Alfonso Falconi was an Italian composer, born in Capracotta on March 4, 1859. He studied at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples, taking piano lessons with Beniamino Cesi and composition with Paolo Serrao.
At the turn of the century, Falconi taught in Florence. His students there included M. V. Ivanov-Boretsky. In 1902, he won a composers’ competition held by the Florence Conservatory with his Grand Fantasy for Two Pianos and Orchestra. He served on the editorial board of the journal La Nuova Musica and founded the Nicola Salonoff music publishing house, whose publications included works by Francesco Bayardi and musicological studies.
Falconi’s own 1905 book, A Critical Examination of S. Jadassohn’s Treatises, challenged the musicological views of Salomon Jadassohn. In 1906, Falconi returned to Naples and became professor of music theory and solfeggio at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory.
His compositions are predominantly for piano, and many draw on regional Italian folk material. G. Westerby described Falconi as energetic and vigorous in his Suite, which shows features of the old Italian style, and noted his character pieces Songs of the Allia and Serenade, Op. 39. Falconi also wrote the operetta War Against Women (1881), with a libretto by Enrico Golisciani. He died in Florence in 1920.