Xavier
Montsalvatge was born in Girona in 1912. He first achieved
success, and was later to be internationally recognized, with his
collection of Cinco canciones negras (1941), a work which, together
with Cuarteto indiano (1952) and Concierto breve (1953) defines his
post-nationalist period. This evolved through neoclassicism, especially
in the Partita (1958), and during a period when he was influenced
by the French post-impressionists. The latter is seen above all in
Sonatine pour Yvette, and approaches an ever-increasing abstraction
beginning with the Morphological Disintegration of Bach's Chaconne
(1963).
He has been a member of the St. George Catalan Royal Academy of Fine
Arts since 1962; nominated for the "Chevalier de l'Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres" by the French government in 1970; the Generalitat
de Catalunya awarded him the Creu de Sant Jordi (St. George Cross)
in October of 1983; and, on May the 28th, 1985, he received an Honorary
Doctorate from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is also
a member, as a correspondent, of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts St.
Ferdinand, the Fryderik Chopin Society of Warsaw, and the Hispanic
Society of America in New York.
To find out more about Montsalvatge, visit the website:
www.trito.es/shop/eng_montsal.htm
Montsalvatge was also inspired by the death of Mompou in the middle
movement of his Trío. The Dialogo con Mompou captures the bell-like
"metallic" chords favored by the older composer, in an essentially
tonal language heavily overlaid with modalisms and colorful dissonance.
The outer movements were written a couple of years earlier and incorporated
into the triptych in 1989. The Balada a Dulicinea alludes to Don Quixote's
idealized peasant woman, while Ritornelo recalls Spain's former Caribbean
colonies in its characteristic "Antilleanism."
