Eduardo López-Chavarri

Eduardo López-Chavarri Marco
(b Valencia, 29 Jan 1871; d Valencia, 28 Oct 1970). Spanish musicologist andcomposer.

He obtained a law degree from the University of Valencia (1896) and a doctorate in law from the Central University in Madrid (1900); as a musician he was mainly self-taught, though he had private studies in composition with Pedrell and piano lessons in France, Italy and Germany. He studied musicology in Germany, and harmony there with Salomon Jadassohn. Following a brief career as a lawyer he became a distinguished composer and critic, choral and orchestral conductor, lecturer and teacher. From 1898 until shortly before his death he was music critic for the Valencian daily Las provincias. In 1903 he founded and directed the Valencian Chamber Orchestra, which enabled him to perform works by eastern Spanish composers, including his own, thereby succeeding Salvador Giner (1832–1911) in the role of spokesman for the regional Valencian school of contemporary Spanish music. He also conducted the orchestra of the Teatro Principal (1906), and was guest conductor for the symphony orchestras of Madrid, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Oviedo and Valencia. From 1910 to 1921 he was professor of aesthetics and music history at the Valencia Conservatory, where he also directed both the orchestra and chamber orchestra. From 1943 he served as musical adviser for the Sección Femenina and wrote many works for its chorus. His compositions show a great diversity of styles and instrumental combinations, with extensive use of traditional melodies; he has collected c200 songs and dances from the coastal regions of Valencia and Alicante in the unpublished Cancionera de Valencia. Among his publications are numerous translations of studies of late 19th- and early 20th-century composers, and of some important writings by Schumann, Kufferath and Marcello; the most valuable, however, are his Música popular española, a fundamental study of Spanish traditional music, and Historia de la música. He was an honorary member of the Faculty of Arts, London University, and a member of various academies in Spain (S Carlos, Valencia; Fernando, Madrid; Bellas Letras, Córdoba and Barcelona).