Félix Máximo López

Félix Máximo López (Madrid, 1742 – Madrid, 1821) was one of the leading figures of keyboard music at the Madrid court in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His activity was carried out almost entirely in the Royal Chapel of the city, where he joined in 1775 as fourth organist and was promoted to first organist in 1805, following the resignation of Lidón.

Within his family, two sons from his first marriage also held important posts in palace music. Ambrosio López was organist of the Royal Chapel, while Miguel López Remacha, first tenor of the same institution, composed stage and sacred works and wrote treatises on solfège and composition. According to Saldoni, part of López's output was published during his lifetime, including pieces for keyboard, for guitar, chamber music and villancicos; however, these editions have not survived, and much of his work has come down only in manuscript.

His organ music, largely liturgical in character, ranges from brief versets and fabordones to sonatas, capriccios and extended fugues intended for the Elevation and the Offertory, some built on melodies from hymns such as the traditional Pange lingua. His style combines, at times rather unevenly, the pianistic idiom of the Viennese Classical school with the counterpoint of the stile antico. For harpsichord he wrote sonatas in several movements, some for four hands, and variations on Spanish melodies.

López's importance rests above all on his role as organist of the Royal Chapel and on the richness of his organ repertoire, which only achieves its full effect when registered as the composer indicated for the instrument built by Jorge Bosch in 1778. His manuscript treatise on accompaniment at the organ or harpsichord completes a legacy that reflects the musical practice of the court in his time.