B  I O G R A P H Y

Ernesto Lecuona was the most important musician in Cuban musical life during the first half of the 20th century. Born in Guanabacoa, a suburb of Havana, in 1895, Lecuona first established himself as an outstanding pianist, graduating from the National Conservatory with the Gold Medal in performance at the age of seventeen. He went to New York City to concertize and there, in 1916, made his first public appearance outside of Havana.International success as a pianist occurred seven years later, once more in New York but by then composition had become his primary musical activity.

Among Lecuona's many achievements were the founding of the Havana Symphony (with Gonzalo Roig), the Lecuona Cuban Boys Band, and La Orquesta de La Habana. Lecuona wrote a great deal of film music in the '30s and '40s for such major studios as MGM, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers and, in 1942, was nominated for an Academy Award . A biography of the composer, Ernesto Lecuona: the Genius and his Music, in a new English translation by Professor Rafael A. Lecuona, has just been published and can be obtained by ordering from this web site if you follow the link.

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W  O R K S

Piano Music
	Vocal Music and Stage Works
		Orchestral Music
			Film Scores

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PIANO MUSIC

Lecuona's piano music is an important and very significant contribution to 20th century music. In all, the composer wrote 176 pieces for piano solo. Among the most famous are the six which comprise the Andalucia Suite.

They are Cordoba, Andaluza, Alhambra, Gitanerias, Guadalquivir and Malagueña . Other well-known works are Ante El Escorial, Zambra Gitana, Aragonesa, Granada, San Francisco El Grande, Aragon and La Habanera . There are many more, and all of it is being recorded by Thomas Tirino for BIS Records.

Vocal Music and Stage Works

Lecuona was a composer with a prodigious melodic gift. There is nothing quite like a Lecuona song and the composer wrote 406 of them. Many of these great melodies were adapted, arranged and rearranged over the years for various instrumental and vocal combinations both by Lecuona and many others. Siboney , Siempre En Mi Corazon, Dame de tus Rosas, and Noche Azul are among the most famous. This web site now has a wonderful sheet music collection of songs. Click on the link to go to the covers page. To obtain a song, e-mail the webmaster. Throughout much of his life, Lecuona was extremely active in the musical theatres of Cuba, Spain, and Latin America as composer, conductor and pianist.

A prolific theatre composer, he wrote zarzuelas, operettas, theatre reviews, ballets,and an opera. Today, he is remembered principally for his great zarzuelas. The most famous ones, still performed, are Maria La O, El Cafetal, and Rosa La China . Lecuona's most ambitious theatre work was the opera, El Sombrero de Yarey , which he worked on it for several years but, to this day, remains unperformed. A reason for this, unfortunately, is that much of the opera has been lost and only portions remain; the complete score has not been seen since the composer's death in 1963.

Orchestral Music

Altogether, there are 37 works for orchestra by Lecuona. These include three for piano and orchestra. One of them,the great Rapsodia Negra , a grand fantasy on themes from the zarzuela, El Cafetal , is the composer's most famous orchestral composition.

Lecuona rarely orchestrated his works often leaving this task to close friends and colleagues. Many of the orchestral works, like the Rapsodia Negra , are potpourris on themes from other works by the composer.Lecuona often used the term mosaica to describe them.

Film Scores

Lecuona wrote 11 film scores for Hollywood, Spanish, and Latin American studios. In 1942, he was nominated for an AcademyAward for music to the movie Always in My Heart , produced by Warner Brothers. From this film comes one of Lecuona's greatest songs, Siempre En Mi Corazon. Other Hollywood films with his music are The Vogues of 1938 (United Artists), later titled All This and Glamour Too , which featured the song Siboney and When You're in Love, also featuring Siboney (Columbia Pictures) and One More Tomorrow (Warner Brothers).

The hilarious Carnival in Costa Rica , also from Warner Brothers, (1947), is said to feature Lecuona as himself (bandleader) performing on screen. This is incorrect. It appears to be Armando Orrefiche leading the band in the movie's big production number. Caesar Romero, Celeste Holm, Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen head the cast. For MGM, Lecuona wrote Under Cuban Skies (1931), Free Soul (1931), Susana Lenox (1931), Pearl Harbor (year unknown) and The Cross and the Sword (also year unknown). Films for countries outside the United States, in which Lecuona supplied the music, are Maria La O, (Mexico), Adios Buenos Aries (Argentina) and La Ultima, (Cuba).