Enrique Granados

Enrique Costanzo Granados y Campiña (July 27, 1867 – March 24, 1916) was a Spanish composer and pianist 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.

Life

He was born in Lleida (also known as 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, returning 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.

Related Topics:
Lleida - Lérida - Barcelona - Francisco Jurnet - Joan Baptista Pujol - 1887 - Paris - 1889 - Zarzuela - Alfonso XIII

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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 instead in New York City on January 26, 1916, and was a huge success for the composer. Shortly afterward he was invited to perform a piano recital for President Wilson.

Related Topics:
1911 - 1914 - World War I - New York City - 1916 - Wilson

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Unfortunately the delay incurred by accepting the recital invitation caused him to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to Liverpool, where he boarded the Sussex for Dieppe, France. On the way across the English Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German submarine, 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 had a morbid fear of water for his entire life, and he was returning from his first-ever series of ocean voyages at the time of his death.

Related Topics:
Liverpool - Dieppe, France - World War I - Drowned

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