Raffaello Squarise also known as Raphael Squarise, was an Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist, teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

, 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...

, who settled in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, and Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. He was a pioneer in the establishment of classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 in New Zealand.

Early years in Italy

Raffaello Squarise was born in Vicenza

Vicenza

Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...

, Italy

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...

, where his father, Antonio Squarise, worked as a sculptor. He attended the Istituto Musicale, Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, for six years, studying violin under Francesco Bianchi and Pietro Bertuzzi, and composition under Carlo Pedrotti

Carlo Pedrotti

Carlo Pedrotti was an Italian conductor, administrator and composer, principally of opera. An associate of Giuseppe Verdi's, he also taught two internationally renowned Italian operatic tenors, Francesco Tamagno and Alessandro Bonci.-Early life:Pedrotti was born in Verona, where he studied music...

. Around this time he played in the orchestra of the Teatro Regio. Squarise graduated in 1875, completing a miniature Symphony in C Minor for his final examination. On returning to Vicenza he completed further study under Francesco Canneti. He afterwards served as military bandmaster at Contarina and municipal bandmaster at Arzignano

Arzignano

Arzignano is an industrial town and comune in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. It is located c. 23 km from Vicenza, in the Valle del Chiampo.-History:...

.

Australian years

Squarise left Italy for Australia in 1882, arriving in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 in August that year. He spent much of the next year as a violinist in the touring 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...

 orchestras of the Williamson, Garner and Musgrove Company, and the Cagli and Paoli Opera Company. He arrived in Adelaide in July 1883 with Heywood's Minstrel Troupe and decided to settle in the city. He established a performing and teaching partnership with fellow Italian Faustino Ziliani and featured in many local concerts.

Squarise established 'Squarise's Band' and this led to the formation of the South Australian Militia Band in 1886, with Squarise appointed Lieutenant Bandmaster. The band enjoyed the patronage of Governor William Robinson

William Cleaver Francis Robinson

Sir William Cleaver Francis Robinson GCMG was a British colonial administrator and a musical composer, being the author of several well known songs...

, and Squarise's violin pupils included Robinson's daughter. Squarise was associated with the Adelaide String Quartet Club, St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral

St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral

St Francis Xavier's Cathedral in Adelaide, South Australia is the Roman Catholic cathedral in that city. It is classified as being a Gothic Revival building in the Early English style. The tower stands 36 m high and is 56.5 m lengthwise and 29.5 m horizontally. The foundation stone...

, and various local music societies. His compositions during this period included a polka for the opening of the Adelaide Arcade, a funeral march in memory of Wilhelm I

William I, German Emperor

William I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...

 of Germany, and battle fantasia The Battle of Sedan. A proposed opera, The Magic Dice, did not come to fruition.

In 1887 Squarise married Camille Villanis (née Chapuis), the Swiss widow of an Italian vigneron, at the residence of Adolph Marvale in Norwood

Norwood, South Australia

Norwood is a suburb of Adelaide, about 4 km east of the Adelaide city centre. The suburb is in the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters, the oldest South Australian local government municipality, with a city population over 34,000.-History:...

.

New Zealand years

Squarise arrived in Dunedin, New Zealand, in September 1889 to take up the position of leader of the orchestra of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition

New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition (1889)

The New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition was a world's fair held in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1889 which celebrated that country and the South Seas...

. He featured as a soloist and his Symphony in C Minor was performed on several occasions. He was also one of the judges at exhibition's brass band

Brass band

A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...

 contest

The exhibition concluded in May 1890 and Squarise decided to settle in Dunedin. That year he established the Otago Conservatorio of Music in association with the German pianist Arthur Barmeyer. During the next several years Squarise also organised chamber concerts, served as conductor of the Dunedin Engineers' Band and Dunedin Garrison Band, and established the Dunedin Citizens' Band. He was conductor of the Dunedin Liedertafel and briefly choirmaster at St. Joseph's Cathedral.

Some of Squarise's piano compositions were published during the 1890s and in 1894 he composed a comic opera, Fabian, to a libretto by Donald Cargill. Fabian's ten-night season was a critical and popular success, but Squarise did not compose any further operas.

In 1904 Squarise formed the Dunedin Philharmonic Society, an amateur orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 of fifty to seventy players. The string players were all his own pupils. The society performed the New Zealand premieres of many orchestral works, including Tchaikovsky's

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...

 Symphony Pathetique (1905). It frequently featured Squarise's own compositions, including his Symphony in C Minor, numerous marches, and the patriotic battle fantasia Military Caprice (1914). Squarise continued to conduct the orchestra until it was disbanded in 1933.

In 1905 Squarise was elected President of the Otago Society of Musicians, a position he held for eight years.

Squarise retired from public life in July 1933, at the age of 76. The complimentary concert held to mark the occasion was also the final concert of the Dunedin Philharmonic Society. Squarise's wife Camille died in 1941, and Squarise eventually moved to Roxburgh

Roxburgh, New Zealand

Roxburgh is a small New Zealand town of about 600 people in Central Otago. It is in Teviot Valley on the banks of the Clutha River, 40 km south of Alexandra in the South Island. State Highway 8, which links Central Otago with Dunedin city, passes through the town...

, Central Otago, to live with friends. He died there on 15 April 1945.

Key works

• Symphony in C minor (1875)
• La Fanfara Militara (1876)
• L'Addio, for violin and piano (c.1884)
• La Revolte aux Enfers (1887)
• Todtenmarsch in memory of Kaiser Wilhelm I (1888)
• Mass St Joseph (1890, 1914)
• Fabian, comic opera (1894)
• Grand Funeral March in memory of Richard Seddon
  Richard Seddon
  Richard John Seddon , sometimes known as King Dick, is to date the longest serving Prime Minister of New Zealand. He is regarded by some, including historian Keith Sinclair, as one of New Zealand's greatest political leaders....
  
  (1906)
• Call to the Fight, march (1908)
• Grand Overture to Rossini's Stabat Mater (1913)
• Onward Otago, march (1914)
• Military Caprice (1914)