Alberto Basso (born

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 ...

, 21 August 1931) is an Italian musicologist and librarian. He started his activity in 1952 with a monograph on

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

. In 1956 he graduated in law at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

but his activity was then fully devoted to music. From 1961 to 1974 he taught

history of music Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of la ...

at the Conservatory of Turin, where he was also librarian from 1974 to 1993. From 1973 to 1979 and from 1994 to 1997 he was president of the Italian Society of Musicology. In 1986 Basso founded the Istituto per i Beni Musicali in Piemonte (Institute for Musical Heritage of Piedmont). In 1982 he became a member of the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia () is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gre ...

. Basso is also a member of

Accademia Filarmonica Romana The Accademia Filarmonica Romana is a musical institution based in Rome, Italy. It was established in 1821 by a group of upper class amateur musicians led by the Marquis Raffaele Muti Papazzurri (1801–1858) in order to encourage the performance o ...

(from 1986),

Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna The Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna ("philharmonic academy of Bologna"; sometimes known in English as the Bologna Academy of Music) is a music education institution in Bologna, Italy. The Accademia de' Filarmonici was founded as an associ ...

(from 1996) and honorary member of the

Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi The Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi (, in English "Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts of Saint George") is a Catalan art school located in Barcelona. The president is the architect Jordi Bonet i Armengol. The institution ...

(from 2000). In 2004 he received an honorary degree from the

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...

. In 1984 Basso was appointed knight of the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

. From 1961 Basso has worked in the musicology section of the Turin publishing company UTET. For UTET he edited many important collective publications: ''La Musica'' (1966–1971), ''Storia dell'opera'' (1977), Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti (DEUMM, 1983–2005), ''Musica in scena. Storia dello spettacolo musicale'' (1995–1996). For the French music publishing company

Opus 111 Opus (: opera) is a Latin word meaning "(a result of) work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (plural). Opus or OPUS may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) pu ...

Basso created the series ''Tesori del Piemonte'' (''Treasures of Piedmont'', started in 1985), which includes the ''Vivaldi Edition'', a complete edition of all the compositions by

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...

(about 450) owned by the

Turin National University Library The National University Library (), located in Turin, Italy, is one of the country's main libraries. It was founded in 1720 as the Royal University Library by Victor Amadeus II, who unified collections from the library of the University of Turi ...

Works

*''Il corale organistico di J.S. Bach'', in ''L'Approdo Musicale'', Anno IV nn. 14-15, 1961 *''Il Conservatorio di Musica «G. Verdi» di Torino. Storia e documenti dalle origini al 1970'', Turin, UTET, 1971 *''L'età di Bach e di Händel'', volume V of ''Storia della musica'', Società Italiana di Musicologia, Turin, EDT, 1976 *''Il Teatro della Città dal 1788 al 1936'', volume II of ''Storia del Teatro Regio di Torino'', Turin, Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, 1976 *''Frau Musika. La vita e le opere di J. S. Bach'', 2 Volumes, Turin, EDT (volume I: 1979; volume II: 1983) *''Sui sentieri della musica. Appunti per una rassegna iconografica'', with

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...

and Alberto Conforti, Milan, IdeaLibri, 1985 *''J. S. Bach. Tracce di una vita profonda'', Turin, Lioness Club, 1985 *''L'invenzione della gioia. Musica e massoneria nell'età dei Lumi'', Milan, Garzanti, 1994 *''Storia della musica (dalle origini al XIX secolo)'', 3 Volumes, Turin, UTET, 2004–05 (in the fourth section of ''DEUMM'') *''I Mozart in Italia'', Rome, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, 2006 Basso was also editor of the following publications: *''La Musica'': ''Enciclopedia storica'' (4 Volumes, 1966) and ''Dizionario'' (2 Volumes, 1971), Turin, UTET *''Storia del Teatro Regio di Torino'', 6 Volumes, Turin,

Cassa di Risparmio di Torino Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Torino S.p.A., also known as Banca CRT or Caritorino, was an Italian savings bank based in Turin, founded in 1827 and merged into Unicredito in 1997. In 1998, Unicredito merged with Credito Italiano to form UniCredi ...

, 1976–1991 *''Storia dell'opera'', 3 Volumes, Turin, UTET, 1977 *''Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti'' (DEUMM), 22 Volumes in four sections, Turin, UTET, 1983–2005 *''L'arcano incanto. Il Teatro Regio di Torino, 1740–1990'' (catalogue of the homonymous exhibition), Milan, Electa, 1991 *''Compact Enciclopedia della musica'', Novara, De Agostini, 1995 *''Musica in scena. Storia dello spettacolo musicale'', 6 Volumes, Turin, UTET, 1995–1996

Sources

* Update: ''Appendice 2005'', p. 33, 2004. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Basso, Alberto Italian musicologists Academic staff of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Writers from Turin 1931 births Living people University of Turin alumni