Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) was an Italian composer, musicologist, and violinist, best known for orchestral works including the Roman Trilogy.
Fountains of Rome: A 1916 symphonic poem depicting four fountains in Rome at different times of day. Its orchestral colors helped establish Respighi’s international reputation.
Symphonic poem: An orchestral work that develops a literary, historical, or pictorial subject outside traditional symphonic form. The Roman Trilogy consists of symphonic poems rather than conventional symphonies.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: A Russian composer and orchestration teacher known for operas and orchestral works. Respighi studied orchestration with him in Saint Petersburg.
Bologna: A city in northern Italy and the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region. Respighi studied at Bologna’s Liceo Musicale and began his professional career there.
Giacomo Puccini: An Italian opera composer known for works including La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Puccini’s international fame centered on opera, unlike Respighi’s strongest reputation for orchestral works.
Pines of Rome: A 1924 symphonic poem portraying Roman pine trees across four scenes of the city’s past and present. Its finale uses a recorded nightingale and a large brass procession.
Orchestration: The art of assigning musical parts to instruments and combining their timbres. Respighi’s reputation rests partly on unusually vivid orchestral writing.
Giuseppe Martucci: An Italian composer, pianist, and conductor who promoted instrumental music in Italy. Respighi studied with Martucci at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna.
Saint Petersburg Conservatory: A Russian music institution founded in 1862, now known as the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. Respighi studied there and received orchestration instruction from Rimsky-Korsakov.
Ferruccio Busoni: An Italian pianist, composer, and theorist associated with modernist ideas and musical transcription. Busoni’s intellectual modernism offers a contrast to Respighi’s historically rooted orchestral color.