Frank Abbinanti (b. 1949), American composer; Una forza di luce (oratorio for soprano, alto, tenor and baritone soloists and orchestra, texts based on Dante, Leopardi and Pasolini)
Electronic Purgatory:
A digital music-theatre composition for performers, interactive
theatre, and electroacoustic music (started in the fall of 1989 and
completed in December 1991)
Ancient, Norwegian/American Heavy Metal Band; album The Cainian Chronicle (1996, with part 5 "At The Infernal Portal (Canto III)")
Françoys Bayle (b. 1932, Madagascar), French composer; Purgatoire & Le Paradis Terrestre, forming, together with Bernard Parmegiani'sEnfer, La Divine Comédie d'apres Dante (1973, choreography by Vittorio Biagi 1976)
Antonio Bibalo (b. 1922); Cantico for Mezzo Soprano and Prepared Tape (Italian text from Dante, Inferno 5; recording: [Norway]: Aurora, 1983, ACD 4988)
Björn Bjurling (b. 1966), Swedish composer; Si traviato è'l folle mi' desio (1995, for female choir)
Gavin Bryars (b. 1943), British composer; Incipit Vita Nuova (for alto voice, violin, viola, and violoncello, Latin text based on Dante and Pico della Mirandola)
Jacques Charpentier (b. 1933); Symphonie no 6 pour orchestre et orgue: déjà le soleil touchait à l'horizon
(score: Paris: Leduc, c1982, 64 pp.; recording: Erato [France], 1983,
live recording of a concert in June 1980, Copenhague, with Marie-Claire
Alain, Danmarks Radiosymfoniorkester, cond. Tamás Vetö)
D
Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838), Italian librettist
Michael Feingold, Lorenzo's Travels
Xavier Darasse
(1934-1993); Organum VII: pour orgue, avec voix de soprano ad libitum
(with Italian words from Purg. 2, score: Paris: Salabert / S.E.D.I.M.,
c1991, 25 pp.)
Peter Maxwell Davies (1934[1942?]-1992), British composer; Songs to words by Dante (1967), 'for baritone & smallish orchestra'
Gunnar de Frumerie (1908-1987), Swedish composer; Dante (Ung i Firenze) (1977, for voice, piano, and flute); Dante op. 76 (1977, for voice and orchestra)
Kenneth Gaburo; Subito: theater for 4 instruments (1974-76, for voice, trumpet, viola, double-bass, with Italian words from Dante's Inferno;
work commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the
Library of Congress, holograph/typescript La Jolla, Calif.: Lingua
Press, c1977, 59 pp., in the Library of Congress, call no. ML30.3c.G3
no. 1); id., Dante's joynte: Lingua I: poems and other theaters, La Jolla, Calif.: Lingua Press, 1976
Benjamin Godard (1849-1895), French composer; Dante et Beatrice (op. 111)
Jan Hanus (b. 1915), Czech composer; Labyrinth. Dance meditations
on the motifs of Dante's Divine Comedy (op. 98, 1980-82); Three Dantesque
Preludes from the ballet Labyrinth for orchestra (op. 98a, 1983)
James Harthway (b. 1944); The ninth circle (for narrator, dancer,
organ, and two percussion players, text taken from Andrea di Tomaso's translation
of Dante's Commedia; score, reproduced from holograph: [United States]:
J. J. Hartway, c1982, 11 leaves, Library of Congress call no. M1625.H34N5 1982)
Robert M. Helmschrott (b. 1938), German composer; Entelechiae: Riflessioni
su Dante per orchestra (1977)
Kokoro
Dance, dance company, formed in 1986, based in Vancouver (British
Columbia, Canada); Zero to the Power (1989, inspired by the etchings
of Gustav Doré for Dante's Comedy with eight dancers, three taiko drummers,
one cellist and a percussionist; music by Robert J. Rosen)
Hans Koolmees (b. 1959), Dutch composer; Games: voor mezzo-sopraan,
2 slagwerkers en harp (1993, English words from Bram Stoker and Dante
Alighieri; score: Amsterdam: Donemus, c1995, 11 pp., Library of Congress
call no. M1613.3.K775G3 1995); Lilywhite: voor mezzo-sopraan, koperblazers,
slagwerk, harp en strijkorkest (1994, arranged by the composer from
three earlier works, English words of the second movement from Bram Stoker
and Dante, score reproduced from holograph: Amsterdam: Donemus, c1995, 38
pp., Library of Congress call no. M1613.K825L5 1995)
Work
list from the Donemus Collection via FASO Library (the music library
of the Dutch Federation of Amateur Symphony and String Orchestras
Rainer Kunad (1936-1995), German composer; Pro novo: für gemischten
Chor a cappella, conatum 58 (1989, German text by the composer based
on Paradiso 1; score: Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1982,
20 pp.)
Brent Lee (b. 1964), Canadian composer; Quel ch'ella par quando
un poco sorride (1989, for female voice, electronics, variable chamber
ensemble; text by Dante)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886); Paralipomènes à la Divina Commedia
(1839, sonata for piano solo, 1st version); Prolégomènes à la Divina
Commedia (c. 1840, sonata for piano solo, 2nd version); Après une
lecture du Dante - Fantasia quasi Sonata (for piano solo, no. 7 from
Années de Pèlerinage, 2me année, 1837-1849); Dante (1856,
symphony); Dantes Sonett "Tanto gentile e tanto onesta" (1874, for
piano solo)
Ralph
Lundsten (b. 1936), Swedish composer; Dante, akta dig foör hajen
(electroacoustic music for movie, op. 152, 1978)
M
Tod Machover (b. 1953), American composer; Hyperstring Trilogy
(1991-1993, revised 1996/97, for hypercello, hyperviola, hyperviolin, and
chamber orchestra): I. Begin again again... (premiered 1991, for
solo hypercello), II. Song of Penance (premiered 1991, for hyperviola,
computer-controlled voice, and 17 instruments), III. Forever and Ever
(premiered 1993, for hyperviolin and chamber orchestra)
Luca Marenzio (155?-1999), Italian composer; Madrigals after Dante,
including Così nel mio parlar (after Rime 103 = Rime Petrose
IV, tape recording: New York Pro Musica, Library of Congress Music Division
concert, 30 October 1965, Library of Congress call no. LWO 4690 and call
no. LWO 4704 [edited for broadcast])
Address
of Conservatorio «Luca Marenzio», (21121 Brescia, Corso Magenta, 44,
tel. ++39 +30 3757103, fax 3770337)
Salvatore Giovanni Martirano (1927-1995), American composer, professor
of music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, had been working
on a composition for baritone voice (processed through Kyma) and symphony
orchestra, based on the ending to Dante's Paradiso
Per Nørgård (b. 1932), Danish composer; Labyrinten (1963,
opera in two acts and 22 scenes, Danish libretto by Bent Nørgård, summarized
by Schirmer's Opera
Catalogue: "Symbolically, the title of this opera is the name of an
amusement park booth where the action takes place. The Labyrinth is meant
to be fun but the central character, Eliasson, the ticket seller, is disgusted
by all the frivolity which he applies, in his mind, to life itself. This
attitude prompts the ticket seller's idea for a 'Save the People' plan:
namely to build a model of Dante's Inferno, a papier-maché mountain with
an earthly Eden at the top and Hell at the bottom!")
Biographic
info (updated 24 October 1997) released by G. Shirmer, Inc.
O
P
Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867), Italian composer; Sinfonia Dante
(1863/64)
Ennio A. Paola; Cantica III, canto XXXIII : Dante beholds the
universe (for piano?), Toronto: Berandol, c1981, 2 pp. (Library of Congress
call no. M25.P)
Bernard Parmegiani (b. 1927), French composer; Enfer, forming,
together with Françoys Bayle's Purgatoire& Le Paradis
Terrestre, La Divine Comédie d'apres Dante (1973, choreography
by Vittorio Biagi 1976)
Elis Pehkonen; Russian requiem (for soloists, chorus, organ
and orchestra, texts taken from Missa pro defunctis, Dante, Lenin,
St. John the Divine, and Boris Pasternak; score: Oxford: Music Dept. / Oxford
University Press, 1989, 150 pp.)
Andre Pluess (with Ben Sussman and John Bourdeaux)
Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886), Italian composer; Tanto gentile:
sonetto di Dante (recording: A. P., Composizioni vocali e strumentali
inedite, Milano: Sipario / Bologna: Distribuzione Bongiovanni, 1986);
Bertrando dal Bornio (1858, opera); cf. Licia Sirch, Catalogo
tematico delle musiche di Amilcare Ponchielli, Cremona: Fondazione Claudio
Monteverdi, 1989 (= Instituta et Monumenta, Serie II: Instituta, Vol. 12)
La
Gioconda: Website devoted to Ponchiello's most famous opera (by
Arizona Opera), including biographic
info
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), Italian composer; Il Trittico
(three one-act operas, premiered in New York 1918, conceived of as an analogy
to the three 'cantiche' of Dante's Commedia): 1. Il tabarro (libretto
by Giuseppe Adami), 2. Suor Angelica (libretto by Giovacchino Forzano,
3. Gianni Schicchi (libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, taking its issue
from the Anonimo fiorentino's gloss on Inf. 33,32)
Michael Radulescu (b. 1943), Rumanian composer and organist, teaching
in Vienna; Versi / Dante (recording: M. R., Epiphaniai, Freiburg:
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 1993, recorded in Luzern, Jesuitenkirche, 22-25
April 1992)
John Rea, composer now living in Canada; Canto di Beatrice
(1992, for two sopranos and two cellos)
John
Rea Homepage (McGill University, Composer Index), including biographic
info, a work list.
Robert X. Rodríguez (b. 1946), American composer; Canto
(1982, for soprano or tenor and ensemble, text based on Dante and anonymous
French author)
Biographic
info released by G. Schirmer, Inc. (updated 29 April 1998)
Work
list released by G. Schirmer, Inc. (updated 25 March 1998)
Norbert Rosseau (1907-1975), Belgian composer; Tanto gentile
(op. 12, for medium voice and piano, after Vita nuova XXVI; score:
no. 1 of N. R., Cinque canzoni italiani, Bruxelles: CeBeDeM, c1994,
15 pp.
Poul Ruders (b. 1949); Sonata no. 1 for piano: Dante sonata
("inspired by two different quotations from Dante Alleghieri's The divine
comedy"; score: Copenhagen / New York: W. Hansen / Distribution in the USA:
Magnamusic-Baton, c1983, 36 pp.
Biographic
info (released by Schirmer, February 1996, updated 26 November 1997)
S
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), Finnish composer; Symphony no. 2
in D (op. 43, completed 1902)
Geoff Kuenning, Sibelius:
Symphony No. 2: "the major themes were developed during a stay in
Italy, and several were originally conceived for a tone poem to be based
on Dante's Divine Comedy."
Dmitriæi Dmitrievich
Shostakovich (1906-1975), Russian composer; Suite on verses of
Michelangelo Buonarroti (op. 145, for bass and piano; op. 145a, for
bass and orchestra, orchestrated by the composer; includes no. 6: Dante,
Michelangelo's sonnet on Dante, "Dal ciel discese")
Skot T. Smallwood, American composer; Cinq chansons (1994,
for woodwind quintet, based on texts by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Arnaut Daniel,
Gaucelm Faidit, Giraut de Bornelh and Bertran de Born)
Piotr Illiych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Russian composer; Francesca
da Rimini (1876, op. 32, phantasy for orchestra); Manfred (1885,
op. 58, symphony in b minor, inspired by Byron's drama and by a scheme that
had been suggested by the Russian composer M. A. Balakirev)
Biographic
info, partly extracted for The Classical Music Pages from The
Grove Concise Dictionary of Music (London: Macmillan), including
a work
list (by Almut Haas), a short info
on Manfred and a colletion
of portraits
Dimitri Terzakis, Greek composer; Vier Monologe für mittlere
Stimme und Klavier (for medium voice and piano, texts by Sappho, Giorgos
Papaefstathiou, Dante, and A. Kalwos; score: Köln : H. Gerig, c1984, 15
pp.
Francis Thorne;
La luce eterna (1974, for soprano and orchestra: a setting of the
final stanzas of Dante's Paradiso, Canto XXXIII; score: [New York]: F. Thorne,
[1979?], 61 pp.; [United States]: G. Schirmer, Rental Library, c1989, 61
pp.)
U
V
Jacob ter Veldhuis
(b. 1951), Dutch composer; Paradiso I (1992, for mixed choir, after
Dante); Paradiso II (op. 65, 1994, for baritone and orchestra, based
on cantos 30 and 33; score: Amsterdam: Donemus, c1994, 76 pp.); Sempre
l'amor (1994, for countertenor, 2 tenors and bass, after Dante); Sempre
l'amor II (1995, for mixed choir, after Dante)
Joe Venegoni, composer, hammer dulcimer, recording artist
Info, referring to an
evening length dance theater performance, based on Dante's Vita Nuova
Claude Vivier (1948-1983), Canadian composer; Lettura di Dante
(1974, for soprano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, viola, percussion)
Peter Wettstein (b. 1939), Swiss composer; Un giro immortale.
Totentanz (1994/95, for bariton, two speakers, choir, chamber orchestra,
percussion, and pantomime, based on texts by Dante and Ungaretti)
Infos
on Konrad Claude Dryden, Riccardo Zandonai: A Biography, and
on the Riccardo Zandonai Foundation (Markusplatz 16, D-96047, Bamberg,
Germany, thivosi@t-online.de)
Luigi Zaninelli;
Dark forest (for symphonic band, based on the first canto of Dante's
Inferno; score: Delaware Water Gap, Pa.: Shawnee Press, c1982, 18
pp.)