Enrique Granados (1867–1916)
A Catalan pianist and composer, Granados blended Romantic piano writing with the soul of Spanish music in his Spanish Dances and Goyescas.
Born in Lleida in 1867, Enrique Granados studied piano in Barcelona and then in Paris. An outstanding pianist, he settled in Barcelona, where in 1901 he founded his own piano academy.
His twelve Spanish Dances, published in the 1890s, made him known throughout Europe. His major work is the suite Goyescas (1911), inspired by Goya’s paintings, from which he later drew an opera.
The opera’s premiere in New York in 1916 was a success. On the way home, his ship, the Sussex, was torpedoed in the English Channel: Granados and his wife died.
His piano writing is lyrical and colourful, steeped in dance rhythms and the inflections of the Spanish guitar. He teaches pianists a natural rubato and how to make a melody sing amid ornaments.
Piano sheet music (3)
- Valses poéticos No. 5 · level 4
- Valses poéticos No. 7 · level 4
- Valses poéticos: No. 8 and Coda · level 5