Federico Mompou
Frederic Mompou i Dancausse, Spanish Federico Mompou also (* April 16, 1893 in Barcelona, † June 30, 1987 in Barcelona) was a Spanish composer and pianist.
Life
Federico Mompou 's father, a lawyer, was a Catalan, his mother is French. He got his first piano lessons from one of his aunts. At fifteen, he gave his first public piano concert and decided in 1909, as a result of a given by Gabriel Fauré concert to become a composer. He first studied at the Conservatorio del Liceo in Barcelona and went in 1911 with the recommendations of Enrique Granados Gabriel Fauré to Paris the Conservatoire, where he took further piano lessons with Ferdinand Motte- Lacroix. In the same year he composed the first part of his Suite for Piano. He was strongly influenced by Claude Debussy and Erik Satie. Due to his extreme shyness, he gave up the desired career as a pianist and devoted himself only to composing. Piano he played only for his closest friends. After the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Barcelona, where he wrote his first important compositions that Impresiones intimas, Cants Magics and Escenas de niños. In 1920 he went back to Paris. In 1924 he opened a confectionery which went bankrupt soon. By 1937 he was no longer composed due to nerve weakness. In the same year his brother suffered a tuberculosis attack, his father died. The mother married again in 1938. Mompou remained until 1941 in Paris, then he fled before the German occupation to Barcelona. 1941 Mompou learned the pianist Carmen Bravo know on a piano competition. After a long friendship both got married in 1957. During this time Mompou started second composition phase. Federico Mompou belonged to the Real Academia de San Jorge in Barcelona. Incidentally, but he lived in retirement until his death in 1987 at the age of 94 years.
Federico Mompou was a friend of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Paul Valéry, and Arthur Rubinstein.
Works
The influence of the French Impressionists is evident also in Mompou works that were created mainly for solo piano. In particular, Erik Satie is striving as a model for the slightly dissonant sounds that Mompou in his style of " listed improvisation" held. The bell sounds of his childhood seem to have Mompou influenced compositions. Often the long tones sound like bells. Above all, Mompou has time. Mompou wrote almost exclusively miniatures: short, slow, unadorned pieces with just a few notes. Rarely are heard virtuoso passages. Mompou compositions are - and in this he resembles mainly the early Satie -. " No touch too much and not too little touch to write " minimalist, true to his desire The composition of many works and cycles extended over decades. From the famous Prix de Rome, the composer did not think much and complained that the jury küre a mediocre symphony, but no looking for a single page have good music.
Selections
Compositions for piano solo
- Impresiones intimas - Planys (1911-1914)
- Pessebres (1914-1917)
- Scènes d' enfants (1915-1918)
- Suburbis (1916-1917)
- Cants Magics (1917-1919)
- Fêtes lointaines - six pièces pour piano (1920 )
- Charmes (1920-1921)
- Trois variations ( 1921)
- Cançons i danses (1921-1979)
- Dialogues (1923 )
- Préludes (1927-1960)
- Souvenirs de l'Exposition (1937 )
- Variations sur un thème de Chopin (1938-1957)
- Paisajes (1942-1960)
- Canción de cuna (1951 )
- Musica Callada (primer cuaderno - 1959, Segundo cuaderno - 1962, Tercer cuaderno - 1965, Cuarto cuaderno - 1967)
Compositions for voice and piano
- L' hora grisa (1916 )
- Cuatro Melodías (1925 )
- Comptines (1926-1943)
- Combat del somni ( dream fight ) on texts by the poet Josep Janés ( 1942-1950 )
- Cantar del alma (1951 )
Other works
- Los Improperios for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra (1964 )
- Cantar del alma for choir and organ (1951 )
- Compostelana Suite for Guitar (1962 )
- El pont for cello and piano (1976 )
- Canco I Dansa No. 13 for Guitar (1986 )
- Canco I Dansa No. 10, original, transcribed for piano by the composer for guitar.