Ferdinando Maria Meinrado Francesco Pascale Rosario Carulli was one of the principal composers for the guitar in the Eighteenth Century and one of greatest teachers of all time.
He was born in Naples on February 9th, 1770 (according to some sources the 10th), in Nardones Street, near the Royal Palace. His father Michele, a highly cultured man, came from Bari; his mother Patrizia Federici was presumably Neapolitan, but we have no information about her life.
Carulli learned the rudiments of music from a priest who was a musical dilettante, and studied cello. He turned to the guitar when he was about twenty years old; there were no competent teachers of guitar in Naples at that time, and Carulli developed his instrumental technique in solitude. But he was soon able to formulate the concepts of guitar playing that in a few years would become the standard for guitar instruction in the Nineteenth Century. By 1801 he had been living in Livorno for at least a year. Around that time he married a French woman, Marie-Josephine Boyer; their child Gustavo was born in Livorno in 1801. Carulli's earliest composing activity, apart from his performing, started probably in 1807 in Milan, where he published some works for the editors Ricordi, Re and Monzino.
The existence of some Viennese editions of the years 1807-1808 testify to his presence in Vienna, though for a short time: by April 1808 Carulli had definitely moved to Paris, where he resided for the rest of his life.
Here he had undisputed success as a musician and teacher, as he was one of the first guitarists present in the French capital city to force a new concept of the instrument into the forefront of the musical panorama of the Nineteenth Century. He published in this period a great bulk of new works with the most prominent Parisian publishers, primarily Raffaele Carli, who was probably of Neapolitan origin; Carulli and Carli also became great friends.
For a while he was also a publisher on his own, publishing some works by Filippo Gragnani, another guitarist present in Paris since 1810. Carulli cooperated closely with Gragnani, and the two became good friends. There is no documented evidence of a teacher-pupil relationship between the two, even though some texts presume it. However, in Paris Carulli was the pioneer of a new school of teaching that opened the way to the acceptance of the guitar throughout Europe and contributed in a large way to the musical interest of the French middle-class society.
After 1830 his popularity was affirmed by the arrival of a number of guitarists coming from throughout Europe, mainly from Italy, who were attracted by his personality. Subsequently Carulli intensified his teaching, having among his pupils people of the nobility and of the Parisian upper-class. He died in Paris on February 14th, 1841, at the age of 71 years.
Carulli was among the most prolific composers of his century; he wrote about four hundred works for the guitar, including compositions with and without opus number. Many of his works are valuable for their superior artistic and instrumental quality, among them the "Trio, Op. 12," for flute, violin and guitar; several serenades for flute and guitar, and for violin and guitar; many high quality compositions for voice and guitar; sonatas and themes variées for guitar solo and with piano; and the "Concerto Op. 8" for guitar and orchestra. However his most representative and popular work was the "Method, Op. 27", published in 1810. This work has been updated and reissued several times. It remains one of the best pedagogical texts for training students of the guitar in the first phases of the formation of their technique.
Ferdinando Carulli also composed some pieces for guitar and piano with his son Gustavo. He is the dedicatee of the "Gran capriccio, Op. 34" for guitar by Luigi Legnani; of three sonatas for guitar by Giuseppe Pasini; and of three duets, Op. 1, and the "Trio, Op. 12", by Filippo Gragnani.
(Transl. M. Penny)