Martino Frontini was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and writer who worked with many Catanian musicians in the second half of the nineteenth century; he was the father, and first teacher, of composer Francesco Paolo Frontini

Francesco Paolo Frontini

Francesco Paolo Frontini was an Italian composer. He studied music with his father, composer Martino Frontini; he also studied the violin with Santi D'Amico, playing a concert with him at the town concert hall at the age of 13...

. He founded the town band

Concert band

A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...

, which he led for thirty years; he also directed the band of the regional hospital during his career. He composed numerous works, becoming especially known for his waltz

Waltz

The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...

es; in larger forms, he wrote a three-act lyric opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 (Marco Bozzari), an "azione coreografica" (Fatima) and a fantastic operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 (La Rivolta dell'Olimpo). As a writer he published a biography of Pietro Antonio Coppola

Pietro Antonio Coppola

Pietro Antonio Coppola was an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Enna, he was trained by his father and at the Naples Conservatory. He is chiefly known for his many operas, of which his most famous, Nina pazza per amore, premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome in February 1835...

in 1876. He died in Catania in 1909.