Respighi was born in Bologna , where his father was a Piano teacher, and taught his son violin and piano. Ottorino continued studying violin with Federico Sarti at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, and composition with Giuseppe Martucci and the early music scholar Luigi Torchi . In 1900, Respighi studied composition for five months with Rimsky-Korsakov in Russia, while he was employed as first violinist in the orchestra of the Russian Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg during its season of Italian opera. He also had composition lessons with Max Bruch in 1902 in Berlin. Until 1908 his principal activity was as first violin in the Mugellini Quintet, before turning his attention entirely to composition.
He lived in Rome from 1913 for the rest of his life, after being appointed a teacher of composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia there. From 1923 to 1926 he was director of the Conservatorio. In 1925 he collaborated with Luciani on an elementary textbook entitled ''Orpheus''.
Respighi was also a s (like Dance Suite s) with a typical 19th Century Romantic Idiom (e.g. the musical idiom associated with Symphonic Poem s in the romantic period).
Respighi married a former pupil, Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo (1894-??), a singer and composer herself, who made Ballet s of the '' Ancient Airs And Dances Suite s''.
He died in his Roman villa named "I Pini". A year after his burial, his remains were moved to his birthplace Bologna and reinterred at the city's expense.
Respighi's compositions include:
- ''Piano Concerto in the Mixolydian Mode'' (1925)
- His most known Symphonic Poem s (most of them Symphonic Poem Suite s), which now belong to the standard orchestral Repertoire :
- --- '' Pini Di Roma '' (''Pines of Rome'') (1923-1924)
- --- '' Fontane Di Roma '' (''Fountains of Rome'') (1915-1916)
- --- '' Feste Romane '' (''Roman Festivals'') (1928)
- --- ''Brazilian Impressions'' (1928)
- His Opera s, from the early ''Semirâma'' to the late ''Lucrezia'', on the other hand, are hardly ever played or recorded nowadays.
- His most popular works involving older sources:
- --- The ''Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 1'' of 1917 is an orchestral piece based on Renaissance Lute pieces by Simone Molinaro , Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei ), and additional anonymous composers.
- --- In 1918 Sergei Diaghilev commissioned a Ballet from Respighi, who then wrote '' La Boutique Fantasque '', which borrows tunes from the 19th Century Composer Rossini . This had its premiere in London on 5 June , 1919 .
- --- Respighi's ''Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 2'' of 1924 is based on pieces for lute, Archlute , and Viol by Fabrizio Caroso , Jean-Baptiste Besard , Bernardo Gianoncelli , and an anonymous composer, plus Antoine Boësset 's famous song "Divine Amaryllis". It also interpolates an aria attributed to Marin Mersenne .
- --- Following the success of this suite, Respighi wrote ''Gli Uccelli'' ("The birds") in 1927, based on Baroque pieces imitating birds.
- --- Then in 1932, he wrote ''Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3'', which differs from the previous two suites in being arranged for Strings only and somewhat melancholy in overall mood. It is based on Lute Song s by Besard, a piece for Baroque Guitar by Lodovico Roncalli , and lute pieces by Santino Garsi Da Parma and additional anonymous composers.
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