Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (3 April 1895 – 16 March 1968) 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 Def ...

, pianist and writer. He was known as one of the foremost

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and became a film composer for

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

for some 200

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

movies for the next fifteen years. He also wrote concertos for

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-born American violinist. Born in Vilnius, he moved while still a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood. Fritz ...

and Gregor Piatigorsky.

Biography

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, he was descended from a prominent banking family that had lived in

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, specifically in

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

until the latter half of the 19th century, since the

expulsion of Jews from Spain The Expulsion of Jews from Spain was the expulsion from Spain following the Alhambra Decree in 1492, which was enacted in order to eliminate their influence on Spain's large '' converso'' population and to ensure its members did not revert to Jud ...

in 1492. His father was Amedeo and his elder brothers Ugo (born in 1890, lawyer) and Guido (born in 1891, engineer). Castelnuovo-Tedesco was first introduced to the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

by his mother, Noemi Senigaglia, and he composed his first pieces when he was just nine years old. After completing a degree in piano in 1914 under Edgardo Del Valle de Paz (1861–1920), well-known composer and pianist pupil of Beniamino Cesi, he began studying composition under renowned Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti, and received a diploma in composition in 1918. He soon came to the attention of composer and pianist Alfredo Casella, who included the young Castelnuovo-Tedesco's work in his repertoire. Casella also ensured that Castelnuovo's works would be included in the repertoires of the '' Società Italiana di Musica Moderna'' (later the '' Corporazione delle Nuove Musiche''), granting him exposure throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

as one of Italy's up-and-coming young composers. Works by him were included in the first festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music, held in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, in 1922. In 1926, Castelnuovo-Tedesco premiered his first

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

''La Mandragola'', based on a play by

Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...

. It was the first of his many works inspired by great

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

, and which included interpretations of works by

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Gree ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best kno ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

, and especially

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. Another major source of inspiration for him was his Jewish heritage, most notably the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

and Jewish liturgy. His Violin Concerto No. 2 (1931), written at the request of

, was also an expression of his pride in his Jewish origins, or as he described it, the "splendor of past days", in the face of rising

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

that was sweeping across much of Europe. At the 1932 festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music, held in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, Castelnuovo-Tedesco first met the Spanish

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themsel ...

Andrés Segovia Andrés Segovia Torres, 1st Marquis of Salobreña (21 February 1893 – 2 June 1987) was a Spanish virtuoso classical guitarist. Many professional classical guitarists were students of Segovia or their students. Segovia's contribution to the m ...

. The meeting inspired Castelnuovo-Tedesco to write for the guitar, beginning with his ''Variazioni attraverso i secoli (Variations à travers les siècles)'' (Variations through the ages), Op. 71 (1932), and later his Guitar Concerto No. 1 (1939). All in all, he wrote almost one hundred compositions for this instrument, which earned him a reputation as one of the foremost composers for the guitar in the twentieth century. Some of them were written and dedicated to Segovia, who was an enthusiast of his style (Segovia called him an "incorruptible servant of artistic truth"). Even before the Italian government promulgated the Italian racial laws in late 1938, Castelnuovo-Tedesco was banned from the

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

and performances of his work were cancelled. The new racial laws, however, convinced him that he should leave Italy. He wrote to

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

, the former musical director of

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, and violinist

, explaining his plight, and both responded with support. As an American citizen, Heifetz began paperwork to sponsor Castelnuovo-Tedesco as an immigrant in the

. Castelnuovo-Tedesco left Italy in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He wrote his Cello Concerto in F major, Op. 72, for Gregor Piatigorsky. It was premiered with the dedicatee under

in New York in 1935. For Piatigorsky he also wrote a Toccata (1935), and a piece called ''Greeting Card'', Op. 170/3, based on the spelling of Piatigorsky's name. Like many artists who fled fascism, Castelnuovo-Tedesco ended up in

, where, with the help of

, he landed a contract with

as a film composer. Over the next fifteen years, he worked on scores for some 200 films there and at the other major film studios.

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...

hired him to write the music for '' The Loves of Carmen'' (1948), produced by Hayworth for her Beckworth Productions and released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. As a teacher, Castelnuovo-Tedesco had a significant influence on other major film composers, including

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini, ; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flautist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Award ...

Nelson Riddle Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many world-famous vocalists at Capitol Recor ...

, Herman Stein and

André Previn André George Previn (; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. His career had three major genres: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved ...

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franc ...

, Marty Paich and

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

were all his pupils, by Jon Burlingame. Retrieved 16 February 2011. as was Scott Bradley, who studied privately with him while both were on staff at MGM. He also maintained close contact with composer Robert Strassburg. His relationship to Hollywood was ambiguous: later in life he downplayed the influence that it had on his own work, but he also believed that it was an essentially American artform, much as opera was European. In 1946 he became a U.S. citizen, but he remained very close to Italy, which he frequently visited. In 1958 he won the ''Concorso Campari'' with the opera ''The Merchant of Venice'', which was first performed in 1961 at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under the baton of Gianandrea Gavazzeni. In 1962 he wrote '' Les Guitares bien tempérées'' ("The Well-Tempered Guitars") for two guitars, a set of 24 preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, for the duo-guitarists Alexandre Lagoya and Ida Presti. This was inspired by ''

The Well-Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of i ...

'' by

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

, a composer Castelnuovo-Tedesco revered. In the United States, Castelnuovo-Tedesco also composed new operas and works based on

American poetry American poetry refers to the poetry of the United States. It arose first as efforts by American colonists to add their voices to English poetry in the 17th century, well before the constitutional unification of the Thirteen Colonies (although ...

, Jewish liturgy, and the Bible. He died in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, in 1968 at the age of 72. He is buried at

Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary is a cemetery and mortuary located in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood, with an entrance from Glendon Avenue. The cemetery was ...

. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

in Washington, DC, hosts the ''Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Collection'', a collection of the composer's manuscripts donated by his family in 2000. The catalogue is accessible online. His son was the psychiatrist Pietro Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Works

Castelnuovo-Tedesco's autobiography, ''A life in music: a book of memories'', written shortly before his death, was published decades later: * ''Una vita di musica: un libro di ricordi'' (in Italian), James Westby (ed.), with an introduction by Mila De Sanctis, Fiesole: Cadmo, 2005. Other writings by the composer have been catalogued. In 2018 a collection of contemporary guitar music in homage to Castelnuovo-Tedesco was published, edited by Piero Bonaguri. It includes works by composers Filippo Ferruggiara, Daniele Mandonico, Marco Reghezza, Marco Simoni, Alessandro Spazzoli, and Paolo Ugoletti. In 2018, a film was released about his life entitled The Maestro where he was portrayed by actor Xander Berkeley. The film was well received and won the Audience Award at the

Tallgrass Film Festival The Tallgrass Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Wichita, Kansas, specializing in independent films. It was founded in 2003 by Timothy Gruver. Gruver was raised in Wichita. He studied filmmaking at Brigham Young University. After c ...

the Jury Award at the Borrego Springs Film Festival in 2019, and the Youth Film Award at the

Rhode Island International Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. History Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the ...

in 2018. Xander Berkeley also received "Best Actor" awards at the 2017

Oaxaca Film Festival Oaxaca FilmFest was an eight-day long international film festival that was permanently cancelled in 2022 without taking place, once it could no longer hide the fact that it devolved into a calculated scam to prey on unknowing filmmakers. At its s ...

and the 2018 Albuquerque Film & Music Experience.

References

Sources and further reading

* Bardi, Aloma (2012). "Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco amico dei musicisti napoletani". In Pier Paolo De Martino and Daniela Margoni Tortora (ed.). ''Musica e musicisti a Napoli nel primo Novecento'' (in Italian). Napoli: Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici. * Bardi, Aloma, ed.(2015). "European and American Horizons of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco:The Leaves of Grass and Shakespeare Sonnets. Essays from the International Center for American Music (ICAMUS) events, Florence, June 2015". Ann Arbor: ICAMUS, 2015. * Champagne, John (2012). "A Glimpse through an Interstice Caught": fascism and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "Calamus" Songs. ''Aesthetic Modernism and Masculinity in Fascist Italy''. New York: Routledge. * Compagno, Alberto (2000). ''Gli anni fiorentini di Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco'' (in Italian). Carrara. * Gatti, Guido M. "Ricordo di Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco". In ''Annuario Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia'' (in Italian), 1969. * Gilardino, Angelo. "Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco". Supplement of ''Guitar'' (in Italian) 2005, no. 10. * Gilardino, Angelo. ''Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Un Fiorentino a Beverly Hills'' * Malorgio, Cosimo (2001). ''Censure di un musicista: la vicenda artistica e umana di Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco''. Torino: Paravia (vol. 6), 2001. * Orselli, Cesare (1978)
"Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario"
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Treccani. Retrieved 20 September 2013. * Otero, Corazon (1987) ''Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: su vida y su obra para guitarra''(in Spanish). Lomas de Bezares: Ediciones musicales Yolotl. * Rossi, Nick (1977). ''Catalogue of Works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco''. New York: International Castelnuovo-Tedesco Society. * Westby, James. ''CastelnuovoTedesco in America: The Film Music''. PhD Dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1994. * Westby, James (2005). ''Catalogo delle opere: composizioni, bibliografia, filmografia'' (in Italian). Fiesole: Cadmo. * Westby, James
"Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario"

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

. Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 September 2013 (subscription required).

External links

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - website

Brief biography (in English)
at

Casa Ricordi Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Ro ...

"Il fondo Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco" - in Italian
* *
"The Relevance of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)" by James Wade
at EGTA – European Guitar Teachers Association
Songs by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco on The Art Song Project
*
''Shakespeare Sonnets''
' Ashley Riches (baritone) and Emma Abbate (piano) (Resonus Classics RES 10141). The world-première recording of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's ''Shakespeare Sonnets''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario 1895 births 1968 deaths Musicians from Florence 20th-century classical composers Italian film score composers Italian male classical composers Italian opera composers Male opera composers Italian ballet composers Jewish classical composers 20th-century Italian Jews Composers for the classical guitar Composers for harp Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Italian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Italian composers Italian male film score composers 20th-century Italian male musicians Italian Sephardi Jews