Filippo Capocci
1840 — 1911
Filippo Capocci was an Italian organist and composer.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Filippo Capocci.
From the period sources
Filippo Capocci, born in Rome on May 11, 1840, was an “excellent Italian organist” and composer, according to the Dictionary of Music (1896, 1908). He was the son of Gaetano Capocci, who served as maestro direttore of the Cappella Pia of the Lateran until his death in 1898, a post Filippo himself would later assume, succeeding his father in that role, as noted in Grove’s Dictionary (1904). Filippo began his musical studies at age nine, learning organ and harmony directly from his father, and in 1861, he earned a diploma as a pianist from the Academy of St. Cecilia.
Capocci’s career at St. John Lateran was significant; he became first organist in 1873, rising to that position in 1875 thanks to “exceptional gifts and hard work,” as the Dictionary of Music (1896, 1908) records. His performances of divine service at St. John Lateran were characterized by “devout and careful singing,” a notable exception in a Roman ecclesiastical music scene that Grove’s Dictionary (1908, 1922) suggested “still leaves much to be desired.” A visit from Alexandre Guilmant to Rome in 1880 inspired Capocci to pursue the “highest branch of organ technique,” leading him to become renowned for his “excellent taste of his arrangement of stops, for the admirable clearness of his playing, and for his musicianly phrasing” (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). He was considered “the finest in Italy” as a player (The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1924). His published compositions for organ, including five sonatas of “decided originality and vigorous effect” and eleven books of original pieces, demonstrate his sympathy with “the most modern ideas of harmony and melody” (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904).