 , Schott, Mainz 2003, pp. 97-133.
• Luciano Morini, Moda e musica nei costumi di Sylvano Bussotti , Idealibri, Milan 1984; German edition: Aldo Premoli / Luciano Morini: dreams in velvet and silk. Mysticism and reality in the opera costumes of Sylvano Bussotti , Edition Wissenschaft & Literatur, Marketing-und-Wirtschaft Verlagsgesellschaft Flade, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-922804-09-8 .
• Leonardo Pinzauti, A colloquio con Sylvano Bussotti , in: Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana 4/1970, pp. 898-909; German translation in: Melos 28/1971, pp. 287-291.
• Ivanka Stoïanova, Geste ─ texte ─ musique , Éditions 10/18, Paris 1978.
• Ivanka Stoïanova, Myth and Memory. Comments on Italian music theater: Luciano Berio ─ “Outis” and Sylvano Bussotti ─ “Tieste” , in: Otto Kolleritsch (ed.), Das Musiktheater ─ Exempel der Kunst , “Studies on Valuation Research”, vol. 38, Universal Edition, Vienna / Graz 2001, pp. 161-191.
• Ivanka Stoïanova, Entre détermination et aventure. Essais sur la musique de la deuxième moitié du XXème siècle , L'Harmattan, Paris 2004.

Web links

• Bussotti's homepage with a list of works