Giuseppe Monterosso

Giuseppe Monterosso was born to Domenico (fu Giuseppe), a shoemaker, and Maria Lo Dico, housewife. He was baptized on the same day of his birth, as was the custom at the time, in San Biagio, a sacramental church dependent on the San Pancrazio matrix, where the birth certificate is kept. The priest Giuseppe Adamo baptized him and Angelo Greco (also a shoemaker) acted as godfather and his sister Giuseppa acted as godmother.[6]

Giuseppe Monterosso had five other brothers (Luigi, Alfonso, Salvatore, Antonio and Eduardo). He hardly ever attended them due to his profession. In fact, he was always very far from home. He only worked as a musician: in the "Levy Lists" of the "Mandamento" [= military district] of Girgenti, it is written that, initially, he was a "musician", while, after enlisting, he reads "corporal-musician". Other conscripts, listed together with him, are listed with additional professions, such as “bricklayer-musician”, or “tailor-musician”.[7] The fact that "Giuseppe, as a child and adolescent, did not touch a piece of leather, did not hammer a nail, did not resole a shoe" caused a crack in relations with his father, Domenico.[8] In 1872, therefore, Giuseppe secretly frequented the premises of the Banda di Canicattì, located in a house on the ground floor, owned by the sac. Giacinto Gangitano di Vincenzo, at the Piano degli Agonizzanti, not far from where he lived.[9] He was assigned the Piccolo that was lent to him by the Band Commission[10] and began to study music and participate in the concertation of the pieces.

Approaching music already at an early age, therefore, he studied and played in the Banda di Canicattì between 1872 and 1886, with the masters Giuseppe Montelepre, Eugenio Pellegrini and Edoardo Piacentini, who taught him to play the piccolo flute, the transverse flute and initiated him into the study of harmony. He was fully trained in composition and band instrumentation[11] with the brilliant (he was also an inventor) maestro and conductor Giovanni Tarditi (1857-1935),[12] head of music in the Italian Army headquarters.[13]

Child and adolescent, «between 1872 and 1885, Giuseppe Monterosso, played Pesciolini d'oro by O. Stuart, the Cavatina N. 4 - Gemma di Verzì (sic) by Gaetano Donizetti, Una lagrima d'amore (mazurka n. 9), the march Constantinopoli (sic), by Donizetti, "for the use of students” and March n. 21 Dionora by Giacomo Meyerbeer, the Cavatina and Cabaletta from the opera "Attila" by Giuseppe Verdi, the "March to Venice" (1880), by Tommaso Benvenuti (1838-1906), dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II. In this phase he approaches the "Fantasia - Forza del Destino",[14] the "Terzetto” from “Lucrezia Borgia” by Gaetano Donizetti. He tries his hand at other marches: Speranza by Filippo Angelini, maestro (1868-1885) of the Banda di Velletri, Fatinizta of 1876, Boccaccio of 1879 and Donna Juanita of 1880 written by Franz von Suppé; the public most liked this genre, lively and entertaining. He also played the Hungarian March from Faust, by Hector Berlioz, 1845. Works, however, certainly not easy to face, to which are added: "The Duet" of the opera Rigoletto, or the passionate overture of The Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, 1831, and, in 1882, the Duet Aida and the mazurka Ricordo alla Patria, a transcription from Chopin, like The “Polonaise».[15]

Between 1892 and 1893 he graduated from the Palermo Conservatory in flute, composition, band instrumentation and orchestra conducting.[16]

Monterosso worked as a musician in Pisa (1886-1888), Livorno (1888-1892), Palermo (1892-1895), Livorno (March 1895 - February 1899), Acireale (1899 - 1908), Aci Catena (1908 - 1912), and then after movint to Malta in Floriana (1912–1914), Valletta (occasionally between 1911 and 1912 and permanently between 1914 and 1919), Birgu (1914-1922), and then back to Sicily again in Aci Catena (1922-1945). Between 1886 and 1899 he played the flute in the Presidiary Band of the 37th Infantry Regiment Livorno Brigade, as a soloist and musical arranger.

While in Livorno he met Gemma, whom he married in 1895. When Giuseppe Monterosso arrived in the Tuscan city in 1889, he had become private teacher of Gemma Renucci (1870-1923), who had long since begun to study the flute. Gemma's father, Alceste and his brothers were entrepreneurs of shipyards, trade and import. In short, they were part of a wealthy Livorno family, coming from northern Europe to Corsica and then to Tuscany. From the marriage four children were born, three in Italy between 1897 and 1905 and one in Malta. The eldest was called Willem (William), born in Livorno in 1897, the second Herman (Ermanno), born in Acireale in 1900, the third was a girl who took the name of Maria Carmela, born in Acireale in 1905, and finally Reno was born, in 1912 at Hamrun, Malta.[17]

In Acireale Monterosso played the flute in the Bellini Theater Orchestra and in the historic Cappella Reale di Santa Venera, from 1899 to 1908 he was vice maestro (substitute conductor) of the Municipal Band, directed by maestro Aurelio Doncich, his sincere friend. Until 1902, Aurelio Doncich had him called to perform also in the orchestras of other theaters in Catania, when he conducted at the National, at the Politeama Arena Pacini, at the Bellini (in Catania) at the Sangiorgi.[18]

In 1907 he founded the Banda di Aci Catena. In Malta he conducted the King's Own Band of Valletta, the Vilhena Band of Floriana,[19] and the Prince Of Wales Band of Birgu.[20][21]

Concert program for the coronation of King George V, Giuseppe Monterosso conducts the King's Own Band - Valletta (Malta, 22.06.1911)

The life of the Monterosso family revolved around their father's musical activity, which they followed in every move. The place that saw them all united was Aci Catena. In 1922, Willem married in Rome and had a daughter, Rossana (1923-2009). Herman was married in Acireale in 1930 and had five children. Maria Carmela was unmarried, she educated and looked after the adolescents of the wealthy Nicolosi family of Acireale; Reno was unmarried and lived with Herman after her parents died.[22]

Monterosso was called during 1911 and 1912 to be vice-master and substitute conductor by the Society of the King's Own Band of Valletta. During this period he directed the program of the Musical Concert in honor of the coronation of King George V of England held on 22 June 1911 in St George's Square in the heart of Valletta. Two bands performed for the occasion, first, at 18.00, the "King Own" directed by Monterosso, which had in the program Diavoli rossi (symphonic march, E. Rivela), Norma (symphony, Bellini), Il Trovatore (Finale act IV, Verdi), Fedora (act III, Giordano), Iris (Hymn to the Sun, Peter Mascagni); and, secondly, from 8.00 pm, the "Filarmonica La Vallette" directed by Giuseppe Vitaliti, which, among other things, concluded with the Inno La Vallette and God save the king[23]

In 1912 Monterosso was invited to direct the Soċjetà Filarmonika Vilhena of Floriana.[24] Finding himself in Italy, he arrived in Malta in the first half of March to take up his duties, succeeding Alfred P. Hare. With the Vilhena, Monterosso normally took part in the patronal feasts of Floriana but also of the cities, towns and hamlets of the island. In particular, he performed a double musical concert in Sliema, one in the Church and one outdoors, in Via Santa Maria, on 22 and 23 June 1912, for the Feast of the Sacred Heart.[25] Again with the Soċjetà Filarmonika Vilhena he held a concert on the occasion of the closing of the XXIV International Eucharistic Congress in the presence of cardinal Domenico Ferrata, papal legate, held in Malta from 23 to 27 April 1913, at the Piazza di San Publiu in Floriana, interpreting a repertoire composed of works by Xuereb, Bugeja, Verdi, Stradella and Donizetti.[26]

On 18 May 1913, the Vilhena Band of Monterosso took turns on the stage with the King's Own Band ("Banda Ufficiale del Re") directed by maestro Aurelio Doncich, in the Argotti Garden in Floriana, for a fundraiser to be donated to the assisted by the Vilhena Society, a charity. On that occasion, the inhabitants of Floriana competed with the Vessillo Patrio march by Nerik Xuereb and the Omaggio ai Florianesi,[27] that Monterosso had written in a few months, immediately after his arrival in the then suburb of Floriana. At the end of the evening, the two musical ensembles gave voice to the English anthem God Save the King[28] In the celebrations desired by Pius X for the "XVI Centenary of the peace and freedom of the Church", Giuseppe Monterosso conducted the "Vilhena Band" twice, on 13 and 14 September 1913.[29] While, in the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the appointment of Pietro Pace as bishop of Malta, the Vilhena was the protagonist of a concert held on February 17, 1914 in the Giardino Argotti during the social dinner organized by the parish priests of Malta in honor of their pastor.[30]

From the papers of the Band's Historical Archive, we learn that maestro Giuseppe Monterosso was appointed in December 1913 to head the Prince Of Wales band of Birgu [= Vittoriosa], founded in 1891.[31] However, in March 1914, Monterosso definitively closed the contract with the Vilhena Society, completing all commitments with this band,[32] then officially debuted with the Prince on April 19, 1914, Easter day.

Between 1914 and 1919 Monterosso was hired to conduct also the King's Own Band due to the internment of Aurelio Doncich in the Maltese prisoner-of-war camp of Cottonera, given its origin from Trieste, then in Austrian territory and therefore enemy of British Malta. During the Great War, Monterosso therefore simultaneously assumed the direction of the Prince of Wales and King's Own bands.[33]

Doncich was released in 1919. On 1st November 1921, Monterosso conducted a concert to celebrate the arrival in Malta of Edward, Prince of Wales, accompanied by Prince George, Duke of York.[34] The next day Edward awarded the Prince of Wales Band with his banner.[35] When the Maestro in 1922 decided to return to Aci Catena to take over the direction again, he was succeeded by Doncich himself until 1924.

After returning to Aci Catena in July 1922, Monterosso took charge of the direction of the Citizen Philharmonic Concert until 1945. He died on 21 December 1947, after conducting his Cantata per Santa Lucia for the last time, on December 13th.

To the one who "artfully sang love to God, to the Saints and to the citizens of Aci Catena": On 5 July 2021, a plaque commemorating Giuseppe Monterosso and his wife Gemma Renucci was placed in the burial chapel under the patronage of the Archconfraternity of the Blessed Sacrament "al Turno".[36]

On 6 January 2023, in the presence of the Mayors of Aci Catena, and Canicattì, an imposing commemorative inscription of Maestro Giuseppe Monterosso was inaugurated and unveiled, in the façade of the house where he had lived for many years, in via Palestra 9, Aci Catena.[37]

His compositions[38]“Cantate per Santa Lucia” (“Cantatas for Saint Lucia”, for voices and band, 1922 and 1934), “Ci salvò. Inno alla Madonna Santissima della Catena”[39] (“She saved us. Hymn to the Holy Madonna of the Chain”, idem, 1909), and the great waltz “Le premier amour”[40] (“First love”, Livorno 1899) are still played today.

The memoirist (memorialista) and music lover Dante Cerilli[41] is carrying out in-depth studies, researches and the recovery of Giuseppe Monterosso's music with Maestro Salvo Miraglia's and Maestra Lilia Cavaleri's collaboration.[42]

From 2020 to date, concerts with Monterosso's music have increased in Italy (Acireale, Aci Catena,[43] Augusta,[44]) and in Malta (Naxxar[45]), by the Bands: "Gaetano Miraglia - Acireale", "Alfio Grasso - Aci Catena”, “Francesco Malluzzo - Canicattì” and “King's Own Band – Valletta” (MT).

Giuseppe Monterosso's works are freely available in the Archives cited among the Section Sources of page and were written over seventy years ago and have no specific constraints,[46] of them we recall:

• Le premier amour. Waltz, for Great Band, Livorno, 1889.
• Ricordi Militari (=Military Memories). March with Fanfare. Acireale, 1900. (commissioned and directed by Aurelio Doncich on 1-4-1900 in Piazza Duomo)
• Gemma (= "Gem"). Mazurka for Medium Band. Acireale, around 1902.
• “Ci Salvò” (=“He saved us”). Thanks to Maria SS della Catena. Aci Catena, 1909. (Hymn in the form of a Cantata written in the first days of January; or after the earthquake of 12-28-1908).
• Fior Tricolore (= Tricolor flower). Serenade for Great Band. Valletta, probably 1911.
• Omaggio ai Florianesi (= Tribute to the Florianesi). Brilliant ride. Floriana (Malta), 1912.
• To the glorious V. and Martyr Saint Lucia. Cantata for Mixed Voice Choir and Media Band. Aci Catena, 1922.

- Contains: "Dai Fulgidi Vanni Risorge l'aurora" (hymn).

• “Hymn to V. and M. Saint Lucia. Cantata-Hymn for unison choir and media band. Aci Catena, 1934.

- Contains: "The soft dawn appears on the bright horizon" (hymn).

There are numerous transcriptions (instruments, arrangements, reductions/adaptations for wind orchestra ensembles) of the great classics of operatic music between the 19th and 20th centuries, elaborated by Giuseppe Monterosso, but here it is preferable to mention the "instruments" which, although by authors not entirely known to the general public, they have made the aesthetic-poetic qualities of the Master better emerge. Among these, therefore, are:

• “Pluie de diamants” (= “diamond rain”). Waltz Op. 160 by Charles Émile Lévy Waldteufel
• “La Berceuse” (waltz lullaby, Op. 161 by Charles Émile Lévy Waldteufel
• Sulle rive del Ionio (= “On the shores of the Ionian”). Waltz for large band by Venerando Scandurra
• Confidenze (= “Confidences”). Mazurka, originally for piano, then for accordion (1887), by Giuseppe Capitani
• Naomi. Serenade by Mario Russo (entirely “Instrumented for Band by Giuseppe Monterosso”, consists of a score and 47 scores).