Antonio Scontrino (17 May 1850,

Trapani Trapani ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') with 54,887 inhabitants, on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the mai ...

– 7 January 1922,

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

) was an Italian

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 ...

. Scontrino studied at the

Palermo Conservatory The Conservatorio di Musica Alessandro Scarlatti (English: Conservatory of Music Alessandro Scarlatti), better known in English as the Palermo Conservatory, is a music conservatory in Palermo, Italy. One of the oldest music schools in Italy, the or ...

from 1861 and 1870 and later in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He began performing as a

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

ist in 1891. In 1898, he became a professor of composition at the Palermo Conservatory and also taught in Florence afterwards. (Indeed, there are references to him as a teacher of counterpoint at the Florence Conservatory somewhat earlier, in 1897.) He composed five

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s (from 1879 to 1896), several large

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

l works (including

symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

), one

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The ...

each for double bass,

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

, and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, four

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

s and a prelude and

fugue In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit ...

for quartet,

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...

, pieces for piano,

choral A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

music, and

lied In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

er. Scontrino's String Quartets are: E minor (Prelude and Fugue) 1895?; G minor in 4 movements, 1900; C major 4 movements, 1903; A minor 4 movements, 1905?; F major 4 movements, 1918? The Conservatorio di Musica "Antonio Scontrino" in Trapani is named in his memory.

Selected works

*''Grande polonese'' *''Marcia trionfale'' *''Sinfonia marinesca'' *''Sinfonia romantica'' *''Preludio religioso'' *''Marion De Lorme'' *''Idillio di Sigfrido'' *''Pierre Gringoire'' *''La cortigiana''

References

External links

*
Trapani Conservatory homepage (in Italian)
* 1850 births 1922 deaths 19th-century Italian classical composers 20th-century Italian classical composers 20th-century male composers Academic staff of the Palermo Conservatory Italian classical double-bassists Italian male double-bassists Italian opera composers Italian male opera composers People from Trapani Italian Romantic composers 20th-century Italian male musicians 19th-century Italian male musicians Composers for double bass Palermo Conservatory alumni {{double-bassist-stub