Giovanni Quirici (1824–1896) was an Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. Quirici was born in Arena Po, a small town between

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

and Piacenza. He died in 1896 in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. Unknown in biographic dictionaries, only some of his life details are known through Prospero Succio, keeper of the musical archives of the cathedral of Turin, who probably knew the composer personally. Succio writes that G. Quirici's parents wanted him to become a notary public, but he elected to study music at the age of 14. He studied music theory in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

with Boniforti, Manusardi and Padre Moro. He arrives in Turin about 1878, where he is a composition teacher and probably an

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

in an unknown place. Quirici was prolific: not only light pieces, romances and dances for piano but a big amount of vocal and organ religious music He is published by Perosino, Borriero, Blanchi, Bibliografia Salesiana in Turin. In Milan, besides Ricordi, Mariani, Carisch, his main publisher is Martinenghi. His catalog contains no less than 15 Masses for organ solo, in addition to series of verses and vocal pieces. Two of these Masses, in G and in C have been re-edited by Carrara and Armelin publishers, and are often performed and recorded.

References

Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian Romantic composers 1824 births 1896 deaths People from the Province of Pavia 19th-century classical composers 19th-century Italian male musicians {{Italy-composer-stub