Gesture through the Lens of Pluridimensional Serialism in the Music of Camillo Togni

In the panorama of post-1945 serial composition, the music of Camillo Togni (1922–1993) stands out for its distinct expressive character (Vlad 1958). This essay examines the musical gestures that define Togni’s expressive style and illuminates how the composer generated them with the help of pluridimensional serial procedures. With evidence from the sketches, the analyses show how Togni negotiated his musical ideas with his serial templates in a dynamic process in which pluridimensional serialism opened new avenues for musical gesture he may not have envisioned otherwise. The essay argues against a distinction between a “pre-compositional” and a “compositional” stage in the creative process and instead demonstrates that Togni’s modus operandi entailed a continuous process of fine-tuning musical ideas. I first address questions of musical meaning and performance in Togni’s expressive aesthetics (parts 1 and 2), before delving into the compositional process to gain a better understanding of these questions (parts 3 and 4).