Holdings Fine Arts and Applied Arts University Bands Pietro A Cipollone Music an... Finding Aid Holdings Fine Arts and Applied Arts University Bands Pietro A Cipollone Music an... Finding Aid By Elizabeth Miller, Scott Schwartz, Eduardo Herrera, Tad Boehmer and Kelly A. Carlson
[Printer Friendly] | [ Email us about these papers]Title: Pietro A Cipollone Music and Personal Papers, 1848-2000
ID: 12/9/56
Primary Creator: Cipollone, Pietro A. (1889-1955)
Extent: 11.0 cubic feet
Arrangement: alphabetical by music title or type of material
Subjects: Composers, Instrumental music, Music - United States, National Music
Formats/Genres: Papers
Languages: English
Consists of original and published music compositions and arrangements for wind band, original and published band books, photographs, programs, news clippings, business records, sound and videotape recordings, and an award documenting Pietro A. Cipollone's career as a composer, music educator, conductor, and director of wind ensembles in both Italy and the United States between 1905 and 1954. The papers also document Cipollone's involvement and management of the Ferrari Band, the Royal Italian Band, and the Loyal Order of the Moose Band. In addition to Cipollone's original musical compositions there are his and other's arrangements of works by such leading Italian and American composers as Luigi Bertolini, Giuseppe Verdi, John Philip Sousa, and Edwin Franko Goldman. The collection provides unique documentation of the melding of predominantly nineteenth- and twentieth-century Italian orchestral and wind-band composition with early twentieth-century American music traditions. Of particular interest are Cipollone's arrangements of musical compositions by John Philip Sousa.
The collection is organized in four series: Series 1, Music Manuscripts, ca 1848-1954; Series 2, Published Music, ca 1863-1935; Series 3, Band Books, 1895-1937; and Series 4, Personal Papers, 1934-2000. The papers are arranged alphabetically by either title or type of material within each series. A composer/title index for all the music is located at the end of the finding aid.
Pietro A. Cipollone - musician, band leader, and composer - was born in Tocco Casauria, Italy in 1889 and studied music composition and theory with Ettore Martini, who studied with Puccini and Massenet for over four years. He received wide acclaim in the United States and Italy for his excellence in directing of symphony orchestras and bands, and his music interpretations of traditional western-European orchestral composition. His musicianship won him praise from such renowned Italian music teachers as Cav. Omero Carraro, artistic director of the G. Campi Music House, in Foligno, Italy and Ivo Baffigi.
Pietro Cipollone emigrated to the United States in 1913. While living in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania in 1933 he and local merchant Anthony Ferrari formed the Ferrari Sons Musical Club and the Ferrari Band with Cipollone as its music director. He also conducted the Royal Italian Band in Mount Carmel, PA and the Royal Order of the moose Band in Hammonton NJ. World War II brought about frequent changes of band personnel making it very difficult to sustain the band and its programming. Many of the band's concerts were radio broadcast on WAZL from Hazelton, Pennsylvania. In addition to his work as a band director Cipollone taught private music lessons at his home and at the Philadelphia Music Center until his death in January of 1955.
Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
Acquisition Source: source of acq
Acquisition Method: Papers were transferred to the University of Illinois from the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania's Baron-Forness Library June 14, 2000.