Joaquín Turina

Following the pioneering work of his countryman Manuel da Falla, Turina was a major figure in the establishment of a distinctive Spanish national style in classical music. Born in Seville in 1882, he studied there, then went on to Paris. There, he was hugely impressed by the music of Debussy and Ravel, not least by the way they used elements of Spanish folk music to evoke a dreamlike, ecstatic atmosphere, powerfully evocative of his own country and its culture. The music of his native Andalusian region in particular flavoured his own music, especially his operas Margot and Jardín de Oriente and his brilliant Danzas fantásticas for piano and orchestra, which quickly became popular. He also wrote several pieces for guitar, notably for the world-famous Spanish virtuoso Segovia. In 1931 Turina was made professor of composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, where he was an influential teacher for many years. He died in Madrid in 1949.