Achille Simonetti (12 June 1857 – 19 November 1928) was a prominent Italian

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, mainly resident in England and Ireland. He was mainly known as a

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

ian and teacher.

Life

Born in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

on 12 June 1857, Simonetti left his family in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

(this can be gleaned from his letter to Mr Hill (of Hills and Sons) written in 1922,) and completed his studies under Francesco Bianchi, Eugenio Cavallini, Giuseppe Gamba, Charles Dancla (regarded as the last exponent of the classical French school of violin playing), and Camillo Sivori, the last pupil of Niccolo Paganini. Simonetti died aged 71 in London on 19 November 1928.

Career

Simonetti came to England in 1891,Pine, Richard & Charles Acton (eds.): ''To Talent Alone. The Royal Irish Academy of Music, 1848–1998'' (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1998), 460–1. embarking on a career as chamber musician. He became part of the first London Trio, an endeavour which occupied him from 1901 to 1912, along with cellist William Whitehouse and pianist Amina Goodwin. From 1912 to 1919, he was a professor of violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and served as a teacher for many distinguished violinists, including Walter Starkie. Simonetti was also an early champion of the Brahms

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

, and wrote a cadenza for the work.

Selected compositions

;Orchestral * ''Ronde joyeuse'' for string orchestra * ''Sérénade'' for string orchestra * ''Meditazione'' for small orchestra ;Chamber music * ''Allegretto Romantico'' in D minor for viola and piano (published 1897) * ''Andante mélancolique'' for violin (or cello) and piano * ''Ballata'' in C minor for viola and piano (published 1897) * ''Berceuse'' for violin and piano * ''Canzonetta'' for violin and piano * ''Capriccio'' for violin and piano * ''Cavatina'' for cello and piano * ''Elegia'' for cello and piano * ''Furlana'', Italian Dance for violin and piano * ''Madrigale'' in D major for violin and piano (1901) - wrote text and music? - (Different?) music has been set to this by Pietro Floridia. * ''Mazurka'' for violin and piano * ''Minuetto'' for violin and piano * ''Notturnino'' for violin and piano * ''Rêverie'' for violin and piano * ''Romanza'' for violin and piano * ''Romanzetta'' for violin and piano * Sonata No. 2, Op. 9, for violin and piano in C major (published 1894)IMSLP / Hofmeister. * ''Scènes montagnardes'', Op. 12, for violin and piano * String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 14 (published 1904) * String Quartet No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 16 (published c.1904) ;Piano * ''Caprice-Mazurka'' for piano * ''Trois Morceaux caractéristiques'' (3 Character Pieces) for piano

References

External links

* 1857 births 1928 deaths 19th-century Italian musicians 19th-century Italian male musicians Italian Romantic composers Italian classical violinists Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom Italian male classical composers Italian male classical violinists Italian string quartet composers Musicians from Turin {{Italy-composer-stub