Guido Turchi was born in Rome, where he later studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia with Cesare Dobici, A. Ferdinandi, and Alessandro Bustini, and was awarded diplomas in piano and composition in 1940.
[2] In his early works, Turchi employed a musical language sometimes close to the twelve-tone system, though he did not embrace it entirely.
The Piccolo concerto notturno (1950), combining a post-tonal style indebted to Paul Hindemith with bold neo-Impressionist colours, is one of his most successful pieces.
[1] Turchi's only opera is the three-act Il buon soldato Svejk, to a libretto by Gerardo Guerrieri based on Jaroslav Hašek’s Osudy dobrého vojáka Svejka za svetové války (The Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War), first performed at La Scala in 1962 after a gestation period of almost ten years.
It begins in a style reminiscent of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, and progresses to a lighter, more detached mood.