Member Since: 28/10/2007
Band Website: www.myspace.com/lorenzosorbo
Band Members:My name is Andrea Giovanni Carmine De Simone and I was born in Capua on 24 November 1807 to Nicola, a tailor, and Margherita De Matteis
A respected and influential Capuan family, the Lanzas, especially Cav. Biagio Lanza, took an interest in my artistic development, offering encouragement and economic support.
On September 7 I married Gabriella Cappabianca in the church of S. Pietro al Ponte.
My style is characterized by singable melodies; straightforward harmonies; dense, propulsive rhythms; and obsessively repeated melodic formulae.
For many years I founded and directed the Capua Philarmonic Orchestra. I had many talented pupils, notably Raffaele Coppola from Capua and Ludovico Cesi.
I composed a Miserere, and the oratorio Agonia di Gesù, which were performed in Capua's cathedral in 1842. Other works include a Hymn to Our Lady of Sorrows, to a text by Pietro Paolo Parzanese, that was performed in Foggia in 1843, and an opera, Matilde d'Inghilterra, with libretto by Leopoldo Tarantini, that was staged in 1841 in the Teatro Nuovo in Naples.
I also composed many additional works such as masses, war songs, sacred hymns, motets, four symphonies (and another three now missing), dances and litanies, and two further operas,Polissena and Atala (the latter missing). I also wrote much sacred music for religious cerimonies.
I was appointed an honorary member of the Aretine Academy in Tuscany (2 April 1852), the Saint Cecilia Academy in Rome (March 2, 1853), the Philarmonic Academy in Bologna (24 September 1853) and the Quiriti Academy in Rome (18 October 1859). As a music rewiever for the Gazzetta musicale di Napoli I wrote many articles, most memorably on Verdi's Il Trovatore and Donizetti's Il Conte di Chalais.
On 23 August 1866 the Capua town council appointed me music teacher in the Women's Institute. I wrote many choruses for the schoolgirls, who every year gave an end-of-term concert in the same school.
In 1874 I was not in good health, and in fact I died about a month later, on July14, 1874 in his house at Via Monte dei Pegni n° 8.
A passage from his obituary testifies my fame and reputation:
« On the 14th day of this month [July] died Mr. Andrea De Simone, one of the most worthy music-masters of our province [Caserta]. The town has lost a fine mind and an upstanding citizen; the art of music has lost a distinguished and worthy devotee. [...] In life he loved Art for Art's sake, so that Andrea De Simone leaves no other heritage to his inconsolable wife than the love and esteem of his fellow citizens [...] »
Over the years my name has sunk into oblivion and today hardly any Capuan citizen or scholar remembers him, except for some descendants of De Simone's family.
My manuscripts were unearthed just a few years ago and published in critical editions by the musicologist Lorenzo Sorbo .
Influences: Zingarelli, Mercadante, Rossini, Verdi
Sounds Like: Capua,la mia città .Capua,my town.
Record Label: Kallisti Music
Type of Label: Indie