Matteo Carcassi (8 April 1796 – 16 January 1853)Raffaele Carpino, Mario dell'Ara: "Matteo Carcassi. Un nuovo aggiornamento biografico", in: ''Il Fronimo'' no. 184 (2018), p. 5–9. was an Italian

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and composer.

Life

Carcassi was born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, Italy, and first studied the piano, but learned guitar when still a child. He quickly gained a reputation as a

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as ...

concert guitarist. He moved to Germany in 1810, gaining almost immediate success. By 1815, he was living in Paris, earning his living as a teacher of both the piano and the guitar. On a concert tour in Germany in 1819, he met his friend

Jean-Antoine Meissonnier Jean Antoine is a French given name. Notable people with the name include: * Jean-Antoine Alavoine (1778–1834), French architect * Jean Antoine de Baïf (1532–1589), French poet * Jean-Antoine Carrel (1829–1891), Italian mountain climber * Je ...

for the first time. Also a well-known guitarist, Meissonnier published many of Carcassi's works in his Paris publishing house. For Meissonnier he also arranged a number of popular songs for guitar that were originally written for piano, including works by

Théodore Labarre Théodore François Joseph Berry Labarre (23 March 1805 – 9 March 1870) was a French harpist and composer. He lived in Paris and in London and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1823 as well as the Légion d'honneur in 1862. Life Labarre was born ...

and

Loïsa Puget Loïsa Puget (11 February 1810 – 24 October 1889) was a French composer. Life Loïsa Puget was born in Paris, her proper first names were Louise Françoise. Her mother was a singer and saw that her daughter received a musical education includin ...

. From 1820 on, Carcassi spent the majority of his time in Paris. In 1823, he performed an extremely successful series of concerts in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

that earned him great fame, both as a performing artist and as a teacher. However, in Paris, a long time passed before his talents were truly recognized, partly because of the presence of

Ferdinando Carulli Ferdinando Maria Meinrado Francesco Pascale Rosario Carulli (9 February 1770 – 17 February 1841) was an Italian composer for classical guitar and the author of the influential ''Méthode complète pour guitare ou lyre'', op. 27 (1810), which ...

. Carcassi was in Germany again during autumn 1824. Afterwards he performed in London, where his reputation now gave him access to more prestigious concert halls. Finally he returned to Paris. For several years, he made concert trips from here to the important musical centres of Europe. After a short return to performing in 1836, he quit his concert practice around 1840 and died in Paris in 1853.

Music

Carcassi wrote a method for guitar (Op. 59), first published with Schott in Mainz, in 1836. It is still valuable, relevant and interesting. His most famous works are collected in his 25 Études, Op. 60. In these, he managed to blend technical skills and brilliant Romantic music. This is the reason his music is still played by so many classical guitarists today.

References

External links

Sheet music

Rischel & Birket-Smith's Collection of guitar music1
Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Denmark

The Music Library of Sweden * *Large collection o
free sheet music
by Carcassi from ''Cantorion.org''.
Free scores

Mutopia Project The Mutopia Project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books. It started in 2000.Portal page at thInternet ArchiveRetrieved January 24, 20 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carcassi, Matteo 1796 births 1853 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century Italian male musicians Composers for the classical guitar Italian classical composers Italian classical guitarists Italian male classical composers Italian male guitarists Italian Romantic composers Musicians from Florence 19th-century guitarists