Octatonic Serialism in Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero

Using as a case study the 1948 opera Il prigioniero, written over five years in Dallapiccola’s first phase of twelve-tone writing, I investigate the unique interweaving of the composer’s experimentation with the twelve-tone method, his setting of dramatic text, and his manipulation of the octatonic collection. After discussing the impact that the octatonic scale had on Dallapiccola during his early formation, I examine how octatonic structures are built into the network of rows used in the opera, and analyse excerpts that show how octatonic segmentations strongly support text setting, in essence replacing tonality as a small- and large- scale organizing force.