- Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi (
16 July 1904 –3 March 2003 ) was an Italiancomposer ofmodern classical music , conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century. Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9059491]Life
Petrassi was born at
Zagarolo , nearRome . At the age of 15 he began to work at a music shop to supply his family's financial needs, and became fascinated by music. In 1928, he entered the Santa Cecilia Conservatory inRome to study organ and composition. In 1934, composerAlfredo Casella conducted Petrassi's "Partita" for orchestra at the ISCM festival inAmsterdam .Later, Petrassi became musical director of the opera house
La Fenice , and from 1959 taught composition at theSanta Cecilia Conservatory and at theSalzburg Mozarteum . Petrassi had many famous students, includingFranco Donatoni ,Aldo Clementi ,Cornelius Cardew ,Ennio Morricone ,Karl Korte ,Ernesto Rubin de Cervin ,Kenneth Leighton andRichard Teitelbaum . Petrassi died inRome at the age of 98.Music
Petrassi's early work was part of an attempt by several Italian composers to create a national "Italian" revival in classical music, corresponding to the romantic work of Germans such as
Richard Wagner . During this time, his work was characteristically neoclassical in style, influenced by Bartók, Hindemith and Stravinsky.In later years, Petrassi's open musical mind and acute personality led him to experiment with different post-Webernian influences and a wide range of poetic materials, from Latin hymns to
Ariosto 's "La follia d'Orlando" andCervantes ' "Ritratto di Don Chisciotte". All these influences are present in a remarkable series of eight Concerti for Orchestra which he composed between the late 1930s and the late 1970s.Notes
External links
* [http://www.istitutopetrassi.it/ The Goffredo Petrassi Institute] it icon
* [http://www.cematitalia.it/servizi/bio.php?lg=ita&cat=comp&id=194 Goffredo Petrassi - Biografia] it icon
* [http://web.tiscali.it/silvio-home/petrassi/index.htm Goffredo Petrassi Un maestro del Novecento] it icon
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* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/mar/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1 Guardian obituary]
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