August 2012

Why Was Arriaga Called The Spanish Mozart

Well, for a start, it was NOT because his music sounded like Mozart. Juan Cristostomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola (1806-26) died shortly before his 20th birthday but during his short life showed tremendous promise. He was born in the Spanish-Basque city of Bilbao. His father was a part-time musician, and it did not escape his notice that Juan been born on the 50th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. As a result, he gave his son the first two Christian names of the famous Austrian. (Mozart’s full baptismal name was Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart--in German Johann Christoph Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart.) It was for this reason and his prodigious talent that Arriaga after his death came to be known as the “Spanish Mozart.” Interestingly, his music sounds more like Schubert—whose music he was unlikely ever to have heard—–than that of either Mozart or Haydn.

A child prodigy, by age 10, he was playing 2nd violin in a professional string quartet and had written an Octet for String Quartet, Bass, Trumpet, Guitar and Piano. Like Mozart, Arriaga composed his first opera, Los Esclavos Felices (The Happy Slaves) at the age of 13. It was performed immediately and enjoyed considerable local success. Recognizing that their son was more than just talented, Arriaga’s parents decided to send him to Paris to further his musical education. There he studied violin with Baillot and composition with Fetis, the well-known music historian. Fetis later wrote that Arriaga mastered harmony in three months and counterpoint in under two years. By 1824, at the age of 18, Arriaga was appointed to teach harmony and counterpoint at the Conservatory. His three string quartets, which were composed during 1821-22 at the age of 15, were the only works published during his lifetime. These quartets are, in fact, first rate works, but only the first can be called Spanish-sounding. All three are available from Edition Silvertrust either individually or as a set and you can hear soundbites of all of them on our website.

Having died at 19, is it any wonder that Arriaga is not better known. Just think---if Mozart or Mendelssohn or Schubert, all of whom died before they were 40, had died before they were 20, would they have achieved the fame they did based only on what they had composed up until that time? In the case of Arriaga, one is left to wonder what he might have composed had he lived to 35 as Mozart did.