ALBENTZ, Issac  (1680-1909)

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Albéniz, Isaac (Manuel Francisco), eminent Spanish composer; b. Camprodón, May 29,1860; d. CambO-les-Bains (Pyrenées), May 18, 1909. Endowed with exceptionally precocious musical gifts, he was exhibited as a child pianist at a tender age; soon he began taking formal piano lessons with Narciso Oliveros in Barcelona. His sister Clementine Mbémz was also a precocious pianist, and they gave concerts together. When he was 7, his mother took him to Paris, where he was accepted as a private pupil by the famous prof. Marmontel, the teacher of Bizet and Debussy. Returning to Spain, he studied with Mendizábal at the Madrid Cons., but possessed by the spirit of adventure, he stowed away on a ship bound for Puerto Rico; from there he made his way to the southern states of the U.S., where he earned a living by playing at places of entertainment. He finally returned to Spain and, having acquired a considerable technique as a serious pianist, he traveled in Europe, and enrolled at the Leipzig Cons. as a student of Jadassohn and Reinecke. Once again in Spain, he was befriended by Count Guillermo Morphy, who sent him to the Brussels Cons., where he studied piano with Brassin and composition with Gevaert and Dupont; he won 1st prize in 1879; in 1880 he met Liszt in Budapest. After a trip to South America he settled in Barcelona in 1883; there he married Rosina Jordana; one of their daughters, Laura Albéniz, became a well-known painter. A meeting with the eminent musicologist and folk-song collector Felipe Pedrell influenced Albéniz in the direction of national Spanish music. Still anxious to perfect his technique of composition, he went to Paris for studies with Paul Dukas and Vincent dlndy. Abandoning his career as concert pianist, he spent several years in London (1890—93), and in 1893 settled in Paris; there he taught piano at the Schola Cantorum; from 1900 to 1902 he was in Barcelona, and then returned once more to Paris; in 1903 he moved to Nice; later he went to CambO-les-Bams in the Pyrénées, where he died shortly before his 49th birthday. Almost all of the works of Albéniz are written for piano, and all without exception are inspired by Spanish folklore. He thus established the modem school of Spanish piano literature, derived from original rhythms and melodic patterns, rather than imitating the imitations of national Spanish music by French and Russian composers. His piano suite Iberia, composed between 1906 and 1909, is a brilliant display of piano virtuosity.

Works: Piano: Iberia, suite of 12 pieces (1906—9): Evocación, El puerto, Fête-Dieu a Seville, Rondeña, Almeria, Triana, El Albaicin, El polo, Lava pies, Mdlaga, Jérez, Eritaña; other piano works are Suite espanola; La Vega; Cantos de España; several sonatas; 2 pieces left unfinished: Azulejos (completed by Granados); Navarra (completed by de Sévérac). Fernández ArLx5s made effective orch. transcriptions of EvocaciOn, Triana, and Fête-Dieu a Seville (also orchestrated by Leopold Stokowski). Among other piano pieces, the Seguidillas, Córdova, and the Tango in D have attained great popularity. ORCH.: Catalonia; Rapsodia espanola; Piano Concerto. oI’Eaas: The Magic Opal (London, Jan. 19, 1893); Enrico Clifford (Barcelona, May 8,1895); PepitaJiménez (Barcelona, Jan. 5,1896); San Antonio de la Florida (Madrid, Oct 26, 1894); Merlin, 1st part of an uncompleted operatic trilogy on the legend of King Arthur.