Federico Mompou (April 16, 1893–June 30, 1987) was a Catalan composer. He is best known for his solo piano music and his songs. April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (107th in leap years). ... 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Capital Barcelona Official languages Spanish and Catalan In Val dAran, also Aranese. ... A grand piano A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ...

Life

Mompou was born in Barcelona, and studied piano there at the Conservatorio del Liceo before going to Paris to study with Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix in 1911. Being rather shy personally, he abandoned a solo career and chose to pursue composition instead. In 1914 he returned to Barcelona, fleeing the war. He returned to Paris in 1921, and remained there until 1941 when he once again departed for his native Catalonia, fleeing the German occupation of Paris. In Barcelona he became a member of the Royal Academy of San Jorge, but otherwise lived quietly there until his death at the age of 94. Barcelona is the capital city of Catalonia (Spain). ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Style

Mompou is best known as a miniaturist, writing short, relatively improvisatory music often described as "delicate" or "intimate." His principal influences were French impressionism and Erik Satie, resulting in a style in which musical development is minimized, and expression is concentrated into very small forms. He was fond of ostinato figures, bell imitations and a kind of incantory, meditative sound which Lionel Salter described as "the voice of silence ... of St. John of the Cross." ^[1] Improvisation is the act of making something up as it is performed. ... Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists who began publicly exhibiting their art in the 1860s. ... Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (Honfleur, 17 May 1866 – Paris, 1 July 1925) was a French composer and pianist. ... Ostinato, an Italian word meaning stubborn (compare English obstinate), is to classical music what riffs are to popular music. ... Saint John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz) (June 24, 1542 – December 14, 1591) was a Spanish Carmelite friar born at Fontiveros, a small village near Avila. ...

References and further reading

• ^  Lionel Salter. "Federico Mompou", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), xii, 476.

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedia (or encyclopedic dictionary) of music and musicians, generally considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. ...

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