He was persuaded to make "Goyescas" into an opera. The opera was going to be performed at the Paris Opéra but, because of World War I it was performed in New York instead. Granados was invited to go to New York to watch the first performance of his opera. He was very frightened of the sea, but eventually was persuaded to go. The opera was a great success when it was performed on 26 January 1916. Granados felt that he was at the beginning of a successful career. President Wilson invited him to play the piano at the White House. Because of this invitation he missed the ship that would have taken him back to Spain. He took a ship to England instead. In Liverpool, he got off the ship and got onto another one which would take him to Dieppe in France. The ship was called the "Sussex". When the "Sussex" was in the middle of the English Channel it was torpedoed by a German submarine. Granados managed to get onto a lifeboat, but then he saw his wife in the sea and he jumped in to try to save her, but they both drowned.
Granados wrote mainly piano works and songs. He was influenced by Romantic composers such as Grieg, Schumann and Liszt, but he was starting to make his music sound very Spanish. His songs include some of the best written by a Spanish composer. His piano works include "Ten Spanish Dances", which are not too difficult to play, and the suite "Goyescas" which is mostly quite difficult to play. The most popular piece in this suite is called "Lament, or The Maiden and the Nightingale". It has a very romantic tune which is repeated several times.
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla (born Cádiz, Spain, 23 November 1876; died Alta Gracia, Argentina, 14 November 1946) was a Spanish composer. Falla (pronounce: “FA-ya”), together with Albéniz and Granados, helped to make Spanish music important again after three centuries during which there had been no important Spanish composers.
Falla had his first music lessons in Cádiz. At first he did not know whether he wanted to take music or literature as a career. When he was ten he started to go to music evenings where he heard chamber music being played. Then he started to go to the opera, and he heard church music and orchestral music. He liked the music of Grieg and decided that he wanted to do something similar with Spanish music. He went to Madrid where he studied very hard and won prizes. His first compositions were played in Cádiz. He studied with Pedrell who had also taught Albéniz and Granados.
He wrote a song called "Tus ojillos negros" which became very popular, and he won a prize for a piano composition, but it was his opera "La vida breve" (1904-1905) which really showed his genius, although it was not performed at the time. No one in Spain wanted to perform his zarzuelas, so he went to Paris in 1907. He soon made friends with Dukas, Debussy and Ravel. He made changes to "La vida breve" and it was performed in Paris in 1913. His piano works and songs were also performed in Paris, and in Madrid.
In 1915 he wrote "El amor brujo". It was a work with dances, songs and spoken passages. He soon turned it into a ballet. The music uses the songs of Andalusia and the rhythms of Spanish folkmusic. He wrote a work for solo piano and orchestra called "Noches en los jardines de España" ("Nights in the gardens of Spain"). Later he changed it to a ballet for Diaghilev, calling it "El sombrero". It was performed in London in 1919 with designs by Picasso. The music is very lively and often sounds like a guitar. He wrote a piano piece called "Fantasia bética" (1919) which is the most important Spanish piano work after Albéniz’s "Iberia".
Falla had many friends, including Lorca. They liked small theatre pieces and Falla wrote "El retablo" and set it as a puppet opera. He liked the music of the past centuries, and wrote a concerto for harpsichord and five other instruments.
During his final years Falla was composing a very large work called "Atlántida". It was a long oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The words were in Catalan. Falla did not live long enough to finish the work. He became very depressed because of World War II. In the end he was invited to Argentina where he settled. He continued to work at "Atlántida", but he had not finished it when he died. A man called Ernesto Halffter spent many years trying to finish it and prepare it for a performance. It was performed on stage at La Scala, Milan, in 1962, but it does not work well as an opera. Occasionally it is performed as a concert piece.
Joaquín Turina
Joaquín Turina Pérez (9 December 188214 January 1949) was a Spanish composer of classical music.
Turina was brought up in Seville, and the music of this town always had a big influence on his music. His father was a painter. As a small boy Turina’s favourite toy was a small toy accordion. He started to study medicine, but he wanted to be a musician, so his father let him study music instead. He had piano lessons with Enrique Rodriguez and studied harmony with Garcia Torres, who was in charge of music at the cathedral in Seville.
Soon Turina started to compose. He met Falla and the two musicians became lifelong friends. He moved to Paris in 1905 where he studied with Moskowski and d’Indy. One of the his first works to be performed was piano quintet. The style was similar to César Franck. Albéniz heard it and advised the young composer to make his music sound Spanish.
Turina’s music started to be performed widely. In 1914 both Turina and Falla returned to live in Spain. They were two of the most important Spanish composers. He was choirmaster at the Teatro Real and he had an opera "Jardin de oriente" performed there. He became director of the Madrid Conservatory and received many honours. He died after a long illness.
Turina’s music always sounds very Spanish, although he used the forms of main European composers. He wrote many short piano pieces which often describe a person. He wrote songs and guitar music.
Edouard Lalo
Edouard Lalo (born Lille, 27 January 1823; died Paris, 22 April 1892) was a French composer.
His family originally came from Spain. Edouard learned to play the piano and violin at the Lille Conservatory, but his parents did not want him to take music as a profession. So he left home when he was 16 and went to Paris. He took some lessons and earned money by teaching and playing the violin. He liked chamber music. Not many people in France were interested in chamber music at that time. With three friends he formed a string quartet and they helped to make the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven better known in France. He played the viola in his quartet, and later he played second violin. In 1859 he composed a string quartet.
It was not until the 1870s, when he was already in his 50s, that he started to become really well known. Some famous conductors such as Pasdeloup, Lamoureux and Colonne and the violinist Sarasate took an interest in his orchestral works and performed them. He wrote a violin concerto and a work called "Symphonie espagnole" ("Spanish Symphony") which was also for solo violin and orchestra. Sarasate played both these works. He wrote a cello concerto in 1877.
He wrote an opera "Le roi d’Ys", but no opera house wanted to perform it. They asked him to write a ballet instead. He did not know anything about ballet, but he composed one called "Namouna". It had some good music, although people who did not like him said it sounded like Wagner or like the music of someone who is used to writing symphonies.
In 1888 his opera "Le roi d’Ys" was performed at last. It was an enormous success, but Lalo only had four more years to live, and he did not compose anything more of importance. He had married one of his pupils in 1865 and they had a son.