Next to Ferenc Farkas, Goffredo Petrassi was probably the most influential teacher of composition for two generations of Hungarian composers between the 1940s and 1960s. For one thing, he helped them shed the stifling influence of Bartók, which, as an outsider, he was probably in a better position to identify than his colleagues at the Budapest Academy. Zsolt Durkó (1934–97) related how he had been given the assignment of composing little pieces for each lesson and invariably, Petrassi would point to phrases which were “come Bartók” (like Bartók). In the end, Durkó could bear it no longer and decided to take revenge: he took a closer look at Petrassi’s own scores and triumphantly presented his professor with a list of passages which also showed Bartókian traces. Petrassi calmly explained that he, having found his own voice in music, could afford to borrow from the Hungarian master, but young composers who had yet to arrive at their own musical individuality, did well to consciously excise influences of figures of the past.

I.

I can tell you about two similar experiences. One was linked to Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. I was gripped by its novelty and felt close to it in a spiritual sense as well. It may not have led to a fundamental change—that has never been the case—but it has left a trace on my style. It helped me to take a step forward. Incidentally, that happened in 1933.

The other experience occurred around 1957. It was a composition by Bruno Maderna that induced me, so to speak, to “change places.” I must add, however, that these changes cannot be likened to the revelation experienced by St. Paul on the road to Damascus. I had been prepared for those changes, for I felt the need to compose differently from before.

What was it in the Symphony of Psalms that fascinated you?

The composition as a whole. It called my attention to a new approach to sacred texts, to the text of the Bible. I had had a traditional upbringing rooted in the Italian Renaissance, Palestrina, and the great polyphonic music that came later. In the Symphony of Psalms, however, I was confronted with a concept of polyphony which no longer respected the laws that had governed music ever since the Renaissance.