Ottorino Respighi

From Wind Repertory Project
Ottorino Respighi

Biography

Ottorino Respighi (9 July 1879, Bologna, Italy - 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer. He was taught piano and violin in Bologna by his father. He then enrolled at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, where he studied violin and viola with Federico Sarti, composition with Giuseppe Martucci, and historical studies with Luigi Torchi, a scholar of early music. A year after receiving his diploma in violin in 1899, Respighi went to Russia to be the principal violist in the orchestra of the Russian Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg during its season of Italian opera. While there, he studied composition for five months with Rimsky-Korsakov.

In 1932, Respighi was elected to the Royal Academy of Italy. Composing numerous chamber, vocal, and orchestral works, as well as operas and ballets, he was an enthusiastic scholar of Italian music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Preferring to keep clear of musical traits of the Classical Period, Respighi combined pre-classical melodic styles and musical forms, such as dance suites, with typical late-19th-century romantic harmonies and textures.


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