Giuseppe Concone

Giuseppe Concone was born in Turin, in north-west Italy, in 1801. Almost nothing is known about his family or his early training. In Turin he became known as a good organist. In 1836, at 34, he wrote his first opera, a comedy. It failed. A critic wrote that the music was full of “endless trumpets and drums,” far too loud for a light comedy. Then he added, “All beginners are like that.” Other composers had already written music for the same story, and none of their operas had been a success either.

Discouraged, Concone moved to France the next year. For eleven years he lived in Paris and in other French towns, and he taught singing and the piano. He wrote many songs and duets, and singers performed them in Paris homes and concerts. He also wrote 72 songs on scenes from the novels of Walter Scott. For his pupils he wrote books of singing lessons, and the exercises in this app come from them. In his own words, he wanted these lessons “to place and fix the voice,” and to develop good taste by singing broad, elegant melodies. Within a few years they were printed in Germany too.

In 1848 a revolution broke out in Paris, and Concone went back to Turin. Soon he became the organist of the royal chapel there, and later the king made him a knight. He wrote another opera, Graziella, but no theatre would stage it. The poet who wrote its words called Concone “my very good friend.” He wrote that Concone’s music gave new life to his verses.

A Paris music magazine wrote that Concone was a cultured man and a very pleasant talker. It said that his gentle, friendly character made everyone who knew him like him. The musicians of the royal chapel loved and respected him. He died in Turin in 1861, at 59.

Concone hoped for success in the theatre, but he never had it. Instead, his name lives on through the singing lessons he wrote for his pupils. They are exercises, but they are also real melodies. An encyclopedia of 1905 called them “unusually attractive for works of their kind.” Players of the trumpet, the horn and other instruments use them too, because the tunes are so good to play. In Japan almost every beginning singer learns from them.