Enrique Granados
People sometimes speak of the tragedy of war abstractly-the loss of life and material destruction. By chance I found a specific example of this loss in the life of a Spanish musical composer, Enrique Granados. He wrote some of the most beautiful music ever transcribe for the guitar. I first learned of Granados while listening to one of his composition, "Danza Espanola No. 4 (Villanesca)." It begins as a lullaby but transforms into the very serious classical guitar composition.
Also, the most beautiful music ever written for the guitar in many people's opinion is a seven part composition entitled "Vales Poeticos." This version is played by British guitarist Julian Bream and is the best the composition can be played.
But what prompted me to write this post was another composition written be Granados I just heard yesterday.
Granados' "Intermezzo from the opera Goyescas" was inspired by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. The recording is old but the music still stands out as haunting and absolutely beautiful. The guitar harmonics (played at 1:24 minutes and at the ending) sound like an ancient bell tolling. What musical masterpieces could have existed if he had lived?
QUOTE
Pantaléon Enrique Costanzo Granados y Campiña (July 27, 1867 – March 24, 1916) was a Spanish pianist and composer 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.
He was born in Lleida (in Castillian 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 with De Beriot and, most importantly, Felipe Pedrell. He returned 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 1911 Granados premiered his suite for piano Goyescas, which became his most famous work. It is a set of six pieces based on paintings of Goya. Such was the success of this work that he was encouraged to expand it; he wrote an opera based on the subject in 1914, but unfortunately the outbreak of World War I forced the European premiere to be canceled. It was performed for the first time in New York City on January 28, 1916, and was very well received. 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 England, where he boarded the passenger ferry Sussex for Dieppe, France. On the way across the English Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat, 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.
He was born in Lleida (in Castillian 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 with De Beriot and, most importantly, Felipe Pedrell. He returned 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 1911 Granados premiered his suite for piano Goyescas, which became his most famous work. It is a set of six pieces based on paintings of Goya. Such was the success of this work that he was encouraged to expand it; he wrote an opera based on the subject in 1914, but unfortunately the outbreak of World War I forced the European premiere to be canceled. It was performed for the first time in New York City on January 28, 1916, and was very well received. 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 England, where he boarded the passenger ferry Sussex for Dieppe, France. On the way across the English Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat, 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.