Petrassi, Goffredo

(b Zagarolo, nr Palestrina, 16 July 1904).Italian composer. Along

with Dallapiccola, he is the most significant Italian composer of the
mid-20th century.
1. Education and earlier works.
2. The concertos for orchestra and later works.
WORKS
WRITINGS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ENZO RESTAGNO
Petrassi, Goffredo
1. Education and earlier works.
Petrassi's birthplace, Zagarolo, is a village in the Roman
countryside with no lack of musical connections: on top of a nearby
hill stands the fortress of Palestrina, and in the centre of the village
is the Palazzo Rospigliosi named after the family of Cardinal Giulio
Rospigliosi, who was known first as an opera librettist and then as
Pope Clement IX. Young Goffredo's family moved to Rome in 1911
and it was as a result of this that the seven-year-old had his first
contact with music. He was sent to school in Via dei Coronari, and
as the Scuola Cantorum of S Salvatore in Lauro was situated next
to the school, it seemed natural to send the boy, who had shown
that he had a good voice, to study at this choir school. The music
which Goffredo Petrassi encountered as a chorister that of
Palestrina, Josquin, Animuccia and Anerio demonstrates the
similarity between the Scuola Cantorum and the schools which
centuries before had cultivated the Roman polyphonic tradition. At
the Scuola Cantorum the young Petrassi received the same sort of
musical education as Palestrina and many other musicians had
centuries before. Practical concerns, however, forced Petrassi at
the age of 15 to find a job in a music shop. In quiet moments he
played a piano in the back of the shop, and attracted the attention
of Alessandro Bustini, the distinguished teacher of piano and
composition at the Conservatorio di S Cecilia. He decided to teach
him and thus get him into the conservatory, where he could have a
first-rate musical education. In the space of a few years the young
Petrassi moved from 16th century world of Palestrina to a
contemporary world dominated by the figures of Bustini, Casella,
Respighi and Bernardino Molinari, together with all those musicians
who, in the early years of the century, were attempting to pull
Italian musical life out of the operatic furrow it had ploughed almost
exclusively for centuries. Petrassi experienced no conflict in the
juxtaposition of these two areas of his education: according to his
own words, the experience of Renaissance polyphony retreated
into a sort of limbo, ready to spring forth as an adult composer
tackling demanding themes. The plural nature of Petrassi's
education, its all-inclusive quality a reflection of his environment, is

the key to understanding his music; as will be seen, Petrassi was

able not only to pursue different impulses but also to bring them
together in a wide-ranging musical outlook.
The beginning of Petrassi's career is customarily marked by the
success of his Partita for orchestra, written in 1932; his winning two
competitions with it, together with receiving performances at ISMC
festivals, put him on to the international stage. Although Casella
and Edward J. Dent are regarded as being responsible for drawing
wider attention to Petrassi, Casella had already noticed the
composer some months before when he heard the Tre cori,
Petrassi's graduation piece from the conservatory. The Tre cori
remained unpublished, but they at once revealed Petrassi's
considerable ability in dealing with the orchestral and choral
material. The brilliant Partita was soon followed by other orchestral
works, such as the Ouverture da concerto of 1931 and the first
Concerto for Orchestra of 19334. It is not difficult to see in them
the influence of the rhythmic vigour and contrapuntal complexity of
Hindemith, the polytonal conflicts of Stravinsky and the rhythmic
geometry of Casella, but over and above those influences one
finds an assured, virtuosic mastery of the orchestra, practically an
unknown skill in Italian orchestral music of that period. His
experience as a chorister was to come to the surface in Salmo IX,
composed between 1934 and 1936. To judge from the vast forces
employed and the often angular quality of the music, the work
seems to convey more the impressions he may have had of the
great Roman basilicas rather than of Palestrina's style. The
memory of those spaces, volumes and echoes passes, however,
through the filter of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Oedipus
rex which were both heard in Rome in that same period. Yet
Petrassi's experience of polyphony is easily recognized in the
treatment of the choral part which is structured in sections that
follow each other seamlessly. At this time, works for orchestral and
vocal forces dominated Petrassi's output: in 1940 his Magnificat for
soprano, chorus and orchestra showed a more lyrical and subtle
approach to the re-examination of the sacred style which had given
rise to Salmo IX. The following year produced the Coro dei morti,
described as a dramatic madrigal for male voices, brass, three
pianos, double-basses and percussion, a setting of a passage
from Leopardi's Operette morali and a move, therefore, from the
sacred to the philosophical. This work quickly became famous, and
shows the beginnings of Petrassi's tendency to treat his
relationship with musical language as a source of dramatic
inspiration. Disinclined to express emotions directly, Petrassi found
himself in the peculiar position of presenting his own intellectual
struggle as an abstract drama: a unison, an interval, a pause, a
pulsating rhythm and sometimes the vaguest of melodic
reminiscences are the outward signs of this abstract drama. The
Coro dei morti is characterized by clear-cut opposition of melodic
tonal sections with highly contrapuntal and far less tonal ones. The
dilemma at the heart of the work is one which Petrassi was to

explore in his compositions over the following decade, and it was

almost in order to make his inner struggle more explicit that at this
time Petrassi moved towards theatrical music.
Petrassi's work in the theatre produced two ballets, La follia di
Orlando and Ritratto di Don Chisciotte, and two operas, Il
cordovano and Morte dell'aria. Through these he focussed on one
of the basic tools of his style, irony, which he saw as the perfect
means to disguise (with abstraction and ambiguity) his responses
to events. Petrassi was not concerned as to whether he should be
a tonal, neo-classical or 12-tone composer: he had no belief in the
certainty of any definitive approach, but only in the certainty of the
struggle and torment of life, and his musical language is the diary
of these uncertainties. One of the greatest works in his whole
output, Noche oscura (1951), a cantata for mixed chorus and
orchestra, provides a lesson in the way these stylistic directions
pile up, interweave and erode one another. It is a setting of the
poem by St John of the Cross on the theme of the solitary path of a
mystic who renounces all links with humanity to approach the
Beloved, namely Christ. The desolate solitude of this interior
journey is symbolized by a cell of four notes (two ascending minor
seconds linked by a descending major third). For Petrassi this fournote pattern acquires the character of a mystic formula, and it
reappears in later compositions such as Beatudines (19689)
and Orationes Christi (19745) in which he developed the ideas
of human responsibility and solitude. Entire compositions develop
from the intervallic elaboration and transformation of this formula,
moving gradually from mostly contrapuntal textures and dark
timbres towards less astringent harmonies and brighter timbres.
Many commentators have seen Petrassi's studied management of
such material as a move towards serial procedures. But it should
be realized that the composer's relationship with 12-tone technique
was never one of complete conformity. Petrassi saw 12-tone
technique as a way of manipulating the musical material in the
most rational and economically controlled manner; although he
made occasional horizontal use of the method, he was never
committed to it with the fervour of many composers in the 1950s.
The real objective of Petrassi's technical grapplings was the arrival
at a linguistic concentration and abstraction which would act as a
shield against any manner of rhetoric.
Petrassi, Goffredo
2. The concertos for orchestra and later works.
Nothing reflects better Petrassi's creative exploration of questions
of technique and style than his series of concertos for orchestra. 17
years separate the first, written in 1934 in the wake of the success
of the Partita, and the second, composed in 1951 to a commission
from the Basle Chamber Orchestra. Although the difference
between these two works lies in a more concentrated and adroit
use of the material, in both Petrassi treats it according to the rules
of classical thematicism. There is an increase in rhythmic vigour

and the models of Hindemith and Stravinsky are now joined by

Bartk whose sublime silences and freely germinating counterpoint
particularly attracted Petrassi. The prestige of the organizations
which now commissioned Petrassi's works is an indication of his
international reputation. After the Basle Chamber Orchestra came
the Sdwestfunk of Baden-Baden for whom Petrassi wrote his
Third Concerto for Orchestra, subtitled Rcration concertante, in
19523. From the very beginning, the exposition of a long series
with various notes repeated several times demonstrates the
freedom of Petrassi's use of 12-tone technique and, given the
ironic, light and elegant character of the score, it is evident that for
him the series is only a device with which to escape the thematic
tradition. Yet Petrassi had no hesitation in turning back to this
tradition as soon as a suitably dramatic opportunity arose. In the
fourth and last movement, marked adagio moderato, the four-note
pattern of Noche oscura reappears to initiate an episode of a lyrical
intensity probably unequalled in Petrassi's entire output. To lend a
12-tone series a strong melodic inflection in the manner of Berg,
who was unsurprisingly Petrassi's favourite of the Second
Viennese School composers, seems to be his aim in the Fourth
Concerto for Orchestra in which the light, agile style of writing for
the string orchestra gives way in the third movement, marked
lentissimo, to a melodic series of rare lyrical intensity. His
approaches towards serial technique continued in 1955 with his
Fifth Concerto for Orchestra, and in 1957 with the sixth, which were
written in response to commissions from the Boston SO and the
BBC. To describe these concertos for orchestra solely in terms of
their greater or lesser adherence to serial techniques would be to
overlook the complexity of Petrassi's struggles with his material
which would be at their most productive at the end of the 1950s. It
has been noted how in the Third Concerto for Orchestra one of the
high points comes about through the reappearance of the four-note
theme from Noche oscura; other concertos are also characterized
by the insistent use of certain key intervals and other quotations
for example, one of three notes taken from the Coro dei morti
appears in the Fifth Concerto for Orchestra. Although these
intervals and brief thematic figures become increasingly important
in the writing of the concertos, various chamber works dating from
the end of the 1950s onwards demonstrate their full significance
and mark the most important method used by Petrassi during his
career. A string quartet composed in 1958 shows clearly how
certain intervals (major third, minor sixth and tritone) have become
the protagonists of the composition. The result is an abstract and
athematic style in which the interval takes on a fully dramatic
character. This laconic mode of expression, with its wealth of
allusive possibilities, provided Petrassi with the language which
best suited him, a language of gestures sculpted from the musical
material with a graphic precision and simplicity. With this string
quartet Petrassi showed that he was absolutely sure in his

approach; other, strongly characterized elements were added, with

a new focus on timbre.
The Serenata, also composed in 1958, is scored for flute,
harpsichord, percussion, viola and double-bass, a bright array of
instrumental timbres whose clear, vibrant colours are an essential
element in each intervallic gesture and which are juxtaposed in a
series of solo cadenzas. The precise exploration of timbre
continued in 1962 with the Seconda Serenata-Trio, which explores
only different plucked sounds (harp, guitar and mandolin). By this
stage each new work marked the conquest of new territory, as in
1964 did Tre per sette (the title refers to the three performers, on
flute, oboe and clarinet, playing seven different instruments in all)
which explores varieties of intervals and timbres in the woodwind
family. Petrassi explores new terrain in these scores but the music
has none of the acerbity which often marks experimental works:
one can hear that the composer is working in a highly congenial
context, and within the supremely concise writing allusions and
poetic extracts multiply as if the musical material had at last
suddenly become malleable and able to reveal hidden treasures. In
subsequent years there was an upsurge in the number of solo
works aimed at exploiting this miraculous richness of timbre:
Souffle for solo flute, from 1969, Elogio per un'ombra for violin and
Nunc for guitar of 1971, Ala in 1972 for flute and harpsichord and
Alias in 1977 for guitar and harpsichord. This was Petrassi's
preferred terrain, and on it he created some of his masterpieces;
his attention to it did not mean that other areas were neglected, if
anything the achievements in one field were transplanted into
another.
In 1964 Petrassi wrote his Seventh Concerto for Orchestra, a
rather troubled score which sprang from a previous work, Prologo
e cinque invenzioni, written in 1962 to a commission from the
Portland Junior Symphony Orchestra. Unhappy with the original
work, Petrassi recast it entirely as the Seventh Concerto, but its
didactic origins explain why the various sections are given over to
different instruments of the orchestra, with brilliant solo episodes
which reflect the solo cadenzas in the chamber works. The superb
cadenza for xylorimba in the third section is a perfect example of
how Petrassi's chamber style had successfully been absorbed into
his orchestral writing. That Petrassi's chamber writing with its
virtuosity of timbres and intervals took his orchestral writing
towards this point can be seen in two different but equally
important examples, the Flute Concerto of 1960 and the Eighth
Concerto for Orchestra of 19702. The structure of the Flute
Concerto determined by the numerous, extended cadenzas for
the solo instrument which direct the orchestral flow like magnetic
poles reflects the spirit of his chamber music, with its alternation
of cadenzas and intervallic schemes. In the Eighth Concerto for
Orchestra, extreme intervallic economy and brilliant rhythmic
variety across the overall orchestral framework generate a new
type of musical material: instead of the nervy, precise calligraphies

of the works for a few instruments, the frothing material produces

music like fine swirling dust. As the signs multiply, they generate a
message, a total greater than the sum of all the parts: it is the sort
of experience which has become familiar over the years from
abstract painting, and Petrassi is, unsurprisingly, passionate and
knowledgeable about modern art. Attention to abstract forms of
writing did not draw Petrassi away from the moral themes which
had illuminated the choral-orchestral works of his youth. The
Beatudines (subtitled A Witness to Martin Luther King) for baritone
and five instruments (1969), the Orationes Christi for mixed choir,
brass, violas and cellos (1975) and the Poema per archi e trombe
(197780) continued to develop more or less explicitly the themes
of solitude and human suffering, which were now explored with
more unusual combinations of voices and instruments.
The chamber works which at the end of the 1960s signalled such a
fertile development in Petrassi's music were also those on which
he expended the greatest care. In 1967, his Estri for 15 players
seemed in its title alone to make an utterly characteristic artistic
declaration: the term estro, meaning both caprice and talent, has a
long history in Italian instrumental music; it is difficult to translate,
but should not be understood merely as the glorification of
imagination. Unpredictable and possibly wayward in character,
estro also implies the revelation of one's mystery to an observer.
Undoubtedly the estro musicale was destined to find its perfect
form in a style of composition dependent on the balancing of
intervals and timbres, in the technique of which Petrassi acquired a
rare mastery, and his final works are like the coming together of
various estri of reminiscence and different emotions. The nostalgia
for a certain sort of salon virtuosity implied by the title of the Grand
septuor avec clarinette concertante of 19778 is belied by the
sense of irony produced by the alienating sounds of guitar and
percussion. Petrassi's last great chamber work is entitled Sestina
d'autunno, and bears the explanatory subtitle Veni, creator Igor. It
was composed in 1981 on the tenth anniversary of the death of
Stravinsky, the composer who had made such a profound mark on
Petrassi's early years and the subsequent development of his
music. It is written for six players: viola, cello, double-bass, guitar,
mandolin and percussion instruments. The variety of colour which,
as is often the case with Petrassi, tends towards darker shades,
the frail and somewhat alienating sound of the plucked strings and
the percussion, the graceful linearity of phrases whose simplicity is
more charged with meaning than ever, and the clarity of the form,
borrowed from the old Italian strophic form of six lines (a sestina),
display to the utmost that synthesis of sobriety and intensity which
Petrassi pursued tirelessly for so many years.
Petrassi, Goffredo
WORKS
dramatic

La follia di Orlando (ballet, with narrative recitatives from L. Ariosto, choreog. A.M.
Milloss), 19423, Milan, Scala, 12 April 1947
Il cordovano (op, 1, E. Montale, after M. de Cervantes: Entremes del viejo celoso),
19448, Milan, Scala, 12 May 1949; rev. 1958, Milan, Piccola Scala, 18 Feb 1959
Ritratto di Don Chisciotte (ballet, 1, Milloss), 1945, Paris, Champs-Elyses, 21 Nov
1947
Morte dell'aria (op, 1. T. Scialoja), 194950, Rome, Eliseo, 24 Oct 1950
4 incid scores, 193054, unpubd; 9 film scores, 194865, unpubd
orchestral
Preludio e fuga, str, 1929, unpubd; Divertimento, C, 1930, unpubd; Conc. for Orch,
1931: Ouverture da concerto, 1931, rev. 1933, Passacaglia, unpubd; Partita, 1932;
Conc. for Orch no.1, 19334; Pf Conc., 19369; La follia di Orlando, suite, 19423
[from ballet]; Ritratto di Don Chisciotte, suite, 1945 [from ballet]; Conc. for Orch
no.2, 1951; Conc. for Orch no.3 (Rcration concertante), 19523; Conc. for Orch
no.4, str, 1954; Conc. for Orch no.5, 1955; Conc. for Orch no.6 (Invenzione
concertata), brass, perc, str, 19567; Saluto augurale, 1958, unpubd; Fl Conc.,
1960; Prologo e 5 invenzioni, 19612; Conc. for Orch no.7, 1964 [incl. material
from Prologo e 5 invenzioni and chbr work Musica di ottoni]; Conc. for Orch no.8,
197072; Poema, tpt, str, 197780; Frammento, 1983
choral
Acc.: 3 cori, chorus, orch, 1932, unpubd; Ps ix, chorus, brass, perc, 2 pf, str, 1934
6; Magnificat, S, chorus, orch, 193940; Coro dei morti (madrigale drammatico, G.
Leopardi), male vv, brass, 3 pf, perc, 5 db, 194041; Noche oscura (cant., St John
of the Cross), chorus, orch, 195051, Orationes Christi, chorus, brass, vas, vcs,
19745; Kyrie, chorus, str, 1986
Unacc.: Nonsense (Lear, trans. C. Izzo), 1952; Sesto non-senso (Lear, trans. Izzo),
1964; Motetti per la Passione (liturgical texts), 1965; 3 cori sacri, 198083
other vocal
Salvezza (G. Gozzano), 1v, pf, 1926; Canti della campagna romana, folksong arrs.,
1v, pf, 1927, collab. G. Nataletti; La morte del cardellino (Gozzano), 1v, pf, 1927,
unpubd; 2 liriche su temi della campagna romana, 1v, pf, 1927, unpubd; Per organo
di Barberia (S. Corazzini), 1v, pf, 1927, unpubd; Campane (V. Breccia), 1v, pf, 1929,
unpubd; 3 liriche antiche italiane (G. Cavalcanti, 13th century), 1v, pf, 1929, no.2
pubd; Pioggia dai peschi (M. Saint-Cyr), 1v, pf, 1929, unpubd; Colori del tempo (V.
Cardarelli), 1v, pf, 1931; Benedizione (Bible: Genesis), 1v, pf, 1934; O sonni, sonni,
folk lullaby, 1v, pf, 1934; Vocalizzo per addormentare una bambina, 1v, pf, 1934, arr.
1v (1938); Lamento d'Arianna (L. de Libero), 1v, pf, 1936, arr. 1v, wind qnt, tpt, hp,
str qt (1938); 2 liriche di Saffo Rome (trans. S. Quasimodo), 1v, pf, 1941, arr. 1v,
wind qnt, tpt, hp, str qt, 1945; 4 inni sacri (latin texts), T, Bar, org, 1942, arr. T, Bar,
orch, 1950; 3 liriche (Leopardi, U. Foscolo, E. Montale), Bar, pf, 1944; Miracolo (F.
de Pisis), Bar, pf, 1944
Gloria in excelsis Deo, S, fl, org, 1952, unpubd; Propos d'Alain (E.A. Chartier), Bar,
12 insts, 1960; Beatitudines Testimonianza per Martin Luther King (Bible:
Matthew), B/Bar, E -cl, tpt, timp, va, db, 19689
chamber and solo instrumental
5 or more insts: Sonata da camera, hpd, 10 insts 1948; Serenata, fl, hpd, perc, va,
db, 1958; Musica di ottoni, 4 hn, 4 tpt, 3 trbn, tuba, timp, 19613 [incl. material from

Prologo e 5 invenzioni, orch, 19612 and forms basis of Conc. for Orch no.7]; Estri,
15 pfmrs, 19667, Ottetto di ottoni, 4 tpt, 4 trbn, 1968; Grand septuor avec
clarinette concertante, cl, tpt, trbn, vn, vc, gui, perc, 19778; Sestina d'autunno
Veni, creator Igor, va, vc, db, gui, mand, perc, 19812; Laudes creaturarum 3 cl, 2
trbn, vc, 1982; Inno, 12 brass, 1984
34 insts: Sinfonia, siciliana e fuga, str qt, 1929, unpubd; Fanfare, 3 tpt, 1944, rev.
1976; Str Qt, 1958; Str Trio, 1959; Seconda serenata-trio, hp, gui, mand, 1962; Tre
per sette, pic+fl+a fl, ob+eng hn, E -cl+cl, 1964; Odi, str qt, 19735
2 insts: Sonata in tre brevi movimenti continui, vc, pf, 1927, unpubd; Sonata in tre
brevi movimenti continui, vc, pf, 1927, unpubd; Sarabanda, fl, pf, 1930, unpubd;
Introduzione e allegro, vn, pf, 1933, arr. vn, 11 insts (1934); Preludio, aria e finale,
vc, pf, 1933, arr. vc, chbr orch, 1939, destroyed; Invenzione, 2 fl, 1944, rev. as
Dialogo angelico, 1948; 5 duetti, 2 vc, 1952, unpubd; Ala, pic + fl, hpd, 1972; Alias,
gui, hpd, 1977; Duetto, vn, va, 1985
Solo: Egloga, pf, 1926, unpubd; Partita, pf, 1926; Siciliana e marcetta, pf 4 hands,
1930; Toccata, pf, 1933; Piccola invenzione, pf, 1941, unpubd; Divertimento
scarlattiano, pf, 1942, unpubd; Invenzioni, pf, 1944; Petite pice, pf, 1950, rev.
1976; Suoni notturni, gui, 1959; Souffle, pic + fl + a fl, 1969; Elogio per un'ombra,
vn, 1971; Nunc, gui, 1971; Oh les beaux jours!, pf, 1976 [incl. material from Piccola
invenzione, 1941 and Divertimento scarlattiano, 1942]; Violasola, 1978; Flou hp,
1980; Romanzetta, fl, pf, 1980

MSS in CH-Bps

Principal publishers: Ricordi, Suvini Zerboni, Universal

Petrassi, Goffredo
WRITINGS
Perch i giovani musicisti non scrivono per il teatro, Scenario, iv
(1935), 459
Il festival internazionale di musica,Scenario, v (1936), 482
Taccuino di musica (Rome, 1944) [incl. reproductions of unpubd
works]
Scuola di composizione, Il mondo [Rome] (16 June 1945), no.6,
p.12
Le mie avventure con la danza,Musica [Rome], i (1946), 135
Sulla musica religiosa, Il campo, i (1946), 153
Seminario di composizione, Chigiana, xxxiii, new ser., xiii (1976),
30729
ed. C. Vasio: Autoritratto (Laterza, 1992)
Many contributions to Cosmopolita [Rome], iiiii (19456) [on
Stravinsky, Walton, Bloch and others]
For fuller list see KdG (J. Noller)
Petrassi, Goffredo

BIBLIOGRAPHY
KdG(J. Noller)
M. Mila: Ultime tendenze della musica italiana: un giovane,
Goffredo Petrassi, Domus, vii/74 (1934), 54
G. Gavazzeni: Musicisti nuovi: Goffredo Petrassi, Bollettino
mensile di vita e cultura musicale, ix (1935), 11519
G.M. Gatti: Modern Italian Composers: I Goffredo Petrassi, MMR,
lxvii (1937), 13
L.[F.] D'Amico: Goffredo Petrassi (Rome, 1942) [incl.
reproductions of unpubd works; extract, I lavori giovanili di
Petrassi, RaM, xv (1942), 110]
M. Maglia: Le dernier Petrassi, Il diapason, i/3 (1950), 19
G. Gavazzeni: Due balletti di Petrassi, La musica e il teatro (Pisa,
1954), 24157
R. Vlad: Petrassi, La noche oscura, Modernit e tradizione nella
musica contemporanea (Turin, 1955), 21735
K. Gaburo: Goffredo Petrassi: the Man and his Music, Musical
Courier, cliv/3 (1956), 6, 30
J.S. Weissmann: Goffredo Petrassi (Milan, 1957, 2/1980) [in Eng.]
R. Vlad: La dodecafonia in Italia, Storia della dodecafonia
(Milan,1958), 20419
F. D'Amico: Astrattismo puro del secondo Petrassi, L'Italia
domani, ii/10 (1959), 14
J.S. Weissmann: Petrassi's Early Choral Music, Ricordiana, iv/2
(1959), 4; It. trans. in Musica d'oggi, new ser., ii (1959), 342
J.S. Weissmann: Goffredo Petrassi and his Music, MR, xxii
(1961), 198211
G.M. Gatti, ed.: L'opera di Goffredo Petrassi, Quaderni della
RaM, no.1 (1964) [Petrassi issue]
G. Turchi: Profilo di Goffredo Petrassi, Terzo programma (1964),
no.3, p.266
A. Gentilucci: Goffredo Petrassi: Quartetto per archi Trio per
archi, Musica universit, iv/3 (1966), 32
C. Marinelli: La musica strumentale de camera di Goffredo
Petrassi, Chigiana, xxiv, new ser., iv (1967), 24584
B. Porena: I concerti di Petrassi e la crisi della musica come
linguaggio, NRMI, i (1967), 10191
R. Vlad: Musica moderna (19679), v, 12960 [2 Petrassi issues]
L. Pinzauti: A colloquio con Goffredo Petrassi, NRMI, ii (1968),
48293
J.C.G. Waterhouse: The Emergence of Modern Italian Music (up
to 1940) (diss., U. of Oxford,1968), 741ff
C. Annibaldi: Goffredo Petrassi: catalogo delle opere e bibliografia
(Milan, 1971, rev. 2/1980 with M. Monna)
A.E. Bonelli: Serial Tecniques in the Music of Goffredo Petrassi
(diss., U. of Rochester, 1971)
C. Annibaldi: Alfredo Casella a Goffredo Petrassi: 23 lettere
inedite, NRMI, vi (1972), 55371
L. Maggini: L'opera di Goffredo Petrassi (diss., U. of Florence,
1973)

O. Stone: Goffredo Petrassi's Concerto for Pianoforte and

Orchestra: a Study of Twentieth-Century Neo-Classic Style,
MR, xxxix (1978), 24057
G. Zosi: Ricerca e sintesi nell'opera di Goffredo Petrassi (Rome,
1978)
L. Lombardi: Conversazioni con Petrassi (Milan, 1980)
R. Piacentini: I concerti per orchestra fi Goffredo Petrassi (thesis,
U. of Turin, 19834)
F. Amico: Goffredo Petrassi, Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts
in der Paul Sacher Stiftung, ed. F. Meyer, J.M. Jans and I.
Westen (Basle, 1986), 23746
L. Lombardi: Spannung vertritt die Form: ein Gesprch mit
Goffredo Petrassi,NZM, cxlvii/3 (1986), 215
E. Restagno, ed.: Petrassi (Turin, 1986)
L.G. Barrow: The Rebirth of Choral Music in Italy, American
Choral Review, xxxii/12 (1990), 1722
L. Di Fronzo: Teatralit e madrigalismo nei Nonsense di Goffredo
Petrassi, Analisi, ii/5 (1991), 722
L. Galliano: Incontro con Goffredo Petrassi di Luciana Galliano: la
germinazione della musica nella musica stessa, Sonus
[Potenza], iii/4 (1991), 1922 [interview]
D. Spini: Petrassi e il tempo, NRMI, xxviii (1994), 35462