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Abravanel, Maurice  

Charles Barber and José A. Bowen

(de)

(b Thessaloniki, Jan 6, 1903; d Salt Lake City, Sept 22, 1993). American conductor of Spanish-Portuguese descent. He was taken to Switzerland at the age of six and studied medicine at the University of Lausanne before, on Busoni’s recommendation, he moved to Berlin in 1922 to study with Weill. He conducted in provincial German theatres and finally in Berlin until 1933, when he moved to Paris to conduct the Balanchine ballet company and the première of Weill’s ballet Die sieben Todsünden. The following year he toured Australia with the British National Opera Company. On the recommendation of Walter and Furtwängler, he was hired by the Metropolitan Opera, making his début with Samson et Dalila in 1936. In an era of specialization, the mainly negative reviews for his mixed repertory of French opera and Wagner forced him out in 1938. He turned to Broadway, where he renewed his association with Weill, conducting the premières in New York of ...

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Aceves (y Lozano), Rafael  

José López-Calo and Andrew Lamb

(b La Granja de S Ildefonso, Segovia, March 20, 1837; d Madrid, Feb 21, 1876). Spanish composer. In 1853 he entered the Madrid Conservatory, where his composition teacher was Emilio Arrieta, and in 1858 he won a gold medal for composition. For an opera competition in 1869 he composed, in collaboration with Antonio Llanos (1841–1906), the prize-winning El puñal de misericordia; he also wrote some religious music, most notably a Stabat mater. However, he was influenced mainly by Arrieta towards the composition of zarzuelas. His works in this genre were well received in his time, particularly Sensitiva (1870), but his fame has now been eclipsed by that of contemporaries such as Barbieri and Oudrid (in collaboration with whom he composed El testamento azul) and Caballero (with whom he composed El trono de Escocia).

(selective list)

zarzuelas unless otherwise stated; for more detailed list see GroveO...

Article

Achúcarro, Joaquín  

Laura Pita

(b Bilbao, Spain, Nov 1, 1932). Spanish pianist, active in the United States. He began music studies at an early age at the Bilbao Conservatory and later studied with Nikita Magaloff, Walter Gieseking and Bruno Seidlhofer. After winning awards and international competitions in France, Italy, and Switzerland during his years as a student, Achucarro scored a triumph at the 1959 Liverpool International Piano Concerto Competition. This led to his debut with the London SO, marking the beginning of an extensive career as concert performer that has taken him to over sixty countries where he has performed with over two hundred orchestras, including the Berlin PO, London PO, Tokyo PO, Sydney SO, and La Scala PO. Achucarro made his US debut in 1968 with the Chicago SO under Seiji Ozawa. Since then, Achucarro has performed frequently in recitals and concerts with the premiere American orchestras. Since 1989, Achucarro has held the Joel Estes Chair at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He also teaches master classes at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena while continuing to maintain a full touring schedule....

Article

Adalid y Gurrea, Marcial del  

José López-Calo

(b La Coruña, Aug 24, 1826; d Lóngora, nr La Coruña, Oct 16, 1881). Spanish composer. He studied the piano with Moscheles in London from 1840 to 1844, and possibly also had lessons from Chopin in Paris. On his return to Spain he lived in La Coruña and Madrid, where some of his compositions were performed, and then at his palace of Lóngora, where he dedicated himself wholly to composition. The influence of Moscheles and, particularly, Chopin was decisive throughout his creative life. He composed one opera, Inese e Bianca, which, in spite of his efforts, was never staged. More important are his piano works and songs, the latter clearly influenced by lieder. In his Cantares nuevos y viejos de Galicia (1877) he united the folklore of Galicia with the technique and spirit of Romantic piano music. He also promoted the musical culture of his native province, developing courses and competitions in music....

Article

Adam de Aróstegui, María de las Mercedes  

Alicia Valdés Cantero

(b Camagüey" country="Cuba, Sept 24, 1873; d Madrid, October 20, 1957). Cuban composer resident in Spain. After moving to Spain with her family at the age of nine, she began her musical training under Joaquín Zuazagoitia in Santiago de Compostela, continuing at the Real Conservatorio, Madrid, where she studied piano (receiving first prize in 1888), harmony, composition, ensemble playing and organ. Later, in Paris, she was a member of Louis(-Joseph) Diémer’s piano class and Jules Massenet’s instrumentation and composition classes; she also studied with Vincent d’ Indy. Her music was performed in Paris, and in Spain she gave recitals and took part in chamber concerts with Pablo Casals. Although resident in Europe, she nevertheless maintained professional and personal links with Cuba and several of her works were performed there, notably by the Havana SO and Havana PO, including, in 1933, the Serenata española, La peregrinación de Childe Harold...

Article

Adán, Vicente  

Almonte Howell

(b Algemesí, province of Valencia; fl 1775–87). Spanish composer and teacher. According to early biographers, he was organist at the Madrid royal chapel and the Convento de los Desamparados. He is best known for a small treatise, Documentos para instrucción de músicos y aficionados que intentan saber el arte de la composición (Madrid, 1786), whose stated purpose was to compensate for the lack of teaching materials on secular music in Spain. Quite elementary, it consists mostly of examples of counterpoint and free composition, and also gives the instrumental ranges. It was attacked in a satirical Carta laudatoria a don Vicente Adán (Madrid, 1786), to which Adán replied in Respuesta gratulatoria de la carta laudatoria (Madrid, 1787). Various 18th-century publishers’ lists and bibliographies indicate that many volumes of his compositions were printed in Madrid in the 1780s. Most of these were for the psaltery, which experienced a strong revival in the 18th century, although it had been known in Spain since the Moorish occupation. Adán’s compositions for this instrument include preludes, sonatas, divertimentos and fandangos as well as an instruction book; there is also evidence that he published organ works and vocal music, both sacred and secular. None of these other publications are extant, although one untitled piece of his for psaltery survives (in ...

Article

Agobard of Lyons  

James W. McKinnon

(b Spain, 769; d Lyons, 840). Frankish ecclesiastic. He came as a youth to Gaul, taking up residence in the monastery of St Polycarp near Narbonne. He was ordained in 804 and named bishop of Lyons in 816, where he remained for the rest of his life, except for a period of exile in Italy during the years 835–8 because he had sided with the sons of the emperor Louis the Pious against their father; his temporary replacement as administrator of Lyons was his rival Amalarius.

Agobard was a vigorous controversialist of conservative bent. He was outspoken in his opposition to Frankish folk religious practices, to trial by ordeal, to royal interference in church affairs and to Jewish influence at court. In the liturgical realm he was against the employment of images in worship, the use of non-biblical texts and the allegorical interpretation of the liturgy, the two latter positions being directly contrary to those of Amalarius. After his reinstatement as archbishop of Lyons in 838, he and his deacon Florus sought to undo the liturgical innovations of Amalarius, particularly by revising his Office antiphoner. The principal change was the replacement of non-biblical texts. The opposition of Agobard to non-biblical texts may account for the longstanding absence of hymns and tropes in the liturgy of Lyons....

Article

Aguado (y Garcia), Dionisio  

Thomas F. Heck

(b Madrid, April 8, 1784; d Madrid, Dec 29, 1849). Spanish guitarist and composer. ‘Padre Basilio’ of Madrid, possibly Miguel Garcia, gave him his first instruction in the guitar, an instrument for which tablature notation was still commonly used in Spain. In about 1800 Aguado, like Fernando Sor, was influenced by the Italian Federico Moretti and adopted the conventional staff notation for the guitar; thereafter both Spaniards published their music in the improved manner championed by Moretti, distinguishing the musical parts by the direction of note stems, use of rests, etc. Aguado's artistic career unfolded slowly, owing to the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and its aftermath. He retreated to the village of Fuenlabrada in 1803, teaching and perfecting his technique there until 1824, the year his mother died; his Colección de estudios para guitarra appeared in Madrid in 1820. He moved to Paris in 1825 (while Sor was in Russia) and immediately gained an enviable reputation as a virtuoso and teacher; a revised version of his ...

Article

Aguilar, Gaspar de  

F.J. León Tello

(fl 1st half of the 16th century). Spanish music theorist. He wrote a treatise Arte de principios de canto llano (published between 1530 and 1537/R); it is a conventional work following traditional lines, limited to purely technical aspects of liturgical chant. He regarded the B♭ as a necessary accidental for chant based on F to avoid the melodic tritone and gave rules for the use of plicas; he also categorized intervals according to their effect on the senses, and rejected the Pythagorean classification. Aguilar seems to have been familiar with the writings of his contemporaries, citing Juan de Espinosa and Francisco Tover among Spaniards, Nicolò Burzio, Giacomo Fogliano and Gaffurius among Italians. His quotations are more accurate than those of most writers and add considerably to the merit of the work.

StevensonSM F.J. León Tello: Estudios de historia de la teoría musical (Madrid, 1962, 2/1991)...

Article

Aguilera de Heredia, Sebastián  

Barton Hudson

(b Zaragoza, ?Aug 15, 1561; d Zaragoza, Dec 16, 1627). Spanish composer and organist. He probably studied with Melchor Robledo and Juan Oriz at the cathedral of La Seo, Zaragoza. He received holy orders on 19 January 1584 at S Pablo Apóstol, Zaragoza, where he was already in service. On 27 September 1585 he was appointed organist of Huesca Cathedral, where he supervised the construction of a new organ in 1588. Following the death of Juan Oriz, he became first organist of La Seo on 29 September 1603. He remained in that position until his death. By 20 January 1604 he was exempted, because of his eminence, from service at canonical hours except on solemn feasts. Repeatedly over the years the cathedral organ was repaired according to his specifications. In recognition of his Canticum Beatissimae Virginis deiparae Mariae, he received gifts from La Seo (100 libras) and Huesca Cathedral (150 reales). In ...

Article

Aguirre Lizaola, Avelino de  

Emilio Casares

(b Bilbao, Aug 10, 1838; d Mendoza, Argentina, July 19, 1901). Spanish composer. He studied in Madrid, Paris, and then Milan, where he was a pupil of Lauro Rossi. He held conducting posts in Bilbao and Madrid before settling in Buenos Aires in 1876, where he conducted at the Teatro de la Opera. He sometimes acted as impresario, and his final appointment was as director of the National Conservatory of Music.

Most of Aguirre’s music is lost, including the opera Gli amanti di Teruel (first performed at the Teatro Principal in Valencia on 16 December 1865). With an Italian text (by Rosario Zapater) and cast with Italian singers, the opera reflected the domination of Italian opera in Spain at the time. It was favourably received in the press, but comparisons made with Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti suggest it was of no great originality. Aguirre wrote two other operas, ...

Article

Alabado  

[alabanza] (Sp.-American: ‘praise’).

A hymn of praise for the Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary or other saints. It was brought to the New World at least as early as 1716 by the Franciscans, who continued the Spanish custom of chanting the alabado, or alabanza, as it is called in Spain, in their missions to Texas and California, as they had done in their monasteries. One of the earliest ...

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Alalá  

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Alamo, Lázaro del  

Robert Stevenson

(b El Espinar, nr Segovia, c1530; d Mexico City, between 17 March and May 19, 1570). Spanish composer, active in Mexico. He served as a choirboy at Segovia Cathedral from 1542 to 1549, where he was taught by Gerónimo de Espinar (who later taught Victoria at Avila) and from 1544 by the maestro de capilla there, Bartolomé de Olaso (d 1567). He was employed at Salamanca University by Matheo Arévalo Sedeño, a rich nobleman, who later acted as his sponsor at Mexico City; he became a cathedral singer there on 16 October 1554 and, after being ordained, was appointed maestro de capilla on 2 January 1556. For the commemoration services for Charles V held in Mexico City on 29 November 1559 he composed an alternatim psalm setting in four parts. His several ‘motetes, villancicos y chanzonetas’ composed for Corpus Christi and Christmas (many to texts by Juan Bautista Corvera) earned the approval of the Archbishop Alonso de Montúfar, who had him promoted from prebendary to canon on ...

Article

Alba [Alva, Alua], Alonso (Pérez) de  

Tess Knighton

(fl late 15th century or early 16th). Spanish composer. A number of sacred works and at least one song are attributed to this composer in Iberian sources; one work, a four-voice Agnus Dei, bears the ascription ‘Alonso Perez de Alba’. There are two possible candidates who may be identified with this composer.

In 1503 an ‘Alonso de Alva’ was appointed maestro de capilla in charge of the choristers at Seville Cathedral. He died before 4 September 1504, and after his death some books of polyphony in his possession were purchased by the cathedral chapter. He may well have been a composer, and the fact that Alba’s works are preserved among pieces by Peñalosa and Escobar, both of whom were closely connected with Seville, may be significant, even though he died considerably earlier than these composers.

The music attributed to Alba is also included in manuscripts associated with the royal chapels, and another Alonso de Alba can be found in the registers of the Castilian royal household. This man is first recorded as a chaplain in Queen Isabella’s chapel on ...

Article

Albalat, Sebastià  

Alfredo Papo

(bSpain, c1905; d after 1949). Spanishtenor saxophonist. He learned music as a youth, but pre-ferred to improvise rather than study conventionally. At the age of 20 he traveled to New York; he later moved to Paris and then to Berlin, where he played mainly tangos and Latin American music. After returning to Spain at the beginning of the 1930s he worked with the best jazz bands in Barcelona. He continued to play during the 1940s and was considered one of the finest Spanish saxophonists. ...

Article

Albareda, Marcián  

Barton Hudson

(b late 16th century; d probably Barcelona, mid-17th century). Spanish composer. He was appointed maestro de capilla of La Seu d'Urgell Cathedral on 15 January 1622. In 1626 he followed Joan Pau Pujol in the same capacity at Barcelona Cathedral, where he probably stayed for the remainder of his life. Only a few of his works survive: masses, motets, villancicos and unaccompanied romances, for four, six and eight voices. They lack Pujol's creative ingenuity and technical brilliance. Albareda's music is all in manuscript in the Cathedral, Barcelona, except the following four pieces, which are in manuscript at the Biblioteca de Cataluña there: responsión, A la media noche, 6vv; Alma, llegad al convite, 6vv; romance, Convidando está a su mesa, 4vv; villancico for the Holy Sacrament, Hoy deste pan consagrado pienso comer un bocado, 8vv. (J. Wolf: Historia de la música, con un estudio critico de historia de la música española por Higinio Anglés...

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Albéniz y Basanta, Pedro  

Antonio Iglesias

(b Logroño, April 14, 1795; d Madrid, April 12, 1855). Spanish pianist, composer and teacher. He was the son of Mateo Pérez de Albéniz, a keyboard player and composer, from whom he received his first music lessons. Later he went to Paris for further training; he studied piano with Henri Herz and composition with Friedrich Kalkbrenner, and became a friend of Rossini. Upon his return to Spain he was organist at the church of S María in San Sebastián, and later at a church in Logroño. When Queen María Cristina founded the Madrid Conservatory he was appointed a professor, on 17 June 1830, and in 1834 he became organist of the royal chapel. He gave private instruction to Queen Isabel II, and was the first to introduce modern methods of keyboard technique and pedagogy into Spain. Although his compositions are of little interest, and are generally inferior to his father’s sonatas, he wrote a ...

Article

Albéniz, Isaac  

Frances Barulich

(Manuel Francisco)

(b Camprodón, Gerona, May 29, 1860; d Cambo-les-Bains, May 18, 1909). Spanish composer and pianist. When he was a year old he moved with his family to Barcelona. His musical propensities soon became apparent, and his sister Clementina gave him piano lessons when he was about three and a half. A child prodigy, he made his first public appearance at about five, at the Teatro Romea in Barcelona. Shortly afterwards he began lessons with Narciso Oliveras. In 1867 he was taken to Paris where, it is said, he studied privately with Antoine-François Marmontel, eventually taking the entrance exam for the Paris Conservatoire; though impressed with his talent, the jury is said to have refused him admission because he was too immature. In 1868 Albéniz’s father lost his government post, and, to earn money, took Isaac and Clementina on recital tours of the Spanish provinces. Soon the family moved to Madrid, where Albéniz was enrolled in the Escuela Nacional de Música y Declamación (now the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música). His studies were constantly interrupted; having experienced the life of a travelling virtuoso, he repeatedly gave recitals in the provinces or wherever fate took him. He returned intermittently to Madrid and studied for a time with Eduardo Compta and José Tragó. His travels took him to Puerto Rico and Cuba in ...

Article

Albéniz, Mateo (Antonio) Pérez de  

Robert Stevenson

(b Spanish Basque region, c1755; d San Sebastián, June 23, 1831). Spanish composer and theorist. After serving as maestro de capilla in San Sebastián, he took up the same post in Logroño collegiate church during the French invasion (1795). Five years later he returned to San Sebastián as maestro de capilla at S María la Redonda, where he remained until 1829. He composed a large number of sacred works, which enjoyed great success throughout northern Spain during his lifetime, in particular masses, Vespers, the Office for the Dead, motets and villancicos, many of which survive in manuscript at the churches which he served. He also wrote some piano music (of which a sonata is edited in J. Nin’s Classiques espagnols du piano, i, 1925) and a 133-page theoretical work, Instrucción metódica, especulativa, y prática, para enseñar á cantar y tañer la música moderna y antigua...