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| Carlo Giorgio Garofalo (1886-1962)
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Until recently, Carlo Gorgio Garofalo (1886-1962)
was a relatively obscure Italian composer and organist: "The shadow of
oblivion hung over him so tightly that even the name of this musician
could not be found in any of the better known music dictionaries
or encyclopedias." (from a review in Musical Life (October 1994,
Moscow, Russia). (The following essay is a work in progress and is frequently changed, amended and corrected.)
Carlo Giorgio
Garofalo was born in Rome, Italy, on August 5, 1886. Garofalo's son, Marcello, summed
up his father's early life: "My father
was born five days after the death of Liszt. My grandmother wrote to me
that she thought that her baby would be still-born, but of course he was
not, but his birth was followed
by supernatural signs. He was a reincarnation of Gerolamo Frescobaldi.
His [Garofalo's] Immaculate Conception Mass begins with a theme
of Frescobaldi's, as noticed by Luigi Fait, organist at the Duomo of
Milan." [Frescobaldi would continue to play an important part in his
life, as we shall see below.] The confinement of the Jews in Rome was finally brought to an end on September 20, 1870 with the storming of the Porta Pia. [N.B. The Italian bersaglieri (light cavalry) entered Rome through a breach in the wall near the Porta Pia.] This event marked the end of the pope’s civil authority in Rome. The Jews were given full equality with other Roman citizens. [Source: Carol Shapiro: http://www.audiowalks.com/read-a-walk/rome_ghetto.htm; viewed 5/25/2005] In 1871, the capital of Italy was moved from Florence to Rome. As a part of the master plan to improve the city of Rome, many of the buildings in the former ghetto were razed. In 1904, among the ghetto ruins, the emancipated Roman Jews built a new synagogue. [Source: Shapiro] The social interaction between young Carlo and the Jews he knew as neighbors, playmates and friends would have a great impact on his life in years to come. Carlo’s parents were Giovanni Garofalo (d.1933) and Faustina Rinadi Garofalo (d. 1931). Giovanni was from Naples, but by 1886 he and Faustina were living in Rome where he worked for the French-language newspaper L’Italie which was printed in Rome. Faustina had studied in Paris and was related somehow to the founders of the famous department store, Le Bon Marche: Aristide Boucicault (1810-1877) and his wife, Marguerite née Guérin (1816-1887) in 1852. Neither Giovanni nor Faustina were musicians, but they did not object to young Carlo studying music. In Rome during the 1890’s, as
indeed in any large city, there were neighborhood rivalries. Now and again,
children from the neighboring districts of Rome, because of a bigoted remark, or
some other insult, or perhaps because of some misplaced loyalty, would start
what in modern parlance would be called a “turf war.” These were usually
playful and short-lived, but even so, sometimes someone would get hurt. Once
that happened and a adult intervened, the fighting halted. In those days, parents, and adults in general, were highly respected, even feared. The boys involved in the mock battle knew that if one of their parents caught them throwing rocks at each other, punishment would be meted out to all of them. In the middle of this fracas, Carlo’s father, Giovanni, suddenly appeared. Whether he was aware of the rock-throwing mischief in which Carlo and his friends were engaged is not known. Nonetheless, as soon as the elder Garofalo was recognized, a young voice was heard to shout: “Here comes Garofalo’s father!” Immediately, the rock throwing ceased and the boys on both sides of the Tiber disbanded and disappeared. When Carlo and Bianca were young, they played together and got into mischief. One day, their mother [Faustina] needed them and went to look for them in their room. But to her surprise, she found no one there. Thinking to herself that they went out to the street to play, she went to window. To her horror, she spied Carlo and Bianca out on the roof walking on the eave! She said nothing, not even a whisper, for fear that she would startle them and one would fall to the street. So she just knelt on the floor and prayed, until the children finally jumped onto the window sill and came back inside to safety. Carlo’s first music teacher, whose name is no longer remembered today, was a local woman who taught Carlo piano and solfege. At the same time, the young boy was also a singer and by all accounts a good one. He sang regularly in the Vatican choir. One of the duties of the choirboys was to ring the great bell in the tower of the basilica. Ringing the bell also served as recreation for because of the massive bell’s weight it took the combined weight of many of the boys on a single rope to persuade the bell to move from its resting position. The fun came as the bell began to pick up momentum. As the clapper struck the side of the bell, pigeons by the dozens escaped the tower and the boys below, still clinging to the bell’s rope, rode up and down as if riding on the string of a giant yo-yo controlled by a powerful, unseen hand. Carlo also sang as a choirboy at the Church of Santa Maria dell’ Anima (Our Lady of Tears), a church with a very old history. Founded by a Dutch couple around 1350, the church was built as a German national church, which included all of the Low Countries and German-speaking states of the Holy Roman Empire. In one of the tombs found in the sides of the chapel, lies the body of Pope Adrian VI (1522-1523), who was born in Utrecht. [Source: http://roma.katolsk. no/mariaanima.htm; last dated 2000; viewed 5/27/05] At Santa Maria, the boys sang under the direction of Father Müller, a very strict man, but a competent musician. The Church was central to the life of the Garofalo family, Giovanni, Faustina, Carlo, his brother, Enrico (born 1881), and his sister Bianca (born circa 1884). Carlo was perhaps more sensitive to the glory of the Mass and was often moved to tears by the splendid and colorful robes of the priests, pomp and dignity of the liturgy, the holy and solemn celebration of the Eucharist, and the heavenly music. The Latin mass so fascinated the little boy that he impatiently, but with a child’s tender heart and imagination, made himself colorful vestments to simulate those he had seen the priests wear at mass. Then he procured for himself a Roman Missal replicated point by point the mass he had seen, heard and celebrated so many times. No detail was left out. He chanted, sang and preached. He even appointed his sister to be the altar boy! But of all the splendor of the church, it was the music that inspired the young boy the most. The chanting of Gregorian chant and the moving performances by the choir of music by the great composers of the past like Palestrina and Josquin instilled in Carlo at a very early age an appreciation for choral music on a grand scale. The music that most influenced the boy was that of the organ. Its wide spectrum of orchestral color and the infinite levels of expression it produced sealed in the mind that he should become an organist someday and be able to play and compose great works as he had heard in the basilica. The year 1900 arrived and ushered in a new century. Rome was filled with bicycles and horse-drawn trolleys. The same year Carlo recalled a certain hailstorm that reportedly had hailstones the size of eggs. These huge balls of ice injured many people. For a period of years, this phenomenon was a frequent event throughout Europe. In India, two years later, hail killed 246 people. [Source: http://starryskies.com/articles/dln/5-00/hail.html,viewed 5/27/2005] [N.B. Perhaps meteorological abnormalities like killer hailstorms may have resulted due to long-term disturbances of the upper atmosphere following the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 and subsequent worldwide volcanic activity.] In 1903, at age 17, Carlo had shown himself skilled enough as a conductor that he was made assistant conductor for the premiere of Lorenzo Perosi’s most ambitious oratorio, Il giudizio universale (The Last Judgment) at the Costanzi Theatre, or Teatro dell’Opera, the leading theater in Rome. (Source: Grove’s V, Vol.VI, p.674) [N.B. Grove’s V gives the date of this premiere as April 1904] Later in 1903, Carlo went to the town of Capodimonte, 120 miles northwest of Rome and situated on the southern coast of near Lago di Bolsena (Bolsena Lake) and performed his first mass. It was composed for three mixed voices and organ. How this particular opportunity so far from home came to Carlo is unknown, but it may have been connected with a certain priest named Don Piero Faggiani for whom about that same time Carlo composed a humorous song. According to Carlo’s son, Marcello Garofalo, this funny song “was incredibly beautiful, but it was never performed again.” Carlo entered the Vatican College to study for the priesthood, but a after a bout of bronchitis, he dropped his theology courses and pursued his musical studies with new enthusiasm. Enrico Garofalo is described by his nephew Marcello as "quite an established figure in Rome." Enrico was apparently a political visionary. According to Marcello, Enrico was a prime mover of large-scale projects like workers' unions, the Fiera di Roma and the Associazione fra i Romani. [N.B. The Fiera di Roma (Roman Fair, also called the Roman Trade Fair) was inaugurated in June 1953 as the first exhibition center in Rome (e.g. the International Agricultural Exposition), then located in the EUR district on Via Cristoforo Colombo. Today, the Nuova Fiera di Roma (New Roman Fair) continues as various exhibitions in the same tradition.] With respect to music, Enrico organized a concert with Toscanini and Caruso in 1914.[N.B. “On October 19, 1914, Toscanini, Caruso, Bori, and DeLuca participated in a special performance of Pagliacci and Act II of Butterfly at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi, for the benefit of Italian emigrants who had to return home at the outbreak of war.” Harvey Sachs, Toscanini (New York: 1978) p. 125] "Uncle Enrico organized special ceremonies in memory of the martyrs of the Ardeatine Caves [see more about this below]," recalls Marcello. "He also had a memorial plaque installed in the Basilica of St. Lawrence, which had been razed to the ground during the air-raids of Rome." Enrico Garofalo appreciated history and took pleasure in marking famous landmarks. According to Marcello, it was his Uncle Enrico who had an inscription placed outside Rome's Plaza Hotel, at 126 Via del Corso, signifying the place where Pietro Mascagni, the composer of Cavalleria Rusticana, died on August 2, 1945. "It is true," continues Marcello, "that my Uncle Enrico sometimes behaved in a strange way. For example, he once had an argument with his boss and refused to apologize. Consequently, he lost his pension, even though he had worked at the Ministry of Statistics for twenty years. Nonetheless, he was very comfortable financially. Uncle Enrico never learned to drive a car, so he has his own horse and buggy with a coachman." This fact reminded Marcello of a family anecdote involving his grandfather. "One day my grandfather, Giovanni Garofalo, borrowed my Uncle Enrico's horse and buggy. He felt a little insecure [probably because of having to ride among autos], so he kept the horse at a very slow walk. When some friends spotted him near the Pantheon, they were amused at the sight and by how slowly he was going. They teased him by pretending that he was rushing the horse at a gallop to the Lotto Place to collect his money. They shouted, "Hey, Giovannino have you won the lottery?" Carlo’s sister, Bianca, went her own way. Unlike her brothers, she did not have an artist’s heart. Marcello describes his Aunt Bianca: “She was primitive and used to give my father [Carlo] trouble. She was a thorn in his side. But God saved the day.” Whatever family troubles existed between Bianca and her brother, “She should be credited for introducing our family to the famous stigmatic saint, Padre Pio,” says Marcello. “His prayers helped us to survive and to come to America.” [N.B. Padre Pio (1887-1968) was from in Pietrelcina, Italy. His baptismal name was Francesco Forgione. He became a Capuchin priest and was ordained in 1910. Although accounts vary as to when and how, Padre Pio was said to have received the stigmata or the marks of Christ in his hands and feet.] "Padre Pio accepted Aunt Bianca as a spiritual daughter," says Marcello. But Bianca's disruptive temperament did not escape his notice. According to Marcello, when Bianca went to confession Padre Pio was intolerant of her behavior and demand that she leave. " 'I shall accept you when you do not behave so badly and shout in church,' said Padre Pio to Bianca. He knew that she had been screaming at me the day before," recalls Marcello, "even though he was not there." Marcello continues: "My father, who [started] out as a conductor in 1903, once while on his way to conduct Pacini's Inno all' Immacolata for all of the Roman curia [i.e. Papal court], he was delayed and arrived a half-hour late to the concert for which he lost his position." The exact cause of this costly delay is unknown, but Marcello Garafalo believes it was the beginning of a conspiracy against his father to ruin Carlo's musical future in Rome. "I think that [Bernadino Molinari] was the one who delayed my father's concert in the Vatican to damage his career as a brilliant conductor." Carlo Garofalo served in the army. Marcello tells this anecdote: "When my father was in a soldier, some strangers removed documents from his desk and he was court marshaled. He was saved by a colonel who [testified on his behalf]. He was sent to the marshes of Grosseto [on the west coast of Italy in Tuscany] where he caught malaria because he was not given quinine." His condition worsened. "One night he heard a doctor say, 'this man will not be alive tomorrow.' Nevertheless, he [Garofalo] asked for nine blankets and after perspiring all night, he survived." Garofalo the Organist Garofalo graduated in 1907 in organ and composition under the tutelage of teachers like Remigio Renzi (1857-1938) of the Vatican Giulia Chapel, Stanislao Falchi (1851-1922), Cesare de Sanctis and Salvatore Saija. His schoolmate was Pietro Yon (1886-1943), composer of the famous Christmas aria Gesu Bambino written in 1917. Yon served two years as the assistant organist at the Vatican. Yon came to the United States in 1907 to assume the post of the organist and choirmaster at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York. He became an extremely popular organist in the 1920s. Later, he was appointed organist at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City in 1927 until his death in 1943. "Before coming to America," says son Marcello, "my father had been associated with the greatest singers [of that time], like the tenor Francesco Marconi (1853-1916). "This legendary singer had a voice that contained the dramatic qualities of Caruso and the lyric qualities of Gigli. When my father accompanied him at the piano, Marconi would make the chandeliers tremble. It was the same with the famous baritone Titta Ruffo (1877-1959), whom Carlo played for in a concert on April 6th 1909. Other singers who worked with Carlo were Nazzareno De Angelis (1881-1962) and Antonio Cotogni (1831-1918). Coming to America With Yon's help, Garofalo became the music director and organist at the Immaculate Conception Church in Boston, Massachusetts [today at 775 Harrison Street, Boston, MA 02118]. A photo of Garofalo appeared June 15, 1910 in the the Boston Post. It was titled New Organist at Immaculate Conception. Beneath the photo it reads: (Photo by Chickering)
The Immaculate Conception Church had provided Carlo with a good instrument on which to play. The original organ had been built and installed in 1863 by Elias and George Greenleaf Hook, Co. The organ had three manuals and pedal with 47 stops that spoke from an elegant walnut pipe case. In 1902, the organ was reworked, updated, and enlarged. The mechanical action was replaced with electro-pneumatic action. A 32' Contra Bourdon was added to the pedal and a fourth manual was added to the console as the Solo division containing additional Romantic voices that were becoming necessary for popular organ literature. Since transatlantic telephone calls were non-existent at the time, Carlo became homesick and wrote to family and friends that he wanted to return to Rome. [N.B. While there had been transatlantic telegraph cable in place since 1858, laying transatlantic telephone cable was not discussed until the 1920s. Even so, due to technological difficulties, telephone service was not practical until the 1940s.] "Uncle Enrico wrote back and tried to persuade my father to remain in Boston," says Marcello, "and so did the tenor Francesco Marconi (1858-1916). Marconi wrote [to Carlo in Boston], ‘if you come back [to Rome], it will be your worst mistake and you will regret it for the rest of your life.’” Nevertheless, after two years of service at his post in Boston, Garofalo returned to Italy and became associate organist with Salvatore Saija for 22 years at the main synagogue in Rome. According to Marcello Garofalo, "Rome was the worst place for musicians like Perosi, Mascagni and my father. In fact, even Toscanini was harassed to such an extent that he never came back after 1920 (with the exception of only two concerts he gave in 1930 with the New York Philharmonic). In 1912, Garofalo met Giovanni Tebaldini (1864-1952), a composer and conductor from Milan, who was teaching at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples. As an organist, he wrote the Metodo di studio per l'Organo moderno ("A study method for the modern organ") written together with Marco Enrico Bossi. From 1897 to 1902 Tebaldini ran the Padua Conservatory. During this Tebaldini met Giuseppe Verdi. In 1902, Tebaldini left Padua for the Chapel of Music at Loreto, which he directed until 1924. In 1903, Pope Pius X asked Tebaldini, along with others, to help reform sacred music and helped inspire Pope Pius' Motu proprio. In 1925, Tebaldini directed the Esegesi del Canto gregoriano e della polifonia palestriniana ("Exegesis [an explanation or critical interpretation] of Gregorian singing and Palestrinian polyphony"). He had just rediscovered the oldest oratorio (sometimes called the first sacred opera) ever written, "Rappresentazione di Anima e Corpo" ("The Play about Soul and Body") written in 1600 by Emilio de Cavalieri (ca.1550-1602). Tebaldini introduced Garofalo's masses in Loreto and Milan. He also asked Garofalo to play the organ for a performance of Cavalieri's oratorio in Rome at the famous theater, the Teatro Augusteo which stood until destroyed in 1936 by order of Mussolini. "My father," comments Marcello Garafolo, "inaugurated the monumental organ at the [Teatro] Augusteo, on which shortly French organist Charles-Marie Widor gave the first recital." (Source: The Giovanni Tebaldini Study and Research Center http://www.tebaldini.it/biografiabreve_eng.htm) Garofalo Returns to Italy After Garofalo returned to Rome from his short tenure in Boston, he began to work with renown singers such as Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957) and Tito Gobbi (1855-1922) and "helped shape their artistic careers," as Marcello puts it. Between 1920 and 1922, there was much intrigue that plagued the 34-year-old organist. It seems that internal politics and professional jealousies began to interfere with Garofalo's career plans. "During those years, my father lost three of his closest supporters to death: conductors Arthur Nikisch (1865-1922), Max Zach (1864-1921), and Stanislao Falchi (1851-1922), the director of the Roman Academy of St. Cecilia," recalls Marcello. Garofolo began teaching at the Academy. It was a tenuous, perhaps part-time appointment as a general piano teacher. The reason for the uncertainty of his position was that he did not have a diploma in piano. He was well-prepared and certified in the areas of composition, organ, harmony and counterpoint. The intrigue continued to grow around Garofalo's career. During the years 1920 to 1922 that plagued Garofalo, Arturo Toscannini (1867-1957) returned in La Scala in Milan. He had previously conducted there in 1895. "Of course, Toscanini would not have returned to La Scala in 1921 had he not had some [sic] desire to do so . . ." [Source: Harvey Sachs, Toscanini, (Philadelphia:1978) p.196] According to Marcello, his father expected to follow Arturo Toscanini [to] Milan. Instead, Garofalo spent the next three years fulfilling requirement for the diploma in piano In order to secure his teaching position. Neither was any of Garofalo's music published during this time as he had expected. Following the disappointment, Garofalo received a
"miserable" but permanent position at the academy, for he now had the
coveted piano diploma. No sooner had he begun his classes, than Garofalo
fell ill. His illness was serious enough that his classroom was closed
for months. Then after the death of Director Falchi, on November
14, 1922, who was a strong supporter of Garofalo, Garofalo's music did
not get included on the Academy programs as anticipated, with the
exceptions of the tone poems Ireland and Anima. Falchi's
death opened the door for other conductors to come, as Marcello puts it,
"to the helm of the academic concerts, especially [Bernadino] Molinari,
who was highly despised by Toscanini." As a
result, Garofalo's symphonies were never given the exposure they
deserved and for which the composer had hoped. Moreover, Garofalo was always put in charge of seemingly useless projects for the Academy, most of which were a waste of time. One project was a competition of Musica e Canto in 1939, which kept him busy for months for nothing. There seemed to be no end to the harassment that Garofalo endured. A very strange and mysterious event concerned the family tomb that Garofalo had purchased for his beloved parents, Giovanni (d. 1933) and Faustina Garofalo (d. 1931). Marcello describes the circumstances: "When a mysterious leak flooded the grave, the bodies of my grandparents were kept for years in a depot. My father kept going to the tomb site to supervise the repair work, which dragged on indefinitely. He expressed his frustration and suffering in a letter to the director of the cemetery, never suspecting that it was a vicious ploy to waste his time." Garofalo's teaching position remained uncertain and there were constant problems. "Besides [having only a] secondary, or complementare, chair in pianoforte at the Conservatory," states Marcello, "he had all sorts of difficulties getting raises and promotions. He made complaints, but it was a waste of time." At the same time, the Chair of Composition was given to Goffredo Petrassi12. Garofalo proceeded to apply for the Chair of Sacred music which required that he write dozens of letters and appear in person. Meanwhile, with all his teaching and other responsibilities, Garofalo's pay increases were overlooked, so he brought the matter to the High Court of Accountancy to trace the mistakes. "He eventually he won the case," says Marcello, "but there were the inevitable reprisals." Prior to 1922, the politics surrounding the Academy grew to such a point that Garofalo was forced to move from the center of Rome "to the very outskirts of the city, where nobody wished to come," says Marcello. There, Toscanini, Nikisch and Gigli called upon him. But, trouble followed Carlo even to his remote neighborhood. Perhaps it was a random crime or maybe it was planned, but one evening a prowler came onto the property. "He was lurking in the stairway," says Marcello, "and his presence scared my grandmother [Faustina] as well as my father." Carlo, who had been harassed before, began to carry a gun for protection. What happened next is uncertain because of the many years since the incident, but presumably the prowler was apprehended. "A trial was held," recalls Marcello." and my father [Carlo] won, but this incident was just another diversion, costing my father time and money, and ultimately he was kept away from the International world." In 1926, Carlo was appointed a member of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia or St. Cecilia Academy in Rome. [N.B. Begun in Rome in 1566, the National Academy of Santa Cecilia is one of the world’s oldest music institutes. In 1585, Pope Gregory XIII in 1585 formalized it as a “congregation of musicians under the protection of the Holy Virgin and Saints Gregory and Cecilia”, and later became an academy. Admittance was strictly for master composers, organists, singers and instrumentalists having the required qualifications. The institute remains an association, members comprise 70 full academicians (Italian) and 30 honorary academicians (non-Italian). February 2, 1895 marked the beginning of regular performances, and these were further boosted with the establishment of the Orchestra and Choir in 1908. The Santa Cecilia Orchestra was the first in Italy exclusively dedicated to the symphonic genre. (Source: http://www.music-opera.com/site_english/ville_roma_e.htm) ] In 1926, Garofalo completed the opera The Juggler, which has not yet been staged. In 1927, he composed the Violin Concerto, which was inspired by the child prodigy Yehudi Menuhin. The same year Riccardo Santarelli7 conducted his symphonic poem Anima. In 1930, Marziano Perosi6 conducted the Immaculate Conception Mass almost every other Sunday at the Duomo of Milan and also for the most important Feasts of the Immaculate Conception: The Saints--St. Ambrose (340-397), Bishop of Milan, whose Feast day is December 7; the Pontifical of St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) Archbishop of Milan. His Feast is November 4. The Milanese knew this mass well and they admired it. "In the 1930s," recalls Marcello, "there were very few performances of my father's compositions with the exception of the revival and triumph that his masses obtained in the U.S. and in northern Italy. He never knew that his masses were having a sweeping success throughout the U.S. and Canada." Nonetheless, Garofalo's orchestral works were conducted here and there, In 1931, Arrigo Pedrollo (1878-1964)5, whose compositions were known to Arturo Toscanini, conducted Garofalo's Anima and Ireland in Milan. The audiences showed a very favorable reaction to these works. It was hoped that Toscanini himself would attend, but he was unable to attend the concert, because of the aggression he had underwent two months before when he had to cancel his concert in memory of Martucci in Bologna. In the early 1930s, Carlo Garofalo was preparing some of the greatest singers of the era, for a presentation of his opera Il Giocoliere (“The Juggler”) written in 1926. According to Marcello, from letters written by tenor Beniamino Gigli in 1931, it is evident that Gigli and Carlo coached the singers at the Hotel Quirinale (built 1865) in Rome. This is the same hotel in which Verdi in 1893, after the first performance of Falstaff, was cheered by a huge crowd while he stood at the window. Other letters from baritone Benvenuto Franci (1891-1985) “show the highest enthusiasm and admiration, for this extremely successful work,” said Marcello. “He also wrote to me in 1978 that The Juggler was replete with music that only my father could compose.” [N.B. Franci had premiered Boito’s Nerone, under Toscanini, who kept him at La Scala for ten years.] Marcello continues: “Other letters from bass Nazzareno De Angelis (1881-d.?), whose greatness has remained unrivaled, evince the same admiration [for my father and The Juggler]. He also wanted my father to write an extra aria for him.” [N.B. De Angelis had created the title role in Boito’s Mefistofele (a role he sang more than 500 times). He also performed and recorded Wagner’s entire Ring cycle, under Tullio Serafin (1878-1968) at Rome in 1938. It was the first Ring ever performed completely in Italian. The four operas were broadcast throughout Italy.] Marcello Garofalo vividly recalls meeting the great singer when he went with his father to De Angelis’ residence in the mountains near L’Aquila, located about 70 miles east of Rome. “He was very tall and was always surrounded by a pack of dogs,” Marcello remembers. “By this time, his career had been bitterly slowed by the loss of his wife, whose departure was always a mystery. In fact, De Angelis had had unpleasant experiences with the ruthless people who were controlling musical life in Rome. For example, since singers in those days were paid in cash, they were often cheated out of thousand of liras. Therefore, when De Angelis, who was like the heroic characters he portrayed on the stage, saw that he was paid only 9,000 liras, instead 10,000, he threatened to report everything to the carabiniers [military police]. Shortly after this incident, his wife jumped from a window, and nobody knew why she had done it. De Angelis was so despondent that he left Rome and did not have the strength to bring the racketeers before a judge.” Similar peculiar circumstances affecting other musicians in Rome were not rare. For instance, the violinist Gioconda De Vito (1907-1994) encountered a series of unpleasant events when she received a Stradivarius on loan from the Ministry of Education. Having been given such a magnificent instrument to use, there was musical— not to mention political—pressure placed upon her to play a concerto by a very powerful and prominent composer. We do not know which composer it was, but De Vito refused to play the requested concerto on the basis that she did not like the music composed by the specified composer. Her rejection did not sit well with the musical and political powers of the time. She was continuously harassed and every time she refused, something malicious happened to her. By the third or fourth time this cycle repeated, she realized that these malevolent occurrences were connected to the Stradivarius she had been loaned. She gave the Stradivarius back to the Ministry of Education and said, “Keep this wretched instrument, I am leaving Rome!” De Vito immigrated to England where she lived in peace and was respected as a concert artist. The thirties were unkind to the careers of other composers like the priest, Monsignor Licinio Refice13. He was not a genius like Perosi, but through the support of the great singer Claudia Muzio14 his success was boosted success considerably. But, just as Muzio was championing Refice's music, she died in 1936, setting back Refice's career considerably. In 1954, while trying to revive his music in Brazil, Refice died in Rio de Janeiro. Despite the prestige associated with the St. Cecilia Academy, Marcello says that, "only before he [Carlo] died, did he understand that he had not joined a great institution, but he had been put into solitary confinement [as a composer]. With the help of God, Carlo was able to get excellent results [with his music] in Vienna, Malta and England, at Hampton Court." [N.B. Today a venue for great musical concerts near London, Hampton Court Palace was England's most significant palace of the Tudor age (1485-1603).] Garofalo married Lydia Gasperri in 1932, but along with his happiness came further disappointments and setbacks. At a time when job security and an adequate income were needed to support his new wife, he was deprived of income opportunities and his wages suffered. In 1933, a son was born who was named Marcello. For his baptism, esteemed violinist Teresina Tua4 was chosen as his godmother; Bernardino Molinari was chosen to be his godfather.( Marcello notes here that, "After Molinari became my godfather, my father gave his artistic assistance to [Molinari], who had been ignoring him for decades and would not move one finger to help him.") Carlo Garofalo was sent by the Ministry of Education to Bari (on the eastern Adriatic coast) and Genova (near Genoa on the west coast) to supervise the [conservatory entrance] exams, but in so doing, the long trips and his proctoring duties distracted him from his own personal objective, that of contacting a publisher. It was not until 1934--now using his home address to receive his mail, that Garofalo found out that his masses had been purchased by the New York music publisher J. FIscher & Bros. Garofalo wrote to Fischer and asked the publisher to assist him in returning to the States, but he got only as far as the company manager who could not be persuaded to help. So, in the end, nothing was accomplished. The same year, 1934, Gardenio Botti10, a pupil of Perosi, conducted Ireland and Notturnino, both by Garofalo, at the Teatro Reale on Malta. The only performance of Garofalo's works with the Roma Academy was in the summer of 1938 when Ermanno Colarocco8 conducted Ireland. Marcello adds the following anecdote that occurred around 1937-1938: Garofalo owned a car that was a source of constant trouble. "In fact," recalls Marcello who was only five or six, "every time we left the city something happened and we were towed to a garage." There were also, just as today, accidents involving people and other cars. In 1937, a young school-age girl suddenly darted into the street right in front of Garofalo's vehicle. He could do nothing to prevent striking her. Fortunately, she was not injured seriously, but her family hired a lawyer who had Garofalo charged with the accident and he was required to pay a fine and expenses. A year later, in 1938, the family survived a tremendous accident, "thanks to Padre Pio's prayer," adds Marcello. With all of these catastrophe's involving the family car in such a short time, Garofalo realized the car was like a jinx and that "he was a sitting duck." Garofalo bought another car, but because of the outbreak of World War II, the car could not be used. Fortunately, the car was not confiscated and Garofalo later sold it "for a very high price and was able to pay the mortgage of the house," says Marcello. During the two decades of the Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime, from 1922 to 1943, Garofalo lived almost in obscurity. He was unwilling to follow the politically-correct trend of the time which was to glorify Mussolini. He flatly refused to march to the Piazza Venezia, the large plaza in the center of Rome, to salute the dictator. It was from the balcony on the first floor of Palazzo Venezia that Benito Mussolini spoke to the crowds that filled the piazza to applaud Il Duce. When the leadership of the Conservatory realized that one of their teachers had demonstrated contempt for Mussolini, they were both angry and frightened. It would not be in the best interests of the Conservatory to alienate Il Duce and his government. Their concerns were not only for the day-to-day operation of the school, which could be disrupted or closed, but they were concerned too, for their own lives and the lives of their families. (There had been retaliations for less!) Garofalo was summoned to the director’s office. There, Garofalo was charged with disgracing the Conservatory by his wanton and willful act of disrespect for the Italian government. The director stopped short of accusing Garofalo of treason. Garofalo was given a stern reprimand. This episode came to the attention of some high-ranking politicians, among them the National Association secretary, Umberto Guglielmotti, “a frequent visitor to the palaces of power.” (Taylor and Harris, n.p.) “Guglielmotti, who also had known Toscanini, had respect for my father,” says Marcello Garofalo. Therefore, Guglielmotti felt disposed to defend Carlo Garofalo’s action for which he was reprimanded. Guglielmotti explained to the Conservatory director in his most eloquent and persuasive manner that Garofalo was an artist and musician, not a political threat, neither did he have any interest in trying to overthrow the government. The matter was dropped after that. Though the crowds continued to gather from time to time in the Piazza Venezia to applaud Mussolini, Carlo Garofalo was not among them. Even during his time of dormancy as a composer, Carol Garofalo was highly respected by the Italian nobility and by the Church. Marcello recalls several occasions when his father was shown great respect by former students and colleagues: “The editor of the National Catholic newspaper Quotidiano wrote: ‘Your father [Carlo Garofalo] has been a master to an entire generation.’ One of his pupils, who was then teaching piano at Padua conservatory, inscribed for him a treatise of piano technique with the words, ‘To the Master of the Masters.’ Another pupil, Dante d’Ambrosi, unsuccessfully applied for the chair for composition at the Pesaro Liceo Musicale, pleaded to my father, ‘Only you can help me, as [composer Riccardo Antonio Francesco] Zandonai (1883-1944) will not accept recommendation from anybody else.’” [N.B. Zandonai must have been the Liceo director by this time, around 1932. Dryden says in his biography of Zandonai: “When Zandonai himself was an established composer and the director of Pesaro’s Liceo where he had once studied with Mascagni, he invited the composer to conduct Il barbiere de Siviglia honoring the 140th anniversary of Rossini’s birth. During the same event in 1932, Mascagni also conducted Iris . . .” (Source: Dr. Konrad Dryden, Riccardo Zandonai: a Biography (Peter Lang:1999) q.v. http://www.mascagni.org/articles/dryden-200402) ] Marcello continues, “My father sent a fine recommendation and d’Amrosi reapplied. This time, Zandonai, a composer himself and former pupil of Pietro Mascagni’s [“Zandonai was one of his most gifted student,” says Dryden, (Dryden,op. cit.)], accepted my father initiative and d’Ambrosi was given the position.” Marcello describes more behind-the-scenes intrigue surrounding his father and his contemporaries whom Marcello terms his “hidden adversaries:” “Curiously, those who had banished my father from academic programs pretended to have respect and deference for him, but instead they actually created for him a false sense of security.” They must have sensed Garofalo’s potential success if he left the confined and controllable arena of the Conservatory. Apparently, rumors circulated that Garofalo might have some influence with the new pope who had been elected in 1939. “Therefore,” explains Marcello, “they persuaded him not communicate with Pope Pius XII, whom my father had known since when they were neighbors. They did this because they were afraid, because of their friendship, Pope Pius XII might appoint him as a choirmaster at a Basilica and they did not want my father to leave the treacherous waters of the Conservatory.” [N.B. Pope Pius XII, born Eugento Pacelli (1876-1958), served as pope from 1939 until his death. He was called “Pastor Anglicus.” His papacy was controversial following World War II concerning anti-Semitism, but in recent years documented evidence has cleared Pius XII of any alleged misdeeds.] He was kept away from the distinguished violinist Remy Principe (1889-1977), a member of the Quartetto Italiano and I Virtuosi di Roma who had premiered his Garofalo’s Violin Concerto in 1942 and was teaching at the Conservatory. [N.B. According to Marcello Garofalo, it was the great female violinist Gioconda De Vito (1907-1994), a student of Principe, who was supposed to premiere Garofalo’s Violin Concerto.] Therefore, Principe did not know whether Garofalo’s concerto was published and available. Consequently, and unfortunately for the future of this work, he could not recommend the work to any his students. In 1941, Garofalo's second son was born. He was named Maurizio. It was a difficult time in Italy because of the war. Rome was accustomed to air raids by Allied forces. Marcello recalls one air raid in which the French Air Force dropped leaflets over the city instead of bombs. Concerning Garofalo's Violin Concerto, Marcello recalls: "As the Roman Academy would not premiere my father's Violin Concerto, he applied to Italian Radio, whose headquarters were in Turin and not under the control of his opponents. Consequently, the work was most successfully premiered by the Roma Radio Orchestra in 1942 and was heard throughout Europe." At this point, and with the success of the Violin Concerto, Molinari could no longer ignore Garofalo. Molinari requested a piano reduction of the Violin Concerto score presumably to study for performance, but, according to Marcello, this ploy was more of Molinari's skullduggery. "He simply wanted to keep it out of circulation," says Marcello, "to prevent other performances and publication. Therefore, my father wasted a lot of time copying a new score from the orchestral parts." After World War II, Garofalo sought to get back the score he had sent to Molinari. However, because of Molinari's association with Mussolini, Garofalo had to request the manuscript through the new Ministry of Culture. The score was returned by Molinari and was used for the triumphal performance given in 1948 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome (where Rossini's Il Barbiere premiered in 1916). Molinari was very envious of the other conductors and tried to stop another rising conductor, Carlo Zecchi11, "as he had done with my father," adds Marcello, "but he failed." Another great conductor whom Molinari saw as a threat was named Franco Ferrara15. However, his concern about Ferrara was minimized when Ferrara began to suffer from a strange ailment [probably a stroke] which him to faint while conducting. Marcello remembers this incident: "I remember, when I was a child, that the broadcast of a concert was stopped by a sudden noise, because the conductor had fainted. He even fell on a musician and destroyed some instruments. This was the end of Ferrara's conducting career. Despite his physical limitation, he continued to teach conducting. Ultimately, Molinari did not have to worry anymore." According to Marcello Garofalo, when the Allies came to Rome in June 4, 1944, Molinari was attacked by the musicians, led by prominent violinist Remy Principe (1889-1977). The reason for this attack was Molinari’s association with Il Duce and the Nazis. Luckily he was saved by some officers of the U.S. 8th Army, who had attended concerts by Molinari in America before the war. [N.B. The British 8th Army landed in Italy on September 3, 1943, but history records that the U.S. 5th Army, led by General Mark Clark liberated Rome on June 4, 1944.] Speaking of events during World War II, Marcello Garofalo recalls an historical episode that took place in Rome during World War II when he was a boy of 11. Says Marcello, “This period in my life reminds me of how my parents and my grandmother’s mother, Nonna Enrichetta, showed me their faith and courage that enabled us to survive the dangers of the war.” This episode he recalled was the bombing on the Via Rasella. Marcello continues: “My family had just spent three months (approximately from the middle of December 1943 to the middle of March 1944) at Viterbo, a city about 45 miles north of Rome. There, where we miraculously survived heavy bombardment by the Allies.” Indeed, Allied war records indicate that bridges and railroad yards in Viterbo and the surrounding areas were heavily bombed in January 1944 by U.S. B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs. While they were hiding in Viterbo, the family secretly listened to radio broadcasts from England—Radio London—which was always encouraging the Italian resistance to sabotage the Germans. These broadcasts inspired 11-year-old Marcello to action. “After hearing a Radio Londras [sic] broadcast," says Marcello, "I took a pair of scissors and tried to cut the telephone cables that the Germans had laid in the street. Fortunately, the scissors were not sharp enough to cut through the tough wire. I often wonder what would have happened if I had succeeded?” In February 1944, the chaos of war and the struggles of the Garofalo family continued in war-torn Italy. The winters during World War II, especially that of 1944, were the coldest in decades. [N.B. Historian Steven Ambrose described in Citizen Soldiers the winter of 1944-1945: “It was Northern Europe’s coldest winter in forty years...] Extremely high winds made the cold season unbearable. So many U.S. soldiers were frozen in the fox-holes in France. A timeline landmark occurred when the ancient Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed during heavy Allied bombardment in early February. [N.B. The Abbey itself was later rebuilt and in 1964 was reconsecrated by Pope Paul VI.] But the personal tragedy was the death of little Maurizio Garofalo (born 1941) who passed away on February 2. His older brother Marcello recalls the strange and prophetic circumstances preceding Maurizio's death: "A few months before my brother's death [and before the family escaped from Rome to Viterbo for a brief time], I was riding in a little cart that I had made for myself with some broom-sticks and ball-bearings as wheels. Usually I rode my cart down-hill, from Monte Verde, close to the Janiculum, or Gianicolo as it is known in Italian. [N.B. This geographic feature is called the "eighth hill of Rome" and one of its highest. It is located in western Rome adjacent to the Trastevere district. The modern street leading to Janiculum was open only in 1867. The hill, surmounted by a statue of Garibaldi, has been a public park since 1884.] "After an exciting ride down the steep hillside of Via Guido Cavalcanti, I began climbing up the hill again for another ride pulling my little cart behind me with a small rope. When I was half way up, I heard a voice from above say to me quite clearly, 'Maurizio muore' (translated, “Maurizio is going to die"). Naturally, I was very scared, since I saw no one on the balcony above me. It was a voice almost uncanny and supernatural, but it was a female voice. Was it the voice my patron saint Saint Rita or was it that of my dear grandmother Faustina Garofalo who passed away in 1931, before I was born? I still wonder to this day whose voice it was." "Even more strange was that on the same spot where I heard that "voice from above," my mother, while holding Maurizio in her arms, had been attacked by a bull that was part of a herd going to the slaughterhouse. “When the bull attacked my mother and my brother, she was wearing a red overcoat,” said Marcello, “which probably attracted the animal, like a bullfighter's muleta. Fortunately, a lady near them who saw their situation, opened her gate and brought them to safety.” Maurizio escaped another animal attack when a snake, attracted by the child’s milky drool, wriggled its way towards the boy. When Carlo came to check on his son who was asleep in his cradle under the vine-arbor, Carlo saw the snake which he promptly drove away with a shovel. But little Maurizio was not to live long life. He died February 2, 1944, due to diphtheria, a highly contagious infection of the lining of the upper respiratory tract (the nose and throat). Marcello escaped the disease. "I ate his soup with the same spoon, but I tested negative," remembers Marcello. Maurizio died at the Policlinico Gemelli Hospital, not far from the Basilica of St. Lawrence that was five months later partially destroyed during the bombing of Rome. [N.B. This is the same hospital to which Pope John Paul was taken when suffering from a bout of flu and breathing difficulties two months before he died April 2, 2005.] [N.B. On July 19, 1944, the Basilica of St. Lawrence was bombed by allied war planes and half destroyed along with the cemetery at Campo Verano. (Source: Pierre Blet, Pius XII and the Second, translated by Lawrence J. Johnson (New York:1999) p. 208) Consequently, when Maurizio was taken to the hospital, I already knew that he would not survive. I was very impressed when the prophecy of the voice from above came true. Since that day, however, I have discovered that the apartment balcony above me on Via Guido Cavalcanti where I heard the "voice from above" in 1944 was an apartment where Padre Pio (1887-1968) appeared three weeks before he passed away in 1968." “In March 1944, through Padre Pio’s intercession, we were able to come back to Rome Open City. [N.B. In wartime, in order to protect civilians and historical value, a city can lay down its defenses and be declared an open city so that attacking armies will not bomb or otherwise attack the city, but simply march in.] Despite the open city declaration, Marcello says, "the entire neighborhood had been riddled with craters, but our house, which had been shaken like a twig in a storm and the Church of Capuchines (also known as Santa Maria Immacolata (Our Lady the Immaculate) and Chiesa dei Cappuccini were unscathed." [N.B. The Church of the Capuchins today located at 27 Via Veneto. ] “Soon after returning home to Rome, one day I saw a mysterious monk walking towards the church. I now believe it was Padre Pio, although I did not actually meet him until nearly a decade later in 1953. In Rome, there was shortage of food, but, at least, there were no air-raids. My parents were very skinny and gave most of the food to me. In Rome we had electricity and telephone, but no gas, so that I learned how to light a fire in the orchard and we cooked spaghetti. “One day, although there was a curfew, I watched some boys go into the street and cut down a small tree to use as firewood, but a man in uniform suddenly appeared and frightened the boys. Fortunately, it was only an Italian policeman, who was a neighbor. Had the stranger been an enemy soldier, the boys could have been arrested and deported to labor camps. Consequently, the policeman arrested no one and he even helped the boys carry the tree onto their property." The Via Rasella incident occurred March 23, 1944, when an Italian partisan planted a bomb in an ordinary street sweeper's push-cart. As a result of the explosion, 33 enemy soldiers were killed. “Ironically,” says Marcello, “those 33 soldiers killed in the blast, were not Germans, but Italians from Alto Adige (today referred to as Trentino-Alto Adige), a bilingual region in northern Italy, near the Austrian border.” When Hitler heard of the bombing, he ordered an immediate and terrible reprisal. A total of 335 Italian political prisoners who had no connection with the Via Rasella incident were executed in the Ardeatine caves. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the German commander in Italy, was tried later in Venice and condemned. The murders in the Ardeatine caves were never forgotten even after the liberation. Donato Carretta was the warden of the Regina Coeli Prison, an ancient Roman prison situated on the north bank of the Tiber near the Vatican. It was he who had surrendered the prisoners to the Germans for execution. Marcello remembers: "In September 1944, a crowd of enraged Italians recognized Carretta and dragged him outside the Palace of Justice and threw him in front of a tram. The tram driver was ordered to run over Carretta. The driver refused and fled, after disabling the tram. Carretta was then thrown into the Tiber River and was killed by a sailor, who hit him with an oar.” [N.B. Another prison from where prisoners were taken and given over for execution was the Via Tasso prison.] Garofalo the Composer Garofalo's first symphony, the Romantic Symphony, premiered February 12 and
13, 1915 in St. Louis under the leadership of conductor Max Zach. "It
was a triumph!" said Marcello Garofalo. "But my father could not take a
bow, because [by that time] he was in Italy and the war [WW I] had
broken out."
Click this link to read
more about the Romantic Symphony. Marcello believes that Molinari, in collusion with composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), hired a "claque" to jeer and heckle the performances so that it could be said that Garofalo's works were poorly received. But the hired disruptors were not enough to deter opinion. The press reported the claque's rudeness, but the praise of the compositions overshadowed the ruckus. Nonetheless, the contrived disturbance was used as an excuse by Respighi to refuse to conduct Garofalo's works during his tenure as Chair of Composition at the Academy that he held from 1913. The St. Cecilia Academy promoted only a handful of mediocre composers, such as Alfredo Casella (1883-1947), Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968), Gian-Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) and Ottorino Respighi. Of these, the latter became the most recognizable name among the four due to performances of Respighi's music in New York by Toscanini. Notwithstanding his growing reputation in America, "Respighi was not very popular in Rome," says Marcello. "When Toscanini brought the New York Philharmonic to the Augusteo Concert Hall in Rome on May 12-13, 193016, and played Respighi's works, an American reporter from Connecticut remarked that the audience--which included the [Italian] Royal family17-- was indifferent and fell asleep." More intrigue involving Respighi came after Carlo played Ireland for Respighi on the piano and the score mysteriously disappeared. Marcello thinks that the envious Respighi "very probably copied some of this exceptional work." After the conclusion of World War II and the fall of Fascism, Carlo found peace and freedom even though they were not to last but a few years. The year 1948 was notable in that there were major performances of Carlo's compositions. The tone Poem Ireland and the Violin Concerto were given at the Teatro Argentina that year in Rome. Before the Violin Concerto could be played, however, that rascal Molinari--whose association with Mussolini did not speak well of him--had to surrender the score and parts that he had sequestered since its premiere in 1942. That piece of trickery, suggests Marcello, was only to keep the composition out of circulation for six years. Moreover, he believes, the concerto may have been suppressed at the request of the powerful and unpopular Madame Elsa Respighi (1894-1996), who though a widow since 1936, guarded her husband's ideas and goals, none of which promoted Carlo's music. Madame Respighi's irascible nature, states Marcello, was probably to discourage the rumor of an affair between her and her husband's librettist Claudio Guastalla (1880-1948). Also in 1948, the Second Symphony was performed by the Radio Rome Orchestra conducted by Galliano. This important opportunity for Carlo was wholly supported by his family. Marcello recalls when he and his mother were gathering together the score and parts for the performance, his mother happened to notice on the manuscript the date of its completion that Carlo had notated in pencil. Intuition told her that the numbers were lucky and she proposed that the three numbers should be played at the Lotto. As fate would have it, her suggestion was unintentionally unheeded. By the time they realized their mistake, it was too late. When the winning numbers were published, they were horrified to discover they would have won a great deal of money! That simple mistake caused grave consequences for future of the family. Carlo had been appointed by unanimous decision to the position of music director of the Duomo di Milano, one of the largest churches in the world. Carlo already had established a good reputation among the Milanese and doubtless, had Carlo met again with Toscanini--who in 1922 had stopped conducting in Rome--Il Giocoliere [The Juggler] would have been produced at La Scala. Moreover, the Duomo would have served as a world-class venue for all of Carlo's sacred compositions. The money they might have won in the lottery would have financed the family's 300-mile (487 km) move to the "Ambrosian City" in northern Italy. Though "God seemed to be moving heaven and Earth to enable us to leave Rome," Marcello recalls, the move to Milan was not to be. "I don't know why my father did not leave the city," recalls Marcello. "The Rome Academy had become for him a prison without bars, and Guido Bono had been his jailor since 1926." The straw that broke the back of the venture to Milan was when Carlo was refused the Chair of the Milan Conservatory. The conservatory officials counted too dearly his association with the St. Cecilia Academy. In spite of Molinari's frequent attempts to discredit and ignore Carlo's compositions, there came a time when Molinari needed Carlo's talents. In 1947, Molinari was invited to conduct the Israel Philharmonic. While he was there, the Head of the Franciscan Friars, Friar Patacconi, commissioned Molineri to compose a hymn in honor of "Our Lady of Palestine" to a text written by the late Mons. Luigi Barlassina, the Patriarch of Jerusalem who had died that year. Molinari passed the commission on to Carlo who composed a wonderful and popular hymn that premiered--accompanied at the organ by Molinari--on Christmas Eve 1947 at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, just six miles south of Jerusalem. That was a peaceful year because Bethlehem had been included in the special international enclave of Jerusalem administered by the United Nations. A year later, however, Jordan occupied Bethlehem during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Carlo's hymn to "Our Lady of Palestine" was translated into Arabic and it became known in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The general success of the hymn plus the enthusiastic favor expressed by Friar Patacconi, started rumors--to the chagrin of Molinari--that other compositions by Carlo Garofalo might be given to the Israel Philharmonic for performance. Unfortunately, nothing more came of it. But Molinari would not let the matter rest. Marcello believes that Molinari was working under the direction of Elsa Respighi to quash any attempts to perform Carlo's music. Further more, says Marcello, Molinari met with Friar Patacconi to make sure that the Israel Philharmonic never played a note of Garofalo's work. A witness to this discussion apparently was Molinari's niece, Berta Angelloti, who later told Carlo of their meeting. Berta, however, was "completely unaware of her uncle's dishonesty," admits Marcello. Two years passed quickly and a new decade arrived. The fifties presented Carlo and his family with unforeseen difficulties, not the least of which was his health. The first sign of illness came while he was at Bari, near Genoa, supervising conservatory entrance examinations, a job he had been performing since at least 1934. His health problems notwithstanding, Carlos remained loyal to Molinari, even though he paid a high price for it. In 1953, a new artistic director came to the St. Cecilia Academy. Fernando Previtali (1907-1985) was a composer, conductor and cellist. He was also the son-in-law of Vittorio Gui (1885-1975), a former school mate of Carlo's. So Carlo was a good terms with Previatli. The new vice-president of the Academy was also an old friend of Carlo's. It was violinist Remy Principe who had premiered Garofalo's Violin Concerto in 1942. But Carlo's enemies did not like these three friends working closely together for fear that their collective power could re-launch Garofalo's career. Soon through the malicious work of Guido Bono, says Marcello, Principe and Previtale were slandered as left-wing musicians, i.e. communists. Even though the slander was never proven, their careers suffered and Carlo was never able to reestablish himself through the help of his two friends. Ernest Schirmer hailed Garofalo as a "true genius" and that he was "like a blessing of the angels." Schirmer's assistant and later director of the Musical Library of Congress shared Schirmer's admiration for Garofalo. Famous violinist and child prodigy, Yehudi Menuhin, in a letter written to Marcello Garofalo in January 1993, said, "I do remember as a young boy (now 60 years later) looking at the score of your father's and finding it most melodic and ingratiating music." Garofalo and Frescobaldi According to
son, Marcello, Carlo Garofalo discovered and transcribed canzonas by
Frescobaldi, "the Ferrarese," which were played and broadcast on
Bavarian Radio. "My father had purchased an old manuscript from an
itinerant bookseller and studied this series of 19 canzonas by
Frescobaldi with research in many libraries," says Marcello. "Eventually
he discovered that three of the works--[Canzona Undecima detta] La
Gardana, La Sabatina and the third from the Canzoni
Francesi [sic]-- were already known and published by
[Alessandro] Vincenti1 in Venice
when Frescobaldi was alive. The remaining 16 were unedited and unknown.
The transcription, which was examined by organist and Bach scholar Dr.
[Albert] Schweitzer, is now being studied for publication by Prof.
Morelli." “Considering the eagerness with which Bach strove to derive all the profit he could from the compositions of the Italians . . . he turned to the illustrious Frescobaldi, a master whose writings marked an epoch. [Bach] succeeded in procuring a very careful copy of his [Frescobaldi’s] Fiori musicali composed in 1635, printed on 104 pages of particularly good paper in which he wrote with his own hand “J.S. Bach, 1714.” (Source: Phillip Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, (New York: 1951) translated by Clara Bell and J.A. Fuller-Maitland, Vol. I, p. 421). Garofalo's Last Days Garofalo died April 6, 1962. "When he passed away," said his son, "although the sky was clear, a sudden thundershower broke out." Carlo Garofalo’s funeral was held at the Church of St. Camillus of Lellis, at 24 Via Sallustiana in Rome. [N.B. The Neo-Gothic church with its red stone façade was consecrated in 1910.] The celebrant of the Mass was Padre Tranquillini of the Camilliani Order. These priests, in the spirit of their founder San Camillo De Lellis, minister to the sick in the hospitals. Before he died, Padre Pio had revealed to Carlo that the St. Cecilia Academy had been the cause of all his miseries. For that reason, recalls Marcello, “My father wanted a very private funeral. He had strongly asked my mother not to tell the St. Cecilia Academy about the service.” However, Carlo’s brother, Enrico, apparently was not aware of Carlo’s objection to the Academy knowing the funeral plans. Consequently, Enrico informed the president of that institution. The school’s vice president, Renzo Silvestri, was assigned to represent the Academy at Carlo’s funeral. “Fortunately, Silvestre was not very religious, so he gave my mother his condolences when we arrived and he did not enter the church,” said Marcello. The music performed at Carlo’s funeral was from his own masses, Immaculate Conception and Holy Trinity. Carlo was buried at the Cimitero del Verano, in Rome, alongside his parents and son, Maurizio. Sadly, not one line was written in the newspapers concerning Carlo’s funeral. Neither did the Academy submit anything in commemoration. Carlo’s wife respected her husband’s desire and the advice of Padre Pio to keep a conscientious distance from the Academy. Even though the Academy president acted as if there was no enmity between the Academy and Carlo, “We kept away from that sinister and treacherous organization,” said Marcello. In the fall, Carlo’s family visited Padre Pio with Domenico Mancini, a double-bass player and member of the Sistine Chapel, under Perosi. “Padre Pio knew that we were meeting for the last time,” recalls Marcello. Garofalo's music has been sporadically performed throughout the the U.S. for half a century. The following review of Garofalo's Mass in D appeared in Musical America, August 23, 1913:
NOTES: 1. Vincenti editions include Frescobaldi's Capricci (1626, 1628); Canzoni (1635); Fiori Musicali (1635); and Canzoni alla francese (1645) (Source: Groves VI, Vol. 19, p.784) 2. In general, a Motu Proprio is a document issued from the Pope on his own initiative, and not in response to a request or at the initiative of others. Its legal determinations carry the full force of papal authority, though it does not derive from existing laws unless specifically stated. Specifically, however, this Motu Proprio issued by Pius X (1835-1914; Pope 1903-1914) November 22,1903, concerns sacred music, including text, form, instruments and chant. 3. Bernardino Molinari was a well known and popular conductor of his time, but his abilities to lead an orchestra was questioned even by his contemporaries. Conductor Lorenzo Molajoli (1868-1939) wrote from wrote from Buenos Aires in 1906: “Molinari took the orchestra rehearsal but it fell apart; and peace has been declared between Toscanini and [tenor, Giuseppe] Anselmi, with [Lucrezia] Bori [who was singing the title role] as intermediary, . . . But what a bad figure Molinari cut! And to think that is was Toscanini who had him hired and that he gets 6,000 lire per month. Lucky people who find protectors even when they are not qualified.” (Harvey Sachs, Toscanini (1978), p. 117) Maurice Van Praag, a player in Toscanini’s orchestra and was its personnel manager, recounted this incident (ca. 1928): “Next evening heard the Scala [sic] Orchestra in concert, Molinari conducting. The orchestra played poorly. No wonder Maestro is unhappy.” (Sachs, p.182) An this crude, but scathing remark written by maestro Toscanini: “Our poor Bernadino [Molinari], who boasts to two big, hard balls, is the victim of the disproportionate weight of his accessories, because the blood, exiting from his brain and infiltrating down below, leaves his intelligence very anemic.” (The Letters of Arturo Toscanini, Harvey Sachs, Ed., (2002), n.p.; cited from http://www.binbooks.com/books/photo/i/l/40F96AD091, viewed 5/13/2005). 4.Teresina Tua (b. 1867): Tua was an extraordinary violinist who had been a pupil of Lambert-Joseph Massart (1811-1892). SHe toured Russia with the recently graduated pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff. She taught Luigi Enrico Ferro (b. 1903) who was born on Murano, a small island near Venice. He began studying violin at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatorio of Venice. In 1917, due to the first World War, Ferro left Venice for Milan where he continued to study violin with Tua. (Source: http://www.veniceresearch.com/ferro.htm ) According to Egon Voss, Tua was also the "major catalyst that caused [Grieg's Violin Sonata] to take the form of a violin sonata was Grieg’s acquaintance with the young violinist Teresina Tua, who, though only nineteen, left the composer enthralled with her playing. 'If ever I again compose anything for the violin,” he wrote in a letter to Abraham on 1 November 1886, 'she will be to blame'. The piece was completed in late January 1887 (Source: Egon Voss, http://henleusa.com/katalog/Vorwort%2F0700.pdf ) 5. "On 21 and 28 June [1900, Toscanini] conducted a student orchestra [at the Milan Conservatory] enlarged by a few professionals (mainly graduates of the conservatory), in compositions by students Arrigo Pedrollo and Italo Montemezzi, as well as pieces by other composers." (Harvey Sachs, Toscanini, p. 73) 6. Marziano Perosi was Maestro di Cappella du Duomo di Milano from 1930-1949 7. Riccardo Santarelli conducted Garofalo's Anima in 1927. 8. Ermano Colarocco conducted Garofalo's Ireland with the Rome Academy in the summer of 1938. 9. Max Fiedler (b. Zittau, December 31, 1859; d. Stockholm, December 1, 1939) was a German conductor. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory (1877-1880). He taught at the Hamburg Conservatory and conducted the Hamburg Philharmonic from 1904-1908. He came to America and conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1908 to 1912. He returned to Germany and was the music director at Essen from 1916-1933. 10. Gardenio Botti, a pupil of Perosi, in 1934 conducted both Ireland and Notturnino (both by Garofalo) at the Teatro Reale in Malta. 11. Carlo Zecchi (1903-1984) was a famous Italian pianist, teacher and conductor who studied with Busoni and Schnabel. Zecchi "abandoned the piano in favor of conducting and chamber music, for which Zecchi proved to be a grand master." (Source: Arbitrrecords article re: Scarpini) 12. Goffredo Petrassi (1904-1003) was said to be, after Dallapiccola, one of the most important and influential Italian musician of his generation. Petrassi entered the Conservatory of St. Cecilia in Rome in 1928, as student of composition and organ. In 1932, Petrassi won a competition organized by the Sindacato Nazionale dei Musicisti. From 1934 to 1936, he taught harmony, counterpoint and choral composition at the Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome. He was general director of La Fenice di Venezia, by which time he had already been appointed to the chair of composition at the Conservatory of S. Cecilia, where he remained for 20 years. In 1959, on Pizzetti's retirement, he left his post at the Conservatory in order to take over the advanced composition course at the Accademia di S. Cecilia. Source: Karadar Classical Music.) 13. Licinio Refice (1885 - 1954), an Italian composer. He was ordained priest and became professor of church music at the Scuola Pontifica in Rome in 1910 and maestro di cappella in 1911. He died in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in 1954. "Sacerdote attivo a Roma, maestro di cappella in S.Maria Maggiore e insegnante presso la Scuola Superiore di Musica Sacra, presso l’archivio della Cappella Liberiana di S.Maria Maggiore sono conservate manoscritte le sue nuemrose composizioni sacre: messe, motetti, salmi, inni." (Source: http://www.edizionicarrara.it/pages/framepolifoind2000c.html ) 14. Claudia Muzio (1889-1936) was born Claudina Emilia Maria Muzzio. Her father was stage manager at the Covent Garden in London, and her first teacher. She then perfected her technique in Turin and made her debut in Arezzo in Massenet's Manon in 1910. In 1911 she was very successful at the Teatro Dal Verme in Gounod's Faust, and appeared at La Scala in the same year as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello. Her first appearance at the Covent Garden was as Tosca in 1914, 1916 saw her first appearance at the Metropolitan, where she was immensely popular and was to sing regularly until 1922. Another opera house were she was an unchallenged star was the Colon in Buenos Aires from 1918 to 1929. She returned to Europe in 1923: she sang Aida at the Paris Opéra, and in 1926 Traviata under Toscanini at La Scala. Her name is also linked to numerous world premières: La Baronessa di Carini by Mulè (1912), Zandonai's Melanis, (1912), Puccini's Il Tabarro (Metropolitan, 1918), and Licinio Refice's Cecilia (Rome, 1934). (Source: Operaitaliana.com) 15. Franco Ferrara (1911-1985) was an Italian conductor who quit public performance because of poor health, but taught conducting until his death in 1984. He taught at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. 16. New York Times, May 14, 1930, p. 35 17. "In Rome [May 13 or 14, 1930] . . . the Royal family attended 'unofficially. . .' " Harvey Sachs, Toscanini (New York:1978), p. 200
COMPOSITIONS: Missa In Honorem Immaculate Conceptionis (Ernest Schirmer--Boston Music Co.; J. Fischer & Bros.) Dedicated to Cardinal Henry O'Connell (1859-1944) of Boston; In 1930, Marziano Perosi conducted this mass "almost every other Sunday at the Duomo of Milan and also for the most important Feasts of the Immaculate Conception: The Saints--St. Ambrose (340-397), Bishop of Milan, whose Feast day is December 7; the Pontifical of St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) Archbishop of Milan. His Feast is November 4. Missa In Honorem Sanctae Trinitatis (Ernest Schirmer--Boston Music Co.; J. Fischer & Bros.) This mass was quite favorably reviewed in Musical America (1913). Romantic Symphony -- Dedicated to
Sir Ashley Clarke. [See more]
(Source: Marcello Garofalo) Premiered February 12 and
13, 1915 in St. Louis under the leadership of conductor Max Zach.
Recorded by New Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Joel Spiegelman, Sergei
Stadler (violin), GAROFALO: Romantic Symphony, Violin Concerto, Marco
Polo CD 8.225183. Available through MMG Music, Inc., St. Louis. Symphonic Caprice -- (Performed ca. 1916;
Bernardino Molinari, Conductor) Approx. 25 minutes Tone Poem "Anima" was conducted in 1927 by Riccardo Santarelli. Concerto Ottocentesco (Violin Concerto in the 19th Century Style) - Dedicated to the composer's wife, Lydia Gasbarri Garofalo. It was inspired by the child prodigy Yehudi Menuin in 1927. (Source: Marcello Garofalo). Available through MMG Music, Inc., St. Louis Dance of the Fairies, premiered 1942, Film Luce orchestra; Available through MMG Music, Inc., St. Louis Il Giocoliere ("The Juggler") is an unstaged opera completed in 1926. "My father was inspired to write this opera and chose the title of "The Juggler" by Ripley Saunder of the St. Louis Dispatch, who compared him to the composer-monk from the Jongleur de Notre Dame by Massenet sung in St. Louis by Mary Garden. Notturnino from the opera "The Juggler" - Premiered 1934, Teatro Reale Malta Valletta. Available through MMG Music, Inc., St. Louis REV: 2/5/2008 |
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