20th-Century Italian Composers and Guitarists - part 2

      Mario Maccaferri (1900-?) was the most well-known pupil of L. Mozzani, from the early period. He was not a notable composer but he preferred to remain a reputed guitar-maker, or better a "designer", as designed by the English redactor Sue McCreadie, and moreover a famous concert performer. His fame had to be good in London, were he appeared firstly in 1931, "after his enormous success in Paris, Brussels, Milan and Antwerp" (text extracted from the play-bill of his concert in London). There he played, as usual for him, the "Feste Lariane" by his teacher Luigi Mozzani. He was able to designe several new guitar models in US, where he emigrated after the 2nd Worldwide War (there he founded a plastics factory), he built the guitar model that was after used by the gypsy Django Reinhardt during the 50ties.

      He was the first teacher of such great guitarists as Ida Presti and Len Williams (John's father).

Giuseppe Bellenghi (1844-1902) was mainly a cellist and mandolinist, and a composer who flourished in the second half of the last century. He is reported here because was the founder of the Publishing House Forlivesi, based on Florence. This company was historically the first Italian modern publishing company to print guitar music (basically some works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco).

He was born in Faenza like Luigi Mozzani, who was his close friend.

He was also author of a Method for the guitar published by Forlivesi and many other music under the pseudonym "G. B. PIRANI".

      Ruggero Chiesa (1933-1993) has been probably the most renowned Italian teacher, editor and musicologist of this century. He start studying guitar firstly as pupil of Carlo Palladino, then from 1956 to 1960 he attended the courses of Alirio Diaz and Emilio Pujol (vihuela) at Accademia Chigiana in Siena. In later years he could succeed to Pujol in teaching his famous free courses of "Transcription from the Ancient tabulatures" at the same Academy. He was renowned as teacher at the conservatory of Milan named "Giuseppe verdi" as well as being founder and the director of the guitar magazine of the Milanese Music Publisher Suvini Zerboni, il Fronimo, strted from 1972.

      Among his pupils there are a great deal who are now young relevant performers in the international spotlight as: Roberto Pinciroli (Legnano, 1957), Emanuele Segre, Elena Casoli (Milan, 1960), Marco Riboni (Milan, 1959), Frédéric Zigante (France, 1961), Giuseppe Carrer (Treviso, 1970), etc.

      Carlo Munier (1856-1911) was a self-taught mandolinist and guitarist, teacher. He was born in Florence.

He is the author of a method for guitar (Scuola della chitarra op. 137), published by Ricordi, which had many reissues and composed several transcriptions and original pieces, all published by the Florentine Lapini and Maurri publishers.

      Federico Bonvicini (1888-1957) was a student of Luigi Mozzani, a performer, lute-maker and composer of his own right. He married the mezzo-soprano Maria Mazzanti.

      He published his works for the music publisher Chiappino of Turin -- Fantasia, Festa al villaggio, Scherzo, Serenata, Tarantella, etc. -- in the late Romantic taste of the Italian school.

     Romolo Ferrari (1894-1959), was another craftsman of the guitar rebirth in North Italy, was teacher of bassoon and guitar, historian of guitar and full-time organizer of concerts and meetings for his instrument. He lived in Moden all his life. There he could collect a wide library of guitar music, that is now known as "Ferrari Fund". He was the founder of the Guitar Society "Mauro Giuliani" and the magazine "La Chitarra". He taught his son Ivano Ferrari, who disappeared untimely.

He published his music mainly in theis magazine and the other of his epoch (Il Plettro, ...). His essay on the life of Luigi Mozzani was fundamental for the following studies (see the bibliography)

      Fausto Ernesto Ciurlo was a well-known scholar of the guitar making, diplomed in engineering.

      He was author of a great deal of articles about this subject and the origins of the guitar and the lute. He was the maker of some innovative models of guitar for his years, e.g. the article about the quarti-tonal guitar mentioned in the bibliography. One of his guitar was played in an old LP recorded by Angelo Gilardino, who was among his friends.

      He was the first president of AS.CH.IT. (the Italian Guitar Society), founded in 1960. His only known piece is Mattutino ("Morning") by Bčrben.

      His well-reputed teacher and friend was Luigi L'Ecrivain, and it is intriguing the fact that nobody asked about him, so it is now a completely forgotten name.

      Abner Rossi was born in Mantua in 1908 but he always was active as teacher in Milan, where he died. He was a cellist by training and a well-known plectrum guitarist.

He is the author of methods for plectrum/jazz and also for the classical guitar, which had many reissues. He composed several transcriptions and many original pieces, all published by Bčrben.

Main Works by Abner Rossi

Main works / Opere principali: Allegro Vivace, Piccola Serenata [in Pagine Musicali, Bčrben], Ballata Antica, Concerto di Campane, Sera Mediterranea, Serata marchigiana [Bčrben], Contrappunto scherzoso [Bčrben], Impressioni Virgiliane (1981) [Carisch], Notturno in la minore [Bčrben], Pensieri d'autunno [Bčrben]

      Roberto Beccuti (1910-1974) was a self taught guitarist born in Catania (Sicily). He was helped by the suggestions of Luigi Mozzani and Benvenuto Terzi.

      He published his works for guitar with the firm Monzino, Bčrben and in the magazine La Chitarra, they have almost an historical interest.

Main works by Roberto Beccuti

Barcarola solitaria, La chitarra; Minuetto, Monzino & Garlandini; Notturno, Bčrben; Serenata Siciliana, La chitarra

      Cesare Lutzemberger (1918), was born near Trento. He was the pupil of his father Lodovico (1885-1941), a guitarists of late XIXth century. His children Lodovico (1948) (the same name as the granfather) and Maria Grazia (1951) followed his carreer becoming guitarists. Among his pupils there are many great performers now famous: Mario Benigni (1931) and Walter Zanetti.

      Cesare performed intensivily in Italy and abroad.

      Among his best known works for guitar (all in tonal music) there are Alba, Andantino in mi minore and Notte nell'oasi.

Main published works / Opere maggiori edite:

Alba [Bčrben], Andantino in mi minore [Bčrben], Notte nell'oasi - Preludio astrale - Sonata in re maggiore - Sonatina - Tema in mi minore [in Concerto in miniatura] [Bčrben], Notturno - Preludio in re minore - Preludio in sol minore - Sonata in si minore [in Quattro composizioni, Bčrben]

      Federico Orsolino (1818) was born in Genoa. Initially a self taught guitarist, he was a pupil of Carlo Palladino, then a performer and composer of his own right.

      He published many articles in the Italian guitar magazine "L'Arte chitarristica" for the diffusion of the seven string guitar (with an added D bass string), of which he was the greatest promoter.

      He edited the cycle of the La Serra of Mario Barbieri of Turin.

      Among his many works, are worth to remember the Canone Retrogrado and few other published by Bčrben, Zanibon and Pizzicato.

Guitar Works by Federico Orsolino

Main works / Opere principali: Canone Retrogrado (Bčrben), Capriccio (La cascatella) (Hladky), Capriccio napoletano (Farfisa), La Fontanella (7-str guit) (Bčrben), Omaggio (Farfisa), Pensiero nostalgico (7-str guit) (Bčrben), Piccole impressioni di campagna (Hladky), Soliloquio e scherzo (Zanibon), Tarantella (Bčrben), Toccata (Pizzicato)

      Carlo Palladino (1910-1995), was one of the last pupils of Luigi Mozzani but he always remained the most loyal pupil to him. He followed Mozzani's lessons in Bologna, from 1936 to 1940. Palladino was a celebrated virtuoso guitar player of his own right, in Italy and abroad (Basel and Munchen), to the point that he was appealed as "Genoa's Segovia" (despite he was born in Annone d'Asti -- Piedmont). Differently from Benvenuto Terzi, Palladino has left some recordings (RAI, Radio of Basel and Munchen) that can give some insights into his art: Bach and Rameau, Sor, Giuliani, de Visée Tarrega, Turina, moreover Aguado and Mozzani were his heroes.

      Must be deserved a mention to the fact that he Palladino was rightly the "first guitar teacher" at the Conservatory "Nicolň Paganini" of Genoa from 1970 to 1977 and he worked hard to make the appearance of the diplomas in guitar to enter in Conservatory.

      Among his well-known pupils there are the two Genoan Federico Orsolino (1918), who cooperated in the magazine "L'Arte Chitarristica", publishing many pieces for it, the Viennese Hladky and Bčrben (Pensiero nostalgico, Capriccio napoletano etc.). Other his pupils are the well-known musicologist Ruggero Chiesa (who studied with him for 4 years), the performer Pino Briasco and the composer Nilo Peraldo Bert.

      Eduardo Caliendo (1922) was born in Neaples. He is a teacher and pupil of Pasquale Serrano. He taught at the Lyceum of his city.

Among his works there are Due Preludi and Due Studi sul tremolo.

     Vincenzo Degni was a self taught guitarist who was born in Canosa (Bari), but he soon moved to North Italy. He developed an intense organization activity in Milan, where he found the Associazione with the International Competition "The Conquire of the Classical Guitar" held in "SIM" of Milan, since the '80. Among his wide repertory of short pieces and studies, pieces of occasion, can be remembered his Serenata all'antica (Bčrben) and a Fandanguillo (Curci), suitable mostly as guitar children's games.

Main works / Opere principali

Fandanguillo (Curci), Giga e Pavana (Metron), Moto perpetuo (Curci), Preludio (Ricordi), Serenata all'antica (Bčrben), Variazioni su uno studio di Aguado [in 3 composizioni classiche] (Curci)

      The Roman Mario Gangi (1923) was a pupil of his father Alfredo (1880-?), a guitarist, double-bass player and painter.
      He diplomed in guitar and double-bass in Rome, he played as first in Italy with an Orchestra, the Concerts of M. Giuliani and Ennio Porrino, which he recorded both, then Suoni Notturni and Nunc by Goffredo Petrassi respectively at the Roman Festival Nuova Consonanza in Rome and at the festival of Contemporary Music in Venice. His recordings in LPs are from the labels Cetra and R.C.A. Victor.

      He taught guitar in the conservatories of Neaples (from 1960) and then Rome (1965-67), succeding to Benedetto di Ponio.

      Among his pupils we must mention many important performers and some composer as Bruno Battisti d'Amario (1937), Carlo Carfagna, Maria Grazie Baccini (1939), Stefano Cardi (brother of the composer not-guitarist Mauro), Carlo Marchione (1964).

     Among his best known works there are the Suite Italiana for 2 guitars and the Suite Spagnola for 2 guitars and a large number of pieces inspired by the jazz-blues stylings.

Main works :

6 Pezzi Moderni [Ricordi], Fabulae (2 guit) [Zanibon], Fiaba - Blues [Bčrben], For Charlie Parker [in 8 Pezzi di Autori Contemporanei, Ricordi], Incantevole [Bčrben], La ronde folle (Impressione) [Bčrben], Melodia abruzzese, Saltarello romano [in Raccolta di musiche, Bčrben], Ninna Nanna a Pabú [Bčrben], Suite Italiana (2 guit) [Zanibon], Suite Spagnola (2 guit) [Bčrben], Tarantella [Bčrben], Tre piccoli pezzi [Bčrben]

      There are also other names of musician and guitarist of early 1900 are now completely disappeared in the absorbed paper of the guitar history, not to mention the History of Music, that in practice was never aware of them. I want here to remember first of all the name of the Roman Alfredo Enrico Loreti (1870-?), who lived in Zurich, composing more then 250 opus numbers, among which many for guitar: among which a "Segoviana" (Hug & C., Zurich), a Bolero op. 241 and a Speranza ("Hope") op. 252, published for ed. Hofmeister.

      Other names of composer as Giuseppe Ferri (1884-?), Andrea Ghirardenghi (?-1925) are now completely unknown. Luciano Castagna, another composer and guitarist of early 1900, published for Ricordi and Carish; and Edoardo Cordero, another guitarist of probable Argentinian origin, who published "Il Sogno" (The Dream) for the guitar mag Il Plettro (1928). Luigi Desenzani (?) instead published his works for the publisher Chiappino of Turin.

      But here we are already arrived at the following generation of guitarist, born after the Segovian era, as Federico Moreno-Torroba and Manuel Ponce, in practice only characterized in Italy by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, but that happened only after 1932.

1. Francesco Gorio, 1984: una conversazione con Ruggero Chiesa (A conversation with Ruggero Chiesa), in "il Fronimo" no. 96, p. 5-12, 1996
2. F. Ciurlo, Cenni sulle ricerche delle origini etniche della chitarra e del liuto, in "il Fronimo" n.2, p. 16-24
3. F. Ciurlo, La chitarra nella liuteria moderna, in "il Fronimo" n.6, p. 20-31
4. F. Ciurlo, Chitarra quartitonale, in "il Fronimo" n.10, p. 25-26
5. F. Ciurlo, Collaudo e classificazione delle chitarre, in "il Fronimo" n.14, p. 20-23
6. F. Ciurlo, Il manico cavo nella chitarra, in "il Fronimo" n.18, p. 19-22
7. Romolo Ferrari, "La vita e le opere di Mozzani" in "L'Arte Chitarristica" n. 1 to 10, 1947.
8. Federico Orsolino, I nostri compositori: M. Barbieri, in "L'Arte Chitarristica" no.57-58 (1956), p. 12.
9. Angelo Gilardino, Bella musica sulla tavolozza, in "Suonare News" no.16, 1997 p. 35.
10. Lena Kokkaliari, Interview with Mario Gangi, in il Fronimo no. 90, p. 7-11, 1995
11. Gianvito Pulzone, Un'isola chiamata chitarra - intervista a Mario Gangi (An island called guitar - interview with M. Gangi), in Guitart no. 2, p. 4-7, 1996

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