Enzo Muccetti (born 29 June 1912 in

Corfinio Corfinio is a ''comune'' (municipality) and town in the province of L'Aquila, in the Italian region of Abruzzo. In the Middle Ages, Roman Corfinium Corfinium (Greek: ) was an ancient city now near modern Corfinio, in the province of L'Aqu ...

; died 24 March 1977 in

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

) was a great Italian

bassoonist 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

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

. He studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin, originally with the intention of learning the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

but shifting to the

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 ...

which was more suited to his small hands. Although he started out with the Buffet system, he switched to the German system. His work improving the mechanics of the bassoon was readily accepted by Heckel, which eventually designed and dedicated a special model of bassoon to him, "Model 41, Special E.M." Heckel built bassoons with three different styles of bells, one of which, the ''Muccetti'' bell (also known as the Italian bell), was named after him. He served as principal bassoonist at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

from 1947 to 1971. After conducting a La Scala concert,

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( ; ; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advo ...

wrote in his programme "if all bassoonists were so marvelous, life, and especially writing for the bassoon, would be more of a joy than it usually is." Similarly,

Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born ''Heribert Adolf Ernst Karajan''; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, ...

wrote after a series of concerts at La Scala, "I'm pleased to have found a bassoonist of such stature that in almost all European orchestras there is no one to be compared with you." Muccetti was a professor at the

Parma Conservatory The Conservatorio di Musica Arrigo Boito, better known in English as the Parma Conservatory, is a music conservatory in Parma, Italy. It was originally established as the Regia Scuola di Canto, a school for singing in 1819 by Marie Louise, Duches ...

, where his students included

Evandro Dall'Oca Evandro is a male given name. It originates from the Latin ''Evander'', from Ancient Greek Εὔανδρος (''Eúandros'', literally “good man”). Notable people with the name include: *Evandro Agazzi (born 1934), Italian philosopher *Evan ...

(his eventual successor at La Scala), Rino Vernizzi (former principal bassoonist in Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia), Luca Reverberi, ( Romano Santi, Michael Chapman and Wendy Philips.

References

Birnstingl, Roger (1997), Enzo Muccetti and the Abruzzi Mountains. ''The Double Reed'', 20 (2).
Biography in Italian
1912 births 1977 deaths 20th-century Italian classical musicians Academic staff of the Parma Conservatory Italian classical bassoonists Turin Conservatory alumni {{woodwind-musician-stub