Giuseppe Ferrata: Emigre Pianist and Composer
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1995 Giuseppe Ferrata: Emigre Pianist and Composer. Edward Eanes Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Eanes, Edward, "Giuseppe Ferrata: Emigre Pianist and Composer." (1995). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6094. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6094 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter lace, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The qnality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell A Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 4S106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/321*0600 GIUSEPPE FERRATA: Emigre pianist and c o m po ser A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The School of Music by Edward Eanes B. Mus., Furman University, 1983 M. Mus., Florida S tate University, 1986 December 1995 UHX Nunbnri 9618264 UMI Microform 9618284 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition it protected against unauthorised copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Wallace McKenzie, whose expertise in research and writing style was crucial to the structuring of this dissertation. Moreover, his innate curiosity, enthusiasm, and friendship made the completion of this study a pleasure. The support of my reading committee has also been invaluable. I am indebted to Dr. Jan Herlinger for his professional guidance particularly in matters of form and editorial concerns. I would also like to thank Dr. David Smyth for the many spirited dialogues concerning the analyses of Ferrata’s music. Dr. Dinos Constantinides, Dr. Stuart Irvine, and Dr. Pat Lawrence were also generous with helpful comments and suggestions. I am extremely grateful for the cooperation of the following archivists and archival assistants: Leon Cahill Miller and Ann E. Smith (Tulane University); Betty Ann Lesher (Mount St. Mary's College); Happy Kirkpatrick (Brenau College); and Mary Lawrence (Nashville Metro Government Archives). Linda Shipley kindly searched the Records of the University of Nashville and shared her knowledge of Ferrata's piano music. Dr. Garrett McCutchan provided the translations of Ferrata's letters. Dr. H. Douglas Pratt, Tom Merrill, and Bryan Hopkins generously assisted in proofreading. I am honored to have the friendship and support of Ernesto Ferrata, the youngest son of Giuseppe Ferrata, and his wife Audrey Ferrata. They graciously offered unlimited access to Ferrata's papers and allowed numerous personal interviews. My thanks also to James Barbosa, Charley Garrison, and Dennis Loubiere, who contributed an untold amount of emotional support. Most of all, I thank my father, Jimmy Eanes, and my mother, Gayle Eanes, for their love and constant encouragement. PREFACE Giuseppe Ferrata achieved a notable reputation in the United States as a pianist, a composer, and an educator by the time of his death in 1928. Born in Gradoli, Italy, he received his formal training with Giovanni Sgambati and Franz Liszt at Rome's Royal Academy of St. Cecilia. He enjoyed a moderate success with a composition prize and annual recitals in Rome before immigrating to the United States in 1892 to seek his fortune. Here he subsequently held teaching posts at five colleges and slowly built his reputation with numerous composition prizes and with the publication of over 80 compositions. This dissertation presents a historical account of Ferrata's life from his childhood through his years of struggle as an unknown 6migr6 musician to his final years as a leading figure in the cultural life of New Orleans. By chronicling the activities and struggles of an emigre musician in America, this study ultimately captures an era in American culture. The reader is offered a glimpse into the musical life of the various communities where Ferrata taught, particularly in small towns where the local college was the sole purveyor of art music. The documentation of Ferrata's involvement in local concerts reveals not only his influence and contributions to these communities, but it also reflects the nineteenth-century American attitude that music and the cultural arts were considered the domain of women and foreigners. More importantly, this dissertation reflects the dichotomy that existed between of the Romantic composer of art music--who typically aspired to individuality and innovation-and the mass public in America-who generally possessed a conservative, less sophisticated musical appetite. The American concert hall had become a type of museum, a place to hear compositions by European composers of the early and middle nineteenth century. Audiences were reluctant to appreciate anything new or complex, thereby eliminating the music of most contemporary and American composers. Ferrata at first adhered to the American audiences' expectations by programming nineteenth-century works on his concerts in small towns and in the South. After joining the faculty at Newcomb College in 1909, however, he attempted to break through the barriers imposed by popular musical taste; he began to expose his audience to current musical developments. He admirably chose to challenge and educate his audience rather than to strictly placate them. The musical appetite of the American public also affected the music publishing industry in the United States. The majority of Ferrata's published works were songs and piano miniatures, salon music genres that would guarantee a financial profit. His struggles to obtain publications of his string quartets, his piano concerto, and his more experimental piano works further reflect the conflict between the serious composer and the demands of the sheet music patron. As with his recital programming, Ferrata occasionally overcame cultural prejudices as observed in the publication of the String Q uartet in G Major, Op. 28 in 1913. In spite of Ferrata's accomplishments, there has been no comprehensive study of his life. Guy Bernard offered a superficial overview in "The Life and Works of Giuseppe Ferrata" (Master's thesis, Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, 1937). Unfortunately, Bernard did not have the full cooperation of the Ferrata family, and he failed to examine the majority of Ferrata's personal papers. As a result, his work contains many errors concerning the facts of Ferrata's life including his birth date. Two other writings about Ferrata have focused on his piano compositions. Fred Karpoff presented an analysis of his compositional style in "The Piano Miniatures of Giuseppe Ferrata" (Doctoral essay, The Peabody Conservatory of Music of the John Hopkins University, 1992). Linda Shipley examined the compositional influences of Franz Liszt in "Memoirs and Musical Contributions from Giuseppe Ferrata, Pupil of Franz Liszt," Journal of the American Liszt Society 28 (July/December 1990): 31-41. In view of these writings, this study offers a brief analysis of some of Ferrata's larger compositions and a broad overview of the development of his compositional style. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................... i PREFACE ................................................................................................................. i i LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ vi LIST OF EXAMPLES ............................................................................................ vii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ ix CHAPTER 1 ITALY ..................................................................................................