Giorgio Federico Ghedini facts for kids

Giorgio Federico Ghedini in 1948

Giorgio Federico Ghedini (born July 11, 1892 – died March 25, 1965) was a famous Italian composer. He wrote many different kinds of music. One of his most well-known pieces is a short opera called Billy Budd, which he first showed in 1949. It was based on a story by Herman Melville.

Life of Giorgio Federico Ghedini

Giorgio Federico Ghedini was born in a town called Cuneo, Italy, in 1892. He loved music from a young age. He studied music like the organ, piano, and how to compose songs in Turin.

He finished his music studies at the Bologna Conservatory in 1911. His teacher was a well-known composer named Marco Enrico Bossi.

After his studies, Ghedini worked as a conductor for a while. A conductor leads an orchestra or choir. But he soon decided to focus on teaching music instead.

Ghedini as a Teacher

Ghedini became a very important music teacher. He taught composition, which is the art of creating music.

• He taught in Turin from 1918 to 1937.
• Then he moved to Parma and taught there from 1937 to 1941.
• Finally, he taught in Milan, where he also became the director of the local Conservatory from 1951 to 1962.

Many of his students became famous musicians themselves. Some of them include Marcello and Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio, Guido Cantelli, Niccolò Castiglioni, Carlo Pinelli, and Fiorenzo Carpi.

A Special Concert

One of Ghedini's pieces was played by a famous conductor named Guido Cantelli. Cantelli led the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert on February 2, 1952. They played Ghedini's Pezzo concertante for two violins, viola, and orchestra.

Giorgio Federico Ghedini passed away in 1965 in Nervi, a town near Genoa.

Ghedini's Music Style

Ghedini really loved old music. He spent time copying and arranging works by composers from long ago. These included artists like Girolamo Frescobaldi, Claudio Monteverdi, and Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli.

His own music often took ideas from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. These were times when music had very specific styles. But Ghedini didn't just copy them. He mixed these old styles with his own modern ideas. This made his music sound unique and personal.

Famous Musical Pieces

Some of Ghedini's most important works include:

• A Concerto for orchestra, which he wrote to remember his former student, Guido Cantelli.
• Two violin concertos called Il Belprato and Concentus Basiliensis. A concerto is a piece for a solo instrument with an orchestra.
• A concerto for two cellos called L'Olmeneta (which means The Elm Grove).
• A piece called Musica Notturna (Night Music).

His most celebrated concert piece is Concerto dell'Albatro (Albatross Concerto). This piece is for violin, cello, piano, a narrator, and an orchestra. It even includes parts from Herman Melville's famous novel Moby-Dick in its last section.

Ghedini also wrote many pieces for small groups of instruments (chamber music), for singers (vocal works), and for choirs (choral works). He also wrote a one-act opera based on Melville's story Billy Budd, which was first performed in 1949.

Works by Giorgio Federico Ghedini

Ghedini wrote many different types of musical pieces throughout his life. Here are some of his most important works grouped by type:

Orchestral Music These are pieces written for a full orchestra.

• Partita (1926)
• Pezzo Concertante, for two violins, viola and orchestra (1931)
• Marinaresca e bacchanale for orchestra (1933)
• Concerto for Orchestra "Architetture" (1939–40)
• Invenzione, concerto for cello, timpani, cymbals and orchestra (1940)
• Concertato, for flute, viola and harp (1941)
• Concerto dell'albatro, for violin, cello, piano, narrator and orchestra (1943)
• Il belprato, violin concerto (1947)
• L'olmeneta (The Elm Grove), concerto for two cellos and orchestra (1951)
• Concerto for viola, viola d'amore, and string orchestra (1953)
• Musica da Concerto, for Viola and String Orchestra (1953)
• Studio da concerto, for guitar (1959)
• Contrappunti, for violin, viola, cello and orchestra (1962)
• Musica concertante, for cello and orchestra (1962)

Piano Music These are pieces written for the piano.

• Mazurka (1908)
• 29 Canoni (1910)
• Tema con variazioni sulla parola "Fede" (1911)
• La ballerina del circo equestre che salta sulla corda (1912)
• Minuetto del galletto nano (1912)
• Gavotta (1912)
• Sonatina in D major (1913)
• Nove pezzi (1914)
• Minuettocaricatura (1916)
• Puerilia. 4 little pieces on 5 notes (1922)
• Sonata in A flat major (1922)
• Fantasia (1927)
• Divertimento contrappuntistico (1940)
• Capriccio (1943)
• Ricercare super “Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum” (1944, revised 1956)

Operas Operas are plays where the story is told mostly through singing.

• Gringoire (1915)
• Maria d'Alessandria (1937)
• Re Hassan (1939)
• La pulce d'oro (1940)
• Le baccanti (1948)
• Billy Budd (1949), a one-act opera
• Lord Inferno (1952)
• Girotondo (1959)
• La via della croce (1961)

Film Scores These are musical pieces written for movies.

• Don Bosco (1935)
• Pietro Micca (1938)
• The Widow (1939)

See also

In Spanish: Giorgio Federico Ghedini para niños