Gaetano Amadeo (1824 – 8 April 1893) was an Italian organist and composer. He spent most of his career in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, where he lived for 27 years and founded a school of plainsong, an exceptional undertaking at this time.

Biography

Born at Porto Maurizio, a small town in

Ligurian Riviera Ligurian may refer to: * Ligurian, pertaining to modern Liguria in Italy * Ligurian, pertaining to the ancient Ligures * Ligurian language, a modern Romance language spoken in parts of Italy, France, Monaco and Argentina * Ligurian (ancient langua ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, he first studied in

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

with Giovanni Pacini. After 1841 he studies in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

with Rossini who held him in high esteem. He was voted into the famous

Philharmonic Academy of Bologna The Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna ("philharmonic academy of Bologna"; sometimes known in English as the Bologna Academy of Music) is a music education institution in Bologna, Italy. The Accademia de' Filarmonici was founded as an associ ...

in 1843. Holding Rossini's written recommendation, he settled in Marseille where he became organist of the St. Joseph Church on 1 June 1848, right after the inauguration of Joseph Callinet's organ. He kept this duty until July 1861. Accordingly, he was not acquainted with Aristide Cavaillé-Coll's organ (1868). He became choir master in the cathedral in 1852. He made the Pavian organ builder L. Lingiardi acquainted with French organ building. Around 1875 he left Marseille for an unknown reason – perhaps sentimental – and settled in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

. He moved back to Genova and Porto Maurizio, respectively, in 1883 and 1884, from where he wrote to P. C. Remondini, the famous sacred-music reformist, whose ideas he shared. At an unknown date he moved back to France. He is found in Cannes in 1887 at the organ of a suburban church. He spent his last years in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

where he died. He had no close relatives and bequeathed his library and score collection to an unknown person, who wrote a catalogue and tried to sell it. Most documents were donated to the Conservatoire of Nice.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amadeo, Gaetano 1824 births 1893 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century Italian male musicians Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian Romantic composers