Gaetano Emanuel Calì

Bandmaster, theatre musician and composer in Catania, Gaetano Emanuel Calì studied with Francesco Paolo Frontini. He composed E vui durmiti ancora in 1910 to a poem by Giovanni Formisano; another of his songs is Sicilia bedda. Sacred music, hymns, marches, chamber pieces and theatre scores came from the same pen, and in 1929 he founded the Canterini Etnei, an ensemble devoted to Sicilian song and folklore. He died in Syracuse in 1936. He conducted the De Rohan band at Żebbuġ from 1906 until 1914 and held an assistant directorship at the Royal Theatre in Malta. Operettas belong in his catalogue beside the songs and the sacred music.