Sir Paolo Tosti (April 9, 1846December 2, 1916) was an Italian, later British, composer and music teacher.
Francesco Paolo Tosti received most of his music education in his native
OrtonaOrtona is a coastal town and municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italian region of Abruzzo, with some 23,000 inhabitants.Ortona was the site of fierce fighting between German and Canadian forces during the Italian campaign in World War II...
, Italy, as well as the conservatory in
NaplesNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
. Tosti began his music education at the royal college of
San Pietro a MaiellaSan Pietro a Maiella is a church in Naples, Italy. The term may also refer to the adjacent Naples music conservatory, which occupies the premises of the monastery that used to form a single complex with the church....
at the age of eleven. He studied violin with Pinto and composition with
Saverio MercadanteGiuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas.-Biography:While Mercadante never attained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioacchino Rossini, he composed as impressive a number of works as either, and it was he more than they who developed...
, who became so impressed with Tosti that he appointed him student teacher, which afforded the young man a meagre salary of sixty francs a month.
Sir Paolo Tosti (April 9, 1846December 2, 1916) was an Italian, later British, composer and music teacher.
Life
Francesco Paolo Tosti received most of his music education in his native
OrtonaOrtona is a coastal town and municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italian region of Abruzzo, with some 23,000 inhabitants.Ortona was the site of fierce fighting between German and Canadian forces during the Italian campaign in World War II...
, Italy, as well as the conservatory in
NaplesNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
. Tosti began his music education at the royal college of
San Pietro a MaiellaSan Pietro a Maiella is a church in Naples, Italy. The term may also refer to the adjacent Naples music conservatory, which occupies the premises of the monastery that used to form a single complex with the church....
at the age of eleven. He studied violin with Pinto and composition with
Saverio MercadanteGiuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas.-Biography:While Mercadante never attained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioacchino Rossini, he composed as impressive a number of works as either, and it was he more than they who developed...
, who became so impressed with Tosti that he appointed him student teacher, which afforded the young man a meagre salary of sixty francs a month. Poor health forced Tosti to leave his studies and return home to Ortona. He was confined to his bed for several months. During this time he composed several songs, two of which he submitted to the Florentine Art Society, and two others he submitted for publication to
RicordiCasa Ricordi is a classical music publishing company founded in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi in Milan, Italy...
. All four were rejected.
Once recovered from his illness Tosti moved to Ancona, where his poverty was such that for weeks at a time he subsisted on nothing but oranges and stale bread. His travels brought him to Rome where his fortunes turned. He met the pianist and composer
Giovanni SgambatiGiovanni Sgambati was an Italian composer.Born to an Italian father and an English mother, Sgambati, who lost his father early, received his early education at Trevi, in Umbria, where he wrote some church music and obtained experience as a singer and conductor...
, who became his patron. Sgambati arranged for Tosti to give a concert at the Sala Dante at which the Princess
Margherita of SavoyMargherita Maria Teresa Giovanna of Savoy-Genoa , was the Queen consort of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign of her husband, Umberto I.-Family:...
(who later became Queen of Italy) was present. She was so impressed with his performance that she appointed him her singing professor. She later appointed him curator of the Musical Archives of Italy at the Court.
In 1875 Tosti traveled to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He made several powerful friends who introduced him to the highest levels of English society. Tosti was a staple in fashionable drawing rooms and salons, and in 1880, he was made singing master to the
Royal FamilyImage:Roy-fam-2007.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Members of the Royal Family gathered for a dinner celebrating the 60th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh Image:Roy-fam-2007.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Members of the Royal Family gathered for a dinner...
. His fame as a composer of songs grew rapidly while he was in England. One of his compositions,
For ever and ever was introduced by Violet Cameron at the
Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642.A modern...
. This song became a favorite overnight, and there was an enormous demand for his compositions. By 1885 he was the most popular composer of songs in England. His publishers paid him a staggering retaining fee for twelve songs a year.
In 1894 Tosti joined the
Royal Academy of MusicThe Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
as a professor. In 1906, he became a British citizen and was knighted two years later by his friend,
King Edward VIIEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910...
. In 1913 he returned to Italy to spend his last years there. He died in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
on December 2, 1916.
Works
Tosti's songs are characterized by natural, singable melodies and sweet sentimentality. He is also known for his editions of Italian folk songs entitled "Canti popoliari Abruzzesi".
Tosti is remembered for his light, expressive songs. His style became very popular during the
Belle ÉpoqueThe Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I...
and is often known as
salon musicSalon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and often focus on virtuoso pianistic display or...
. His most famous works are
Serenata (lyrics: Cesareo),
Godbye (lyrics: George J. Whyte Mellville) which is sometimes performed in Italian as
Addio (lyrics: Rizzelli), and the popular
Neapolitan songCanzone Napoletana, sometimes referred to as Neapolitan song, is a generic term for a traditional form of music sung in the Neapolitan language, ordinarily for the male voice singing solo, and expressed in familiar genres such as the lover's complaint or the serenade...
,
Marechiare, the lyrics of which are by the prominent Neapolitan dialect poet,
Salvatore Di GiacomoSalvatore Di Giacomo was a Neapolitan poet, songwriter and playwright.Di Giacomo is credited as being one of those responsible for renewing Neapolitan dialect poetry at the beginning of the 20th century...
.
As a composer, Tosti is exceptional. Since the beginning of the recording era, numerous recording artists specializing in classical Italian repertoire have recorded Tosti songs, yet Tosti never composed opera. Notable examples on recording include
Alessandro MoreschiAlessandro Moreschi was the most famous castrato singer of the late 19th century, and the only castrato of the classic bel canto tradition to make solo sound recordings.-Life:...
(the only castrato who ever recorded) singing "Ideale",
Nellie MelbaDame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen Porter Mitchell, was an Australian opera soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century due to the purity of her lyrical voice and the brilliance of her technique. Melba was the first Australian to achieve...
singing "Mattinata" and
Jussi BjörlingJohan Jonatan was a Swedish operatic tenor...
singing "L'alba separa dalla luce l'ombra".
External links