Federico Mompou
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Federico (Frederic) Mompou (April 16, 1893–June 30, 1987) was a Catalan composer. He is best known for his solo piano music and his songs.
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[edit] Life
Mompou was born in Barcelona (Spain), and studied piano there at the Conservatorio del Liceo before going to Paris to study with Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix in 1911. Being rather shy personally, he abandoned a solo career and chose to pursue composition instead. In 1914 he returned to Barcelona, fleeing the war. He returned to Paris in 1921, and remained there until 1941 when he once again departed for his native Catalonia, fleeing the German occupation of Paris. In Barcelona he became a member of the Royal Academy of San Jorge, but otherwise lived quietly there until his death at the age of 94.
[edit] Style
Mompou is best known as a miniaturist, writing short, relatively improvisatory music often described as "delicate" or "intimate." His principal influences were French impressionism and Erik Satie, resulting in a style in which musical development is minimized, and expression is concentrated into very small forms. He was fond of ostinato figures, bell imitations and a kind of incantatory, meditative sound which Lionel Salter described as "the voice of silence ... of St. John of the Cross."
[edit] Selected works
[edit] Works for piano solo
- Musica Callada (Primer cuaderno - 1959, Segundo cuaderno - 1962, Tercer cuaderno - 1965, Cuarto cuaderno - 1967)
- Paisajes (1942-1960)
- Charmes (1920-1921)
- Variations sur un thème de Chopin (1938-1957)
- Préludes (1927-1960)
- Cançons i danses (1921-1979)
- Dialogues (1923)
- Suburbis (1916-1917)
- Scènes d’enfants (1915-1918)
- Impresiones intimas (1911-1914)
- Canción de cuna (1951)
[edit] Works for voice and piano
- Cantar del alma (1951)
- Combat del somni (1942-1950)
- Comptines (1926-1943)
- Cuatro Melodías (1925)
- L'hora grisa (1916)
[edit] Other works
- Los Improperios for chorus and orchestra (1964)
- Suite Compostelana for guitar (1962)
- Canco I Dansa No. 13 for guitar (1986)
- Canco I Dansa No. 10 originally for piano, transcribed for guitar by the composer.
[edit] References and further reading
- ↑ Lionel Salter. "Federico Mompou", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), xii, 476.
