Wolfango Dalla Vecchia

Wolfango Dalla Vecchia

Wolfango Dalla Vecchia (Rome, February 5, 1923 – Padua, December 7, 1994) was an Italian composer and organist who, in addition to his teaching career, had occasionally also taken the opportunity to work as a conductor and musicologist.

Biography

After the early death of his mother, Wolfango Dalla Veccia was raised by his aunt—a primary school teacher--in Padua. He started to study piano as a kid and later switched to organ, attended the local Classic Gymnasium, and then studied at the University of Padua with Concetto Marchesi et al. He graduated in Philosophy in 1945. Continuing, he later studied organ with Fernando Germani and composition with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome (diploma in 1948). Petrassi placed him in charge of the first performance of his “Inni Sacri” for organ, tenor, and baritone.

Dalla Vecchia taught organ and composition at the Music Conservatories of Bologna, Bolzano, Venezia e Padova. He was Dean of the Istituto Musicale Canneti of Vicenza (that later became a conservatory.) He was also appointed Director (Dean) of the Conservatory of Padua, before leaving the role to Claudio Scimone, founder and conductor of the famous Solisti Veneti, for whom he wrote a series of compositions for string orchestras.

Dalla Vecchia promoted avant-guard, aleatory, and computer music; he was among the founders of the Centro di Sonologia computazionale dell'Università di Padova (Music Computer Research Centre of the Univrersity of Padua) that worked in collaboration with Padua and Milan Conservatory.

Additionally, Dalla Vecchia also established an important series of International Seminars of Research and Studies on the Musical Language (Seminari internazionali di studi e ricerche sul Linguaggio musicale) held in Vicenza between 1971 and 1976 - many attended by Luciano Berio, Brian Ferneyhough, Mauricio Kagel, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

When retiring from the Padua Conservatory in 1985, the Italian President Francesco Cossiga named Dalla Vecchia Commendatore del Lavoro. He then taught advanced composition seminars at Istituto musicale Benvenuti (the Music School of Conegliano, Treviso). His notes for these seminars were arranged in a book, Teoria Generale della Composizione, ultimately edited and published posthumously by Marco Peretti.

As organist Vecchia performed regularly in Italy and occasionally in Germany and Austria, including his organ compositions and transcriptions in his repertoire, which spanned from Frescobaldi to Messiaen to Italian contemporary composers such as Mansueto Viezzer.

Devoted Catholic, Dalla Vecchia accompanied liturgies in Padua churches, promoted the production of new sacred music for liturgies and concerts, transcribed and arranged scores, supported amateurs’ choirs, and oversaw restorations of old organs as well as the purchases of new instruments. In 1988, he was awarded the Premio San Vidal of Venice for his accomplishments in sacred music.

A Charismatic figure, most of Dalla Vecchia's students are now established professors in Italian Conservatories. Vecchia was among the earliest to recognize the talent of Katia Ricciarelli, who he awarded the highest possible grade and laudem when she completed her Diploma in Venice.

Works

He composed at least 66 works, including compositions for piano, organ, chorus, voices, chamber ensembles, orchestra, percussions, and computer. His catalogue features one opera (Andreuccio da Perugia—never performed), ballet and theatre music. In 2006, Marco Peretti published a book with a brief introduction and analysis of all of Dalla Vecchia’s compositions.

Orchestral Works:

Prima Suite (1948-50), (also titled "Suite Accademica")

Seconda Suite, from the ballet "Le stelle vere" (1950-51)

Concertino all'italiana, for string orchestra (1957)

Ouverture per contrabbasso, and string orchestra (1962)

Quattro momenti musicali, for solo flute and string orchestra (1965)

Victoris laus, for solo viola and string orchestra (1970)

Variati amorosi momenti, for string orchestra (1978)

O Padua Felix, Ouverture for solo trumpet, and string orchestra (1991)

Chamber Music:

Dulcissime tange, for percussion ensemble (1974)

Il carro di fuoco, for organ, 2 trumpets, and 2 trombones (1975)

Jeu d'éches, for 2 or more keyboard instruments ad libitum (1975)

Mediavita, for organ and tape (1978)

Atrocissime tange, for percussion, tape, and pantomine (1981)

Affettuosa memoria, for flute and oboe (1986)

Cassiopeia, for four guitars (1989)

El músico estrambótico. Motet para tres clarinetes (1989)

Musique pour Gazomètre, for counterfagot and wind octect (1994)

Variazioni sopra un tema della "Perséphone" di Stravinsky, for piano (1955)

Variati amorosi momenti, for solo guitar (1977)

Anges, trois préludes pour harpe (1983)

Piéce thématique, for solo violin (1985, 1988)

Duoindò, for solo flute (1994)

Rond’Elio, for solo clarinet (1993)

Gorgo, "Assolo" for percussion (1993)

Organ

Gaudeamuscorale (1974)

Fantasia for organ (1952)

Sette corali in onore di J.S. Bach (1985)

Adagiosissimo (1982)

Discography

Complete Work for Organ, Silvio Celeghin. The Discantica Workshop, 2004

Wolfango Dalla Vecchia plays Wolfango dalla Vecchia. RES Recordings and Sounds, 2005

Sacred works, Giovanna Damian, Schola San Rocco, Silvio Celeghin, Francesco Erle. Tactus, 2015

Bibliography

History of Music VI Edition, Ciro Grassi. Revised and corrected by Wolfango Dalla Vecchia, Ed. G. Zanibon, Padua 1970.

General theory of composition, Marco Peretti ed., Diastema Studies and Research Analysis n.2, Treviso 1997.

Memory of Wolfango Dalla Vecchia: proceedings of the study day (Padua, 5 February 1996), «Review Veneta di Studi Musicali» XI-XII, 1995/96, Cleup Editore, Padua 1999.

Wolfgang Dalla Vecchia. Tightening time to music, preface by Giovanni Morelli, by Marco Peretti, Diastema Treviso 2006.

References

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