There is still a great deal left to explore in Dallapiccola’s music. For one thing, many works of high quality continue to languish in anonymity. Virtually nothing has been written about the Due studi and its orchestral counterpart, Due pezzi, Tre Poemi (which he dedicated to Schoenberg), Piccola musica notturna, Concerto per la notte di Natale, Three Questions with Two Answers (an orchestra sketch for Ulisse), and Sicut Umbra (a stunning work whose last movement incorporates contour representations of various constellations). And there is so much more to say about the larger works of the first, second, and fourth phases, like Il prigioniero, Dialoghi, Ulisse, and Commiato. From a theoretical standpoint, we have only begun to explore the ramifications of such techniques as cross partitions (particularly concerning their influence on row construction), axial symmetry, irregular canons, and non-adjacent partitioning schemes, the control of harmony, orchestration, texture, self-quotations and symbolism, the delightful intricacies of text setting, and connections to the music of Berg, Vogel, and other predecessors and contemporaries, both within Italy and outside it.

By way of conclusion I should like to return to a quotation from the first chapter: the entry in Dallapiccola’s diary that recounts his impression of the premiere of Webern’s Das Augenlicht in 1938. It reads: