Tomas Breton page with free midi's to download

TOMAS BRETON

29thDecember 1850 --- 2ndDecember 1923

I like to sincerely thank Ramón Pajares Box for providing the Bio and music.

This composer Tomas  Breton, a champion of the idea of a Spanish national opera, was born in Salamanca on December 29
1850,  just  some months  before  Ruperto  Chapí,  the  other great opera  and  zarzuela composer of his  generation.  As  a
boy he  was weak, prone to illness and unable to any manual skills, but he proved to have a clever intelligence and a great
love for music.  He learnt  to play violin and  at 14  he was  already concertino in his  hometown local theater.  In 1865  his
family  moved to  Madrid  where he  attended  classes at  Conservatory  and played violin in  a theater.  He also  composed
pantomimes,  quadrilles,  overtures,  dances, waltzes and other minor  pieces. He became  conductor of a circus orchestra
and finishedv his studies at Madrid  Conservatory where Emilio Arrieta taught him composition.  In 1872 he won the  First
Prize in composition, together with his fellow student Chapí.

In  1874 he composed  his first symphony  and began composing  many stage works,  zarzuelas and an opera, Guzmán el
Bueno,  premiered in 1876. In 1880 he was awarded with a scholarship by the Academy of  Fine Arts, which he  employed
in pursuing his musical studies  in Rome, Venice, Vienna and Paris. While in scholarship he composed a second  symphony
an oratorio, an opera, The lovers of Teruel, and the serenade In the Alhambra.

Upon his  return to Spain,  he became  conductor of the Sociedad de  Conciertos Orchestra,  and began  composing  other
operas and zarzuelas.  From this time we have his most famous zarzuela,  La Verbena de la Paloma,  composed in only 19
days and which is  now considered  the most popular  zarzuela ever; the opera La Dolores, without any  Italian  influence
and whose Jota  has passed into history as the most outstanding orchestral  version of the native Aragon’s dance and his
orchestral suite Andalusia Scenes.

During his  later  years he continued  to  conduct and improve his  orchestra performances,  especially the symphonies of
Beethoven, although not in the Wagnrian manner of which Bretón did not approve. He composed several other zarzuelas
and  operas,  but none  reached a  great  success.  We too  have from  him a quintet  for piano  and strings,  three strings
quintets  and  several  choral  pieces.  He became teacher of composition in  the Madrid  Conservatory  and later  he  was
appointed Director of this institution. He died in Madrid on December 2, 1923.

Last Updated on 2017
By Steven Ritchie

And now for the Music

Thanks go to Ramon Pajares Box for the music below.

(584)"Prelude of La Verbena de la Paloma, a zarzuela(sort of light opera)". Sequenced by Ramon Pajares Box

(498)"Escenas Andaluzas"(1894)1. Bolero". Sequenced by Ramon Pajares Box

(547)"Escenas Andaluzas"(1894)2. Polo Gitano". Sequenced by Ramon Pajares Box

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