Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos (baptised December 3, 1729 - December 20, 1783) was a Spanish composer. December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events July 30 - Baltimore, Maryland is founded. ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1783 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A composer is a person who writes music. ...

He was born in Olot in Girona, Catalonia. He studied composition and the organ as a child, when, at age six, he entered the choir of the Monastery of Monserrat. In 1744 he was appointed organist at the cathedral in Seo de Urgel and appointed as a subdeacon there. Later in his life, he held posts as chapel master in Lleida and El Escorial. Olot is the capital of the comarca of Garrotxa, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. ... Girona province Girona is a province of eastern Spain, in the northern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. ... Capital Barcelona Official languages Spanish and Catalan In Val dAran, also Aranese. ... The Casavant pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Montreal The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the western musical tradition, with a rich history connected with the Christian religion and civic ceremony. ... A chapel is a private church, usually small and often attached to a larger institution such as a college, a hospital, a palace, or a prison. ... La Seu Vella, the Romanesque-Gothic old Cathedral of Lleida La Seu Vella Lleida (Catalan: Lleida, Spanish: Lérida) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. ... The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (in Spanish, Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial) is an immense palace, monastery, museum, and library complex located at San Lorenzo de El Escorial (also San Lorenzo del Escorial), a town 45 kilometres (28 miles) northwest of Madrid in...

He took Holy Orders at the age of 23 and his routine at the Escorial, near Madrid, was a a simple one for the next 31 years. His 20 hour days were filled with prayer, contemplation and farming - a simple and unadorned life. Yet Soler managed to produce more than 500 musical works in these austere surroundings. Amongst these were around 150 keyboard sonatas - many were believed to have been written for his music pupil, the Infante Don Gabriel, a son of King Carlos III. No portraits of Soler are known to exist. Plaza de Cibeles (Cibeles square) and the Palacio de Comunicaciones (Communications Palace) Coat of arms. ...

His best known works are the keyboard sonatas, which are comparable to those by Domenico Scarlatti (with whom he is rumored to have studied). Soler's works are more varied in form than Scarlatti's, however, with some pieces in three or four movements, for example (Scarlatti's are in one or two). Fortunately, these sonatas were catalogued in the early twentieth century by Fr. Samuel Rubio and so all have 'R' numbers assigned to them. A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played with a musical keyboard. ... Sonata (From Latin and Italian sonare, to sound), in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to cantata (Latin cantare, to sing), a piece sung. ... Domenico Scarlatti (October 26, 1685 – July 23, 1757) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. ...

Soler also wrote concertos, quintets for organ and strings, motets, masses and pieces for solo organ. His treatise Llave de la modulación (1762) is on modulation. In classical music, the word concerto (pl. ... A quintet is a formation containing exactly five members. ... A string instrument (also stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... This article discusses the Mass as a standard form of classical music composition. ... 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key (tonic, or tonal center) to another, also known as a key change. ...

Soler's very fine "Six Concertos for Two Organs" are still very much in the repertoire and have been often recorded. A fandango once attributed to Soler, and probably more often performed than any other work by him, is now thought to be of doubtful authorship. This page is about the flamenco style; for other meanings, see Fandango (disambiguation). ...

External links

• Biography, MIDI files and links