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- Federico Mompou [www.foto-face.com
Federico Mompou was born in Barcelona in 1893 and lived a long and successful life as a Spanish Catalan composer and pianist - his best known works are for solo piano and his songs.
Mompou studied piano at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona before going to Paris in 1911 as a student to Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix .
Having a more introverted personality and being rather shy – both attributes not akin for a career in the limelight - he abandoned a solo piano career and chose instead to only compose.
In 1914 he left France and returned to Barcelona because of the ensuing war in Europe.
His pieces ‘Scènes d'enfants’ were so popular that an inspired French critic went so far as to say that Mompou was a rightful successor to Claude Debussy – that coming from a French critic was praise indeed!
France, the French success early on, and his many friends in Paris where the main reasons that saw him return there again in1921, where he remained a good 20 years until 1941.
Then again, as before in 1914, he had to escape the German occupation of Paris and departed for his native Catalunya.
In 1957 he married the pianist Carmen Bravo; they had no children.
During his career Mompou received numerous awards, amongst them: Chevalier des arts et lettres (France), Premio Nacional de la Música (Spain), Doctor honoris causa, Universitat de Barcelona (1979); and Medalla d'Or de la Generalitat de Catalunya (1980).
In Barcelona he became a member of the ‘Royal Academy of San Jorge’ and as was his wont - lived quietly there until his death at the age of 94, and is buried in Montjuïc Cemetery, in Barcelona.
Mompou is best known what in painting or in musical parlance passes as a’ miniaturist’, that is, someone who writes short improvisational music which could best be described as refined or ‘delicate’ .
He preferred a incantatory and meditative sound – as best heard in his great masterpiece ‘Musica Callada’, or in English ‘Voice of Silence’ – which is a bit of a hard sell seeing as how it is in fact music! It is loosely based on the mystic poetry of St. John of the Cross.
There are similarities in this piece with ‘Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus’ by the contemporary French composer Olivier Messiaen [1908 – 1992] – among the most influential figures in the music of the 20th century who was respected universally for his achievement through a musical language that is intensely personal, emotional and deeply religious.
His principal influences were French impressionism and Erik Satie, resulting in an intimate musical style in which musical development is minimized, and expression is concentrated into very small forms.
Mompou remained out of the mainstream and the limelight but remained an influence on his contemporaries and on musical Spain and France – his music will survive and has recently enjoyed a revival of sorts in France.
In 1957 he married the pianist Carmen Bravo; they had no children.
During his career Mompou received numerous awards, amongst them: Chevalier des arts et lettres (France), Premio Nacional de la Música (Spain), Doctor honoris causa, Universitat de Barcelona (1979); and Medalla d’Or de la Generalitat de Catalunya (1980).
In Barcelona he became a member of the ‘Royal Academy of San Jorge’ and as was his want – lived quietly there until his death at the age of 94, and is buried in Montjuïc Cemetery, in Barcelona.
[Biography Sources include information from Wikipedia]
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As a continuation of our OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog ‘ Mini-Composer-Biography Series’ we present the third of the Spanish Composers for the new OTA-Berlin serviced apartments building opening in beginning of May 2010 – Metzer Straße 8 in Berlin Mitte.
Tags: Federico Mompou, OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog Mini-Composer-Biography, OTA-Berlin Spanish composers
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