BRICCIALDI, GIULIO  

The Italian flautist and composer Giulio Briccialdi was born at Termi in 1818 and had flute lessons from his father. After the latter's death he moved to Rome, avoiding family pressure to study for the priesthood and supporting himself by playing the flute in a theatre orchestra. In Rome he took lessons in composition and was by 1835 teaching the flute at the Academy of Santa Cecilia. The following year found him in Naples as flute teacher to the king's brother. His later career took him on concert tours throughout Europe. In London, where the firm of Rudall and Rose had the rights of Theodore Boehm's improved cylindrical flute, Briccialdi had a lower key added, extending the range to B flat. After this modification of 1849, Briccialdi made further changes in the flute, carried out for him in Florence, where he taught the flute at the Conservatory from 1870. He died in Florence in 1881.