Luigi Dallapiccola

Luigi Dallapiccola , 1904-75, Italian composer, b. Pazan, Istria (now in Croatia). Dallapiccola was in a detention camp during World War I; because his wife was Jewish, he suffered persecution under Mussolini. He was the first Italian composer of atonal music, and after 1940 he increasingly used the twelve-tone system (see serial music ). His interest in vocal music is revealed in his operas The Prisoner (1949) and Odysseus (1968); the oratorio Job (1950); and the Christmas Concerto (1956) for soprano and orchestra. He also wrote instrumental concertos, ballets, and orchestral works.

Dallapiccola, Luigi (1904–75) Italian composer. He was the first Italian composer to use atonality, adopting the twelve-tone system of Schoenberg in the 1930s. The opera Volo di notte (1940) is a fine example. Persecuted during World War II, he wrote many pieces concerned with freedom, notably Canti di Prigonia (1941).