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Life

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 Woodrow 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.

[edit] Music and influencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Granados

Granados wrote piano music, chamber music (a piano quintet, music for violin and piano), songs, zarzuelas, and an orchestral tone poem based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Many of his piano compositions have been transcribed for the classical guitar and are generally considered as some of the most beautiful music in the guitar repertoire: examples include Dedicatoria, Danza No. 5, Goyescas.

Granados was an important influence on at least two other important Spanish composers and musicians, Manuel de Falla and Pablo Casals.

GRANADOS, ENRIQUE BIOGRAPHY

(1867 - 1916)

Enrique Granados was born 27 July 1867 in Lérida, near Barcelona. The son of an army captain, he began piano lessons in 1879, continuing in 1880 with Joan Baptista Pujol (1835-1898) at the Academia Pujol. Three years later he performed Schumann’s Sonata, Op. 22, in an academy-sponsored competition, for which one of the jury members was the noted composer Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922). The sixteen-year-old Granados won the competition and obviously impressed Pedrell, who began giving Granados lessons in harmony and composition in 1884.

In 1887 Granados went to Paris, where he studied with Charles de Bériot (1833-1914). He was highly influenced by Bériot’s insistence on tone-production and pedal technique. In addition, Bériot emphasized improvisation in his teaching, reinforcing Granados’ natural ability. After returning to Barcelona in 1889, he published his Danzas españolas, which brought him international recognition.

As a performer Granados gave many concerts in Spain, France and New York, collaborating with musicians such as Isaac Albéniz and Pablo Casals, violinists Eugène Ysäye and Jacques Thibaud, pianists Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Camille Saint-Saëns. As a composer, he wrote chamber music, vocal music, operas, symphonic poems and piano works. Granados was also a fine teacher and in 1901 he founded the Academia Granados, which produced many notable musicians, such as Paquita Madriguera, Conchita Badia and Frank Marshall.

In 1912 Granados met the American pianist Ernest Schelling, who was the first pianist to perform Granados’ music outside Spain. Schelling arranged for Granados’s works to be published in New York and encouraged him in his plans to convert the piano suite Goyescas into an opera, later arranging for its première at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Terrified of the ocean, Granados nevertheless sailed to New York for the premiere of the opera on 28th January 1916. While in the United States he performed numerous concerts, made piano-roll recordings, and also performed at the White House in Washington. He and his wife set sail to Europe by way of England but while crossing the English Channel on board the Sussex, a German submarine torpedoed the ship and they both perished.

Today, Granados is universally recognised as one of Spain’s most important composers. His music is multi-faceted, although it is essentially Romantic with some Nationalist characteristics. He has been variously described as "the Spanish Chopin", "the last Romantic", and by his compatriots as "our Schubert". No single characterisation adequately describes his personality. He had a distinctive voice that is instantly recognisable and entirely his own.

Operas

In addition to a number of zarzuelas, Granados's opera Goyescas, is derived from piano pieces after paintings by Goya. This was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1916. An Intermezzo from the opera, either in orchestral form or as a duet for cello and piano, has proved viable in the concert hall.

Piano Music & Orchestral Arrangements

The ten Danzas españolas ('Spanish Dances') are immensely effective, both in their original piano version and in various instrumental, and orchestral arrangements. The piano suite Goyescas of 1911 is more ambitious in its technical requirements. There are further compositions for piano including six pieces based on popular Spanish songs and seven Valses poeticos.