Giovanni Furno

Giovanni Furno was an influential Italian composer, music theorist and pedagogue of the Neapolitan school, born 1 January 1748 in Capua and died 20 June 1837 in Naples. In his youth he was left an orphan, and owing to his early musical talent he was admitted to the Neapolitan conservatory, which financed his studies. There he trained under Carlo Cotumacci before beginning his career as an organist in various Neapolitan churches, dedicating himself to the composition of sacred music. His pedagogical works on partimento, such as Metodo facile, breve e chiaro delle prime ed essenziali regole per accompagnare i partimenti senza numeri, became widely used in eighteenth-century Neapolitan conservatories and were reprinted many times.

As a teacher, he instructed foremost opera composers such as Vincenzo Bellini and Saverio Mercadante, as well as Salvatore Anzillo, Errico Petrella, Luigi Ricci and Lauro Rossi, and he was long regarded as the finest composition teacher in Naples. Until 1808 he taught composition at his alma mater, later holding posts at the Pietà de’ Turchini Conservatory and the Royal Music Conservatory. He composed two operas, including L’allegria disturbata (1778), a Miserere, a symphony and numerous other orchestral and sacred works.

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