Vittorio Radeglia in njegova Sérénade aux Etoiles na tekmovanju Modern Composers‘ Series

Vittorio Radeglia (Istanbul, 1863 – Istanbul, 1941) was a composer of operas, orchestral works, cantatas, but the largest part of his output consisted of compositions for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and vocal songs. Thanks to his Dalmatian origin, the Department for History of Croatian Music of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb received his musical legacy as a gift from his daughter. Since Radeglia is not known to the wider musical and musicological audiences, in this paper we will present the outline of his life and work, but we will devote most of our attention to his composition Serenade aux etoiles [Serenade to the Stars], a piece that was awarded first prize in the Modern Composers’ Series competition and published by the Art Publication Society (St Louis) in 1913. The idea behind this publishing series was to make music education widely available through the publication of scores “with authoritative pedalling, fingering and phrasing”, but the series also aimed to communicate “the poetic idea of the composer.” Thus, the scores also included composers’ notes on in the published piece which addressed issues of interpretation. These notes will be discussed in relation to the contemporary performer’s interpretation organized for the purpose of this analysis. The research for this paper is part of the project “Institutionalization of modern bourgeois musical culture in the 19th century in Civil Croatia and the Military Border”.