Giorgio Federico Ghedini (Composer, Arranger)

Born: July 11, 1892 - Cuneo, Italy
Died: March 25, 1965 - Genua, Italy

The Italian composer and pedagogue, Giorgio Federico Ghedini, studied piano and organ with Evasio Lovazzano, cello with S. Grossi, and composition with G. Cravero at the Turin Conservatorey; then composition at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna with Marco Enrico Bossi, graduating in 1911.

Giorgio Ghedini worked as conductor for a certain time, then he gave up to devote himself to teaching. He worked as teacher of harmony and composition at the conservatories in Turin (1918-1937), Parma (1938-1941), and finally Milan (from 1941), serving as director of the latter (1951-1962). Among his pupils the most eminent were Marcello Abbado and Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio, Niccolò Castiglioni, Carlo Pinelli, Fiorenzo Carpi, and Pietro Spada.

Giorgio Ghedini was a deep lover of ancient music, in fact he transcribed many works of such composers as Girolamo Frescobaldi, Claudio Monteverdi, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. Ghedini's works are often inspired to music of Renaissance and baroque Era, but combined with a very personal language which mixes up neo-Classicism with more advanced contemporary techbiques. Among his masterworks a Concerto for orchestra (in memory of Guido Cantelli), two violin concertos Il Belprato and Concentus Basiliensis, a concerto for two cellos L'Olmeneta and Musica Notturna (Night Music). Ghedini's most celebrated concert-piece is Concerto dell'Albatro (Albatross Concerto) for violin, cello, piano, narrator and orchestra, which includes fragments from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick) in its final movement. He wrote a large number of chamber, vocal and choral works.

Works

Instrumental:
Marinaresca e bacchanale for orchestra (1933)
Concerto dell'albatro (1943)
Violin Concerto Il belprato
Concerto for viola, viola d'amore, and string orchestra
Studio da concerto, for guitar
Musica concertante for Cello and Orchestra
Invenzione Concerto for Cello, Orchestra, Timpani and Cymbals
Concerto two Cellos and Orchestra
Musica da Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra (1953)
Pezzo Concertante for 2 Violins, Viola and Orchestra (1931)
Concertato for Flute, Viola and Harp (1941)

Operas:
Gringoire (1915)
Maria d'Alessandria (1937)
Re Hassan (1939)
La Pulce d'oro(1940)
Le Baccanti (1948)
Billy Budd (1949)
Lord Inferno (1952)
Girotondo (1959)
La via della croce (1961)

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997); Wikipedia Website
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (January 2010)

Giorgio Federico Ghedini: Short Biography | Arrangements/Transcriptions: Works | Recordings

Links to other Sites

Giorgio Federico Ghedini (Wikipedia)

Bibliography

N. Castiglioni: Giorgio Federico Ghedini (Milan, 1955)