Besides carrying out a considerable activity in the field of classical, concert, opera, pedagogical and didactic music, the ancient  "Edizioni Curci" Musical House has always been present also in the field of Italian folk music and its catalogue includes by now more than 35,000 items.

     Since the Thirties, it started to broaden its activity over the borders, spreading in Italy the great American music and many other world-famous hits, born also in the wake of the United States, French, German and English cinematography.

     Its founder Francesco Curci was born in Avellino, an important town of region Campania (Italy), and died eighty-nine years old on December 9th, 1912, in Naples (the chief town of region Campania), where he had moved in 1860 to open a shop in the small square Trinità degli Spagnoli,  situated in the old part of the city, to sell pianos and other instruments, and to produce musical scores.

Versione
Italiana

     Being in very good terms with many masters who dealt with "church music", Francesco got a lot of copying work for his employees for the spreading of litanies and sacred music which, at that time, circulated prevalently handwritten.

     From his marriage with Raimonda Pomarico he had three children: Pasquale,  Achille  and Concetta.

     After Raimonda's death, on August 6th, 1880, when she was only forty-six, Francesco had to look by himself after his family and his shop, facing sacrifices of every kind.

     Growing up, his children showed a strong inclination for music... and Pasquale more than the others!

    In 1880, the excellent results they had reached, and the increasing number of their customers, encouraged Pasquale Curci to move the family business from the small square Trinità degli Spagnoli to Via Tre Re a Toledo, number 6,  the first of the eight new offices that would have been used by the company for about forty years. Moreover, he could count on the collaboration of his brother Achille, a skilled engraver, and his sister Concetta, a clever manager.

Pasquale Curci
(1855-1938)

Achille Curci
(1862-1933)

Concetta Curci
(1870-1934)

     From his wife Clotilde Milo (1850-1915), Pasquale had four sons: Giuseppe (1884-1953), Alberto (1886-1973), Alfredo (1891-1952) and Arturo (1892-1973). He took a degree in medicine, becaming a respected and well-known doctor, while his three older brothers devoted themselves to the Musical House.
     Alberto and Alfredo graduated from the "San Pietro a Majella" Conservatory  while Giuseppe, after attending a Technical School, specialized in London for four years and enriched the family company with the modern knowledges he had aquired abroad. Later, he patented an invention, the "punzografo", a device which allowed an immediate engraving and recording on rollers of  "autopiano" of the performed music, with the best artistic fidelity. This result was obtained by an electric-pneumatic connection and the first rollers were recorded by the pianist Paolo Denza.

     In 1910 the operetta composed by Alberto Curci on the German libretto by Johannes Bubendey, "Liebesboykott" ("War to love") was performed in Hamburg, at the "Neus Operetten Theater",  and an American publisher, George Lehman, bought its copyright, while its rights for Italy were bought by the "Renzo Sonzogno" Publishing House. His sudden end lead the authors of the operetta to ransom its copyright for Italy: this way, the real publishing activity of the Curci Musical House began.

     The Curci Musical House was one of the first companies to supply the soundtrack to the Italian and foreign silent movies, also in joint publication with external companies.

     For more than 50 years it was the Italian agent for the movie soundtracks produced by the most important firms of the world: from the German UFA and Wiener-Boheme Verlag to the American MGM, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Walt Disney, Columbia, R.K.O. and others.  

     In 1932, to face up to various needs, the Curci brothers had to open other branches in Rome and in Milan, in Galleria del Corso n.4, where the head office is still situated.

     During the Fifties, Giuseppe Gramitto Ricci, who had married Clotilde Curci (Alfredo Curci's only daughter),  acquired a lot of foreign catalogues and so the "Edizioni Curci" Company became the Italian agent for many publishing firms. He also discovered new artists ...and among them there was also Domenico Modugno.

     The recording division of the "Edizioni Curci" was born: its name was "Carosello Records" and it marked the beginning of the golden years of the company, which stood out both in the recording and in the editorial market (with Remigi, Donaggio, Canfora, De Filippi and others).  Later, with the development of the multinational firms, the company ran into several problems, but it never gave up.

     During the Eighties the recording division was really a big success with the first rap "Rappers delite" by Sugarhill Gang, and as an agent for important  foreign companies, like the famous De Lite, that had a work contract with artists as Kool & the Gang and D.C. Larou.

     Alfredo Gramitto Ricci, Alfredo Curci's nephew, manages since 1998 the Company "Edizioni Curci", which contains other musical firms: Accordo, Asso, Carosello, Cervino, D'Anzi, Eaton Music Italy, Franchi C, Italcanto,  Music Union, Number Two, Orchestralmusic, R.T.V., Senso Unico, Star.