Arturo Reisenschien was born, of mixed parentage, on the 1st January 1885 in Rome where his father worked in the German embassy as a clerk.
Although he was a prolific composer the majority of his work has, fortunately, been lost for posterity. His most well known peice is the 1945 overture (composed sometime between 1947 and 1952) - this work was a homage to his personal hero Tchaikowsky but at the same time introduced several techniques more commonly associated with popular music: namely the concept of the extended remix, and the use of sampling in the form of records featuring various effects that were played at strategic points throughout the work (a technique that his close friend Ottorino Resphigi had used several years earlier [at Reisenchien's suggestion] in his epic tone poem "The Pines of Rome"). Reisenschien refused to allow the work to be recorded during his life time as he realised that the monophonic recording systems available at the time could not do honour to the spatial dynamics of his work. In fact the first modern performance was given in Leeds during "Iconoclasm" in 1989.
Following the rule that you can't have too much of a good thing he composed a sequel in 1969. The 2001 Overture was written for synthesizers which, due to their primitive design, they were unable to perform until the late 1970s. The first ever performance of this work was given in Derby during "Chronoclasm" in 1990.
He is one of few modern, dead, composers whose music hasn't been "borrowed" by John Williams (and if you don't know what I mean just listen to the end of Stravinsky's Firebird and Williams' score for Close Encounters: co-incidence? I think not!)
Apart from the two overtures Reisenchien is best known for his piano concerto - the so called "Morning" Concerto. It aquired this name after a critic said of this work that it showed that Reisenschien knew about as much about music as he did about mornings (a veiled reference to Reisenschien's habit of not getting up until the clock had struck 12 noon)
He died (Reisenchien that is, not the critic), rather fittingly on 31st December 1975