Textural and timbre innovations in the Italian choral music of the second half of the 20th century

Article is devoted to the phenomenon of the Italian choral music of the second half of the 20th century which has gained fame thanks to Luigi Nono's and Luciano Berio's works. The author investigates textural and timbre details of these compositions and draws a conclusion about uniqueness of modern Italian choral music: Nono and Berio as composers of post-war vanguard not only contacted to ideas of the first vanguard as well they developed traditions of classical and preclassical Italian choral music. The combination of traditional and innovative texture types as well as interest in development of technical and expressive possibilities of singing voices does works of the Italian masters by the sign phenomenon in the history of the Western European choral music.