Goffredo Petrassi facts for kids
Goffredo Petrassi (born July 16, 1904 – died March 2, 2003) was a famous Italian composer. He wrote modern classical music. He was also a conductor and a teacher. Many people think he was one of the most important Italian composers of the 1900s.
Life of Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi was born in Zagarolo, a town near Rome, Italy. When he was 15 years old, he started working in a music shop. He did this to help his family with money. Working there made him love music even more.
In 1928, he went to the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. This is a special music school. There, he studied how to play the organ. He also learned how to write music, which is called composition.
A famous composer named Alfredo Casella helped Petrassi in 1933. Casella conducted Petrassi's piece called Partita for orchestra. This happened at a music festival in Amsterdam.
Petrassi became a professor at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory. He taught composition from 1940 to 1960. Later, he also led the music at the La Fenice opera house. From 1960 to 1978, he taught advanced composition classes. He also taught at the Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria.
Many students learned from Petrassi. Some of them became very famous composers themselves. He died in Rome when he was 98 years old.
Goffredo Petrassi's Music Style
When Petrassi first started writing music, he wanted to create a special "Italian" sound. This was a goal for many Italian composers. They wanted their music to be unique, like the German romantic music of Richard Wagner.
At this time, Petrassi's music was often neoclassical. This means it used ideas from older classical music. He was inspired by other composers like Bartók, Hindemith, and Stravinsky.
As he got older, Petrassi was open to new ideas. He liked to try different styles. He used many kinds of poems and stories in his music. These included old Latin hymns and stories like La follia d'Orlando by Ariosto. He also wrote Ritratto di Don Chisciotte (Portrait of Don Quixote). This piece was based on the famous character by Miguel de Cervantes.
All these different ideas can be heard in his eight Concerti for Orchestra. He wrote these pieces between 1934 and 1972. His music can be found on CD labels like Chandos and Naxos.
Petrassi stopped composing music in 1986. This was because he started to lose his eyesight.
See also
In Spanish: Goffredo Petrassi para niños
