Albéniz, Isaac (EN)

Albéniz Isaac Manuel Francisco, *29 May 1860 Camprodón (Gerona province), †18 May 1909 Cambo-les-Bains (the Pyrenees), Spanish pianist and composer. He began his piano career at the age of 4, performing at a concert at the Teatro Romeo in Barcelona. In January 1867, he went to Paris, where he was a student of A.F. Marmontel for 9 months. He continued his studies at the conservatory in Madrid under Ajer and Mendizábal from 1869. After running away from home in November 1870, he gave concerts on his own in various provinces of Spain; after escaping again, he went to South America in 1872, where he led a rowdy lifestyle. In 1873, he performed in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. In September 1873, he returned to Spain, and in 1875, he went again to America; he gave concerts in Puerto Rico and Cuba, then in the USA. On the way back, he stopped in London and Liverpool. In 1876, he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with C. Reinecke (piano) and S. Jadassohn (composition). A scholarship from King Alfonso XII enabled him to continue his studies at the conservatory in Brussels with L. Brassin (piano) and F.A. Gevaert (composition); he completed it in 1879, receiving the main prize. In 1880 in Budapest, he met Liszt, whose advice and guidance played an important role in the development of Albéniz’s talent as a pianist and composer. Contacts with F. Pedrell in Barcelona in 1883 and his ideas for the revival of national Spanish music were also of great importance to Albéniz. Albéniz’s pianistic career flourished in 1880–93; he performed in Cuba and Mexico (1880–81), many times in Spain, France (1884, 1889), England, and also in Brussels and Berlin (1892). During his longer stay in London (1890–93), he won a contract with the banker F.B. Money-Coutts and wrote music for his opera librettos and song lyrics in exchange for financial support. The result of this cooperation was the following operas: Henry Clifford, Pepita Jimćnez, the unfinished King Arthur trilogy and a number of songs. At the end of 1894, Albéniz settled in Paris and became involved with the French musical community; he was friends with E. Chausson, Ch. Bordes, P. Dukas, V. d’Indy, G. Fauré. For six months, he taught piano at the Schola Cantorum (1897/98) but devoted himself mainly to composition. In 1895, he was in Barcelona at a concert of Spanish music, where, among others, his works were performed, and in 1897 in Prague at a performance of the opera Pepita Jiménez; in 1900–02, he lived in Spain, then returned to Paris. Terminally ill, in the last years of his life, he composed his best work, the piano cycle Iberia. Navarra and Azulejos remained unfinished.

Albéniz began his artistic career as a concert pianist; he was one of the most outstanding virtuosos of his era, and also gained fame as an excellent improviser. Albéniz’s work is uneven in terms of level and originality. His early piano compositions (until 1886) – waltzes, mazurkas, minuets, etudes – are mostly of a salon character and derive from the virtuoso musical traditions of the Romantic period. In later years, Albéniz’s style acquired individual characteristics, especially in piano music with Spanish themes (two Spanish Suites, the cycle España Op. 165, and Chants d’Espagne Op. 232). Among Albéniz’s stage music, Pepita Jiménez and San Antonio de la Florida stand out, referring to the zarzuela tradition. The most interesting of the songs is the cycle of 4 mélodies to words by F.B. Money-Coutts, similar in style to the songs of H. Duparc and G. Fauré. Albéniz achieved full artistic maturity in the last period of his career, in the piano suite Iberia. He continues and develops the features of Liszt’s piano texture, combining them with the national Spanish colour and the sensitivity to sound typical of the Impressionists. Debussy received Iberia with great acclaim. Referring to Spanish folk and popular music, Albéniz never used original quotations, but only freely stylised its rhythmic and melodic properties. He repeatedly introduced the rhythms of Spanish dances, e.g. iotas (Aragon from the Spanish Suite), seguidillas (Seguidillas from Chants d’Espagne), malaguenas (Malaga from Iberia), zortzico (in the España Suite), rondenas (Rondeña from Iberia). In addition to the pulsation of the dance rhythm, he also used complex rhythms (e.g. 6/8 + 3/1 in Rondeña from Iberia), polyrhythms (e.g. in the middle part of Almeria from Iberia), variable accents, and syncopations. He used melodic phrases typical of cante flamenco with its rich ornamentation and melisma. The features of his work resulting from the stylisation of folk music contributed significantly to the enrichment and diversification of 19^th-century music, especially in terms of rhythm. Albéniz also enriched the harmonic and tonal means with phrases taken from folk scales (especially the Phrygian scale), chords with a fourth structure, the sounds of added seconds, and fixed notes and ostinatos, creating sound centres. He developed the means of piano texture, sometimes going to the limits of performance possibilities, used contrasting dynamics (range from ppppp to fffff in Iberia) and varied articulation; the effects of chord sounding (e.g. in El Corpus Christi in Iberia) already resemble Debussy’s texture. Many of Albéniz’s new textural tricks resulted from imitating the sound of the guitar (e.g. in Asturias from the Spanish Suite, El Albaicin from Iberia). X. most often used the form of piano miniatures, arranging them into suite-like cycles.

The importance of Albéniz’s work lies in combining national Spanish elements with the achievements of European music, especially the French circle. In Spanish music, he initiated the national trend, continued by E. Granados, M. de Falla and J. Turina.

Literature: H. Collet Albéniz et Granados, Paris 1926, 3^rd ed. 1948; M. Raux Deledicque Albéniz, su vida inquieta y ardorosa, Buenos Aires 1950; A. Sagardia Isaac Albéniz, Plasencia 1951; G. Laplane Albéniz, sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris 1956 (with a list of compositions); M. Bzowska Isaac Albéniz, Kraków 1964; E. Franco La suite Iberia di Albéniz, “Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana” VII, 1973; A. Gauthier Albéniz, Madrid 1979; X. Aviñoa Albéniz conocer y reconocer, Barcelona 1986; A. Iglesias Isaac Albéniz. Su obra para piano, Madrid 1987.