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Authors There are 112 authors
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Granados, Enric
Enric Granados was one of the most important musicians in Spain at the turn of the century. The word ‘music’ in his case embraces the three areas in which he excelled and which made him such an outstanding all-round artist: playing, composition and teaching.
As a player he won Europe-wide admiration; as a composer he was christened with the name ‘the Spanish Grieg’ and his Goyescas piano suites travelled the world; and as a teacher he left an indelible imprint on piano teaching in Catalonia with the creation of the Granados Academy and the publication of piano-playing exercises that were pioneers in Spain.
Granados was born in Lleida in 1867 and studied piano in Barcelona as a young man. At the age of 20 he moved to Paris where he worked with musicians such as Fauré, Debussy, Ravel and Saint-Saëns. Back home, he established himself as the greatest pianist of his era. He composed a considerable number of pieces for the piano, the theatre, symphony orchestras, lieder and chamber music, and as a teacher he founded the Granados Academy (after Marshall) in 1901 from which dozens of students have gone on to become acclaimed performers.
After his studies in Paris (1887-89), Granados settled definitively in Barcelona where he embarked on his professional career, combining performance, composition and teaching. He would soon travel to Madrid in search of greater fortune, but without ever abandoning his roots in Barcelona. During this period he composed two chamber music pieces (the Quintet with Piano Op. 49 and the Trio Op. 50), not with the intention of making himself known at this point but to find a niche among the composers of that time and start winning paid commissions, which very shortly materialized in the form of commissions from musical theatre. The piano score of these two works does not have a particularly Spanish feel but is imbued with passionate romanticism rather than references to popular music or traditions.
Granados and his wife died in 1916 when the ship on which they were coming back from New York sunk, following the premiere of his opera Goyescas and a private recital for US President Woodrow Wilson.
David Puertas
Extract from the book “Notes de Concert” (Concert Notes) -
Grèbol, Armand
Armand Grèbol was born in Barcelona in 1958. He studied music at the Barcelona and Badalona Music Conservatories, where he specialised in composition and conducting.
He began working as technical secretary of the ACC (Asociació Catalana de Compositors - Catalan Association of Composers) in 1990, and subsequently took up a position at the Fundació Música Contemporània (Contemporary Music Foundation) in 1993. Since that time, he has devoted his career to promoting and popularising contemporary music by means of organising series of concerts, publishing scores, books, records and CDs, courses, etc. He was the first conductor of the instrumental group Sitges 94 (1994/1996), which was created by Albert Sardà, the Foundation’s manager, with the main aim of premiering the works of young composers.
In terms of creativity, attention should be drawn to the relationship that usually exists between his music and the day-to-day world, often expressed through humour, as is the case of Història d’una cigarreta (The story of a cigarette - 1991), La noia (The girl - 1996), Vols fer el favor d’escoltar-ho! (Would you mind listening to it! - 1997) and Quina nit! (What a night! - 1999), among others, and occasionally through the use of sound to invoke extra-musical feelings, as in Aquàtic (Aquatic - 1991), for example. Equally noteworthy is a relationship with pure music in Tepeca (1993), which was recorded on CD by the Orquesta de RTVE (Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra). A conception of composition as more than an exclusively scientific task and a systematic avoidance of transcendentalism constitute elements of his compositional style that seem to be present throughout his work. -
Guinjoan, Joan
Joan Guinjoan Gispert was born in Riudoms (Baix Camp, Tarragona, Spain) on 28 November 1931. He studied at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu de Barcelona» and later at the «École Normale de Musique» in Paris.
Until 1960 he was a concert pianist. After this, he studied composition and orchestration with maestro Taltabull in Barcelona, at the Paris «Schola Cantorum» under the direction of Pierre Wissmer and in the electroacoustic O.R.T.F. with Jean Etienne Marie.
In 1964, he made contact with the French musical vanguard and turned to full-time composition. From 1966 onwards, he played an important part in spreading the popularity of twentieth-century music at the head of the group «Diabolus in Musica». He has been guest composer and conductor at leading festivals in both Europe and America and has received a number of important awards. He has been Director of the «Centre de Documentació i Difusió de la Música Contemporània» (Centre for the Documentation and Dissemination of Contemporary Music) and artistic director of Barcelona Council's International Festivals of Contemporary Music.
His clearly vitalist music aims for cultural synthesis and is notable for its symbiosis of languages co-ordinated by a personal style whose rhythm, and more especially timbre, evidence its Mediterranean roots.
His opera Gaudí, based on a text by Josep M. Carandell, was commissioned for the 1992 Barcelona Cultural Olympiad.
His extensive catalogue is published by SGAE and includes chamber, vocal and symphonic compositions, which have been interpreted chiefly in Europe and America, and which have been recorded on numerous occasions. -
Gumí, Albert
He lectures at ESMUC on improvisation in classical and contemporary music and on chamber music. As a clarinettist, he has played in some of the world’s biggest concert halls, has won several major awards and has recorded around twenty CDs. He is also the conductor of various youth orchestras.
As a composer, his catalogue is made up of around a hundred pieces for symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, instrumentals and vocals, many of which have a highly educational facet.
He has created numerous educational projects for the La Caixa Foundation (music workshops, family concerts, musical projects for people with intellectual disabilities, etc.). He has also designed educational concerts for numerous institutions such as the National Auditorium of Catalonia, amongst others. He has written countless educational fi les and biographies of musicians for young readers and still has a lot of ground to cover.
www.albertgumi.com -
Guzmán, Josep Lluís
Born in Sabadell (Catalonia) in 1954. He obtains higher education at Barcelona and Badalona conservatoires. He has been flautist on the Young Orquestra of Sabadell and the Quartet Laietà, playing concerts of baroque music (1976-81). As a music teacher he has developed at different music schools and he has conducted some catalan choirs.
Within the field of composing he has cultivated a variety of forms, in a wide spectrum of genres, including from soloist instrument to full orchestra.
His work shows the legacy of the aesthetic tendencies that belong to the generation of the second Spanish Republic.
Besides symphonic and chamber music, in the field of choral composition - both in original pieces and in harmonisation of folksongs – his music has been performed by distinguished Catalan, Spanish and European choirs.
Part of his work has been played by different soloist and ensembles like Trio of Paris, London Sinfonietta, Glinka Quartet, and recorded by Ars Harmonica (La Mà de Guido), FCEC, etz. Some of his pieces have been published by Clivis, Dinsic, FCEC, UdL.
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Homs, Joaquim
Joaquim Homs was Born in Barcelona on 21st August 1906. He completed his secondary school and his studies in cello in 1922. Until 1929 he taught himself composition while at the same time qualifying as an engineer, a profession which he was to practise until 1971. Between 1931 to 1936 he widened his musical knowledge under the direction of Robert Gerhard, a pupil of Pedrell and Schoenberg.
Homs was drawn, from the very beginning by the necessity of solving the problem provocked by the tonality crisis. Curiously enough, he reached a solution that brought him closer to Schoenberg’s dodecaphonism. In Homs’evolution it is hard to identify great aesthetic changes, one could rather talk about a logical and coherent process in the adoption of news ideas. However, a very fine and subtle change can be observed in the pieces he composed since 1967 and 1970, where the painful period of losing his wife and his master and friend Robert Gerhard gave a nostalgic and dramatic tone to his music, hard to perceive in earlier productions. In like manner, the colouring received a touch of greater luminosity and the melodic line a greater contemplative accent.
The musical output of Joaquim Homs consists of more than two hundred and fifty instrumental and vocal works of all genres. Of these, three have been selected to represent Spain in the Festivals of the ISCM in Paris (1937), Warsaw (1939) and Stockholm (1956).
He has received many distinctions such as: Gold Medal for Artistic Merit-1981, Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts-1993, the Prize of Honour for Catalan Music-1994 and the National Music Prize-1992 & 1999. Since 1989 he has been Member Elect of the St. Georges Royal Catalan Academy for Fine Arts. More than eighty works have been put together on different record labels, including seven CD’s dedicated solely to his works.
He died in 2003.
(More information in www.joaquimhoms.org) -
Juárez Bayón, Antonio
Antonio Juárez Bayón born in Villaverde de Arriba, León (Spain). He studied music at the Conservatorio Provincial de Música de León (León Provincial Music Conservatory) under Fructuoso Adán Martínez, from whom he began to learn the saxophone.
For several years he played in the León Military Band, continuing his saxophone studies under the eminent clarinet and saxophone teacher Félix Mozo Núñez, the professor of clarinet studies at the Conservatorio Superior de música de Maracaibo (Maracaibo Music Conservatory).
In Barcelona he studied under the prestigious saxophone and clarinet teacher, Marcelino Bayer Gaspá, at the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo (the Academy’s Music Conservatory) and the Conservatorio Superior Municipal de Música de Barcelona (Barcelona Municipal Music Conservatory). He studied general aesthetics, the history of Spanish music and harmony with the teacher at this conservatory, the specialist in counterpoint and harmony, José García Gago.
When he arrived in Barcelona he joined the Armed Police Force Music Band as solo saxophonist, and after completing his higher education he graduated from the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid (Royal Music Conservatory in Madrid).
He directed the Armed Police Force Music Band in Barcelona for some time and then, several years later, he directed the Badía del Vallés Symphonic Band, in the province of Barcelona.
He has also directed and played with other musical ensembles and formed part of the “Epsilon” saxophone quartet. He is currently working as a saxophone teacher. -
Lamote de Grignon, Joan
Joan Lamote de Grignon i Bocquet was born in Barcelona on 7 July 1872. He studied in the Liceu Conservatory, which was Barcelona’s only conservatory at that time. Antoni Nicolau taught him composition and was one of the people who had the greatest influence on his musical career.
In 1890 he was appointed piano teacher in the Liceu Conservatory, which was when he began composing for piano. Although Lamote’s musical work extended over a very long period of his life, his ideological and musical education was consolidated during the time when Modernism was at its peak, influencing him profoundly.
In 1899 his only son, Ricard, was born. His name was chosen given the musician’s great admiration of Richard Wagner. In this period he composed Gavota en re major (Gavotte in D major), Sis cançons catalanes (Six Catalan Songs), Imogina and L’Angelo, some of which premiered in the Teatre Líric.
The turn of the century revealed a more mature Joan Lamote who started to compose more ambitious pieces. From this time, we can find the symphonic poem Médora (premiered at the Liceu on 22 March, 1900), the oratorio La Nit de Nadal (Christmas Night, 1902) and the lyrical poem Hespèria (premiered at the Liceu on January 25, 1907).
In 1910 he acceded to the position of Conductor of the Municipal Band of Barcelona (by public competition) although ultimately he did not take the post due to political pressure. In the same year however, Lamote founded the Symphonic Orchestra of Barcelona under the sponsorship of the Musical Association of Barcelona, which he managed until 1925. This orchestra went on to earn great prestige in the musical scene of both Barcelona and Catalonia. In 1914 he resumed his place in the Municipal Band of Barcelona where he remained until 1939, carrying out a great artistic and educational task, bringing the working class closer to symphonic music.
He adapted the most important pieces of the symphonic and lyrical repertoire for wind ensembles; of particular note are the Prelude to Lohengrin by R. Wagner and the New World Symphony by Dvorak. Furthermore, his catalogue of over 60 original pieces covered a huge variety of groups and ensembles, and developed several genres, from the Lied to symphonic music and passing through the zarzuela and opera. -
Lamote de Grignon, Ricard
Ricard Lamote de Grignon i Ribas was born in Barcelona in 1899. Son of Joan Lamote de Grignon i Bocquet, the conductor and composer of international renown, who influenced the vocation and education of his only child. He completed his musical education at the Conservatorio del Liceo and the Academia Marshall, both in Barcelona. At the age of 20, he joined the Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona and Orquesta del Gran Teatro del Liceo as a cellist. His first composition was the collection of pieces for piano, Engrunes. In 1930 he became the conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Girona and two years later he successfully applied for a post as assistant conductor of the Banda Municipal de Barcelona. The vicissitudes of the Civil War prompted him to move to Valencia where he worked as assistant conductor of the city’s orchestra alongside his father, the orchestra’s founder and conductor. On his return to his hometown, after continuing to compose, he received several music commissions for over twenty films, and a large number of collaborations on radio programmes. Finally, in 1957, he was appointed as assistant conductor of the Orquesta Municipal de Barcelona alongside his good friend, Eduard Toldrà.
His work consists basically of symphonic works like Facècia (1936) which was awarded the Juli Garreta prize in 1938, Dos Petits Poemes, Cartell Simfònic (1936), Tres Sonates del Pare Soler or Simfonia Catalana (1950), among others, and Concierto Mágico, music for the film of the same name and Tríptico de la Piel de Toro, for both piano and orchestra. Ballets like El Rusc, first performed at the Gran Teatro del Liceo, Somnis (1929) or Un Prat, dedicated to his “father and maestro” and Divertiment (1936) for symphonic jazz orchestra. Large-scale operas like La Cabeza del Dragón (1939), first performed in 1959, with libretto by Valle-Inclán, and chamber operas like Le Petit Chaperon Vert, with French text by Marià Camí, or Màgia, whose libretto he wrote himself, first performed in 1952, and a children’s opera, La Flor, which premiered in 1934 and was performed again on several occasions. The symphonic poem Enigmes won the Premio Ciutat de Barcelona in 1950, as did his posthumous work El Càntic dels Càntics, completed before his death in 1962. His vocal music included works for voice and piano on poems by Carner and Maragall, among others, and choral pieces like Romance del Caballero, and the harmonisation of traditional songs. He also wrote small works for piano and several pieces for different instrumental ensembles like Toccata, which was awarded the Premio Santa Llúcia, 1957 de Juventudes Musicales, the work Goya, Six unpleasant pieces for ten soloists, and a series of pieces for different wind ensembles entitled Miniatures, designed as pre-rehearsal exercises for the instrumentalists of the Orquesta de Valencia. -
Larios, Oscar
Oscar Larios Perea was born in Barcelona in 1969. He showed an early aptitude for piano and a good musical ear which led him to discover music in an autodidactic way. This early self-learning stage influenced and accompanied him throughout his training. At the age of nine he began his musical studies at the Institut Joan LLongueres, and soon afterwards continued at the Orfeó Gracienc. He followed his studies at the Conservatori Municipal de Música de Barcelona and he completed them at the Conservatori del Liceu. His father, a jazz lover, introduced him to the harmonic richness of this genre and his mother, originally from Córdoba, to flamenco with all its rhythmic amalgam. For these reasons he decided to extend his musical studies at the Aula de Música Moderna i Jazz de Barcelona.
Currently he is the Head of music theory at the Aula de Música 7, where he has been teaching music theory, harmony and piano since 1995, together with conducting the school´s orchestral ensembles.
A great deal of his work is addressed to children and young adults and is the fruit of these teaching activities, with works adapted to the different technical levels and preferences of his students. His catalog comprises works for orchestral ensemble, such as La Rosa dels Vents (The Rose of the Winds) and Suite Alexandra, commissioned by Camerata XXI foundation for the child and youth music camps. It also consists of chamber works for different levels and groups of instruments, progressive studies with swing for piano and Cançó de Nadal, cantata for children choir based on the popular A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
At present he combines his teaching activity with musical production as a composer and arranger for theatre, cinema animation, audiovisual and advertising. As an arranger he worked on the production of the collection of CD’s Supermúsics, edited by the Club Súper 3. In 2006, his children´s musical La Magia dels Ki-kids was premiered in the Theatre Condal of Barcelona to great public and critical acclaim.
