Juan Crisóstomo De Arriaga

Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio De Arriaga Y Balzola January 27 1806 – January 17 1826 Was An Early 19th-Century Spanish Composer Who Has Been Called The "Spanish Mozart." Arriaga Acquired This Nickname After He Died Because Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart He Was Also A Child Prodigy And An Exceptionally Gifted Composer Who Died At A Young Age. Coincidentally He Was Born On What Would Have Been Mozart's Fiftieth Birthday. Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga Was Born In Bilbao Spain. His Father And Older Brother First Taught Him Music. He Then Studied The Violin Under Pierre Baillot And Counterpoint And Harmony Under François-Joseph Fétis At The Paris Conservatoire. He Was So Good He Soon Became A Teaching Assistant In Fétis's Class. Arriaga Died In Paris At The Age Of Nineteen Of A Lung Ailment Or Exhaustion Perhaps Both. The Amount Of Music By Arriaga Which Has Survived To The Present Day Is Quite Small Reflecting His Early Death. It Includes Opera Arriaga Wrote An Opera Los Esclavos Felices "The Happy Slaves" In 1820 When He Was Thirteen. It Was Successfully Produced In Bilbao. Unfortunately Only The Overture Survives. Symphony Arriaga Composed A Symphony In D—which Uses D Major And D Minor So Equally As To Not Actually Be In Either Key. String Quartets Arriaga Wrote Three Sparkling And Idiomatic String Quartets At The Age Of Eighteen. These Fine String Quartets Were The Only Works Published During His Lifetime. Other Works In Addition To The Aforementioned Major Works Arriaga Also Wrote The Following A Second Opera Nada Y Mucho Pieces Of Church Music Cantatas A Mass Stabat Mater Salve Regina Et Vitam Venturi Saeculi Cantatas Agar Erminia All' Aurora Patria La Hungara Instrumental Compositions A Nonet Tres Estudios De Caracter For Piano And Numerous Romances . The Teatro Arriaga In Bilbao Is One Of The Centers Of The August City Festivals.Arriaga's Music Is "elegant And Accomplished And Notable For Its Harmonic Warmth" New Grove Concise Dictionary Of Music . There Is Nothing Characteristically Spanish In Arriaga's Music. Rather It Is International European Music From The Formative Period Between The Late Classical Music Of Mozart To The Early Romanticism Of The Young Beethoven. According To Grove Arriaga's Death "before He Was 20 Was A Sad Loss To Spanish Music." Following His Early Death With The Only Reliable Biographical Material Being Some Reports By Fétis Arriaga's Life Story Was Fictionalized To Play Into Rising Spanish Nationalism. A Public Theatre In His Home City Of Bilbao Carries His Name. read less