“TWO SAPPHO’S LYRICS” BY GOFFREDO PETRASSI. THE MODERNITY OF SINGING

Abstract

In this article I will briefly analyse and discuss the Two Sappho’s lyrics (based on Salvatore Quasimodo’s translations of Sappho’s poetic fragments), composed in 1941 by Goffredo Petrassi. In the year of Italy’s entry into the war, Quasimodo’s translations change definitely the reception of greek poems, because of a new poetic style without archaisms and rethoric, and closer to modern language. Furhermore, with this ‘renewal’, also a new interest (of composers) for Sappho’s lyric begins: Petrassi (in 1941) and Luigi Dallapiccola (1942) are the first to base their compositions on this ‘modern’ version. Despite the restrictions of categories and definitions (‘modernism’, ‘neo-classicism’, ‘neo-baroque’, avant-garde, etc.) Petrassi’s styles and techniques develop through the years, with a personal synthesis of traditional and contemporary. In this ‘middle-age’ between ‘myth’ of classicism (and nation) and increase of serialism, these lyrics can be observed and analysed as a case of ‘modernization’ and ‘re-translation’; from surveived fragments (6th century BC) to middle-20th century musical modernism.