Gaetano Amadeo

Gaetano Amadeo (1824 at Porto Maurizio, a small town in Ligurian Riviera, Italy –France April 8, 1893, Nice, France) was an italian musician. His reputation resulted in an entry in biographic dictionaries, such as Schmidl's and Treccani's in Italy and eulogistic obituaries in some French, Italian and German journals. But he became forgotten. Most of his career took place in Marseille, where he lived for 27 years and founded a school of plain-song, an exceptional undertaking in this time.

He first learns in Lucca with Giovanni Pacini. After 1841 he studies in Bologna with Rossini, who esteems him highly. He was voted into the famous Philharmonic Academy of Bologna in Bologna in 1843.

Holding Rossini's written recommendation, he settled in Marseille where he became organist of the St. Joseph Church on June 1, 1848, right after the inauguration of Joseph Callinet's organ. He kept this duty until July 1861. Accordingly, he will not be acquainted with Aristide Cavaillé-Coll's organ (1868). He became choir master in the cathedral in 1852. He made the Pavian organ builder L. Lingiardi acquainted with French organ building.

Around 1875 he left Marseille for an unknown reason – perhaps sentimental – and settled in Cannes. He moved back to Genoa and Porto Maurizio in 1883 and 1884, from where he wrote to P.C. Remondini, the famous sacred-music reformist whose ideas he shared.

At an unknown date he moved back to France. He is found in Cannes in 1887 at the organ of a suburban church. He spends his last years in Nice. He had no close relatives and bequeathed his library and score collection to an unknown person, who wrote a catalog and tried to sell it. Most documents were donated to the Conservatoire of Nice.