Granados, Enrique (1867–1916)

Spanish composer and pianist. His piano work Goyescas (1911), inspired by the work of the artist Goya, was converted to an opera in 1916.

Granados studied composition with Carlos Pedrell in Barcelona and piano in Paris, France. Returning to Spain in 1889, he became a well-known pianist and in 1900 he founded the Sociedad de Conciertos Clásicos in Madrid, which he conducted. After a visit to New York, USA, for the production the operatic version of Goyescas in January 1916, he went down in the Sussex when it was torpedoed by a German submarine in the English Channel. He had swum to rescue his wife, but was weighed down with the gold that the New York Metropolitan Opera had paid him for Goyescas.

Works Stage operas and zarzuelas Maria del Carmen (1898), Gaziel (1906), Goyescas (1916, based on the piano work), Petrarca, Picarol (1901), Follet (1903), Liliana (1911).

Orchestral symphonic poem La nit del mor, four suites, Escenas poéticas (1926), and other pieces for orchestra; Oriental for oboe and strings.

Choral Cant de las Estrelles for chorus, organ, and piano.

Piano Goyescas (two volumes; composed 1911, first performed 1914), ten Spanish Dances, six pieces on Spanish folk songs, six Escenas poeticas including Libro de horas, six Escenas románticas, Impromptus, piano trio, children's pieces for piano.

Other songs Escritas en estilo antiguo, and a collection of tonadillas.