Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · credits
Tier 3 · vertical & regional
Raffaele Calace
Person · male · Kingdom of Italy · Naples · born 1863 · died 1934 · recording since 2006
Italian musician (1863–1934)
Also known as ラファエレ・カラーチェ
Timeline
7 events▣ Album 4◦ Birth 1† Death 1★ Debut release 1
1860s
1930s
2000s
· Debut release
Debut release: Tre concerti per mandolino e pianoforte
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
2010s
Biography
English biography354 words · 1 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1377338494
Biography
Raffaele Calace (1863–1934) was an Italian mandolin player, composer, and luthier.
Calace was born in Naples, Italy, the son of Antonio Calace, a successful instrument maker. He initially trained to be a musician, discovered the mandolin, and soon became a virtuoso. After Calace graduated with high honors from the Regio Conservatorio di Musica in Naples, he set out to elevate the mandolin's place in music. To achieve this, he toured Europe and Japan, giving concerts on the Neapolitan mandolin and liuto cantabile. The liuto cantabile is a bass variant of the mandolin family that scholars believe Neapolitan luthiers of the Vinaccia family created in the last decade of the 19th century, and that Raffaele Calace subsequently perfected. Raffaele Calace made three long-playing phonograph records on which he plays mandolin and liuto cantabile.
Raffaele Calace wrote about 200 compositions for mandolin. These include concert works for mandolin solo and compositions for mandolin and other instruments—duets with piano, trio combinations with mandola and guitar, the Romantic Mandolin Quartet (two mandolins, mandola, and guitar), and quintets.
Calace also wrote pedagogical works, including a mandolin method, Schule für Mandoline, and a method for playing the liuto cantabile. The mandolin method was published in 1910 and elaborates on the 18th-century Italian mandolin tutors by Giovanni Battista Gervasio, Gabriele Leone and others. It shows the development of the traditional Italian playing style. The Calace school forms a bridge between other modern methods for mandolin, such as those by Raffaele Calace's countryman Silvio Ranieri, a Roman virtuoso who settled in Brussels, and the American-based Italian mandolinist Giuseppe Pettine.
Raffaele Calace and his brother Nicola Calace, also a musician, also became instrument makers in the Neapolitan mandolin family. They introduced improvements in building techniques and modernized the Neapolitan mandolin. Among other innovations, they enlarged its sound box and—like the Roman luthier Luigi Embergher—extended the fingerboard over the sound hole to increase the range.
When Nicola Calace emigrated to the United States in 1898, Raffaele continued the Calace workshop with his daughter Maria (also a mandolin player), and his son Giuseppe Calace. Today the Calace atelier is run by Calace's grandson Raffaele Jr.
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 10 | 58.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 5 | 78.9th |
| Studio albums | 5 | 84.6th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 7 | 82.6th |
| Recording span (years) | -72 | 5.7th |
| Genres | 0 | 0th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (5 release groups · 5 studio albums)
Albums · 5
Tre concerti per mandolino e pianoforte
2006 · studio album
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Tracklist · 9 tracks · 1:13:56
1Iº Concerto, op. 113: I. Marziale9:112Iº Concerto, op. 113: II. Largo tranquillo7:273Iº Concerto, op. 113: III. Rondò7:044Iº Concerto in sol maggiore, op. 46: I. Allegro maestoso10:325Iº Concerto in sol maggiore, op. 46: II. Moderato quasi andantino4:286Iº Concerto in sol maggiore, op. 46: III. Allegro moderato7:217Concerto in re maggiore: I. Allegro maestoso8:368Concerto in re maggiore: II. Romanza7:229Concerto in re maggiore: III. Allegro giocoso11:55Opera completa per Mandolino e Chitarra
2013 · studio album
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Tracklist · 17 tracks · 1:01:59
1Danza Spagnola, op. 1054:282Serenata malinconica, op. 1204:173Polonese, op. 366:384Barcarola, op. 205:495Tarantella, op. 182:566VI Mazurka, op. 1414:117Saltarello, op. 793:248Bolero, op. 263:119Rondò, op. 1273:5310II Bolero, op. 1613:2711L'ardimentosa (Mazurka), op. 574:3812Les Maries (Gavotta), op. 1232:2613Album di ballabili, op. 13: Primo Premio (Valzer)1:4214Album di ballabili, op. 13: Papillons (Polka)2:5115Album di ballabili, op. 13: Jeunesse (Mazurka)2:1716Album di ballabili, op. 13: Gaieté (Mazurka)3:0717Maria Letizia, op. 1842:442013 · studio album
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Tracklist · 10 tracks · 1:06:08
1Preludio 17:382Preludio 145:273Preludio 107:184Preludio 57:235Preludio 125:196Preludio 39:147Preludio 154:308Preludio 112:499Preludio 27:3710Gran preludio8:532018 · studio album
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Tracklist · 15 tracks · 1:03:29
1Concerto for Mandolin in D major, RV 93: I. Allegro giusto3:122Concerto for Mandolin in D major, RV 93: II. Largo4:583Concerto for Mandolin in D major, RV 93: III. Allegro2:074Concerto for Mandolin no. 2 in A minor, op. 144: I. Maestoso9:535Concerto for Mandolin no. 2 in A minor, op. 144: II. Largo mesto5:176Concerto for Mandolin no. 2 in A minor, op. 144: III. Allegro non troppo6:397Concerto for Mandolin in C major, RV 425: I. Allegro2:138Concerto for Mandolin in C major, RV 425: II. Largo4:059Concerto for Mandolin in C major, RV 425: III. Allegro1:5210Trio Sonata in C major, RV 82: I. Allegro non molto (Quasi andante)4:1811Trio Sonata in C major, RV 82: II. Larghetto3:4412Trio Sonata in C major, RV 82: III. Allegro1:5713Concerto for Mandolin in G major, gimo 58: I. Allegro4:5314Concerto for Mandolin in G major, gimo 58: II. Largo4:2315Concerto for Mandolin in G major, gimo 58: III. Allegro3:58— · studio album
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Tracklist · 10 tracks · 44:17
1Fantasia Poetica7:022Tarantella2:433Minuetto Lento4:054Danza Spagnola4:305Largo Mesto4:536Saltarello3:087Idillio5:128Danza Caractteristica4:139Danza Esotica3:3410Elegia4:57
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Raffaele Calace head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 10 | 58.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 5 | 78.9th |
| Studio albums | 5 | 84.6th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 7 | 82.6th |
| Recording span (years) | -72 | 5.7th |
| Genres | 0 | 0th |
Awards & honours
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raffaele_Calace_with_Liuto_Cantabile.tifaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/ee353503-f0b1-432d-9e3b-dc4155e221ccdiscography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/ee353503-f0b1-432d-9e3b-dc4155e221cccore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1344676seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffaele_Calacebiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffaele_Calace
Why this artist is in the database
- List of composers by name
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q1344676 · MusicBrainz: ee353503-f0b1-432d-9e3b-dc4155e221cc