Ernesto Lecuona

Ernesto Lecuona y Casado (August 7, 1896 – November 29, 1963) was a Cuban composer and pianist, many of whose works have become standards of the Latin, jazz and classical repertoires. His over 600 compositions include songs and zarzuelas as well as pieces for piano and symphonic orchestra.
In the 1930s, he helped establish a popular band, the Lecuona Cuban Boys, which showcased some of his most successful pieces and was later taken over by Armando Oréfiche. In the 1950s, Lecuona recorded several LPs, including solo piano albums for RCA Victor. He moved to the United States after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and died in Spain in 1963.
Early years
Lecuona was born in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba, Kingdom of Spain, to a Cuban mother and a Canarian father. There are inconsistencies surrounding his birthdate, with some sources indicating the year 1895, and others still giving the day as August 6. He started studying piano at the age of five, taught by his sister Ernestina Lecuona, a famed composer in her own right. As a child prodigy, he composed his first song at the age of 11. He later studied at the Peyrellade Conservatoire under Antonio Saavedra and Joaquín Nin. Lecuona graduated from the National Conservatory of Havana with a gold medal for interpretation when he was 15 years old. He performed outside of Cuba at the Aeolian Hall (New York) in 1916.
In 1918, he collaborated with Luis Casas Romero, Moisés Simons, Jaime Prats, Nilo Menéndez and Vicente Lanz in setting up a successful player piano music roll factory in Cuba producing Cuban music and also copies from masters made by QRS in the US. The brand label was "Rollo Autógrafo".
Rise to fame
He first traveled to Spain in 1924 on a concert tour with violinist Marta de la Torre; his successful piano recitals in 1927 and 1928 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris coincided with a rise in interest in Cuban music. His popularity brought him to concert halls in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Lima in South America, as well as Paris, Nice, Barcelona, Madrid, and London in Europe, followed by more engagements in New York.
María la O, Lecuona's zarzuela, premiered in Havana on March 1, 1930. He was a prolific composer of songs and music for stage and film. He scored some of the film music for The Cuban Love Song, Always in My Heart, and One More Tomorrow. The entire musical score of the film Carnival in Costa Rica was penned by Lecuona. His works consisted of zarzuela, Afro-Cuban and Cuban rhythms, suites and many songs which are still famous. They include "Siboney" ("Canto Siboney"), "Malagueña" and "The Breeze And I" ("Andalucía"). In 1942, his hit, "Always in my Heart" ("Siempre en mi Corazón") was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song; however, it lost to "White Christmas". Lecuona was a master of the symphonic form and conducted the Ernesto Lecuona Symphonic Orchestra, employing soloists including Cuban pianist and composer Carmelina Delfín. The Orchestra performed in the Cuban Liberation Day Concert at Carnegie Hall on October 10, 1943. The concert included the world premiere of Lecuona's Black Rhapsody. Lecuona gave help and the use of his name to the popular touring group, the Lecuona Cuban Boys, though he did not play as a member of the band. He did sometimes play piano solos as the first item on the bill.
Final years and legacy
In 1960, unhappy with Castro's new régime, Lecuona moved to Tampa, Florida and lived on West Orient Street in West Tampa with his relative, singer Esperanza Chediak. Lecuona lived his final years in the US. While traveling in the Canary Islands he died of a heart attack on November 29, 1963, in the town of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where he had gone to recuperate from a lung ailment. He was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York, but his will instructed that his remains be repatriated after the Cuban régime changes. A great deal of Lecuona's music was first introduced to mass American audiences by Desi Arnaz, a fellow Cuban and Lucille Ball's spouse.
Lecuona's talent for composition has influenced the Latin American world in a way quite similar to George Gershwin in the United States, in his case raising Cuban music to classical status.
Ernesto and Ernestina's cousin Margarita Lecuona was another accomplished musician and composer. She was the author of the song "Babalú", made popular in the Latin American world by Miguelito Valdés, and in the United States by Desi Arnaz.
Selected compositions
For piano
Ante El Escorial
Aragón
Aragonesa
San Francisco El Grande
Siboney
Suite Andalucía
Córdoba
Andalucía
Alhambra
Gitanerías
Guadalquivir
Malagueña
Valencia Mora
Zambra Gitana
Waltz
Apasionado
Crisantemo
La bemol
Maravilloso
Poético
Romántico
Si menor (Rococó)
Vals Azul
Others
Afro-Cuban suite
Ahí viene el chino
Al fin te vi
Amorosa
Andar
Aquí está
Arabesque
Bell Flower
Benilde
Burlesca
Canto del guajiro
Cajita de música
Como arrullo de palmas
Como baila el muñeco
Dame tu amor
Danza de los Ñáñigos
Danza Lucumí
Diario de un niño
Ella y yo
¡Échate pa'llá María!
El batey
El miriñaque
El sombrero de yarey
El tanguito de Mamá (también llamada A la Antigua)
En tres por cuatro
Eres tú el amor
Futurista
Gonzalo, ¡no bailes más!
Impromptu
Jungle Drums
La 32
La primera en la frente
La Comparsa
La conga de medianoche
La habanera
La danza interrumpida
La mulata
La negra Lucumí
La Cardenense
Los Minstrels
Lola Cruz
Lola está de fiesta
Lloraba en sueños
Mazurka en glissando
Melancolía
Mientras yo comía maullaba el gato
Mis tristezas
María la O
Muneca de Cristal
Muñequita
Negra Mercé
Negrita
¡No hables más!
No me olvides
No puedo contigo
Noche Azul
Orquídeas
Pensaba en ti
Polichinela
¿Por qué te vas?
Preludio en la noche
¡Que risa me da! Mi abuela bailaba así
Rapsodia Negra
Rosa, la china
Tú serás
Tres miniaturas
¡Y la negra bailaba!
¡Y sigue la lloviznita!
Yo soy así
Yumurí
Zapateo y guajira
Zenaida
See also
List of Cubans
Rafael A. Lecuona
Marcos Madrigal
References
External links
Songwriters Hall of Fame
Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)
Villaverde, Christina, Cinco Canciones con Versos de Juana de Ibarbourou: The Art Song Style Of Ernesto Lecuona (2011). Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 5249.
Ernesto Lecuona recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
1896 births
1963 deaths
20th-century classical composers
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century male musicians
Composers for piano
Cuban classical composers
Cuban classical pianists
Latin music composers
Male classical composers
Male classical pianists
Musicians from Havana
Cuban people of Canarian descent
Cuban expatriates in the United States
Deaths from asthma
Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (Hawthorne, New York)