Born in Camprodón, Gerona, May 29, 1860
Died in Cambo-les-Bains, May 18, 1909
[EE-sak al-BAY-neeth (subtle on the “th” sound 😉) / Spanish pronunciation]
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Short biography
Nationality: Spanish
Born in Bilbao, Jan 27, 1806
Died in Paris, Jan 17, 1826
- Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga (pronunciation) was a precocious Spanish violinist and composer whose life was cut tragically short.
- His father was an organist, and his older brother was a violinist and guitarist. Together, these two family members groomed Arriaga for a life in music.
- Arriaga began composing at age 11, and in his mid-teens, he went abroad to study at the Paris Conservatory. After only a year or two, Arriaga won prizes in counterpoint and fugue, after which he was offered a role at the institution as a teaching assistant.
- According to a letter written to the composer’s father, Arriaga died from “exhaustion and a pulmonary infection.”
- As a composer, Arriaga’s music straddled the bridge between classical and romantic. You’ll hear influences of Mozart and Haydn as well as Schubert and Beethoven.
The Mozart Connection
- Arriaga’s nickname, “The Spanish Mozart,” was first only ascribed to the composer several decades after his death because he, like Mozart, was a child prodigy who died at a young age.
- Fun fact – Arriaga was born on (what would have been) Mozart’s 50th birthday. Moreover, they shared their first names – Juan Crisostomo and Johannes Chrysostomus.1
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Short biography from Wise Music Classical
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FALLA, Manuel de
Born in Cádiz, Nov 23, 1876
Died in Alta Gracia, Argentina, Nov 14, 1946
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FLECHA, Mateo
Born in Prades, c.1481
Died in Poblet, c.1553
- Flecha was a Spanish (or Catalan, sources differ) composer and liturgical musician. He is sometimes called Mateo Flecha el Viejo (the elder) because his nephew, named Mateo Flecha after him, was also a composer.2
- Flecha the Younger had a collection of his uncle’s work published posthumously in 1581, to great success, as we can gather from the number of editions it went through.3
Died (probably) in Madrid after 1733.4
- Martín y Coll was a Spanish composer and organist, and a Franciscan monk.
- Martín y Coll wrote treatises about liturgical music and compiled a multivolume collection of the organ music by composers from Spain and elsewhere, entitled Flores de música.5
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MOMPOU, Federic (or Federico)
Born in Barcelona, 16 April, 1893
Died in Barcelona, 30 June, 1987
[“mum-POW” / PRONUNCIATION]
- Music historians claim that Federic Mompou was first inspired to become a composer after hearing a concert of Gabriel Fauré‘s music as a child. Mompou studied piano as well, but his extreme shyness and introverted nature dissuaded him from pursuing a career as a concert pianist.
- Mompou studied at the Paris Conservatory and subsequently made Paris his home for two decades. He didn’t return to Barcelona until 1941, when he fled German occupation in Paris.
- As a composer, Mompou largely wrote for his own instrument, the piano, and was heavily influenced by French composers such as Fauré, Debussy, and Satie.6
“The best word is the unspoken word, as all know I am a man of few words and composer of few notes… Music is written for the inexpressible, it should seem to come out of the shadow in order to move back in to the shadow.”7
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RODRIGO, Joaquín
Born in Sagunto, Nov 22, 1901
Died in Madrid, July 6, 1999
- In addition to being Spain’s most famous 20th C. composer, Rodrigo also:
- was a music critic
- worked in the music department of Spanish national radio
- worked in the Spanish National Association for the Blind (Rodrigo lost his sight at age 3 due to diphtheria)
Born in Pamplona, March 10, 1844
Died in Biarritz, Sept 20, 1908
- Sarasate was a Spanish violin virtuoso who possessed one of the greatest techniques in Europe.
- Numerous composers wrote pieces for Sarasate, including Bruch (Scottish Fantasy and Violin Concerto), Saint-Saëns (violin concertos 1 & 3), Lalo (Concerto in F minor and Symphonie espagnole) and Dvořák (Mazurek op.49).
- Sarasate made several recordings in 1904, so he’s a 19th C. virtuoso whose playing we can listen to today.10
- Fun Facts about Sarasate: he was so famous that he made several appearances in the arts of his day.
- James Abbott McNeill Whistler painted Sarasate in his Arrangement in Black (1884).
- In “The Red-Headed League” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes and Watson attend a recital by Sarasate.
Born in Villarreal, Castellón, Nov 21, 1852
Died in Barcelona, Dec 15, 1909
[Pronunciation; stress the first syllable of “Tárrega”]
- Francisco Tárrega was a Spanish guitarist and composer is best known for his own works for solo guitar as well as arrangements of famous works by other composers for guitar.
- Tárrega played an important role in the resurgence of the guitar as an instrument of prominence. Growing up, the piano was much more fashionable, but thanks to the help of a new instrument design by renowned luthier, Antonio Torres, Tárrega was able to showcase the new, more resonant sound in his music and playing.
- As a composer, Tárrega wrote 78 original works as well as 120 transcriptions for solo guitar.11
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Biography via the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
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TURINA, Joaquín
Born in Seville, Dec 9, 1882
Died in Madrid, Jan 14, 1949
- Joaquín Turina was a Spanish composer and pianist who was a contemporary (and friend) of Manuel de Falla, who both followed in the footsteps of Albéniz and Granados regarding their substantial enrichment of Spanish classical music around the turn of the century.
- *This isn’t to say that these four composers were alike musically, but rather all played an essential role in developing 20th-century Spanish music in their own unique way.
- In 1905, Turina moved to Paris to study piano with Moritz Moszkowski and composition with Vincent d’Indy.
- As a composer, Turina wrote across multiple genres, including orchestral music, chamber music, songs, piano pieces, and works for stage. His music is infused with his Andalusian roots, while his time spent in France also significantly colored his writing. Compared to his Spanish contemporaries, Turina was the most driven to write European music in the conventional major forms.
- For example/ Fun fact – Turina was the only one of the four major 20th-century Spanish composers mentioned above to write a symphony (Sinfonía sevillana).12
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Biography from Hyperion Records
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Born in Paris, July 18, 1821
Died in Paris, May 18, 1910
- Pauline Viardot-Garcìa was a mezzo soprano, pianist, and composer from the Garcìa family, a Spanish family of musicians and voice teachers.
- Her father was Manuel Garcìa, a voice teacher and tenor.
- Her mother was soprano María Joaquina Sitches.
- Her elder sister was mezzo soprano and composer Maria Malibran.
- Her brother was Manuel Garcìa II, a baritone and voice teacher.
- Viardot-Garcìa made her vocal concert debut in 1837, and her operatic debut in Rossini’s Barber of Seville in 1839. She was one of the greatest bel canto singers of her time.
- Composers who wrote for Viardot-Garcìa include Schumann (Liederkreis, Op. 24), Meyerbeer (the role of Fides in Le prophète) and Brahms (Alto Rhapsody).
- Her expertise as a singer led composers to turn to her for advice in writing vocal works, including Berlioz (Béatrice et Bénédict) and Gounod (Sapho).
- Viardot-Garcìa’s artistic circle also included Chopin (whose piano pieces she arranged as songs), George Sand (who wrote a novel inspired by her, Consuelo), and Ivan Turgenev, her close friend (possibly lover) who wrote the texts for many of Viardot-Garcìa’s songs and operas.
- Viardot-Garcìa composed over 100 songs, as well as salon operas, chamber music, piano music and choral music.13
Biography from Christin Heitmann, cataloger of Viardot’s works (Viardot Werkverzeichnis or VWV)
ACP Arts Blog post on Pauline Viardot-Garcìa
ACP Arts Blog post on Maria Malibran