Franco Donatoni (1927-2000)
Born in Verona, he began his music education there as a pupil of Piero Bottagisio. He subsequently studied composition with Ettore Desderi at Milan's Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory and under Lino Liviabella at the G. B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna, as well as at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome (with Ildebrando Pizzetti). He took part in the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt four times (1954, 1956, 1985, and 1961). In 1972 he stayed in Berlin at the invitation of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. The meetings with Bruno Maderna and the critic M. Bortolotto proved an important influence on his artistic development.
Donatoni received many honours including an award at the competition in Liège (for Quartetto, 1951), the Radio Luxembourg Prize in 1951 (for Concertino for Strings, Brass Instruments and Solo Kettledrums) and 1953 (for Sinfonia for strings), the iscm Prize (for Puppenspiel, 1961), and the Koussevitzky Prize (for Orts, 1968). He was a member of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. He also received the title 'Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres', awarded by the French Minister of Culture.
He has also made a name as a teacher, lecturing at the conservatories in Turin and Milan, and the University of Bologna (1953-1978), and conducting seminars in the United States (the University of California at Berkeley, 1979), Switzerland, France, Spain, Holland and Israel. From 1970 he led summer courses in composition at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He was also a professor of composition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
His output as a writer comprises three volumes of studies on music and philosophy, and numerous articles on contemporary music.
He died on 17 August 2000.

Selected works: Quartetto per archi (1950), Composizione in 4 movimenti for piano (1956), Quartetto II (1958), Movimento for harpsichord, piano and nine instruments (1959), La Lampara, ballet (1957), Serenata for soprano and 16 instruments to texts by Dylan Thomas (1969), Strophes for orchestra (1959), For Grilly - Improvvisazione per 7 (1960), Sezioni - Invenzione per orchestra (1960), Quartetto iii for 4-channel tape (1961), Doubles for harpsichord (1961), Quartetto iv (Zrcadlo) (1963), Puppenspiel - Studi per una musica di scena (1961), Per orchestra (1962), Assar for ten string instruments (1964), Black and White for 37 string instruments (1964), Divertimento II for strings (1965), Puppenspiel II for flute, piccolo flute and orchestra (1966), Souvenir (Kammersymphonie) for 15 instruments (1967), Etwas ruhiger im Ausdruck for five instruments (1967), Orts (Souvenir n. 2) for 14 instruments and a reciter ad lib. (1969), Doubles II for orchestra (1970), To Earle for chamber orchestra (1970), Secondo estratto for harp, piano and harpsichord (1970), Lied for 13 instruments (1972), Jeux pour deux for harpsichord and organ (1973), Voci for orchestra (1973), Quarto estratto for piccolo flute, celesta, mandolin, harp, piano, harpsichord and violin (1974), Espressivo for oboe, French horn and orchestra (1974), Lumen for piccolo flute, clarinet, celesta, vibraphone, viola and cello (1975), Terzo estratto for piano and eight wind instruments (1975), Ash for flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, harpsichord and string trio (1976), Diario 1976 for four trumpets and four trombones (1977), Portrait for harpsichord and orchestra (1977), Nidi for piccolo flute (1977), Marches I & II for solo harp (1979), Le Ruisseau sur l'escalier for 19 performers and solo cello (1980), The Heart's Eye for string quartet (1981), Tema for 12 instruments (1981), Feria for five flutes, five trumpets, four trombones and orchestra (1983), In cauda for chorus and orchestra (1983), Symphony Op. 63 'Anton Webern' (1983), Abyss for low female voice, bass flute and ten instruments (1983), Darkness for six percussionists (1984), Eco for chamber orchestra (1985-86), Cadeau for eleven instrumentalists (1985), Sextet for Two Violins, Two Violas and Two Cellos (1985), Still for soprano and six instruments (1985), Arpège for six instruments (1986), Refrain for eight instruments (1986), Ave for flute and piccolo, bells and celesta (1987), Flag for 13 instruments (1987), O si ride for 12 solo voices (1987), La souris sans sourire for string quartet (1988), Cinis for female voice and bass clarinet (1988), Cloches for two pianos, eight wind instruments and two percussions (1988-89), Soft for bass clarinet (1989), Midi, two pieces for flute (1989), Blow for wind quintet (1989), An Angel within my Heart for soprano, two clarinets and string trio, with words by Susan Park (1993), Lem ii for double-bass and ensemble (1996-97), Luci iii, string quartet (1997), Feria iv for accordion (1997), Till for horn (1997).

Marches I & II - two pieces for solo harp - were written in 1979. In 1981, the composer combined Marches with Nidi for piccolo (1977) and Clair for clarinet (1980), which resulted in a 'trio' piece called Small (1981) and one year later another 'permutation' of the same material was the basis for She - a trio of female voices.
For Donatoni, the sound once more becomes the essential element of the work, or rather, it is finally directly involved in the very act of composing. But once again, as with the dramatic sense of the 'morality' within the firm artisan use of 'notes', on the 'interval relationships', on the logic of the sound texture, Franco Donatoni seeks no shortcuts. He achieves this by carrying out his job of frenetic transformation on tiny groups of intervals, with such a high degree of ornamental richness to cause the logic of the musical sign to 'precipitate' in a continuous epiphany of sound. Like Schoenberg, the steel network of interval relationships acts as a guarantee of the coherence of material that can be played with at will.