Enrique Granados

(full name, E. Granados y Campiña). Born July 27, 1867, at Lérida, Catalonia; died Mar. 24, 1916, in the English Channel. Spanish composer, pianist, and pedagogue.

Granados studied in Barcelona under F. Jurnet and J. Pujol (piano) and F. Pedrell (composition). He mastered music in Paris under C. de Bėriot (piano) and J. Massenet (composition). He gave frequent concerts upon his return to Spain. He was well-known as an interpreter of E. Grieg and F. Chopin (he wrote a new instrumentation of Chopin’s second concerto). He performed with I. Albéniz, E. Ysaÿe, C. Saint-Saëns, and J. Thibaud. He founded the short-lived Sociedad de Conciertos Clásicos in Barcelona in 1900. He founded the Academy Granados in 1901 and directed it until 1916. He made his debut as a composer with the piano cycle Spanish Dances (4 volumes, 1892–1900). His piano pieces based on national Spanish subjects and melodies include Goyescas, two cycles inspired by the works of F. Goya. He later wrote an opera of the same name, first performed in 1916 in New York.

Granados is one of the representatives of the Spanish musical renaissance, a trend that was related to folk music and the development of national traditions. His works include six operas, symphonic poems, suites, piano trios, choruses, and songs; he combines professional mastery with broad use of musical folklore. But elements of artificiality are inherent in much of his work. Granados drowned in a shipwreck in the English Channel.