Braga Sheet Music

Braga Sheet Music and Biography

Photograph in sepia of Gaetano Braga as a young man — ^{Gaetano Braga
9 June 1829 – 21 Nov 1907}

Gaetano Braga was a composer and cellist born on 9th June 1829 in the southern Italian region of Abruzzi.

La Serenata or Angel’s Serenade was a particularly famous piece of Braga’s and we have several arrangements on music-scores.com

Braga showed an early talent for music and despite it not being his parent’s first choice of career he went to the college of San Pietro a Maiella. He displayed such an incredible talent the director of the college had a cello specifically made for him by Nicola Gagliano the violin maker.

Career

Braga began his career as a cellist and performed in Florence, Bologna, Trieste, and Vienna. He then went onto Paris and played compositions by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. He was a very popular cellist and also a highly sought-after singing teacher by the artists of Theater Italian.

Braga played with some of the best performers of that time including Liszt, Gounod, Bizet, Saint Saens, Rubinstein, and Bottesini.

He was friends with Giovanni Rossini and dedicated his piece ‘The Adventurers’ to him.

He wrote Estrella di San Germano for the theatrical organiser Bartolomeo Merelli and it was performed infront of the emporer in Vienna. When Prince Leopold heard Estrella he commissioned Braga which resulted in the successful performance of Il Ritratto 1858.

Braga continued with theatrical opera with successes and failures and as a master of the cello. Leggenda Valacca also known a La Serenata, Angel’s Serenade is still a popular and piece and there is a lovely performance on YouTube if you click on the image below:

Braga purchased a Stradivari cello of 1731 in London in 1856 which carries his name. He continued to play it until 1903 when he was struck by hemiparesis or weakness down one side of his body.

Braga died in 1907, however, his cello lives on under the fingers of Korean cellist Myung-wha Chung.