Below is a transcript of our conversation with Dr. Alicia Valoti, Associate Professor in CMU’s School of Music
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas, and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at a research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University's students and faculty. This time we learn more about the Italian composer, teacher, and violist Ferdinando Giorgetti. His health kept him in Florence for much of his life and limited his opportunities to perform and share his art with a wider audience. Dr. Alicia Valoti, Associate Professor in CMU's School of Music, has and will continue to explore his work when she returns to Florence in 2026 as a Fulbright U.S. scholar. As we continued our conversation, I asked Dr. Valoti to talk about those who influenced Giorgetti and those who cited him as an influential figure in music.
Alicia Valoti:
I'd actually like to approach the first question because that is such a great question because Giorgetti had a really close affinity with Rossini and the operatic type style composition was so important and so much so that they shared these nicknames of Tedischino, Tediscone, so big German, little German, because of the influence of opera and German opera and really having that kind of singing line, which was so, important. This past summer I was actually again in the conservatory and they actually hold a lot of the correspondence that was from Giorgetti to various composers. He had a lot of influence with some of his pupils for violin to whom he either dedicated some of his compositions or to whom some of his compositions were dedicated then following in his lineage. And I do believe that some of them were also dedicated to Rossini and to various maybe important violinist composers of the time as well.
DN:
Has the delving into his work led you to uncover other names that might have been similar circumstances, lesser known, and now finding out more about them in present day?
AV:
Yes, 1,000%. And I have a great example of that. So, I came across a book I would guess maybe last year, which had a lot of violin compositions all dedicated to one violinist. And this one book had some that had never been published, ever. And I found a composition within that book that was a manuscript. It had never, ever been published. And I would assume that if it's living in this book of other manuscripts and has never been published, it's quite possible that it's never been played, or at least not been played for hundreds of years, because it's been hiding out there, again, in the basement of the conservatory. And this was by a composer who was also a priest, I believe, from the north, and had written a piece called Quartetino, which is, of course, a little quartet. But this was a very particular piece because it was two violins and two violas, not our typical quartet of two violins, viola, and cello. This happened last year while I was in Italy, and I was also teaching a class. And I real quick put it into my Finale software and I had my students perform it in the class. And it was amazing because it's literally this music which is leaping from the page. You know that perhaps nobody's laid eyes on it for many, many years, but it's quite humbling to know that nobody has played it. So, to be able to hear that music for, obviously for us for the first time, but you know, when you know that this has really not graced the pages of a musician for many, many years, it's an incredible feeling. And you feel like it's perhaps the composer speaking maybe directly through you. I don't know. I think it's just, it's a very humbling experience and it's very exciting because you're hearing all this music for the first time.
DN:
Well, today, the opportunity to strike that note with the works and the story of Ferdinando Giorgetti. And for you, Alicia Valoti, continuing that study, safe travels as you prepare for that venture back to Florence. And I hope we'll have the chance to talk again to learn more. And I would certainly hope that someday we would have that chance to be talking about the first ever recordings of the music of a composer that you are trying to bring to that wider audience. Thank you so very much for taking the time to talk with us.
AV:
Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure to be here.
