Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (Spanish pronunciation: [iˈsak alˈβeniθ]; May 29, 1860 – May 18, 1909) was a Spanish skilled pianist, composer, and conductor. He was one of the most important composers of the time after the Romantic period and had a major impact on other musicians of his time and younger composers. He is best known for his piano music that used styles and elements from Spanish folk traditions. His work, especially his suite called Iberia (1905–1908), is considered important and has influenced classical music and Spanish musical nationalism. Isaac Albéniz was connected to the Generation of '98, a group of Spanish writers and thinkers from the late 19th century.

Many of his compositions, such as Asturias (Leyenda), Granada, Sevilla, Cádiz, Córdoba, Cataluña, Mallorca, and Tango in D, have been adapted for classical guitar, even though he did not write music specifically for the guitar.

Some of Albéniz’s personal documents are kept in the Library of Catalonia.

Biography

In 1860, Isaac Albéniz was born in Camprodon, a town in the province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz, a customs official, and his wife, Maria de los Dolores Pascual. He was a child prodigy, performing publicly for the first time at the age of 4.

In 1867, when Albéniz was 7 years old, he took lessons from Antoine François Marmontel and passed an entrance exam for piano at the Conservatoire de Paris. However, he was not allowed to join the school because he was considered too young.

Albéniz began his concert career at age 9 when his father traveled with him and his sister, Clementina, across northern Spain. A popular story claims that in 1872, when Albéniz was 12, he traveled without permission on a ship to Buenos Aires. He later visited Cuba, the United States, where he performed in New York and San Francisco, and then traveled to Liverpool, London, and Leipzig.

By 1875, when Albéniz was 15, he had already performed concerts in many places around the world. This story is not entirely false, as Albéniz did travel globally as a performer. However, he was always accompanied by his father, who worked as a customs agent and needed to travel frequently. This can be confirmed by comparing the dates of Albéniz’s concerts with his father’s travel schedule.

In 1876, after a short time at the Leipzig Conservatory, Albéniz studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. This opportunity was arranged by Guillermo Morphy, a personal secretary to King Alfonso, who secured a royal grant for Albéniz. Morphy admired Albéniz, and Albéniz later dedicated his work Sevilla to Morphy’s wife when it premiered in Paris in 1886.

In 1880, Albéniz went to Budapest, Hungary, to study with Franz Liszt, only to learn that Liszt was in Weimar, Germany.

In 1883, Albéniz met the teacher and composer Felip Pedrell, who inspired him to write Spanish music, such as Chants d’Espagne. The first movement of this suite, later renamed Asturias (Leyenda) after Albéniz’s death, is now part of the classical guitar repertoire, even though it was originally written for piano. Many of Albéniz’s other compositions were also adapted for guitar by Francisco Tárrega. At the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition, the piano company Érard sponsored 20 concerts featuring Albéniz’s music.

In 1883, Albéniz married Rosina Jordana Lagarriga, the daughter of the former mayor of the Gràcia district and a former student of Isaac. They had two children who lived into adulthood: Alfonso (1885–1941), who played for FC Barcelona in the early 1900s before becoming a diplomat, and Laura (1890–1944), who became a well-known illustrator in drawing and painting. Another child, Enriqueta, died in infancy in 1886. Albéniz’s great-granddaughter is Cécilia Attias, the former wife of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The peak of Albéniz’s concert career is considered to be between 1889 and 1892, when he toured Europe. During the 1890s, he lived in London and Paris. In London, he wrote musical comedies that caught the attention of Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer, a wealthy patron. Money-Coutts provided Albéniz with librettos for the opera Henry Clifford and a planned trilogy of Arthurian operas. The first of these, Merlin (1898–1902), was thought to be lost but has recently been reconstructed and performed. Albéniz did not complete Lancelot (only the first act was finished) and never began Guinevere, the final part of the trilogy.

In 1900, Albéniz began suffering from Bright’s disease and returned to writing piano music.

Between 1905 and 1908, Albéniz composed his final masterpiece, Iberia (1908), a suite of twelve piano “impressions.”

On May 18, 1909, at age 48, Albéniz died from kidney disease in Cambo-les-Bains, in Labourd, southwestern France. A few weeks before his death, the French government honored him with the Legion of Honour, its highest award. He is buried at the Montjuïc Cemetery in Barcelona.

Music

Albéniz's early music was often written for social gatherings. His first published piece, Marcha Militar, was released in 1868. Many of his earlier works from before this time are now lost. He continued to write music in traditional styles influenced by composers like Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt until the middle of the 1880s. He also composed at least five zarzuelas, a type of Spanish opera, though only two of these remain today.

Albéniz himself is the best source for information about his early works. He once said that his earlier music was shaped by different influences.

By the late 1880s, Spanish musical styles became more obvious in Albéniz's compositions. In 1883, he met Felipe Pedrell, a teacher and composer who helped shape Spanish nationalist music. In his book The Music of Spain, Gilbert Chase wrote that Pedrell taught Albéniz to value the unique qualities of Spanish music. Pedrell inspired Albéniz to create works like Suite española, Op. 47, which features beautiful and complex melodies with sudden changes in loudness.

Albéniz's music also showed other qualities. In her biography of Albéniz, Pola Baytelman identified four characteristics of his music from the middle period of his career.

After marrying, Albéniz moved to Madrid, Spain, and wrote a large number of piano pieces in a short time. By 1886, he had composed over 50 piano works. His biographer, Walter A. Clark, noted that these pieces were well-received during his concerts. Chase described music from this time as showing Albéniz's growing skill.

Although Iberia, Albéniz's most famous work, was written near the end of his life in France, many earlier pieces are also well-known and important. The five pieces in Chants d'Espagne (Songs of Spain), published in 1892, are an example of the ideas he explored during the middle period of his career. This collection marks the first signs of Albéniz's unique creative style, which later became the focus of his most famous works. This period also includes his operas Merlin, Henry Clifford, and Pepita Jiménez. His orchestral works from this time include Spanish Rhapsody (1887) and Catalonia (1899), which was dedicated to Ramon Casas, an artist who painted Albéniz's portrait in 1894.

Impact and legacy

Isaac Albéniz was one of the most important composers of his time. His work greatly influenced other composers and helped shape the future of Spanish music. During his time in France, he became friends with many composers there. These relationships helped him develop new musical techniques, which inspired younger composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. His work as a conductor, performer, and composer helped Spanish music gain recognition around the world and supported Spanish musicians in Spain.

Many of Albéniz's compositions are now part of the classical guitar's collection of music. These pieces have been rewritten for the guitar by musicians such as Francisco Tárrega and Miguel Llobet. One of his most famous pieces, Asturias (Leyenda), is often played on the guitar. Other popular guitar pieces include Granada, Sevilla, Cádiz, Cataluña, Córdoba, Mallorca, and Tango in D. Gordon Crosskey and Manuel Barrueco, both guitarists, created solo guitar versions of all eight pieces in Suite española. Parts of Iberia are rarely played on the guitar alone, but have been successfully performed by guitar ensembles, such as John Williams and Julian Bream's performance of Evocation, the first piece in Iberia.

The band The Doors used Asturias in their song "Spanish Caravan." Iron Maiden's song "To Tame a Land" includes a section based on Asturias. In 2008, a guitar version of Granada was used as a love theme in the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

A film about Albéniz's life, titled Albéniz, was made in 1947 in Argentina. The theme from Asturias has also been used in other music, including the 2008 horror film Mirrors and the Netflix series Godless.

In 1997, the Fundación Isaac Albéniz was created. Its purpose is to support Spanish music and musicians and to study Albéniz's work and Spanish music in general.

References and sources

• Barulich, Frances (2001). "Albéniz, Isaac". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. DOI: 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.00421. ISBN 9781561592630.
• Baytelman, Pola (1993). Isaac Albéniz: Chronological List and Thematic Catalog of His Piano Works. Detroit Studies in Music Bibliography, No. 72. Harmonie Park Press. ISBN 978-0-89990-067-4 – via Internet Archive.
• Chase, Gilbert (1959). The Music of Spain. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20549-5 – via Internet Archive. {{ cite book }}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link).
• Clark, Walter Aaron (2002). Isaac Albéniz: Portrait of a Romantic (revised ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925052-3.
• Montoya, Leydy (17 April 2019). "Isaac Albéniz". historia-biografia.com. Retrieved 17 September 2020.