Joaquin Turina

JOAQUIN TURINA

He was the son of a painter of Italian descent.
Music played a large part in his life from his early childhood and although in difference to his family’s wishes, he began to studymedicine, he soon abandoned everything that interfered with music, for which he showed a strong aptitude.
His serious study began with piano lessons and composition lessons from a choirmaster ofSevilla Cathedral.
He soon became well-known in Sevilla as a composer and from 1897, as a pianist.
His early successes prompted him to go to Madrid with the intention of arranging to have his opera “LaSulamita”, which treats a biblical subject in a very traditional style, performed at the Teatro Real.
This was an impossible ambition for an unknown provincial composer; But Turina gradually becamewell-known in artistic circles and his friendship with Falla influenced his ideas on the proper character of Spanish music. In 1906 he began to study the piano at the Read Conservatorio Superior deMusica.
Almost the only way for a composer to earn a living in Madrid was a concourse of zarzuelas of the “genero chico” type. But the failure of a short zarzuela, “Fea y con gracia”, discouraged himand the premiere in Sevilla of “la copla” was no more successful.
In 1905 Turina moved to Paris were he studied the piano for a time and worker at composition at the Schola Cantorum under d´Indy(though it was hard to escape the influence of Debussy and other antagonists of the Schola).
Trina’s friendship with Falla continued. In 1907 Turina began to appear as a pianist and composer in differentconcerts in Paris.
Albéniz now joined Falla in advising Turina to seek material in Spanish popular music.
Turina accepted this guidance, and several more pieces were well received shortly afterTrina’s graduation from the schola in 1913. The first major event of his compositional career took place with the premiere of “La procesión Del Rocío”, in Madrid.
The work’s great success was repeated...