Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

A Guitar side profile

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Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco was historically the founder of an important group of modern composers, Italian and not, who took an interest in the guitar. He was one of the most creative and versatile composers of our century.

Born on April 3rd, 1895 to Florence, descending of Jewish family, until he was a little boy manifested precocious and strong musical dowries, probably inherited from his mother Noemi Senigaglia. When he was 10, in fact, he composed two pieces for piano, Nocturne and Berceuse, which came published on a juvenile magazine. In a first moment his father opposed his musical studies as, according to the family tradition, he wanted him to become a banker. Mario obstinately continued his study of the piano to the conservatory Cherubini of Florence with the M. Edgardo del Valle, and he achieved his diploma by 1914. Therefore he became a student of composition of Ildebrando Pizzetti. Castelnuovo studied with him initially at the Conservatory of Florence, but he graduated in the one of Bologna (at that time directed by Franco Alfano) by 1918, slightly before the end of the First Worldwide War. His definitive artistic success developed in the subsequent years before the Second Worldwide War. In 1924 he married Clara Forti, from whom he had two children: Pietro (1925) and Lorenzo (1930). He became also an appreciated performer, and he was requested to perform at the Savoia's Villa at the presence of the Queen Helen. He received an invitation to hold a concert to the Vittoriale, residence of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, in a duo with the singer Madeleine Grey. In the summertime 1924 he knew Giacomo Puccini, that showed him part of the Turandot. He tightened a solid friendship with Arturo Toscanini, who directed in "absolute premiere" at New York his concert for violin and Orchestra "The Prophets". At the festival of Venice on 1932 he knew Andrés Segovia and since then he started to write his many works for guitar. So he could bring to light a corpus of unique and absolutely reMarcoable works, born by a close bond with Segovia which has been lasting for more then 36 years: more then 350 works from the famous "Variations Through the Centuries op. 71" to the incomplete "Notebooks, Preludes and Studies."

In 1936 at Castiglioncello (Tuscany) he entered in contact with Luigi Pirandello who was completing the scenes of the play "The giants of the mountain". The representation was scheduled in the Roman Gardens of Boboli during the Musical Florentine May, but the improvise death of the writer left the play incomplete. The play was put in music by Castelnuovo after the unexpected death of the writer in sign of homage.

On the end of 1930, the political situation started to worsen due to the fascist promulgation of the racial law by the government. This Marcoed the beginning of a long period of isolation. The poet Marinuzzi, regardless of the prohibitions of the antisemitic politics, put again in program "The giants of the mountain" for the Musical Florentine May of 1938, bringing again a great success of public.

On July 13th, 1939 the whole Castelnuovo's family, departed from the harbor of Trieste for New York, where it established during 1940.

For interest of Toscanini, Heifetz and Spalding, Mario got soon a contract from the cinema house Meter Goldwin Mayer with the qualification of composer of music for films, a fact that allows to assure him a decent economic situation. However, at the expiry of the contract in 1943, he preferred not to renew it, to work freely, as free-lance for several cinemas companies according to the Marcoet.

In 1944 he took part to an unusual plan conceived from Nathaniel Schilkret, who contacted many composers to carry out the suite Genesis (for narrator, choir and orchestra) which illustrated the various episodes of the Bible. To it participated Schilkret (Creation), Toch (Arcoiris), Tansman (terrestrial Heaven), Milhaud (Caino and Abele), Stravinskij (Tower of Babele), Schoenberg (Chaos). Castelnuovo Tedesco composed "The Downpour". In 1946 he could get the American citizenship, a fact that induced Mario to write an action of public thanks toward the country that had given him ospitality, but he equally had to suffer the dualism of be a foreigner in Italy and an Italian in the United States. During that time there was his debut in the field of the didactic activity in quality of teacher of harmony and composition. He had a prestigious recognition in 1958 for his work "The merchant from Venice" (on a text of Shakespeare's drama), that got the first prize at the Campari contest called from the theater La Scala of Milan. The opera really didn't come represented ever to Milan. Its first representation was in 1961 in Florence; the play had an excellent success of public but different appreciations from part of the criticizes. Mario's death happened at Los Angeles (California) on March 17th, 1968.

In the sphere of his musical works there are compositions for choir, orchestra, solos instruments and orchestra and theatrical operas. His fundamental contribution given to the enrichment of the guitar repertory, comprise 4 concerts for guitar and orchestra: Concert in D op. 99, Serenade op. 118, Second Concert in C op. 160, Concert op. 201 for 2 guitars and orchestra. The Serenade op. 118, published from the Schott's Söhne of Mainz (Germany), is unfortunately still available only in the reduced part for piano and guitar, but in the catalog of the publishing house is present the complete orchestral version. For guitar and orchestra exists another concert of Castelnuovo that is still nowadays unpublished, to our knowledge: the Capriccio diabolico op. 85b. That is the orchestral transcription of the homonymous op. 65 for solo guitar. There are besides the many pieces for guitar solo, duets for voice and guitar or with the pianoforte, and some transcriptions, many of which still unpublished. His only incomplete job is a didactic method for guitar, written on invitation of Ruggero Chiesa and partially substantiated in the "Quaderni, Preludi and Studi op. 210". Segovia had already proposed the composer a method, many years before, but the plan didn't go beyond his ideation due to the committements of the Spanish guitarist. Of the op. 210 is entirely realized only the "Quaderno I and II", 2 pieces of the Quaderno III and a sketch of 3 serial studies of the IV. In a chronological sense, instead, his last composition is the "Fuga elegiaca" for two guitars composed in memory of Ida Presti, that Ronald Purcell (op. cit.) proposes as op. 211. Today the figure of Castelnuovo Tedesco appears therefore always more hurray and actual. Artist versatile, lover of the literature: particularly of poetry and theater, as attest many of his works. For instance "Platero y yo" op. 190 for recitante voice and guitar, composed on the 28 poems of J.R. Jimenez, Nobel prize for the literature in 1956. He loved the folklore and also the painting: for the 24 Caprichos de Goya op. 195 for guitar, the composer was inspired to the watercolours of Francisco Goya and dedicated to his son Lorenzo, student of architecture.

Castelnuovo Tedesco was also able to put his intense activity of performer and composer beside the one of essayist: in fact he collaborated with the magazines "Il Pianoforte", "La Critica Musicale", "Musica d'oggi", "La Rivista Musicale Italiana". Here he has left several other writings and essays among which "A life of music", an autobiography of 737 pages compiled in three distinct phases (1952, '55, '61) and still unpublished.

The compositive style of Castelnuovo Tedesco was distant from that of his teacher Pizzetti as after all other his contemporaries, even he can be shaped from the criticize quite like peculiar from the lack of imitation (see Guido Maria Gatti, op. cit). The ascending of Pizzetti in Castelnuovo comes circumscribed therefore to the rediscovered tastes of the use of the choir, (they are seen this intention his choral compositions: "2 Madrigals to Galatea on text of Virgilio", "Two Greek songs", "2 Laudi", "Goccius op. 96", "Liberty mother of exiles", "Naaritz'cho", "Choral and variations", "Romancero Gitano op. 152", "Song of oceanides op. 171", beyond to the varied choirs inserted inside his melodramas) and to the great ethical sense of goodness and humanity, that stayed in the base of his aesthetical conception. In several occasions, Castelnuovo manifested of the reserves towards the dodecaphony, he considered it inadequate to his ideology and to his musical language. The beginning of the capriccio no. 15 "Si sabrá mas el discipulo ?" (from the "24 Caprichos de Goya" for guitar op. 195, ed. Bèrben), is based on an initial dodecaphonic serie that is after repeated for retrograde motus inverted. It is not however in fact of a dodecaphonic passage, as for the of there of the series is not present all the other compositive parameters typical of the dodecaphony would can, but really the initial series turns in a form and in a traditional language. The work for guitar could be divided in three periods: from 1932 to 1939, first neoclassic period characterized by works as the First Concert, Sonata op.77 (1934), Capriccio diabolico op. 85 (1935), Tarantella (1936). The second period, from 1940 to 1953, coincides with his stay in the United States: he composed Romancero Gitano for choir of 4 voices and guitar, the extraordinary Quintet for String quartet and guitar op. 143, commissioned by Segovia for the Chigiano Quartet of Siena (1950), the Second Concert for guitar and orchestra op. 160 (1953) and the Rondo for guitar solo op. 129. The his third period begins from the 1954, in which his music starts to be tied up to elements of extra-musical matrix, drawing from literature, poetry and painting, to the manner of the Romantic. His style comes represented from the masterpieces of the cycle of the 24 pieces of "Platero y yo" op. 190 (1960) for recitativo voice and guitar and the "24 Caprichos de Goya" op. 195 (1961). In the texts of J.C. Jimenez as in the watercolours of Goya is always the element of contrapposition and dramatic that appear on the surface.

Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco died in 1968.

Bibliography / Bibliografia:

Cinzia Ponsillo, Ricordo del grande compositore fiorentino Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, in Strumenti e musica n^o 11 (1995).
Guido Maria Gatti, Musicisti moderni d'Italia e di fuori, Bologna, 1920, 11^o edizione 1925, pp. 41 52.
Corazon Otero, "Marío Castelnuovo Tedesco su vida y su obra para guitarra, Ediciones Musicales Yolotl, Mexico, 1987, pag. 126.
R. Purcell, "Preface" all'edizione di "Preludio e Fuga elegiaca," Chanterelle Verlag Edition, 1993, Heidelberg (Germany).
A. Gilardino, La musica per chitarra nel secolo XX: Italia, in il "Fronimo" no. 31, (1981).
A. Gilardino, Alcune osservazioni sulla "Sonata-Omaggio a Boccherini" di M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco, in il "Fronimo" no. 71, (1991).
A. Gilardino, Manuale di Storia della chitarra Vol. II, Ed. Musicali Bèrben, Ancona 1987.
A. Gilardino, M.Castelnuovo-Tedesco cent'anni dopo: il carteggio inedited con A. Gilardino, in Seicorde no. 53, Ott. 1995.
Fabio De Girolamo, Sei corde per sei compositori, in Seicorde no. 48, Nov.-Dic. 1994.

Works for guitar of M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco

24 CAPRICHOS DE GOYA Op.195 (4 voll) (1961), Bèrben
3 PRELUDI MEDITERRANEI Op.176 (1955), Forlivesi
APPUNTI Op.210 (4 voll) (1968), Suvini Zerboni
ARANCI IN FIORE Op.87b (1936), Ricordi
BALLATA DALL'ESILIO Op.R180a (su testo di G.Cavalcanti), Bèrben
CAPRICCIO DIABOLICO (Omaggio a Paganini) Op.85a (1935), Ricordi
CAPRICCIO DIABOLICO (Omaggio a Paganini) Op.85b (guit,Orch) (1945), Ricordi
CONCERTO IN D Op.99 (guit,orch) (1939) Schott
CONCERTO Op.201 (2 guit,orch) (1962) Bèrben
ECLOGUES Op.206 (fl,cor-in,guit) (1966) General Music
ESCARRAMAN Op.177 (1955) Bèrben, Ricordi
FANTASIA Op.145 (pno,guit) (1950) Schott
FUGA ELEGIACA Op.R210a (2 guit) (1967), Chanterelle, Guitar Review
GREETING CARDS Op.170:
LES GUITARES BIEN TEMPÈRÉES Op.199 (4 voll) (2 guit), Bruzzichelli
NARANJOS EN FLOR [ARANCI IN FIORE], Ricordi
PASSACAGLIA (Omaggio a Roncalli) Op.180 (1956), Bèrben
PLATERO Y YO Op.190 (4 voll) (voice-r,guit) (1960), Bèrben
PLATERO Y YO Op.190 (parziale) (voice-r,guit) (1960), Ricordi
QUINTETTO Op.143 (guit,string-quart) (1950), Schott
ROMANCERO GITANO Op.152 (text by F.Garcia Lorca) (chor,guit), Bote & Bock
RONDO Op.129 (1946), Schott
SECONDO CONCERTO IN C Op.160 (guit,orch) (1953), Schott
SÉRÉNADE Op.118 (guit,orch) (1942/43), Schott
SONATA (Omaggio a Boccherini) Op.77 (1934) Schott
SONATINA CANONICA Op.196 (2 guit) (1961), Max Eschig
SONATINA Op.205 (fl,guit) (1965), Max Eschig
SUITE Op.133 (1947), Schott
TARANTELLA Op.87a (1936), Ricordi
THE DIVAN OF MOSES-IBN-EZRA Op.207 (voice,guit) (1966), Bèrben
TRE PRELUDI AL CIRCEO Op.194 (1961), Farfisa
VARIATIONS PLAISANTES SUR UN PETIT AIR POPULAIRE Op.95, Bèrben
VARIAZIONI (attraverso i secoli...) Op.71 (1932), Schott
VOGELWEIDE Op.186 (bar, guit) (1959), Bèrben

Transcription for Guitar:

Claude Debussy: Minstrels (from piano)
Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une enfante défunte (from piano)