Ildebrando Pizzetti

From among the conservative Italian musicians of his generation, this composer, conductor, and critic was the extremely influential and widely respected. The son of a piano teacher, the young Ildebrando Pizzetti showed an early inclination toward the theater. He finished a diploma at the Parma Conservatory in 1895 under the tutelage of Righi (harmony and counterpoint) and Tebaldini (fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian music), then began an important relationship with the poet-librettist D'Annunzio. Pizzetti's incidental music for D'Annunzio's La nave (1905 - 1907) led to a...