ABSTRACT
This is not the place for yet another general account of the impact of fascism on the entire fabric of Italian life: the story of the insidious advance, jerry-built supremacy and hideous degeneration of Mussolini’s regime, culminating in one of the most miscalculated declarations of war ever made, has been told countless times. 1 Suffice it to stress here, firstly, that fascism as practiced south of the Alps was very different from its far more efficient and more drastically horrendous counterpart which came to power over ten years later in Germany: for example, in Italy the pervading ideology (in so far as one can speak of such a thing) was largely free from anti-semitism until direct Nazi influence made itself felt in the later 1930s. Secondly, one of the most notable characteristics of Mussolini’s party and policies was, quite simply, their changeability and the many contradictions that they contained: this was as true of the regime’s dealings with the musical world (and indeed with Malipiero) as in any other sphere.
