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Enrique Granados




Enrique Costanzo Granados y Campiña ( July 27 , 1867March 24 , 1916 ) was a Spanish composer and pianist of Classical Music ; he is commonly considered to be a representative of musical Nationalism , and as such his music is in a uniquely Spanish style. He was also a talented painter in the style of Goya .


LIFE

He was born in Lleida (''in spanish Lérida''), Catalonia ( Spain ). As a young man he studied piano in Barcelona , where his teachers included Francisco Jurnet and Joan Baptista Pujol . In 1887 he went to Paris to study, returning to Barcelona in 1889 . His first successes were at the end of the 1890s, with the Zarzuela ''Maria del Carmen'', which earned the attention of King Alfonso XIII .

In on January 26, 1916 , and was a huge success for the composer. Shortly afterward he was invited to perform a piano recital for President Wilson .

Unfortunately the delay incurred by accepting the recital invitation caused him to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to Liverpool , where he boarded the ''Sussex'' for Dieppe, France . On the way across the English Channel, the ''Sussex'' was torpedoed by a German submarine, as part of the German unrestricted submarine warfare policy during World War I . In a failed attempt to save his wife Amparo, whom he saw flailing in the water some distance away, Granados jumped out of his lifeboat, and Drowned . Ironically, he had a morbid fear of water for his entire life, and he was returning from his first-ever series of ocean voyages at the time of his death.


MUSIC AND INFLUENCE


Granados wrote piano music, Chamber Music (a Piano Quintet , music for Violin and piano), songs, zarzuelas, and an orchestral Tone Poem based on Dante's Divine Comedy . Many of his piano compositions have been transcribed for the classical Guitar and are generally considered as some of the most beautiful music in the guitar repertoire: examples include ''Dedicatoria'', ''Danza No. 5''.

Granados was an important influence on at least two other important Spanish composers and musicians, Manuel De Falla and Pablo Casals .


WORKS

  • ''12 Danzas españolas'' (1890) for piano. The contents of the four volumes are: Vol. 1: Galante, Orientale, Fandango; Vol. 2: Villanesca; Andaluza; Rondalla aragonesa; Vol. 3: Valenciana; Sardana ; Romántica; Vol. 4: Melancólica; Arabesca; Bolero.

  • ''María del Carmen'' (1898), opera.

  • ''Allegro de concierto'' (1903).

  • ''Escenas románticas'' (1903) for piano. The individual "scenes" are: Mazurca; Berceuse; Allegretto; Mazurka; Allegro appassionato; Epílogo.

  • ''Dante'' (1908), Symphonic Poem .

  • ''Tonadillas'' (1910) for voice and piano. Titles of individual songs in the collection are: Amor y odio; Callejeo; El majo discreto; El majo tímido; El mirar de la maja; El tra-la-la y el punteado; La maja de Goya; La Maja Dolorosa I, II y III; Ay majo de mi vida!, Oh muerte cruel!, De aquel majo amante; La currutacas modestas; Sí al retiro me llevas; El majo olvidado.

  • ''Goyescas'' (1911), suite for piano. Movements are: Los Requiebros; Coloquio en la Reja; El Fandango de Candil; Quejas ó la Maja y el Ruiseñor; El Amor y la Muerte; Epilogo (Serenata del Espectro).

  • ''Bocetos'' (1912) which contains: Despertar del cazador; El hada y el niño; Vals muy lento; La campana de la tarde.

  • ''Colección de canciones amatorias'' (1915), for voice and piano. Individual songs are: Descúbrase el secreto; Mañanica era; Mira que soy niña; Gracia mía; Iban al Pinar; No lloráis ojuelos.

  • '' Goyescas '', opera, 1916.

  • ''6 Estudios expresivos''

  • ''6 Piezas sobre cantos populares españoles'', which include: Añoranza; Ecos de la parranda; Vascongada; Marcha oriental; Zambra; Zapateado.

  • ''Madrigal'', for cello and piano.



REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING


  • Enrique Granados, in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742