![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drplaceboJosé María Usandizaga (1887-1915) had a brilliant but short career and was acclaimed as the father of Basque opera within his lifetime, though he only had distant Basque ancestry. He was born in the Basque Country and had a Basque surname, but was actually the son of the Uruguayan consul general in San Sebastián.
Usandizaga got his start in music through a bit of misfortune: he broke his hip at the age of five and his aunt bought him a toy piano with which he could entertain himself while he was immobile. It remained his favorite toy after he recovered, and he soon moved up to a full-size piano, on which he began lessons at age nine. He composed his first piece, a piano waltz, the same year. The famed French pianist Francis Planté heard him play in 1900 and convinced his parents to send him to Paris to study piano and composition the following year.
It was in Paris that Usandizaga developed his identity as a Basque composer, through contacts with fellow countrymen who resided there. While in Paris, he became acquainted with Resurrección María de Azkue, a priest and academic who was wrote one of the first modern linguistic surveys of the Basque language, and Jesús Guridi, a fellow student who later became a major figure in both Spanish and Basque opera. In 1906, Usandizaga returned to San Sebastián, where he won acclaim for compositions heavily influenced by Basque folk music. He is best known for his three operas drawing on both Italian verismo and Basque musical themes, the Basque-language Mendi Mendiyan (High in the Mountains) and the Spanish-language Las Golondrinas (The Swallows) and La Llama (The Flame). He was constantly busy, and when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 28, he left numerous unfinished pieces, including La Llama which was completed by his brother. Considered Spain's first great composer since the “Spanish Mozart” Juan Arriaga at the time of his death, Usandizaga was given a triumphant funeral. The monument to him in San Sebastián is one of the city's major landmarks.
Usandizaga composed his only string quartet (a second was unfinished at his death and never completed by any other person) in 1905, near the end of his studies in Paris, and it was first performed in San Sebastián in December 1906. He titled it “Cuarteto sobre temas populares vascos” (Quartet on Basque popular themes) and incorporated parts of three popular songs into the piece. The finale includes a zortziko, a Basque folk dance with a distinctive 5/8 meter. Interestingly, Usandizaga wrote tempo markings in both Spanish and French.
I. Muy lento – Vivo – Muy lento
II. Scherzo: Muy vivo
III. Moderato
IV. Introducción, Zortziko y Final
Usandizaga got his start in music through a bit of misfortune: he broke his hip at the age of five and his aunt bought him a toy piano with which he could entertain himself while he was immobile. It remained his favorite toy after he recovered, and he soon moved up to a full-size piano, on which he began lessons at age nine. He composed his first piece, a piano waltz, the same year. The famed French pianist Francis Planté heard him play in 1900 and convinced his parents to send him to Paris to study piano and composition the following year.
It was in Paris that Usandizaga developed his identity as a Basque composer, through contacts with fellow countrymen who resided there. While in Paris, he became acquainted with Resurrección María de Azkue, a priest and academic who was wrote one of the first modern linguistic surveys of the Basque language, and Jesús Guridi, a fellow student who later became a major figure in both Spanish and Basque opera. In 1906, Usandizaga returned to San Sebastián, where he won acclaim for compositions heavily influenced by Basque folk music. He is best known for his three operas drawing on both Italian verismo and Basque musical themes, the Basque-language Mendi Mendiyan (High in the Mountains) and the Spanish-language Las Golondrinas (The Swallows) and La Llama (The Flame). He was constantly busy, and when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 28, he left numerous unfinished pieces, including La Llama which was completed by his brother. Considered Spain's first great composer since the “Spanish Mozart” Juan Arriaga at the time of his death, Usandizaga was given a triumphant funeral. The monument to him in San Sebastián is one of the city's major landmarks.
Usandizaga composed his only string quartet (a second was unfinished at his death and never completed by any other person) in 1905, near the end of his studies in Paris, and it was first performed in San Sebastián in December 1906. He titled it “Cuarteto sobre temas populares vascos” (Quartet on Basque popular themes) and incorporated parts of three popular songs into the piece. The finale includes a zortziko, a Basque folk dance with a distinctive 5/8 meter. Interestingly, Usandizaga wrote tempo markings in both Spanish and French.
I. Muy lento – Vivo – Muy lento
II. Scherzo: Muy vivo
III. Moderato
IV. Introducción, Zortziko y Final