Goyescas ... [Solo piano]

Madrid: Sociedad Anonima Casa Dotésio [PNs 42037, 42038, 42039, 42450], 1914. Quarto (330 x 265 mm). Original publisher's gray wrappers with a reproduction of Francesco Goya's etching "Tal para cual" to upper within decorative border printed in brown, publisher's advertisements to verso of lower. 1f. (recto title printed in sepia, verso blank), 44 pp.

With facsimile signature handstamp of the composer ("E. Granados") to lower margin of title.

Wrappers slightly,worn, browned, and chipped; bookseller's handstamp to upper, title, and first page "La Lira..." Uniformly browned. First Edition, later issue.

Composed 1909-11. Premiered in Barcelona at the Palau de la Música Catalana on 11 March 1911 (nos. 1-3) and in Paris at Salle Pleyel on 2 April 1914 (nos. 4-6). Both premiered given by the composer.

"When Newman described the Goyescas as 'the finest written-out improvisation', he laid bare the essence of Granados, whose compositions owe far more to the spontaneity of his Romantic imagination than to the laborious working out of ideas. Indeed, by his own account, his greatest music often emerged in the white heat of inspiration, at the piano, and he often wrote his music straight out in virtually its final version. This spontaneous approach may also account for his frequent habit of self-quotation, his tendency rarely to date his manuscripts, and the occasional careless 'errors' in the music. ...Granados made a significant contribution to the development of a national Spanish school and, though he is often considered more conservative than Albéniz or Falla, the degree to which native elements inform his music should not be underestimated, even if he must ultimately be reckoned a lesser figure." Mark Larrad in Grove Music Online.