Bruno Maderna
Bruno Maderna (born Bruno Grossato, 21 April 1920 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian composer, conductor and academic teacher.
Also recorded as Bruno Grossato
Bruno Maderna

214-maderna-bruno · Public domain
- Born
- 1920. · Venice.
- Died
- 1973. · Darmstadt.
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Italy and Italy.
- Occupation
- composer, conductor, musicologist, music educator and partisan.
- Fields
- opera.
- Movements
- 20th-century classical music.
- Education
- Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia.
- Known for
- Satyricon.
- Honours
- Johann Heinrich Merck Honour.
- Languages
- Italian.
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Bruno Maderna (born Bruno Grossato, 21 April 1920 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian composer, conductor and academic teacher.
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Note VALÉORINE
Bruno Maderna (1920–1973) was an Italian and Italian composer, conductor and music educator, among other activities. Born in Venice, the composer died in Darmstadt.
Bruno Maderna studied at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia. The composer worked for Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia, Juilliard School and Milan Conservatory, among others and worked in Verona. Bruno Maderna was associated with 20th-century classical music.
Works include Satyricon. Genres include opera. Languages used include Italian. The composer received Johann Heinrich Merck Honour.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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gnd · 16045258-2 · museum · 3ed7e293-4fd2-474c-82bc-c3d9814db820 · wikidata · Q351383 · wikipedia · Bruno Maderna
In this article
Life
Life
Bruno Maderna studied at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia. The recorded working language is Italian. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Places of work recorded in the authority are Verona. Employment is recorded with Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia, Milan Conservatory and Rotterdams Conservatorium. Works named in the authority record are Satyricon. Distinctions recorded are Johann Heinrich Merck Honour.
Maderna was born Bruno Grossato in Venice but later decided to take the name of his mother, Caterina Carolina Maderna. At the age of four, he began studying the violin with his grandfather. "My grandfather thought that if you could play the violin you could then do anything, even become the biggest gangster. If you play the violin you are always sure of a place in heaven." As a child, he played several instruments (violin, drums and accordion) in his father's small variety band. A child prodigy, in the early thirties, he was not only performing violin concertos, he was already conducting orchestral concerts: first with the orchestra of La Scala in Milan, then in Trieste, Venice, Padua and Verona. He was originally Jewish. Orphaned at the age of four, Maderna was adopted by a wealthy woman from Verona, Irma Manfredi, who saw to it that he received a solid musical education. He took private lessons in harmony and musical composition from Arrigo Pedrollo from 1935 until 1937 and studied composition with Alessandro Bustini at the Rome Conservatory from 1937 until 1940. After Rome, he returned to Venice, where he attended the advanced course for composers (1940–42) organised by Gian Francesco Malipiero at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory (his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra dates from this time). He also studied conducting with Antonio Guarnieri at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena (1941) and Hermann Scherchen in Venice (1948). Through Scherchen Maderna discovered twelve-tone technique and the music of the Second Viennese School. During the Second World War, he took part in the partisan resistance. From 1948 to 1952, he taught music theory at the Venice Conservatory. During this period, he collaborated with Malipiero on critical editions of Italian early music. Fellow composers he met at this time included Luigi Dallapiccola and, at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Boulez, Messiaen, Cage, Pousseur, Nono and Stockhausen.
Conductor/teacher
Conductor/teacher
In 1950, Maderna started an international career as a conductor, first in Paris and Munich, then across Europe. In 1955, he founded the Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano with Luciano Berio and Incontri musicali, a series of concerts disseminating contemporary music in Italy. With his later wife Beate Christina Koepnick, a young actress from Darmstadt, Maderna had three children. In 1957–58, at the invitation of Giorgio Federico Ghedini, he taught at the Milan Conservatory, and between 1960 and 1962 he lectured at Dartington International Summer School in England. From 1961 to 1966, Maderna and Pierre Boulez were the main directors of the International Kranichsteiner Kammerensemble in Darmstadt. Despite this heavy workload throughout these years Maderna found time to compose. During the 1960s and '70s, he spent much time in the United States, teaching and conducting. In 1971–72, he was appointed director of new music at Tanglewood. In 1972–73, he became the principal conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica of RAI in Milan. Maderna died of lung cancer in Darmstadt in 1973, at the age of 53. A number of composers wrote pieces in Maderna's memory, including Pierre Boulez (Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna) and Luciano Berio (Calmo for voice and orchestra). Earle Brown's Centering, dedicated to the memory of Maderna, ends with a short quotation from Maderna's First Oboe Concerto.
Work
Work
Maderna composed much music in all genres: instrumental, chamber, concertos and electronic, as well as large amounts of incidental music (for theatre and radio) and transcriptions and editions of early music. At the heart of Maderna's output are a number of concertos, including one for violin, one for two pianos, two for solo piano and several for flute and orchestra. He was particularly drawn to the oboe, composing three concertos in all: the first in 1962–63, followed by two more in 1967 and 1973. Other major orchestral works include Aura and Biogramma (both 1967) and Quadrivium, for four percussionists and four orchestral groups (premiered at the 1969 Royan Festival). Giuseppe Sinopoli recorded all three of these pieces with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1979. Maderna's Requiem, composed between 1944 and 1946, was rediscovered and performed in 2009; the American composer Virgil Thomson saw an unfinished version of the score in 1946 and praised it as a masterpiece. Bruno Maderna also produced scores for eight films and two documentaries. The last of these was for Giulio Questi's thriller La morte ha fatto l'uovo in 1968. His opera, Satyricon, was premiered in 1973. Maderna was certainly also a prominent composer in genres such as electronic music, experimental music and avant-garde music. His work Musica su due dimensioni for flute, cymbals, and tape, which premiered at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in 1952, is one of the earliest examples of a composer combining acoustic and electronic sounds.
Places
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Places
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Venice.
Birth place
Darmstadt.
Death place
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Bruno Maderna, revision 1339479820 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Recordings (as a conductor)
Luna Alcalay: Una strofa di Dante (Radiosinfonieorchester Wien; ORF Chor; AKM Orf; 1967) Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Alfred Brendel; BBC SO; Stradivarius; 1973) Alban Berg: Orchesterlieder nach Ansichtskartentexten von Peter Altenberg, Op. 4 (Halina Lukomska; Concertgebouw Orchestra; RCO Live; 1968) Drei Orchesterstücke, Op. 6 (Sinfonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks; Arkadia, 1969) Wozzeck (Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper; Orchester der Hamburgischen Staatsoper; Toni Blankenheim, Richard Cassilly, Peter Haage, Gerhard Unger; Art Haus Musik, 1970) Lulu (Orchestra della RAI di Roma; Ilona Steingruber, Eugenia Zareska, Luisa Ribacchi, Maria Teresa, Massa Ferrero; live 1959; Stradivarius, 1959) Lulu Suite (Mary Lindsay, soprano; Süddeutsches Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester; Arkadia, 1969) Konrad Boehmer: Position (WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, BVHaast, 1963) Pierre Boulez: Le marteau sans maître (Carla Henius, alto; Severino Gazzelloni, flute; Dino Asciolla, viola; Leonida Torrebruno, percussion. Stradivarius, 1961) Figures—Doubles—Prismes (Residentie Orkest, Stradivarius, 1968) Polyphonie X (Orchestra delle RAI, Stradivarius, 1953) Johannes Brahms: Double concerto (Salvatore Accardo, violin; Siegfried Palm, cello; Orchestra Sinfonica RAI di Roma; Arkadia, 1961) Earle Brown: Available Forms I on Panorama della musica nuova (RCA MLDS 61005, 1964) Åke Hermanson: In nuce, Op. 7 (Caprice 22056) Günter Kahowez: Plejaden No. 2 (Radio Sinfonie Orchester Wien; AKM Orf; 1966) Włodzimierz Kotoński: Canto (Internationales Kranichsteiner Kammerensemble; Wergo,?) György Ligeti: Aventures/Nouvelles Aventures (Internationales Kammerensemble Darmstadt, Wergo, 1968) Franz Liszt: Tasso: lamento e trionfo (Orchestra Sinfonica RAI di Torino; Arkadia, 1964) Witold Lutosławski: Jeux Vénitiens (Concertgebouworkest, RCO Live, 1967) Gustav Mahler: Symphonie No. 7 (Wiener Symphoniker, Hunt, 1967) Symphonie No. 9 (BBC SO, BBC, 1970) Gian Francesco Malipiero: Sinfonia della Zodiaco (Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino; Ricordi,?) Felix Mendelssohn: Symphonie No. 3 (Schottische) (Concertgebouworkest, RCO Live, 1965) Claudio Monteverdi: L'Orfeo (Oralia Dominguez, mezzo-soprano; Barry McDaniel, baritone; Koor van de Nederlandse Opera; Utrechts Symfonieorkest. Holland Festival, 1966) Mozart: Symphonie No. 18, KV 130 (Orchestra della RAI di Milano, Stradivarius,?) Bo Nilsson: Szene No. 3, 1961 (Internationales Kranichsteiner Kammerensemble, Wergo) Luigi Nono: Il canto sospeso (Chor und Sinfonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks, Stradivarius, 1960) Krzysztof Penderecki: Tren Ofiarom Hiroszimy (Orchestra della RAI di Roma; Stradivarius, 1963) Goffredo Petrassi: Noche Oscura (Chor und Orchester des Hessischen Rundfunks; Stradivarius, 1952) Henri Pousseur: Rimes pour différentes sources sonores [for ensemble and pre-recorded sound on magnetic tape] on Panorama della musica nuova RCA MLDS 61005, 1964 Maurice Ravel: L'heure espagnole (Suzanne Danco; Michel Hamel; John Cameron; André Vessières; Jean Giraudeau; BBC SO. Stradivarius, 1960) Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Wiener Symphoniker, Arkadia, 1969) Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5 (Sinfonieorchester des Südwestfunks, Arkadia, 1960) 5 Orchesterstücke, Op. 16 (Orchestra della RAI di Torino, Stradivarius,?) Serenade, Op. 24/Suite, Op. 29 (Melos Ensemble of London, Decca, 1962) Variations for Orchestra, Op.31 (Sinfonieorchester des Westdeutschen Rundfunks, Arkadia, 1961) Violin Concerto, Op. 36 (Christiane Edinger, Sinfonie Orchester des Saarlandischen Rundfunks, Arkadia, 1971) Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38 (Sinfonieorchester des Saarlandischen Rundfunks, Arkadia, 1970) Piano Concerto, Op. 42 (Alfred Brendel, BBC SO, Stradivarius, 1973) Genesis, Op. 44 (Coro e Orchestra della RAI di Roma, Stradivarius, 1960) A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 (Goren Kubitzki, Orchestra della RAI di Torino, Stradivarius,?) Robert Schollum: Symphonie No. 4, Op. 74 (Radiosinfonieorchester Wien, AKM Orf, 1966/7) Karlheinz Stockhausen: Gruppen für drei Orchester (Sinfonieorchester des Westdeutschen Rundfunks, with Stockhausen and Michael Gielen; Deutsche Grammophon, 1968) Kontra-Punkte on Panorama della musica nuova (RCA MLDS 61005, 1964) Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps (Orchestra della RAI di Milano, Stradivarius,?) Edgard Varèse: Déserts (Concertgebouworkest, RCO Live, 1968) Ionisation (Concertgebouworkest, RCO Live, 1966) Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll (Residenz Orchester Den Haag; Arkadia, 1967) Anton Webern: Sechs Stücke für Orchester, Op. 6 (Orchestre delle RAI di Torino, Stradivarius, 1961) Vier Lieder, Op. 13 (Halina Lukomska, Concertgebouw Orkest, RCO Live, 1968) Sechs Lieder, Op. 14 (Dorothy Dorow, Melos Ensemble, Stradivarius, 1961) Concerto, Op. 24 (Melos Ensemble, Stradivarius, 1961)

Nino Rota Riccardo Bacchelli e Bruno Maderna
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Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Bruno Maderna
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
reference work
- “Bruno Maderna”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q351383: Bruno Maderna
Unverified · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Interview with Maderna's three children Caterina, Claudia and Andreas Maderna, Heidelberg 2019
- 2.Henahan, Donal. Toscanini or Boulez the Better Conductor?. The New York Times. 9 January 1972.
- 3.Mattietti, 2006}}.
- 4.Anon., 2011a ; harvnb, De Benedictis, n.d.
- 5.Boulez – Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna for orchestra in 8 groups.
- 6.Berio – Calmo for mezzo-soprano and 22 instruments.
- 7.di Luzio, Claudia. Maderna's Requiem Recovered. Notes. Music Library Association. 70. 3. 2014.
- 8.Clark, Philip. Maderna Requiem. Gramophone. December 2015.
- 9.Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music and After. Oxford University Press on Demand. 1995. 0-19-816511-0.
- 10.Music in Two Dimensions: Works for Flute – Mode Records.
- 11.Åke Hermanson: Alarme, Caprice 22056
Bibliography printed in the source article · 38
- Anon. Bruno Maderna. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2011a.
- Anon. Bruno Maderna. bach-cantatas.com. 2011b.
- Anon. Centering. 2013.
- Anon. La morte ha fatto l'uovo. IMDb. n.d.
- Clements, Dominy. Bruno Maderna (1920–1973) / Requiem (1946). musicweb-international.com. 2015.
- De Benedictis, Angela Ida. Biography: Bruno Maderna. Centro Studi Luciano Berio. n.d.
- Mattietti, Gianluigi. Maderna, Bruno. 67. 2006.
- Oron, Aryeh. Bruno Maderna (Conductor, Composer). 2001.
- Patmore, David. Bruno Maderna. n.d.
- Baroni, Mario. The Macroform in Post-tonal Music: Listening and Analysis. Musicae Scientiae. 7. 2. 219–240. 2003. 10.1177/102986490300700202.
- Libreria Musicale Italiana. Pour Bruno. Memorie e ricerche su Bruno Maderna. 2015.
- Edizioni Suvini Zerboni. Bruno Maderna, Documenti. 1985.
- Edizioni Suvini Zerboni. Studi su Bruno Maderna. 1989.
- Böhlen, Manfred Joh. Die Solokonzerte Bruno Madernas. Fragment 1986-1988. mjbEDV. 2000. 978-3-9351-9800-4.
- Clark, Philip. Thoroughly Modern Maderna. 44–45. 2011.
- LIM. Bruno Maderna. Studi e Testimonianze. 2004.
- Dalmonte, Rossana. Maderna [Grossato], Bruno [Brunetto]. Macmillan Publishers. 2001.
- Drees, Stefan. Renaissance-Musik als Inspirationsquelle für das Komponieren Bruno Madernas und Luigi Nonos. The Past in the Present. IMS Intercongressional Symposium and the 10th Meeting of the Cantus Planus. 1. 545–558. 2000. 978-963-7181-34-4.
- Fabbi, Roberto. Cena sociale. Satyricon e il 'politico. Musica/Realtà. 67. 2002.
- Fearn, Raymond. Bruno Maderna. Harwood Academic Publishers. 1990.
- Fearn, Raymond. Luft von anderem Planeten.': The presence of the Epitaph of Seikilos in Bruno Maderna's Composizione no. 2 (1950). The Past in the Present. IMS Intercongressional Symposium and the 10th Meeting of the Cantus Planus. 1. 559–568. 2000. 978-963-7181-34-4.
- Éditions de Basalte. À Bruno Maderna. 2007.
- Ferrari, Giordano. Les débuts du théatre musical d'avant-garde en Italie. Berio, Evangelisti, Maderna. L'Harmattan. 2000.
- Gagné, Nicole V. Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music. Scarecrow Press. 2012. 978-0-8108-6765-9.
- di Luzio, Claudia. Traumnahe Welten—weltnahe Träume: Zum Verhältnis von Traum und Wirklichkeit im Musiktheater von Luciano Berio und Bruno Maderna. Traum und Wirklichkeit in Theater und Musiktheater: Vorträge und Gespräche des Salzburger Symposions. Mueller-Speiser. 62. 342–356. Wort und Musik: Salzburger akademische Beiträge. 2004. 978-3-85145-099-6.
- Mathon, Geneviève. À propos du Satyricon de Bruno Moderna. Musique et Dramaturgie: Esthétique de la Représentation Au XXème Siècle. Publications de la Sorbonne. Esthétique 7. 571–593. 2003. 978-2-85944-472-3.
- Mila, Massimo. Maderna musicista europeo. Piccola biblioteca Einaudi. nuova serie 17. 1999. 978-88-06-15059-4.
- Neidhofer, Christoph. 'Blues' through the Serial Lens: Transformational Process in a Fragment by Bruno Maderna. 18. 14–20. 2005.
- Neidhofer, Christoph. Bruno Madernas flexibler Materialbegriff: Eine Analyse des Divertimento in due tempi (1953). 9. 33. 30–47. 2005.
- Neidhofer, Christoph. Bruno Maderna's Serial Arrays. Music Theory Online. 13. 1. 2007. 10.30535/mto.13.1.2.
- Palazzetti, Nicolò. Italian Harmony during the Second World War. Analysis of Bruno Maderna's First String Quartet. 21. 1. 63–91. 2015.
- van de Poel, Piet Hein. Bruno Maderna sur le Satyricon: Pop art en musique. Musique et Dramaturgie: Esthétique de la Représentation Au XXème Siècle. Publications de la Sorbonne. 599–601. 2003.
- Service, Tom. Remembering Bruno Maderna. The Guardian. 13 November 2013.
- Greenwood Press. Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biographical Sourcebook. 2002.
- Suvini-Hand, Vivienne. Bruno Maderna's Ausstrahlung Sweet Thunder: Music and Libretti in 1960s Italy. Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing. 16. 151–178. 2006. 978-1-904350-60-6.
- Verzina, Nicola. Bruno Maderna: Etude historique et critique. L'Harmattan. 2003. 978-2-7475-4409-2.
- Zender, Hans. Neue Musik erwartet Selbstandigkeit. 24. 2007.
- Bruno Maderna (2020), Amore e curiosità. Scritti, frammenti e interviste sulla musica, ed. by Angela Ida De Benedictis, Michele Chiappini and Benedetta Zucconi. Milan: Il Saggiatore. .
References
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