Ivan Fedele

born in Lecce (Italy) in 1953, he graduated from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where he studied piano with Bruno Canino and Ilonka Deckers. He also studied composition with Franco Dona-toni at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and philosophy at Milan’s State University.
In 1981 he drew attention to his work with Chiari for orchestra and his Primo Quartetto, both presented at the International Gaudeamus Music Week. In 1989, Epos for large orchestra was awarded First Prize at the International Goffredo Petrassi Competition.
Fedele’s music has attracted such prominent conductors as Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Myung-Whun Chung, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin and David Robertson, and many renowned ensembles and orchestras, including the Orchestre Nationale de France, the Orchestre de Radio France, the Orchestre Nationale de Lyon, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Warsaw Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Nuove Sincronie, Ensemble VarŹse, Contre-champs, Ensemble InterContemporain, Gruppo Musica Insieme, Accroche Note, Octandre, Klangforum Wien, and Algoritmo Ensemble.
Series of monographic concerts were dedicated to him at the Festival ‘Musica’ in Strasbourg (1996), the Helsinki Festival (1998) and the CaĎn Festival (1999).
Ivan Fedele also writes music for radio, film and installations. He composed two works for Italian Radio: Orfeo al cinema Orfeo (1994) and Barbara mitica (1996), and the soundtracks for the 1928 silent film La chute de la Maison Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher, dir. Jean Epstein). In 1997, he realized the music for the interactive installation of the Milanese Studio Azzurro for New Metropolis in Amsterdam. His discography includes an all-Fedele cd with Ensemble InterContem-porain under David Robertson.
ircam published his biography as part of its series Les cahiers de l’Ircam/Compositeurs d’aujourd’hui.

Selected works (since 1984): String Quartet No. 1 (1981–89), Armoon for four pianos (1983/84), Naturae, metaphysical madrigal for countertenor, tenor and bass to the composer’s texts (1984), Latinamix, three pieces for guitar, piano and flute ad lib. (1985), Magic for four saxophones (1985; version for four clarinets – 1996), Chord for ten performers (1986), Flores for organ (1987), String Quartet No. 2 Pentalogon (1987), Bias for oboe and guitar (1988), Modus for bass clarinet and percussion (1988), Epos for orchestra (1989), Mixtim, ritual music for seven performers (1989), Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1990), Imaginary Sky-lines for flute and harp (1990), Etudes boréales for piano (1990), Duo en resonance for two horns and ensemble (1991), In giardino di Giada II for flute and string trio (1991), Donax for solo flute (1992), Imaginary Islands for flute, bass clarinet and piano (1992), Carme for chamber orchestra (1992), Carme secondo for symphony orchestra (1993), Piano Concerto (1993), Richiamo for brass instruments, percussion and electronics (1993–94), Allegoria dell’indaco, version for chamber orchestra (1994), Orfeo al Cinema Orfeo for two reciting voices and midi equipment set to texts by Giuliano Corti (1994), Profilo in eco for flute and ensemble (1994–95), Allons for soprano with cello accompaniment (1995), La chute de la Maison Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher), music to Jean Epstein’s film of 1928 for female voice and ensemble (1995), aa ira for voice and cello (1996), Cello Concerto (1996), High. In memoriam Miles Davis for trumpet (1996), Barbara mitica for tape, radio piece to a text
by G. Corti (1996), Coram for solo voices, choir and orchestra to a text by
G. Corti (1996), Coram Requiem for solo voices, reciting voices, choir and orchestra to a text by G. Corti (1996), Corrente for piano and seven performers (1996), Corrente II for piano and six performers (1997), L’Orizzonte di Elettra for viola, live electronics and chamber orchestra (1997), Correnti alternate for piano and seven instruments (1997), Dioscuri for two cellos and orchestra (1997), Imaginary Depth for cello and chamber orchestra (1997), Donacis ambra for flute and live electronics (1997), Scena for orchestra (1997–98), Violin Concerto (1998–99), Erinni for piano, dulcimer and vibraphone (1998), Codex, due contrapunti dall’Arte della Fuga di J. S.Bach for chamber orchestra (1999), Maja for soprano, piano percussion, flute, clarinet, violin and cello to a text by G. Corti (1999), Elettra for viola and electronics (1999).

Accents for piano and string quartet was written in response to a proposal from Riccardo Risaliti and Quartetto Prometeo to write a piece for the Festival of Nations in the town of Castello (Festival delle Nazioni di Cittą di Castello). In recent months I was again attracted to traditional instrumental line-ups with a view to bringing to light the possibilities which had to date been hidden from me. This refers to Accents, which is the first in a series of works ‘on the subject’: the po-etic, formal and aesthetic subject. Therefore, the ‘accents’, understood as the dynamic-agogic impulses of microform (so-called musical figures) or as ‘time axes’, which (analogously to the ‘touches’ of the tangle of sounds) dismember the macroform, become the main components of the musical material. The development of the musical material is not linear but one that binds together the sudden accelerations and suspensions, which assign priority to the poetics of contrasts rather than the idea of continuity.