{{Short description|Italian-American composer (1911–1993)}} {{more citations needed|date=July 2011}} '''Arnold Franchetti''' (1911–1993) was a composer born in Lucca, Italy who later emigrated to the United States.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news | title=Arnold Franchetti, A Music Professor | date=March 11, 1993 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/11/obituaries/arnold-franchetti-a-music-professor.html?pagewanted=1 | work =New York Times | access-date = 2010-03-07 }}</ref>
==Early life== As a boy, Franchetti studied composition and piano with his father, Baron Alberto Franchetti (1860–1942).<ref name="harford"/> Arnold Franchetti studied physics at the University of Florence, music at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and then moved to Munich from 1937 to 1939, where he studied composition and orchestration with composer Richard Strauss.<ref name="Willheim">Imanuel Willheim, "Franchetti, Arnold". Oxford Music Online. Accessed December 23, 2011.</ref> After a brief stint with the Italian army during World War II,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/10/obituaries/arnold-franchetti-a-music-professor.html|title=Arnold Franchetti, A Music Professor|date=March 10, 1993|website=The New York Times}}</ref> Franchetti joined the anti-Mussolini underground resistance in the Italian Alps where he helped Allied airmen escape.<ref name="Willheim"/>
==In the USA== Franchetti emigrated to the US in 1947.<ref name="Willheim"/> He was befriended by Aaron Copland, who helped the young immigrant composer gain a professional footing by arranging performances of Franchetti's chamber music in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} Franchetti took a position at the Hartt School of Music, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1948,<ref name="harford">{{cite web|title=Arnold Franchetti scores and other material|url=https://archives.hartford.edu/repositories/2/resources/140|website=University of Hartford}}</ref> where he became chair of the theory and composition department, remaining there until his retirement in 1979.<ref name="Willheim"/> Franchetti's composition students have included: Barbara Kolb,<ref name="harford"/> Michael Schelle,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.schellemusic.com/2.html|title=Michael Schelle biography|website=Schellemusic.com}}</ref> Joel Pelletier, Robert Beaser, Martin Bresnick, Henry Gwiazda, Norman Dinerstein, Gwynneth Van Anden Walker, others.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}
During his 45 years in the United States, Franchetti received composition honors and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, National Institute of Arts and Letters, and many other prestigious organizations.<ref name="harford"/>
He died on March 7, 1993, at Middlesex Hospital in Cromwell, Connecticut.<ref name="NYT"/>
==Compositions== In his early works, Franchetti experimented with late Romantic and neoclassical styles, but he then developed what Imanuel Willheim called "a non-serial, 12-note compositional language featuring primarily diatonic motivic material".<ref name="Willheim"/> Franchetti composed music in all genres including orchestral, symphonic, chamber and solo music (including five piano sonatas, significant works that have been analyzed in multiple doctoral dissertations).<ref name="harford"/>
Franchetti composed numerous theatre works including the opera, ''Married Men Go to Hell'' (1974) and the genre-bending ''Dracula 1979''. Another important Franchetti theatrical work is ''Lazarus''<ref name="harford"/> (for narrator and symphonic wind ensemble) based on the book ''Soul on Ice'' by 1960's Black Panther activist Eldridge Cleaver.<ref>{{cite web|title=Soul on Ice|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100519396|website=Oxford Reference}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Franchetti, Arnold}} Category:1911 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Musicians from Lucca Category:University of Florence alumni Category:Italian emigrants to the United States Category:University of Hartford Hartt School faculty Category:Franchetti family Category:20th-century American male composers Category:20th-century American composers Category:20th-century Italian composers Category:20th-century male composers Category:20th-century Italian musicians Category:Pupils of Richard Strauss Category:20th-century Italian male composers