Domenico Guaccero

Italian Composer and Music Theorist

Italian composer and music theorist born in Palo del Colle (Bari) on 11 April 1927, and died in Rome on 24 April 1984. A musician heavily involved with, and iconic of, the New Music movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He began his studies in Bari, obtaining a diploma in piano (1948) and graduating in literature from the local university (1949). In Rome he studied composition, graduating in 1956 under the guidance of Goffredo Petrassi. In 1957 he founded, with Goffredo Petrassi, Guido Turchi, Roman Vlad, Gino Marinuzzi Jr. and others the Centre for Electronic Music of the Roman Philarmonic Academy. In 1959 he co-founded and began directing the journal Ordini together with Franco Evangelisti, Egisto Macchi and Antonino Titone. With Evangelisti, Macchi, and also Daniele Paris and Mauro Bortolotti, Guaccero founded the musical association Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza which has since collaborated with numerous composers. Later in his career he moved from serialism to aleatory processes, action music, mixed media and polystylistic collage. Theatre became his medium of choice and he worked with a variety of avant garde directors and performers including Ugo Gregoretti and Amedeo Amodio.