Fanciulli

Rescuers surround the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia after it ran aground off the coast of Isola del Giglio island, Italy Photograph: Giorgio Fanciulli/AP

Italians launch rescue bid after cruise liner runs aground 2012

Clenching the muscles in his steely neck, Fanciulli said he would play what he saw fit.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

For Crockett seemed to have forgotten all about Francesco Fanciulli, who was very much in the news when the Fanciulli cocktail came to be.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

(To hear the professor's work you have to go back to the earliest acoustic recordings of the band, an 1897 cylinder that captured Fanciulli conducting his original, "Old Hickory" -- a march that suggests Lt. Draper had a point.)

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

Nowadays, Fanciulli is no better known than the cocktail that bears his name.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

I recently found a Fanciulli spoon, complete with the bandleader's uniformed likeness engraved in the bowl.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

By that standard, Fanciulli was one of the greats, having been immortalized in a trading-card equivalent, the silver-plate souvenir spoon.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

And so he scribbled march after march of his own, steadily replacing the Marine Band's Sousa repertoire with the Fanciulli oeuvre.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

Born in Tuscany, "Professor" Fanciulli was an Italian immigrant who had some success writing comic operas in the States before turning his hand to martial music.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009

He complained to Fanciulli that the men couldn't march in "full swing" to the music being played, and helpfully suggested a Sousa march.

Making Bitter Fernet-Branca Much Easier to Swallow 2009