Risonanze ebraiche. Suoni e pensieri ‘erranti’ nell’autobiografia artistica di Luigi Nono

A recurring theme in his works from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Shoah has been often treated in relation to the composer Luigi Nono. The same cannot be said for another topic connected to Judaism, that of wandering, which occurs in many different forms in Nono’s discourse. As for the first theme, the chapter retraces the main steps of its musical elaboration from the early 1950s on. More space is reserved to the category of ‘wandering’, which is thematized in Nono’s discourse of the 1980s and connects with his renewed interest in Jewish culture in that same period. This interest is mediated by texts – including texts of the Jewish tradition, writings by Jewish authors, and texts on Judaism – and interlocutors such as the philosopher Massimo Cacciari and the Jewish poet Edmond Jabès and is coloured by a sense of personal disquiet and restlessness which influences Nono’s reception. In this respect, the chapter identifies and discusses some relevant tropes of Nono’s discourse, including: the forms of wandering involved in Prometeo considered as project, work and performance; the idea of cultural difference of Judaism suggested by Cacciari; the idea of ‘mobile sound’ pursued in Nono’s musical research; the presence of wandering as direct prescription to the performers in his latest works, some of which are elusively linked to individual, mostly improvised performances. The conclusions reflect on the recurrence of these topics in Nono’s discourse, citing reasons of political positioning, communication of artistic intentions, and personal introspection.