Editing Goffredo Petrassi

{{Short description|Italian composer of modern classical music,  conductor and teacher}}
[[File:Goffredo.petrassi2.jpg|thumb|Petrassi]]
'''Goffredo Petrassi''' (16 July 1904 &ndash; 3 March 2003) was an Italian [[composer]] of [[modern classical music]], [[conducting|conductor]], and teacher.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Anthony Tommasini |author-link1=Anthony Tommasini |title=Goffredo Petrassi, Italian Modernist Composer, Dies at 98 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/arts/goffredo-petrassi-italian-modernist-composer-dies-at-98.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=4 July 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=5 March 2003 |page=C 13}}</ref> He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.<ref name=britannica>Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica.  Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9059491</ref>

==Life==
Petrassi was born at [[Zagarolo]], near [[Rome]]. 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 [[Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia|Santa Cecilia Conservatory]] in Rome to study [[organ (music)|organ]] and [[musical composition|composition]] for five years under Vincenzo di Donato.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greene |first=David Mason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3S7PIxe0mwC |title=Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers |date=1985 |publisher=Reproducing Piano Roll Fnd. |isbn=978-0-385-14278-6 |page=1336 |language=en |quote=In 1925 Petrassi was able to study composition with one Vincenzo di Donato and was a pupil from 1928 to 1933...}}</ref> In 1933, composer [[Alfredo Casella]] conducted Petrassi's ''Partita'' for orchestra at the ISCM festival in [[Amsterdam]].

From 1940 to 1960 Petrassi was professor of composition at the [[Santa Cecilia Conservatory]]; later, he also became musical director of the opera house [[La Fenice]], and from 1960 to 1978 he taught in the master courses in composition at the [[Accademia di Santa Cecilia]].<ref>Restagno, Enzo (ed.) (1992). ''Petrassi''. Turin: EDT, pp. 41–42. {{ISBN|88-7063-044-7}}</ref> He was also a teacher at the [[Salzburg Mozarteum]]. Petrassi had many famous students, including [[Franco Donatoni]], [[Aldo Clementi]], [[Cornelius Cardew]], [[Ennio Morricone]], [[Karl Korte]], [[Boris Porena]], [[Norma Beecroft]], [[Mario Bertoncini]], [[Ernesto Rubin de Cervin]], [[Eric Salzman]], [[Kenneth Leighton]], [[Peter Maxwell Davies]], [[Michael Dellaira]], [[Armando Santiago]], and [[Richard Teitelbaum]]. {{See LMST|Goffredo|Petrassi}} Petrassi died in [[Rome]] at the age of 98.

==Music==
Petrassi's early work was part of an attempt by several [[Italy|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 [[Neoclassicism (music)|neoclassical]] in style, influenced by [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]], [[Paul Hindemith|Hindemith]] and [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]].

In later years, Petrassi's open musical mind and acute personality led him to experiment with different post-[[Anton Webern|Webernian]] influences and a wide range of [[poetry|poetic]] materials, from Latin hymns to [[Ariosto]]'s ''La follia d'Orlando'' and ''Ritratto di Don Chisciotte'' (''Portrait of [[Don Quixote]]''), based on the [[Miguel de Cervantes]] literary character. All these influences are present in a remarkable series of eight [[Concerto for Orchestra|Concerti for Orchestra]] which he composed between 1934 and 1972. His music appears on the CD labels [[Chandos Records|Chandos]], [[Stradivarius (record label)|Stradivarius]], [[Naxos (company)|Naxos]], and [[Capriccio (record label)|Capriccio]].

Petrassi stopped composing in 1986 due to progressive loss of eyesight.

==Works==
* Sinfonia, Siciliana e Fuga per Quartetto d'Archi (1929)<ref name="ITL 70033" />
* Partita for Orchestra (1932)
* Preludio, Aria, e Finale for Cello and Piano (1933)
* Concerto for Orchestra (1934)
* Psalm IX (1934–36)
* Piano Concerto (1936–39)
* Magnificat (1939–40)
* Coro di Morti (1941)
* Quatro inni Sacri (1942–50)
* La follia di Orlando (1942–43) (also as a symphonic suite)
* Ritratto di Don Chisciotte (1945)
* Il Cordovano (1948)
* Morte dell'aria (1950)
* Noche Oscura (1950–51)
* Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 (1951)
* Concerto for Orchestra No. 3 (1953)
* Concerto for Orchestra No. 4 (1954)
* Concerto for Orchestra No. 5 (1955)
* Concerto for Orchestra No. 6 (1956–57)<ref name="ITL 70033">Porena, Boris. (1978). ''Goffredo Petrassi: Trio E Quartetto Per Archi''. Italia [ITL 70033]; Fonit Cetra spa. Retrieved 2021-09-05. [https://www.discogs.com/release/6386880]</ref>
* Quartetto per Archi (String Quartet) (1957)<ref name="ITL 70033" />
* Serenata (1957)<ref name="ITL 70033" />
* Trio per Archi (String Trio) (1959)<ref name="ITL 70033" />
* Flute Concerto (1960)
* Concerto for Orchestra No. 7 (1963–64)
* Concerto for Orchestra No. 8 (1970–72)
* Orationes Christi (1975)
* Kyrie (1990)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[http://www.istitutopetrassi.it/ The Goffredo Petrassi Institute] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927135648/http://www.istitutopetrassi.it/ |date=2011-09-27 }} {{in lang|it}}
*[http://web.tiscali.it/silvio-home/petrassi/index.htm Goffredo Petrassi Un maestro del Novecento] {{in lang|it}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/mar/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1 Guardian obituary]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrassi, Goffredo}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century male composers]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian male musicians]]
[[Category:Italian male classical composers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia]]
[[Category:Conservatorio Santa Cecilia alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Conservatorio Santa Cecilia]]
[[Category:People from the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital]]