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BIRTH
Born in Camprodon, province of Girona -
CHILDHOOD
At age seven, after apparently taking lessons from Antoine François Marmontel, he passed the entrance examination for piano and his concert career began at the age of nine when his father toured both Isaac and his sister, Clementina, throughout northern Spain. -
ADOLESCENCE
By age 15, he had already given concerts worldwide. This over-dramatized story is not entirely false. Albéniz did travel the world as a performer, however he was accompanied by his father, who as a customs agent was required to travel frequently. -
TRAVELS
In 1876, after a short stay at the Leipzig Conservatory, he went to study at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and in 1880 Albéniz went to Budapest to study with Franz Liszt, only to find out that Liszt was in Weimar, Germany. -
EARLY WORKS
Albéniz's early works were mostly "salon style" music. Albéniz's first published composition, Marcha Militar, appeared in 1868 -a number of works written before this are now lost.[6] He continued composing in traditional styles ranging from Rameau, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt until the mid-1880s. He also wrote at least five zarzuelas, of which all but two are now lost. -
SPANISH INFLUENCES
In 1883 Isaac Albéniz met the teacher and composer Felipe Pedrell. Pedrell was a leading figure in the development of nationalist Spanish music. Gilbert Chase, in his book The Music of Spain, describes Pedrell's influence on Albéniz: "What Albéniz derived from Pedrell was above all a spiritual orientation, the realization of the wonderful values inherent in Spanish music". -
HIS WIFE
In 1883, the composer married his student Rosina Jordana. They had three children: Blanca (who died in 1886), Laura (a painter), and Alfonso (who played for Real Madrid in the early 1900s before embarking on a career as a diplomat). Two other children died in infancy. -
FINAL MASTERPIECE
In 1900 he started to suffer from Bright's disease and returned to writing piano music. Between 1905 and 1908 he composed his final masterpiece, Iberia (1908), a suite of twelve piano "impressions". -
DIE
Albéniz died from his kidney disease on 18 May 1909 at age 48 in Cambo-les-Bains. Only a few weeks before his death, the government of France awarded Albéniz its highest honor, the Grand-Croix de la Légion d'honneur. He is buried at the Montjuïc Cemetery, Barcelona. -
