Juan Cris - Your Art History Reference Guide!

ArtHistoryClub Information Site on Juan Cris Art History Art History Search        Art History Browse welcome to our free resource site for all art history lovers!
Art History Search        Art History Browse             News        Gallery        Forums        Articles        Weblinks        welcome to our free resource site for all art history lovers!

Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga

Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola (January 27, 1806January 17, 1826) was a Spanish composer, nicknamed the "Spanish Mozart."

He was born in Bilbao, where his father and older brother prepared him to be a child prodigy. He studied the violin under Pierre Baillot, and counterpoint and harmony under François-Joseph Fétis at the Paris Conservatoire. He was so good, he soon became a teaching assistant in Fétis's class. Arriaga died in Paris at the age of nineteen, of a lung ailment, or exhaustion, perhaps both.

The amount of music by Arriaga which has survived to the present day is quite small, but despite his early death includes an opera (Los esclavos felices (The Happy Slaves), 1820), a Symphony in D (which uses D major and D minor so equally as to not actually be in either key) and three string quartets.

Following his early death, with the only reliable biographical material being some reports by Fétis, Arriaga's life story was fictionalized to play into rising Spanish nationalism.

Last updated: 06-09-2005 12:56:44
Last updated: 01-04-2007 01:18:57
The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the
GNU Free Documentation License. See original document.
Art History Search | Art History Browse | Contact | Legal info