Amintore Galli

Amyntor "Amintore" Flaminio Claudio Galli (12 October 1845 – 8 December 1919) was an Italian music publisher, journalist, historian, musicologist, and composer.

Born in the Marecchia valley, Galli was educated under Alberto Mazzucato at the Milan Conservatory. Galli's birth deed records that he was baptised in Talamello – Perticara's church did not have a baptismal font – but his parents are recorded as living in Perticara.

After graduating from Rimini's Lyceum, in 1862, he enrolled in the Milan Conservatory. He was a pupil of Alberto Mazzucato, with whom he studied composition and the history of aesthetics and music. Galli was a contemporary of Arrigo Boito, and was introduced to the Scapigliatura artistic environment. In 1866, Galli enlisted with Boito, Franco Faccio, and Emilio Praga in Giuseppe Garibaldi's army, Four of his band arrangements of compositions by great masters were performed in Finale Emilia. by publishing, in Galli's words, "a collection of economically priced masterworks by the great maestri". Galli wrote many piano reductions himself, Evaluating his directorship, some critics reproach Galli for his inability to identify operatic successes, leading them to rivalling publishing houses, such as Andrea Chénier, which Galli described as "unrepresentable", while Puccini's Le Villi was disqualified from Sonzogno's first competition, advertised in July 1888, for submitting an illegible manuscript. Davide premiered in Milan's Teatro Lirico on 12 November 1904, where it was coldly received by critics.

Among Galli's last compositions was Missa pacis (1919), which was performed on 14 September 1919 in Rimini's Church of San Giovanni Battista, directed by ,

Workers' Hymn

In 1886, Galli set Filippo Turati's Workers' Hymn to music, his best-known composition. written by Luigi Persico. A letter from the mayor of Finale Emilia, dated to 5 December 1904, claims that Galli lifted a setting of the Tantum ergo sung in Finale's churches. Galli was first identified as the music's composer during a police report in 1894, He was a popular local celebrity. and was not fully restored until October 2018.

Founded in September 1994, Rimini's choral association is named after Galli. Streets bear his name in Rimini and Novafeltria. Pope Benedict XVI was gifted a copy of his Missa pacis (1919).

In 2002, the publication of the book Rimini e Amintore Galli reappraised Galli's association with the city, discovering a deeper connection than was believed for an artist who spent most of his life elsewhere. On 20 September 2002, a plaque commemorating Galli was unveiled on the site of his final residence in the city.

On 27 June 2009, Galli's tomb was restored with funding from Rimini's Rotary Club. On 9 October 2011, Missa pacis was performed in Rimini's Tempio Malatestiano, its first time at the venue, in celebration of Saint Gaudentius, Rimini's patron saint.

In recent years, Rimini has hosted several conferences and events dedicated to Galli, including in 2002, 2018, and 2021.

Selected works

Theatrical compositions Two of Galli's operas were performed in his lifetime:

Il corno d'oro or Un'avventura nel serraglio (1876). The work premiered in Turin's on 30 August 1876, and later performed in Barcelona. Davide (1804). The opera premiered in Milan's Teatro Lirico on 12 November 1904. It was repeated in Milan's Teatro Dal Verme on 23 November 1906 and in Rimini's Victor Emmanuel II Theatre, as part of its fiftieth anniversary celebrations, on 6 January 1907. In September 1952, Davide was revived in Rimini in Galli's honour. The score to Davide has been lost, but the vocal and piano sheet music remains.

Galli's other pieces include:

Espiazione (Milan, 1867) Atonement (Rimini, 1867), an oratorio with his own verses inspired by the poem Lalla Rookh (1817) by Thomas Moore Cristo a Golgota (Finale Emilia, 1871) Workers' Hymn (Milan, 1886), with verses by Filippo Turati Missa pacis (Rimini, 1919), directed by , performed on 14 September 1919 in Rimini's Church of San Giovanni Battista, during a solemn ceremony for the conclusion of the First World War Totentanz (n.d.), a baritone solo with an orchestra

Galli wrote the following librettos, which were never published or performed:

Il Risorgimento (1870) Roma (1870), which was banned by the Milanese police Follia tragica (1870), whose production was cancelled shortly before its first scheduled performance

For Sonzongo's publishing house, Galli wrote piano reductions of works by other composers, principally Pietro Mascagni (L'amico Fritz, I Rantzau, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Silvano, Zanetto, and Le Maschere). Galli also wrote piano reductions of Achille Montuoro's Fieschi and Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier.

Essays Galli's essays include:

Arte fonetica, istituzioni scientifiche musicali. Prolegomeni (Milan, 1870) Alle scuole musicali d'Italia. Trattato di contrappunto e fuga (Milan, 1877) Sunto di lezioni di storia, teoria ed estetica della musica (Milan, 1880) Storia teorica ed estetica della musica: programmi e sunti di lezione (Milan, 1881) Ortofonia, rettorica della musica (Milan, 1884) Saggio storico e teorico sulla notazione musicale (Milan, 1886) Manuale del capomusica. Trattato di strumentazione per banda (Milan, 1889) Il canto da sala e da teatro (Milan, 1889) Il polifonista al pianoforte (Milan, 1891) La musica ed i musicisti dal secolo X sino ai nostri giorni (Milan, 1892) Strumenti e strumentazione. Nozioni teorico-pratiche compendiate (Milan, 1897) Etnografia musicale (Milan, 1898) Estetica della musica ossia Del bello nella musica sacra, teatrale e da concerto in ordine alla sua storia (Turin, 1900) Storia e teoria del sistema musicale moderno (Milan, 1901) Appello al buon senso (Venice, n.d.) Storia e teoria della musica militare in Europa (Milan, n.d.) Del canto liturgico cristiano e suo accompagnamento (Milan, n.d.)

Galli authored several short treatises for Sonzogno's publishing house:

Nozioni di musica (1875) Trattato di contrappunto e fuga (1877) La musica dei Greci, degli Arabi e degli Indiani, sunto di lezioni (1879) Elementi di armonia (n.d.) Esercitazioni di lettura musicale per istrumenti da fiato (n.d.)

His monographs include those of:

Gaetano Donizetti (Milan, 1873, with Federico Alborghetti) Simon Mayr (Bergamo, 1875, with Federico Alborghetti) Alberto Mazzucatto (Milan, 1879) Eugenio Bubali (Veroli, 1912) Umberto Giordano (Milan, 1915, with Gustavo Macchi and ) Antonio Bazzini (Milan, n.d.)