Editing Ferruccio Busoni (section)

===World War I and Switzerland (1913–1920)===
[[File:Ritratto di Busoni, 1916 (Roberto Biccioni).jpg|thumbnail|right|upright=1.3|Portrait of Busoni by [[Umberto Boccioni]], 1916 (in the collection of the [[Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna]], Rome)]]
Following a series of concerts in Northern Italy in spring 1913, Busoni was offered the directorship of the Liceo Rossini in Bologna. He had recently moved to an apartment in [[Viktoria-Luise-Platz]] in [[Schöneberg]], Berlin, but took up the offer, intending to spend his summers in Berlin. The posting proved unsuccessful. Bologna was a cultural backwater, despite occasional visits from celebrities such as [[Isadora Duncan]]. Busoni's piano pupils were untalented, and he had constant arguments with the local authorities. After the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914, he asked for a year of absence to play an American tour; in fact he was never to return. Virtually his sole permanent achievement at the school was to have modernized its sanitary facilities.<ref>Dent (1933), pp. 205–225.</ref> He had however during this time composed another [[concertante]] work for piano and orchestra, the ''[[Indian Fantasy]]''. The piece is based on melodies and rhythms from various [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] tribes; Busoni derived them from a book he had received from his former pupil, the [[Ethnomusicology|ethnomusicologist]] [[Natalie Curtis|Natalie Curtis Burlin]] during his 1910 tour of the US. The work was premiered with Busoni as soloist in March 1914, in Berlin.<ref>.Beaumont (1985), pp. 190–191.</ref>

From June 1914 to January 1915, Busoni was in Berlin. As a native of a neutral country (Italy) living in Germany, Busoni was not greatly concerned, at first, by the outbreak of war. During this period, he began to work seriously on the libretto for his proposed opera ''[[Doktor Faust]]''. In January 1915 he left for a concert tour of the US, which was to be his last visit there. During this time he continued work on his Bach edition, including his version of the ''[[Goldberg Variations]]''.<ref>Dent (1933), pp. 220—223</ref> Upon the composer's return to Europe, Italy had entered the war. Busoni therefore chose to base himself from 1915 in Switzerland. In Zurich, he found local supporters in [[Volkmar Andreae]] (conductor of the [[Tonhalle Orchestra]]) and [[Philipp Jarnach]]. His friend [[José Vianna da Motta]] also taught piano in Geneva at this time. Andreae arranged for Busoni to give concerts with his orchestra.<ref>Dent (1933), p. 229.</ref> Jarnach, who was 23 when he met Busoni, in 1915, became Busoni's indispensable assistant, among other things preparing piano scores of his operas; Busoni referred to him as his ''[[Wikt:famulus|famulus]]''.<ref>Couling (2005), p. 311</ref> While in America, Busoni had carried out further work on ''Doktor Faust'', and had written the libretto of his one-act opera ''[[Arlecchino (opera)|Arlecchino]]''.<ref>Dent (1933), pp. 223</ref> He completed it in Zurich and, to provide a full evening at the theatre, reworked his earlier ''Turandot'' into a [[Turandot (Busoni)|one-act piece]]. The two were premiered together in Zurich in May 1917.<ref>Beaumont (1985), p. 219, p. 240.</ref>

In Italy in 1916, Busoni met again with the artist Boccioni, who painted his portrait; Busoni was deeply affected when a few months later Boccioni was killed (in a riding accident) whilst on military training, and published an article strongly critical of war.<ref>Dent (1933), pp. 231–232.</ref> An expanded re-issue of Busoni's 1907 work ''A New Esthetic of Music'' let to a virulent counter-attack from the German composer [[Hans Pfitzner]] and an extended war of words.<ref>Couling (2005), pp. 306–310.</ref> Busoni continued to experiment with [[microtonal music|microtones]]: in America he had obtained some [[harmonium]] reeds tuned in [[third-tone]]s, and he claimed that he "had worked out the theory of a system of thirds of tones in two rows, each separated from each other by a semitone".<ref>Couling (2005), p. 292.</ref>

Although he met with many other artistic personalities also based in Switzerland during the war (including [[Stefan Zweig]], who noted his extensive drinking, and [[James Joyce]]),<ref>Couling (2005), p. 290, p. 311</ref> Busoni soon found his circumstances limiting. After the end of the war, he again undertook concert tours in England, Paris and Italy.<ref>Dent (1933), pp. 240–247.</ref> In London, he met with the composer [[Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji]] who played his Piano Sonata No. 1 for him (he had dedicated it to Busoni). Busoni was sufficiently impressed to write a letter of recommendation for Sorabji.<ref>Beaumont (1987), pp. 300, 303.</ref> When Busoni's former pupil [[Leo Kestenberg]], by then an official at the Ministry of Culture in the German [[Weimar Republic]], invited him to return to Germany with the promise of a teaching post and productions of his operas, he was very glad to take the opportunity.<ref>Couling (2005), pp. 318–322.</ref>