Il linguaggio compositivo di Fernando Lopes-Graça: materiali e forma, innesti e stratificazioni

The article proposes an analysis of Fernando Lopes-Graça’s musical style (1906-1994), a Portuguese composer who played an important role in the resistance against Salazar’s dictatorship. His creative activity is characterized by a deep interest for the folk song tradition of his country and by a strong attitude towards the experimentation of new expressive languages. The first part of the essay focuses on the Melodias Rústicas Portuguesas, to highlight the composer’s tendency to use a folk song as a departure point towards an exploration of new sound combinations in both modal and post-tonal ambitus. The analysis of the Cinco Nocturnos for piano allows to examine several features of his compositional style: the use of the octatonic system and of symmetrical chordal constructions; the continuity of form through the selections of fundamental motives built around a limited number of intervals; the dialectic between continuity and discontinuity; the experimentation with timbre, obtained through a careful use of registers; the technique of sound stratification, through which it is possible to explore a non-linear dimension of musical time.