Dancing In A Prism

composerbiography: GiovanniGrosskopf

He attended a three-years Piano masterclass at the "G.Marziali" Academy in Seveso, held by the pianist Bruno Canino. He attended also a Composition masterclass with Franco Donatoni, at the Municipal Music School in Milan. Among his teachers: Bruno Canino (piano), Niccolò Castiglioni (composition), Pippo Molino (composition), Alberto Barbero (composition), Guido Salvetti (music analysis), Luigi Zanardi (piano), Riccardo Sinigaglia (computer music). He has also attended composition seminars with Niccolò Castiglioni, Franco Donatoni and György Ligeti.

Being highly interested in ethnomusicological "field" recordings, and to their possible relationship to the classical and contemporary classical composition, he has published essays and lectured during conferences on this subject.
This interest is reflected also in his activity as a composer, through the collection and the study of countless examples of ethnic traditional music from all the World, and the personal development and reworking in his music of formal and structural models derived from them.

He has also been active in musicological activities, with papers and lectures in Italy, France, Lithuania, regarding unique researches about the study of chords in atonal and late-tonal music, and the study of timbre affinities and timbre similarities among different chords, also within an international project. He is actually the author of a well-known original method of analysis and classification of the chords in atonal or late-tonal music (Interval Perception Analysis), and of the related theoretical model which is the base for its application. Starting from these researches, he has also investigated the history of the use of chords according to their timbre (which is typical of the 20th century composers) and the analysis of the different means, employed during the 20th century, to achieve a feeling of logical direction to the music (and to harmony, above all) also outside the tonality system.

He has been performing in concerts as a pianist since 1985, and he loves to perform Bach (also with monographic programs on this author, following an approach which he illustrated in the paper "Bach at the piano: a lucky error", Rassegna Musicale Curci, January 1996), 18th century music, monographic programs dealing with rarely performed music (some Mozart's concertos in the original chamber music version, Schumann's op.133, and a program about Grieg's relationship with the Norwegian folk music, including his op.66 and op. 72, in collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy in Italy), the 20th century music, and contemporary music (also premiering some works), both as a soloist and with other musicians. He plays in a duo formed with the clarinetist Alessandro Travaglini.

He is now full professor of Harmony and Music Analysis at the State Conservatory of Music "G.Verdi" in Milan, Italy.