Musical Bands

In 1890 Maestro Tito Belati was nominated Conductor of the Band of the Italian Musical Union of Lyons. He was only twenty-five years old. Upon his return to his native land he conducted the military band of the 93rd Infantry Regiment of the Italian Army and in 1900 he founded Tito Belati Publishers that specialised in publishing musical repertoires for bands and was the first publisher in Italy to produce separate parts for the conductor and the single instrumental sections.

In the following years, in order to satisfy the increasing demands of the market, Belati opened a factory in order to produce instruments for bands. He developed a manufacturing process based on the assembly of components supplied by the most famous producers of instruments for great orchestras, with various other parts constructed directly in the factory workshop. In this way he succeeded in introducing high quality products onto the market at prices that also bands consisting mostly of enthusiasts playing free of charge could afford.


In the periods when the largest numbers of Italians were emigrating, above all in the years before and after the Great War of 1915/18, Belati Publishers and its productions were always close in spirit to these emigrants, allowing them to maintain the traditions of folk music by means of a constant collaboration with the associations, bands, religious confraternities and institutions that operated in the foreign countries they emigrated to.

The great economic crisis of the '30s, together with the Italian national trade policies, led to the closure of the instrument factory, but Belati Publishers continued its work of printing compositions for bands and thereby spreading musical culture.
Today, a hundred years after it was set up, Belati Publishers intends to honour its founder - shown in the photo with his faithful dog Ras who survived him by only a few days - by publishing a biography of the great man, that will narrate his entrepreneurial and cultural gifts, as well as his creativity and talent for innovation.

For this purpose we are collecting and cataloguing every type of testimony and information about him. In order to facilitate our research we have indicated the brand name and logos to be seen on our products.