Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 3 March 2003) 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 ...

of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9059491

Life

Petrassi was born at

Zagarolo Zagarolo is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, in the region of Lazio of central Italy. It lies southeast of Rome, and it borders the municipalities of Colonna, Gallicano nel Lazio, Monte Compatri, Palestrina, Rome, San Cesar ...

, near

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. At the age of 15 he began to work at a music shop to supply his family's financial needs, and became fascinated by music. In 1928, he entered the

Santa Cecilia Conservatory The Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia is a state conservatory in Rome. History The institution has its roots dated back to the Congregazione de' musici di Roma named after Saint Cecilia in 1565 (now Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia). Sinc ...

in Rome to study organ and

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

. In 1933, composer

Alfredo Casella Alfredo Casella (25 July 18835 March 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. Life and career Casella was born in Turin, the son of Maria (née Bordino) and Carlo Casella. His family included many musicians: his grandfather, a f ...

conducted Petrassi's ''Partita'' for orchestra at the ISCM festival in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. From 1940 to 1960 Petrassi was professor of composition at the

; later, he also became musical director of the opera house

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice beca ...

, and from 1960 to 1978 he taught in the master courses in composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.Restagno, Enzo (ed.) (1992). ''Petrassi''. Turin: EDT, pp. 41–42. He was also a teacher at the

Salzburg Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Moz ...

. Petrassi had many famous students, including

Franco Donatoni Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory ...

Aldo Clementi Aldo Clementi (25 May 1925 – 3 March 2011) was an Italian classical composer. Life Aldo Clementi was born in Catania, Italy. He studied the piano, graduating in 1946 at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. His studies in composition began i ...

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, ...

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

Karl Korte Karl Richard Korte (June 23,1928 – March 27, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was born in Ossining (village), New York, Ossining, New York (state), New York, and grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. He attended th ...

, Boris Porena,

Norma Beecroft Norma Marian Beecroft (born 11 April 1934) is a Canadian composer, producer, broadcaster, and arts administrator. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, she twice won the Canada Council's ...

Mario Bertoncini Mario Bertoncini (27 September 1932, in Rome – 19 January 2019, in Siena) was an Italian composer, pianist, and music educator. In 1962 he was awarded the Nicola d'Atri Prize by the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for his ''Sei Pezzi per ...

Ernesto Rubin de Cervin Ernesto Rubin de Cervin Albrizzi (5 July 1936 – 29 March 2013) was an Italian composer and teacher. Biography He was born in Venice in 1936. As a child he studied violin with Gian Francesco Malipiero at the Venice Conservatory, who suggested th ...

Eric Salzman Eric Salzman (September 8, 1933 – November 12, 2017) was an American composer, scholar, author, impresario, music critic, and record producer. He is known for advancing the concept of "New Music Theater" (in his compositions and his large ...

Kenneth Leighton Kenneth Leighton (2 October 1929 – 24 August 1988) was a British composer and pianist. His compositions include church and choral music, pieces for piano, organ, cello, oboe and other instruments, chamber music, concertos, ...

Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music ...

Michael Dellaira Michael Dellaira (born August 5, 1949) is an American composer. He is a citizen of the United States and Italy and resides in New York City with his wife, the writer Brenda Wineapple. Early life and career Dellaira was born Michael Dellario in S ...

Armando Santiago Armando Santiago (born 18 June 1932) is a Canadian composer, conductor, music educator, and university administrator of Portuguese birth. A member of the Canadian League of Composers, his compositional output includes a considerable amount of ...

, and

Richard Teitelbaum Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...

. Petrassi died in

at the age of 98.

Music

Petrassi's early work was part of an attempt by several

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

composers to create a national "Italian" revival in classical music, corresponding to the romantic work of Germans such as

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

. During this time, his work was characteristically neoclassical in style, influenced by Bartók,

Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ' ...

and

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

. In later years, Petrassi's open musical mind and acute personality led him to experiment with different post- Webernian influences and a wide range of

poetic Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

materials, from Latin hymns to

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

's ''La follia d'Orlando'' and ''Ritratto di Don Chisciotte'' (''Portrait of

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

''), based on the

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

literary character. All these influences are present in a remarkable series of eight Concerti for Orchestra which he composed between 1934 and 1972. Petrassi stopped composing in 1986 due to progressive loss of eyesight.

Works

* Sinfonia, Siciliana e Fuga per Quartetto d'Archi (1929) * Partita for Orchestra (1932) * Preludio, Aria, e Finale for Cello and Piano (1933) * Concerto for Orchestra (1934) * Psalm IX (1934–36) * Piano Concerto (1936–39) * Magnificat (1939–40) * Coro di Morti (1941) * Quatro inni Sacri (1942–50) * La follia di Orlando (1942–43) (also as a symphonic suite) * Ritratto di Don Chisciotte (1945) * Il Cordovano (1948) * Morte dell'aria (1950) * Noche Oscura (1950–51) * Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 (1951) * Concerto for Orchestra No. 3 (1953) * Concerto for Orchestra No. 4 (1954) * Concerto for Orchestra No. 5 (1955) * Concerto for Orchestra No. 6 (1956–57)Porena, Boris. (1978). ''Goffredo Petrassi: Trio E Quartetto Per Archi''. Italia TL 70033 Fonit Cetra spa. Retrieved 2021-09-05

/ref> * Quartetto per Archi (String Quartet) (1957) * Serenata (1957) * Trio per Archi (String Trio) (1959) * Flute Concerto (1960) * Concerto for Orchestra No. 7 (1963–64) * Concerto for Orchestra No. 8 (1970–72) * Orationes Christi (1975) * Kyrie (1990)

Notes

External links

The Goffredo Petrassi Institute

*
Guardian obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrassi, Goffredo 1904 births 2003 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century Italian male musicians Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia faculty Conservatorio Santa Cecilia alumni Conservatorio Santa Cecilia faculty People from the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital