The importance of Raffaele Caravaglios for the Italian wind band scene is undeniable and comparable to the fame of his better-known and celebrated contemporary Alessandro Vessella. Born in Castelvetrano (Trapani) on 28 December 1864, he started playing violin at a young age and began his musical career in 1884, when he completed his studies as wind band conductor at the Conservatory of Music in Palermo. At first, he became conductor of the wind band of Alcamo, soon taking on the direction of the Civic Wind Band of Naples. “Napoletano di adozione per simpatia, per consuetudine di dimora” (Neapolitan by adoption and out of sympathy), he spent his life in Naples, where he had many chances to conduct the symphonic orchestra of the S. Carlo Theater. For many years he was the head of the school of music of the Bourbon Hospice for the Poor, as well as professor at the Conservatory of Music of S. Pietro a Maiella. Author of symphonies, hymns, sacred music, and operettas, he was also a prolific transcriber of wind band music. His complete output is published by Ricordi in the series “Biblioteca dei corpi di musica”. He also published a textbook: “Lezioni di Istrumentazione e Orchestrazione per bande” (Lessons of Instrumentation and Orchestration for Wind Bands; Napoli, 1922). Caravaglios died in Naples on 29 November 1941. Among his original compositions for wind band, still little known, this Fantasia (published in the original version by R. Sandron in Palermo) stands out. The instrumentation of the piece features an intriguing and unprecedented richness in the flugelhorn parts (almost comparable to that of the works for great Italian band by Vessella); yet it lacks double reeds and saxophones. The performance today of this jewel of the Italian wind band music of the beginning of the twentieth century, required a veritable instrumental restoration according to the instrumentation of the modern symphonic band. In spite of this necessary modernization, the piece has not lost its contrapuntal density or its original coloristic accuracy.

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