Composer
Ferruccio Busoni
Italian composer, pianist, and conductor (1866–1924)
1866–1924
150 works in the index
- Born
- 1866
- Died
- 1924
- Birthplace
- Empoli
- Citizenship / historical state
- Kingdom of Italy
- Period (estimated from birth year)
- Modern
Biography
Ferruccio Busoni was the only child of a clarinetist father and a pianist mother. He became not only a pianist himself but a conductor and composer. His compositions include a musical setting for a poem by Heinrich Heine, “Du bist wie eine Blume” (“You are like a Flower”) and one for a poem by Lord Byron, “An Babylons Wasserns” (“By the Rivers of Babylon.”) In his 40s Busoni wrote Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music (1907), an important statement of his conviction that a composer is not a lawgiver, that performers must have or take a good deal of interpretive freedom. Musical notation, he wrote, “is primarily an ingenious expedient for catching an inspiration, with the purpose of exploiting it later….It is for the interpreter to resolve the rigidity of the signs [emphasis in original] into the primitive emotion.” Busoni died in Berlin, and is commemorated by a plaque on the spot of his final residence there.
In this catalogue
- Common listed instruments
- Piano, Piano two hands, Clarinet, percussion, Timpani
- Genres represented
- Classical
- Works with composition dates
- 73 of 150
These details describe the indexed sheet music, including arrangements.
Catalogue
Works page 4 of 4
Years are composition dates where known. Instruments describe editions in our catalogue and may include arrangements. A dash means the detail is not recorded.
| Work | Year composed | Catalogue / opus | Key in title | Listed instruments | Genre | Editions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| the 1st movement of the C Major Concerto | — | — | — | Piano | Classical | — |
| the 1st & 4th movements of the G Major Concerto | — | — | — | Piano | Classical | — |
| Dr Faust | — | — | — | Piccolo | Classical | 2 |
| Prelude in F-sharp Minor, Op. 37, No. 8 | — | Op. 37, No. 8 | F-sharp minor | Piano | Classical | — |
| Sonata in E Major, Op. 29 | — | Op. 29 | E major | violin | Classical | 1 |
| Second Sonata in E Minor | — | — | E minor | violin | Classical | 1 |
Biographical record: Wikidata, matched on name and checked against dates held in the catalogue. The period label is an estimate from birth year. Authority record: VIAF 44484509. Portrait: Varischi & Artico, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.