ABSTRACT
Jean-Paul Sartre provided the most visible model of the public intellectual who had theorised the role of his art. His philosophy was of less interest to Luigi Nono than his political stance as a writer. He was critical of the Soviet Union, a supporter of the independence struggle in Algeria and of the communist experiment in Cuba, all resonant for Nono as his own political engagement – particularly with the emerging Third World – became more active and more public. Nono’s various layouts of the plan demonstrate his tendency to combinatorial patterns: soloists, emotions, structures and materials. Angelo Maria Ripellino’s poem in the opening chorus Vivere e stare svegli – announces the perspective of the entire work; it is the story of the emigrant’s emerging consciousness as he witnesses the social and human realities around him. Nono set out his subject while writing Intolleranza 1960: The subject is that of Il canto sospeso intolerance in the contemporary world.
