Aldo Clementi
The Italian composer Aldo Clementi (b. 1925) has been studying both piano and composition, but is just as well known for his orchestral and guitar works. During the studies in composition, he was introduced to the twelve tone technique of Alfredo Sangiorgi, a student of its founder, Arnold Schönberg. During 1956 he met the Italian-German composer and conductor Bruno Maderna, who was one of the founders of the Studio di Fonologia Musicale (Study for musical phonology/acoustics) in Milan in 1955. The rendezvous with Maderna spurred an interest of examining acoustic phenomena in more detail. From 1956 to 1962, he experimented along with other composers in the studio, Luciano Berio being one.
The Opera Interludi. Musica per il Mito di Eco e Narciso is concerned with the Myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his mirror image. After it was performed during the Orestiadi festival in Gibellina, 1992, he was commissioned for another opera, Carillon, by La Scala in Milano. Clementi has been performed several times at Ultima, lastly in 2002 and 2005.