Enrique Granados was born in Lérida, Spain, on July 27, 1867. After
completing his music study at Conservatories in Barcelona and Madrid,
and privately with Charles de Bériot in Paris, he earned his living
playing the piano in Spanish restaurants. In 1898, his first opera was
produced in Madrid, _Maria del Carmen_. The national identity of this
music was to characterize all of Granados’ subsequent works and place
him among the most significant of Spanish national composers. His most
famous composition is _Goyescas_, a remarkable series of piano pieces
inspired by the paintings of Goya; the composer later adapted this music
for an opera, also called _Goyescas_, which received its world première
in New York at the Metropolitan Opera on January 28, 1918. Granados came
to the United States to attend this performance, after which he visited
Washington, D.C. to play the piano for President Wilson at the White
House. He was aboard the ship _Folkstone_, sailing from Folkstone to
Dieppe, when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat during World War I on
March 24, 1916, bringing him to his death.
In their rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary, Granados’ best music is
unmistakably Spanish. Perhaps his most famous single piece of music is
an orchestral “Intermezzo” from the opera _Goyescas_. He wrote it after
he had fully completed his score to the opera because the directors of
the Metropolitan Opera filled the need of an instrumental interlude.
This sensual Spanish melody is as famous in various transcriptions
(including one for cello and piano by Gaspar Cassadó) as it is in its
original orchestral version.
Twelve _Spanish Dances_, for piano, op. 37 (1893) are also popular. The
most frequently performed of these is the fifth in E minor named
_Andaluza_ (or _Playera_). Fritz Kreisler transcribed it for violin and
piano, one of numerous adaptations. The sixth in D major is also
familiar—_Rondalla Aragonesa_, a jota, transcribed for violin and piano
by Jacques Thibaud.