The Musical Avant-garde in Rome in the 1960s: Actors and Networks in Music History

ROMAVANTGARDE aims to reveal a particular phenomenon in the history of music: the effervescence of avant-garde networks in Rome during the 1960s.

This phenomenon saw the first steps of influential figures to come: Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, and Ennio Morricone.

But it is also of particular interest as it involved a large number of artists from varied national and cultural horizons, connected diverse institutions (schools, bars, religious establishments), and saw the encounter of various genres (art music, jazz, and popular music) to create original repertoires.

As a consequence, this is an ideal case to show how art music creationdespite the enduring paradigm of the individual geniusis a collective phenomenon involving human, but also nonhuman actors (institutions, artifacts, ideas).

To do so, ROMAVANTGARDE will draw specifically on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), but also on Social Network Analysis (SNA).

Through this case study, ROMAVANTGARDE aims to advance knowledge on the history of twentieth-century music and to reveal Rome as a cosmopolitan city actively participating in the construction of the European musical landscape.

At the same time, It aims to further research on creativity and to encourage the recent exchanges between network theories and music studies.

This project will be undertaken in Sapienza University of Rome, a reputed university for research in the history of music.

Sapienza is also the ideal institution to carry out research in the citys libraries and archives and to carry out the collection of testimonies before witnesses disappear.

Professor Emanuele Senici, an internationally renowned music historian with extensive experience in the history of modern and Roman music, will supervise this project.

This experience is thus expected to have a profound impact on my training, scientific maturity, and reputation and to place me in good stead to qualify for a tenure-track position in Europe.