Dalla ricezione del metodo dodecafonico al pensiero seriale: le Variazioni canoniche di Luigi Nono

Luigi Nono’s Variazioni canoniche sulla serie dell’op. 41 di Arnold Schoenberg (1949- 50) represent a very interesting example of reception of the twelve-tone method in the so-called “New Venetian School” in the years after the Second World War. Furthermore, in virtue of some of its compositional procedures, the piece is repre- sentative of a decisive phase of transition towards the serial thought. Starting from an investigation of the creative process, conducted on the basis of the preparatory materials held in the Archivio Luigi Nono in Venice, this essay highlights the work’s main compositional strategies, often intentionally hidden by the author in the de- finitive score. This analysis reveals a proliferation of techniques aimed at determi- nining each time a different relationship between variation and canon, chosen by Nono as privileged compositional principles of the two traditional modes of repre- sentation – homophony and polyphony – of the musical thought.