Arnold Franchetti

Composer Arnold Franchetti (1911–1993) was born in Lucca, Italy and later emigrated to the United States. In his early work, Franchetti experimented with late Romantic and neoclassical styles, but he then developed what Imanuel Willheim called "a non-serial, 12-note compositional language featuring primarily diatonic motivic material". Franchetti composed music in all genres including orchestral, symphonic, chamber, and solo music (including five piano sonatas, significant works that have been analyzed in multiple doctoral dissertations). Franchetti composed numerous theatre works including the opera, Married Men Go to Hell (1974) and the genre-bending Dracula 1979. Another important Franchetti theatrical work is Lazarus (for narrator and symphonic wind ensemble) based on the book Soul on Ice by 1960s Black Panther activist Eldridge Cleaver.