Biographical notes
Federico Moretti was born probably in Naples in the
second half of the Eighteenth Century, he was the brother of Luigi
Moretti. He moved to Spain in 1795 as cellist and guitarist in the service
of the Spanish Court. He also did military service there, becoming a “Colonel
of the Legion of Foreign Voluntaries”. In 1792 he had published a method for
five string guitar in Naples for the editor Marescalchi; in 1799, in Madrid, he
published the same method, reworked so as to be suitable for the six string
guitar. This method is one of the first pedagogic works for the six string
guitar; it was reprinted in Naples in 1804 and in Madrid in 1807.
Moretti lived in Madrid until 1838; this is likely the year of
his death. He wrote many compositions with guitar, as can be deduced from a
catalog of his published works printed on the final page of a Spanish
publication. Most of these works are probably lost.
He was Philarmonic Academic of Bologna.
(Transl. M. Penny)
Known production of F. Moretti (printed works)
- METODO (guitar)Principi per la chitarra / composti dal dilettante / Sig.
Federico Moretti (1801)
- METODO (guitar)Metodo / per la chitarra a sei corde(1804)
- METODO Op. 1 Metodo /per chitarra a sei corde /con gli elementi generali
della musica /terza edizione /acresciuta di /...arpeggi a quattro dita
(1804) (guitar)
- TRE RONDÒ Op. 4 Tre Rondò /composti e dedicati a suo amico /lord Salton
/dal /Cavaliere Federico Moretti... (c.1804)(guitar)
- DODICI CANZONETTE Op. 12 I Trofei d’amore /Cantata /divisa in XII
Canzonette /con recitativi obbligati/ e con accompagnamento di chitarra a sei
corde (c. 1806) (voice and guitar)
- DODICI CANZONI Op. 24 Doce canciones /con accompanamiento /de guitarra /compuestas
y dedicadas a su amigo /el Conde de Fife /por el brigadier d.Federico Moretti/...
/Arrengladas para el Piano forte /por /D.Manuel Rucker (voice and guitar)
- FANTASIA Op. 27 Fantasia /Variazioni e coda... /sul tema... /Non più
mesta accanto al fuoco /del Maestro Rossini (guitar)
- FANDANGO VARIATO Fandango variado .../por /Don F.M. y G (guitar)
Bibliographic notes
- Franco Poselli, Apporto di Federico Moretti alle scuole
chitarristiche italiana e spagnola, Tesi di laurea in storia della musica -
Università degli studi di Trieste, Facoltà di lettere e filosofia, Anno
accademico 1971-1972
- Franco Poselli, Federico Moretti e il suo ruolo nella storia della
chitarra in il Fronimo IV, p. 11-19
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