Giuseppe Martucci: unpublished letters addressed to the Italian composer, rediscovered at the Royal College of Music

My name is Federica Nardacci, I am a pianist and musicologist, and a Librarian at the Royal College of Music.

Welcome to my crowdfunding campaign launched to finance the publication of my book entitled ‘Pagine sparse’ - Ritratto di Giuseppe Martucci attraverso le lettere dei suoi corrispondenti (Portrait of Giuseppe Martucci through the letters of his correspondents). It will be released by the Italian Publisher Leo Olschki in December 2019.

Since I am an independent scholar with no institution to back me up, I have launched a crowdfunding campaign, relying on the generosity of people who are interested in a scholarly work of this kind.

If you like this project and find it worthy of support, please be so kind and share it with others. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Abstract of the book:

The book concerns an unpublished correspondence, held at the Royal College of Music Library in London, addressed to the composer and orchestra conductor Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909).

The collection was purchased by the Royal College in 1976 from collector Richard Macnutt and includes a total of 170 letters, containing significant additional information about Italian (and I would say, European) music history between 19^th and 20^th century.

All the letters, in addition to highlighting the importance of Martucci in the European music environment, bring attention to the status of Italian and European music in that period, focusing on the struggle of Italian musicians to emancipate instrumental music, marginalized by the supremacy of the Opera. In fact, we can read the titanic effort to allow Italian symphonic-instrumental production to conquer a worthy space in Italian and foreign concert programming. We can find:

• concert planning,
• managerial problems of the various concert societies,
• recruitment of musicians,
• but also biographical weaves,
• reports of students who then had their place in the history of music,
• biographical events for the succession of important public offices, such as the direction of the main Italian music Institutes (Conservatories of Bologna, Venice, Milan, Pesaro and Naples).

Furthermore, some letters also reveal what was the reason of the first connection between the Royal College of Music and the Conservatory of Bologna, which brought to the performance in Italy of English music by Hubert Parry, Charles V. Stanford and Frederick H. Cowen.