{{Short description|Italian essayist and composer (1930–2021)}} {{Infobox person | name = Paolo Castaldi | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = 9 September 1930 | birth_place = Milan, Kingdom of Italy | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2021|02|22|1930|09|09}} | death_place = Milan, Italy | other_names = | occupation = Essayist <br/> Composer | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Paolo Castaldi''' (9 September 1930 – 22 February 2021) was an Italian essayist and composer.
==Biography== Castaldi attended the school of music at the Milan Conservatory, where he studied under Antonino Votto and Carlo Maria Giulini. He also studied engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He also studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, where he attended lectures by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, and Mauricio Kagel.
Castaldi's works were frequently broadcast on radio and played in public. He simultaneously taught at conservatories in Milan and Parma. His primary publishers were Casa Ricordi and Suvini Zerboni. His style often adopted artificial and grotesque mechanisms,<ref>{{cite book |last=Sadie|first=Stanley|date=1994|title=The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music|trans-title= |url= |language= |location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0333432365}}</ref> as he used landscapes, buildings, and castles in the scenography of his notes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dorfles|first=Gillo|date=2006|title=L'intervallo perduto|trans-title= |url= |language=Italian|location=Milan|publisher=Skira editore|isbn=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Torelli Landini|first=Enrica|date=2012|title=Grafia musicale e segno pittorico nell'avanguardia italiana (1950-1970)|trans-title= |url= |language=Italian|location=Milan|publisher=De Luca Editori d'Arte|isbn=978-8865571125}}</ref> Musicologist {{ill|Renzo Cresti|it}} wrote that "despite having attended the Ferienkurse he has always placed himself outside the constructivist tendency, indeed, he laughs at it; he takes materials taken from works of the past and subjects them to an ironic collage which de-subjectivizes the work; through the cyclical fixity of the iterations of these materials, the original meaning is emptied. Lead composer, Castaldi plays iconoclastic games that reject the concept of novelty, the sound elements are objects that are recycled, between nostalgia for the past and the desire to make a scandal."<ref>{{cite book |last=Cresti|first=Renzo|date=2015|title=Ragioni e sentimenti nelle musiche europee dall'inizio del Novecento a oggi|trans-title= |url= |language=Italian|location=Lucca|publisher=Libreria Musicale Italiana|isbn=9788870968347}}</ref>
Castaldi died in Milan on 22 February 2021 at the age of 90.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ilmanifesto.it/paolo-castaldi-meravigliosamente-singolare/|title=Paolo Castaldi, meravigliosamente singolare|date=23 February 2021|work=Il Manifesto|language=Italian}}</ref>
==Works== *''3 Immagini'' (1948) *''Per i miei amici'' (1949) *''Preludio e toccata'' (1950) *''Trio'' (1950–1951) *''Il teatrino delle marionette'' (1952) *''Sonatina'' (1952) *''5 Liriche greche'' (1953) *''Suite classica'' (1953) *''3 Canoni'' (1954) *''Contrappunti-Concerto da camera'' (1954) *''Sonata pro pace'' (1954–1955) *''3 concerti'' (1953–1955) *''Divertimento'' (1958–1959) *''3 Studi'' (1959) *''Frase'' (1960) *''Clausola'' (1961) *''Monotone'' (1961–1968) *''Tendre'' (1962) *''Facsimile'' (1962) *''Anfrage'' (1963) *''Diktat'' (1963) *''Moll'' (1964) *''Esecuzione di Moll'' (1964–1977) *''Elisa'' (1964–1967) *''Schoenberg A-B-C'' (1967) *''Concerto'' (1967) *''Tema per uno che non parla'' (1968) *''Clausola'' (1968) *''L'Oro'' (1968) *''Allegretto'' (1968–1978) *''Tema'' (1968) *''Grid'' (1969) *''Doktor Faust'' (1969) *''153'' (1969) *''Sigla'' (1969) *''Invenzione'' (1969) *''Definizione di "Grid"'' (1969) *''Filarmonica'' (1969–1970) *''K. 522'' (1970) *''Scale'' (1970) *''Left'' (1971) *''Studio'' (1971) *''Notturno'' (1971) *''Finale'' (1971–1973) *''Romanza'' (1971–1974) *''Esercizio'' (1971) *''Caro Babbo'' (1972) *''L'Esercizio con pf.'' (1973) *''Cardini'' (1973) *''Innere Stimme'' (1974) *''Es'' (1975) *''Moderato'' (1975) *''Altra Romanza'' (1975–1976) *''Ultima Romanza'' (1976) *''Sunday Morning'' (1975) *''Simile A'' (1978) *''Goethe'' (1975–1976) *''Simile'' (1976) *''Simile B'' (1978) *''Simile C'' (1978) *''Idem'' (1978) *''Battente; Cadenze; Isola; Interludio; Eco; Anonimo; Isola'' (1976–1978) *''Cedendo'' (1978) *''Clap'' (1980) *''Allegretto'' (1981) *''Simile D'' (1982)
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Castaldi, Paolo}} Category:1930 births Category:2021 deaths Category:Academic staff of Milan Conservatory Category:Academic staff of the Parma Conservatory Category:20th-century Italian essayists Category:Italian male essayists Category:Italian composers Category:Italian male composers Category:Composers from Milan Category:Milan Conservatory alumni Category:Accademia Musicale Chigiana alumni Category:Berio scholars Category:Bussotti scholars