Product Description
Walter Aaron Clark here presents, for the first time in English, a detailed and accurate account of one of the most intriguing figures in the Romantic period. Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909), a renowned concert pianist, created a national style of Spanish piano music and also fostered the growth of the concerto, orchestral music, and opera in Spain. As a touring child prodigy who supposedly stowed away on a steamer to the New World, later studied with Liszt, and eventually got ensnared in a "Faustian pact" with the wealthy English librettist, Frances Burdett Money-Coutts, Albeniz has become somewhat of a legend. Based on a wealth of new and previously overlooked documentary evidence, this biography debunks the mythology surrounding his career, much of it spun by the composer himself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Transcendent music
I discovered Albeniz through the 2006 movie Iberia which features the music of Albeniz. I decided to try playing it on the piano. It has captured me in a way I could never have expected. I am not a young person and thought I knew the repertoire, but there is no finer music for the piano than the Iberia suite. I strongly encourage every good pianist to discover this music! Learning about the man has been as much of a joy as integrating his music into my being, for that is what has happened. He's quite a character. This book is admirable and like the other reviewer I too would like more on the music itself. However, I think the other reviewer is much to limited in whom he recommends Albeniz too. Albeniiz' piano music belongs to all the ages -- it is as good as anything ever composed, and better than most. If Albeniz were not a "Spanish" composer, he would be much better heard, and his music would be much easier to find. So do not think you have to be interested in "Nationalist Spanish Music" to be interested in Albeniz. His music is as universal as Chopin's or Beethoven's. Albeniz needs to be liberated from pigeonholing because he belongs in the universal pantheon.

fascinating and insightful
Aaron Clark is admirably unwilling to speculate as so many much earlier biographies of Albeniz have been about the more hazy periods in his life.He is particularly good on understanding the hyperbole andpublicity-friendly porkies Albeniz was given to in the context of hischaracter. Where he is at his best is in the analysis and history of themusic/forms it uses.I wish he would write a work which concentrates onanalysis of the music itself as well - I'd buy that too. It is also a veryentertaining read, and has many very sensible conclusions especially aboutAlbeniz's earlier life, which is surrounded by myth! This is an essentialbook for anyone interested in Spanish Nationalist Romantic Music.Doesthis man have an email address?Ben Coulthard ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive edition brings together all of the standard pieces in the adopted Albeniz "guitar repertoire" along with additional pieces that complete many of the suites and other groupings as published during the composer's lifetime. These solo arrangements were made while consulting the earliest editions of the piano originals, and are faithful to Albeniz tempo indications, dynamics, phrasing slurs, and other expression markings. The selections are: Pavana-Capriccio, Op. 12 (1992); Suite espanola, Op. 47 (1886); Recuerdos de viaje, Op. 92 (1888); Doce piezas espanolas, Op. 164 (1889); Espana, seis hojas de album, Op. 165 (1890); Serenata espanola (Cadiz, cancion), Op. 181 (1890); Mallorca, barcarola, Op. 202 (1890); Zambra granadina, danse orientale, WoO (1891); Cadiz-gaditana, WoO (1891); and Chants d'Espagne, Op. 232 (1891-1894). Carefully researched and meticulously fingered in the scholarly manner one would expect from Stanley Yates. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great arrangements by Yates--5 stars.Lousy printing/binding--1 star.
The good.These Albeniz piano pieces are standards in the classical guitar repertoire.Stanley Yates' arrangements strive to remain faithful to Albeniz's intentions and to maintain accessibility for classical guitarists.He succeeds famously.His arrangment of Sevilla (for example) is lovely and--because he chooses to keep the main motive in the first position rather than the more common 12th--it's much more accessible than many needlessly more difficult arrangements.His take on the workhorse Asturias/Leyenda is similarly helpful.He provides good LH fingerings as well as peformance notes that include the reassuring observation that the rapid fire i-m droning was Segovia's invention and NOT Albeniz's.Along with this insightful comment, he offers alternative realizations of several passages.These aren't pieces for beginners, but it's exactly this kind of help that makes them accessible for us mere mortals.Thanks, Maestro.

The bad.The printing and binding are a mess.The first 18 measures of Asturias simply didn't get printed--something else is on the front of that page.(Thankfully, the beginning is esssentially the same as a later section ... I think.)Several other pieces suffered a similar fate--there are pages out of order and (worse) missing.Since the pieces I wanted--Sevilla, Malaguena and Tango--are intact, I won't return it, but how disappointing that Mel Bay would have done such a sloppy job with the printing. ... Read more

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Suite Espaola Brand: Alfred Publishing Model Number: 00-K03002 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Albeniz at his best
Isaac Albeniz truly writes beautiful music for the piano.Any true piano player will fall in love with his breath taking music.Please buy it. ... Read more

Product Description
This book presents the most up-to-date biography of the Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909) and is the first to offer a thorough, annotated bibliography in addition to an extensive discography, chronology, and list of works. The bibliography treats not only articles, books, dissertations, and exhibition publications, but also includes numerous reviews of his operas and other works. An overview of the nature and location of primary sources and the holdings of various archives (in England, France, Belgium, Germany, and Spain) is an especially useful feature of this book that is not available anywhere else. Alb niz's letters, manuscripts, library, photographs, and other important documents and personal effects are discussed. This guide to research sheds welcome light on one of the most important composers in the history of Spanish music, one whose works won the admiration of Faure, Debussy, and Messiaen, and exerted a profound influence on de Falla, Turina, and Rodrigo. ... Read more

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Presents an idiomatic transcription of the well-known "Albeniz Tango", for violin or viola and piano. ... Read more

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This sheet music was newly engraved from early and authoritative editions. ... Read more

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1. En El Mar2. Leyenda-Barcarola3. Alborada4. En La Alhambra5. Puerta De Tierra (Bolero)6. Rumores De La Caleta (Malaguena)7. En La Playa ... Read more

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Eight pieces in one 'Spanish Suite' from Spanish pianist and composer, Isaac Albeniz who was born in 1860 and as a child prodigy, gave his first public concert on the piano at the tender age of 4.At the beginning of the 1880s, he met the musicologist Fe

... Read more

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A collection of intermediate/advanced piano solos. ... Read more

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Contains: Granada * Cataluna * Sevilla * Cadiz * Cuba. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Pepita Jiménez is a lyric comedy or comic opera with music written by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. The original opera was written in one act and used an English libretto by Albéniz's patron and collaborator, the Englishman Francis Money-Coutts, which is based on the novel of the same name by Juan Valera. The opera was later adapted several times, first by the composer and later by others, into numerous languages and different constructs, including both a two act version and a three act version. The first of the composer's three versions of Pepita Jiménez was written in Paris during 1895 and performed as a one-act opera using an Italian translation of the original English libretto by Angelo Bignotti. It premiered on January 5, 1896 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain with Emma Zilli portraying the title role. Originally the first Pepita was to have been the Romanian soprano Hariclea Darclée, but probably because of production delays the role went to Zilli. The work was not well reveived in its first form and Albéniz never published this version, deciding instead to immediately revise the score. During 1896 an expanded, two-act version was finished and, in preparation for a production at the Deutsches Landestheater in Prague, published by Breitkopf ... Read more

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Iberia ... Read more

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Contents: Cadiz (Suite Espagnole) * El Puerto (Iberia Suite) * Evocation (Iberia Suite) * Fete Dieu a Seville * Seguidillas, Op. 232, No. 5 * Sevilla (Sevillanas) * Tango * Triana (Iberia Suite). ... Read more

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24 titles including Champagne Waltz, Gavotta, Minuetto, Orientale, Serenade Espagnole, Song of a Rippling Brook, and Tango in D. ... Read more