Joaquín Turina

Joaquín Turina Pérez (Seville, 9 December 1882 – Madrid, 14 January 1949) was one of the most celebrated Spanish composers of the first half of the twentieth century. The son of a painter of Italian origin, music occupied a central place in his life from childhood. Although he initially studied medicine out of deference to his family, he soon abandoned anything that drew him away from music, for which he showed a remarkable aptitude.

His serious training began with piano lessons from Enrique Rodríguez and composition lessons with Evaristo García Torres, choirmaster of Seville Cathedral. By around 1897 he was already known in his city as both a composer and a pianist. Intending to stage his opera La sulamita, a biblical subject in a very traditional style, at the Teatro Real, he moved to Madrid, although the aspiration proved unrealistic for an unknown provincial musician. Gradually, however, he made a name for himself in artistic circles, and his friendship with Falla shaped his ideas about the proper character of Spanish music. The failures of zarzuelas such as Fea y con gracia and La copla, which did not achieve the success expected in Seville, discouraged him from the género chico.

In 1905 he settled in Paris, where he studied piano with Moritz Moszkowski and composition at the Schola Cantorum with d'Indy, although he found it difficult to escape the influence of Debussy and other critics of the school. Together with Falla, he became part of the Société Musicale Indépendante. It was Albéniz who, in 1907, together with Falla, encouraged him to seek material in popular Spanish music. After graduating from the Schola in 1913, the premiere of La procesión del Rocío in Madrid, conducted by Arbós, marked the beginning of his mature compositional career, and the success was repeated in Paris. In 1926 his Trío con piano, op. 35, won the Premio Nacional de Música. After a trip to Latin America, he was appointed professor of composition at the Madrid Conservatory in 1930. The years of the Republic were difficult for him and, during the Civil War, he suffered persecution at the hands of the Republicans; afterwards his prestige grew, and in 1941 he was appointed Comisario General de la Música.

His legacy centres on music of broad scope, with an elegance and a Sevillian-rooted humour that distinguish him from Falla. He composed chiefly for piano, guitar and chamber music, and his Sinfonía sevillana, although titled a symphony, comes closer to the symphonic poem. He was also an active music critic for El Debate and Dígame. His work remains a point of reference for understanding Spanish music of the early twentieth century.