DANIELE LOMBARDI (1946–2018)
Composer, pianist, and visual artist Daniele Lombardi passed away on March 11, 2018. He was a fastidious researcher of early-twentieth–century avant-garde music, and famously performed pieces by experimental composers such as the Greek-born Italian artist Alberto Savinio—the brother of Giorgio de Chirico—and the Russian Futurist Alexander Mossolov, who is best known for his 1926–27 composition “Iron Foundry.” Lombardi himself was a self-described Futurist and an expert in the history of the movement. For the January 1981 issue of Artforum, he wrote “Futurism and Musical Notes,” a piece that underlines the importance of Futurist music within the avant-garde and beyond.
His visual work—which comprised drawing, painting, video, and installation—sought to give music a plastic expression, while exploring the boundary between interior thought and external appearance.
Lombardi created numerous compositions and released nearly twenty albums, including Constellation (1978); Futurismusik (Music by Alberto Savinio and George Antheil) (1985); Great Sonata (In the Garden) for Twelve Pianos (1988); Sound, Sign, Gesture Vision in Florence (2006); and Mythologies (2016). For several years, he was the director of the New Italian Music Festival and the New International Music Festival. He was also a cofounder of the contemporary music magazine La Musica. His work has been exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; the Fondazione Mudima in Milan; the Museo Fabroni in Pistoia, Italy; and the Museo Pecci in Prato, Italy; among other institutions.
