Gian Francesco Malipiero

Gian Francesco Malipiero (Venice, March 18, 1882 - Asolo (Treviso), August 1, 1973) was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.

Life

Born in Venice, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, he was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in a consistent manner. After stopping counterpoint lessons with the composer, organist and pedagogue Marco Enrico Bossi, Malipiero continued study on his own by copying out music by such composers as Claudio Monteverdi and Girolamo Frescobaldi, thereby beginning a lifelong commitment to Italian music of that period. In 1904 he went to Bologna and sought out Bossi to continue his studies. After graduating, Malipiero became an assistant to the blind composer Antonio Smareglia.

Malipiero first heard Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" in Paris in 1913 soon after meeting Alfredo Casella. At this time he won four composition prizes at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, by entering five different compositions under five different pseudonyms.

In 1923, he joined with Alfredo Casella and Gabriele D'Annunzio in creating the Corporazione delle Nuove Musiche. Malipiero was on good terms with Mussolini until he set Pirandello's libretto "La favola del figlio cambiato", earning the condemnation of the fascists. Malipiero dedicated his next opera, "Giulio Cesare", to Mussolini, but this did not help him.

He was a professor of composition at the Parma Conservatory from 1921 to 1924. In 1932 he became professor of composition at the then Venice Liceo Musicale, which he directed from 1939 to 1952. Among others he taught Luigi Nono.

After permanently settling in the little town of Asolo in 1921, Malipiero began the editorial work for which he would become best known, a complete edition of all of Monteverdi's oeuvre, from 1926 to 1942, and after 1952, editing much of Vivaldi's concerti at the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi.

When asked in the mid-1950s by the British encyclopedia "The World of Music", Malipiero listed as his most important compositions the following pieces:

* "Pause del Silenzio" for the orchestra, composed in 1917
* "Rispetti e Strambotti" for the chamber music, composed in 1920
* "L'Orfeide" for the stage, composed between 1918 and 1922, and first performed in 1924
* "La Passione", a mystery play composed in 1935
* his nine symphonies, composed between 1933 and 1955 (he would compose additional symphonies in the years after this list was made)

elected works

Orchestral music

* "Sinfonia del mare" (1906)
* "Impressioni dal vero" prima parte (1910)
* "Impressioni dal vero" seconda parte (1915)
* "Pause del Silenzio" (1917)
* "Cimarosiana" (1921), five symphonic fragments from keyboard works of Cimarosa
* "Impressioni dal vero" terza parte (1922)
* "Concerti" (1931)
* "Concerto N.1 for Piano and Orchestra" (1931)
* "Inni" (1932)
* "Sette Invenzioni" (1933)
* "Concerto N.1 for Violin and Orchestra" (1932)
* "Sinfonia N. 2 "Elegiaca" (1936)
* "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra" (1937)
* "Concerto N.2 for Piano and Orchestra" (1937)
* "Concerto a tre" for Violin, Cello, Piano and Orchestra (1938)
* "Sinfonia n. 3 "Delle campane" (1945)
* "Sinfonia n. 4 "In memoriam" (1946)
* "Sinfonia n. 5 "Concertante in eco" (1947)
* "Sinfonia n. 6 "Degli archi" (1947)
* "Sinfonia n. 7 "Delle canzoni" (1948)
* "Concerto n.3 per pianoforte e orchestra" (1948)
* "Concerto n.4 per pianoforte e orchestra" (1950)
* "Sinfonia in un tempo" (1950)
* "Sinfonia dello Zodiaco" "Quattro partite: dalla primavera all'inverno" (1951)
* "Vivaldiana" (1952)
* "Passacaglie" (1952)
* "Fantasie di ogni giorno" (1953)
* "Elegia capriccio" (1953)
* "Fantasie concertanti" (1954)
* "Notturno di canti e balli" (1957)
* "Concerto n.5 for Piano and Orchestra" (1958)
* "Sinfonia per Antigenida" (1962)
* "Concerto n.2 for Violin and Orchestra" (1963)
* "Sinfonia n.8 "Symphonia brevis" (1964)
* "Concerto n.6 for Piano and Orchestra" (1964)
* "Sinfonia n.9 "Dell'Ahimè" (1966)
* "Sinfonia n.10 "Atropo" (1967)
* "Concerto per flauto e orchestra" (1968)
* "Sinfonia n.11 "Delle cornamuse" (1969)
* "Gabrieliana" (1971)
* "Omaggio a Belmonte" (1971)

Operas

*"L'Orfeide" (1919-1922, Düsseldorf 1925), in tre parti: :*I "La morte delle maschere", :*II "Sette canzoni", :*III "Orfeo"
*"Tre commedie goldoniane" (1920-1922, Darmstadt 1926) ::*I "La bottega da caffè", :*II "Sior Todero Brontolon", :*III "Le baruffe Chiozotte"
*"Filomela e l'infatuato" (1925, Prague 1928)
*"Torneo notturno" (1929)
*"La favola del figlio cambiato" (libretto di Luigi Pirandello, 1933)
*"Giulio Cesare" (da Shakespeare (1935, Genova 1936)
*"Antonio e Cleopatra" (da Shakespeare, 1937, Florence 1938)
*"I capricci di Callot" (da E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1942, Rome 1942)
*"L'allegra brigata" (1943, Milano 1950)
*"Mondi celesti ed infernali" (1949, Venice 1961)
*"Il figliuol prodigo" (1952, Florence 1957)
*"Donna Urraca", atto unico (1954)
*"Venere prigioniera" (1955, Florence 1957)
*"Il marescalco" (1960, Treviso 1969)
*"Don Giovanni" (1963, Naples)
*"Rappresentazione e festa di Carnasciale e della Quaresima" (Opera balletto, 1961, Venice 1970)
*"Le metamorfosi di Bonaventura" (Venice 1966)
*"Don Tartufo bacchettone" (1966, Venice 1970)
*"Iscariota" (1971)

Chamber music

* "Sonata" for Cello and Piano (1907-1908)
* "Canto della Lontananza" for Violin and Piano (1919)
* "String Quartet n.1 "Rispetti e strambotti" (1920)
* "String Quartet n.2 "Stornelli e ballate" (1923)
* "String Quartet n.3 "Cantari alla madrigalesca" (1931)
* "Epodi e giambi" for Violin, oboe, viola e fagotto (1932)
* "String Quartet n.4" (1934)
* "Sonata a cinque" per flauto, arpa, viola, violino e violoncello (1934)
* "String Quartet n.5 "dei capricci" (1941-1950)
* "Sonatina" for Cello and Piano (1942)
* "String Quartet n.6 "l'Arca di Noé" (1947)
* "String Quartet n.7" (1950)
* "Sonata a quattro" for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1954)
* "Serenata mattutina" per 10 strumenti (1959)
* "Serenata" per fagotto e 10 strumenti (1961)
* "Macchine" per 14 strumenti (1963)
* "String Quartet n.8 "per Elisabetta" (1964)
* "Endecatode" per 14 strumenti e percussione (1966)

Vocal works

*"Tre poesie di Angelo Poliziano (1920)
*"San Francesco d'Assisi", mistero per soli, coro e orchestra (1920-1921, New York 1922)
*"Quattro sonetti del Burchiello" (1921)
*"Due sonetti del Berni" (1922)
*"Le Stagioni Italiche" per soprano e pianoforte (1923, Venezia 1925)
*"La Cena", cantata per coro e orchestra (1927, Rochesterdn 1929)
*"Commiato" per una voce di baritono e orchestra (1934)
*"La Passione", cantata per coro e orchestra (Roma 1935)
*"De Profundis" per una voce, viola e grancassa e pianoforte (Venezia 1937)
*"Missa Pro Mortuis" per baritono, coro e orchestra (Roma 1938)
*"Quattro Vecchie Canzoni" per voce e strumenti (1940, Washington 1941)
*"Santa Eufrosina", mistero per soprano, due baritoni, coro e orchestra (Roma 1942)
*"Le Sette Allegrezze d'Amore" per voce e strumenti (Milano 1945)
*"La Terra", dalle Georgiche di Virgilio (1946)
*"Mondi celesti" for soprano and ten instruments (1948, Capri 1949)
*"La Festa della Sensa" per baritone, chorus and orchestra (1949-1950, Brussels 1954)
*"Cinque favole" (1950)
*"Preludio e morte di Macbeth" for baritone and orchestra (1958, Milano 1960)
*"Sette canzonette veneziane" for voice and piano (1960)

Ballet Music

*"Pantea" (1919)
*"Stradivario" (1948)
*"El mondo novo" (1951)