Ángel Oliver Pina

Ángel Oliver Pina. Photo sourced from Discogs

Ángel Oliver Pina (b. Moyuela, January 2nd 1937 - d. Madrid, April 25th 2005) was a Spanish Aragonese composer.

Biography

He was introduced by his father to the world of music, and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid while at the same time being an organist at the Church of the University City. He stayed at the conservatory as a teacher since 1965 and won a scholarship awarded by the institution to continue his training at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. During his Italian stay (1966-1969) he was an organist of the Church of Santa María de Montserrat de los Españoles and attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana (1967) before finally returning to Spain.

Back in his country, in 1970 he achieved the position of professor at the Guadalajara School of Teaching and was awarded a grant by the March Foundation for which he composed several works. In 1973 he participated in the Darmstadt Summer Courses, which he would attend again in 1975. The 1970s and 1980s were his most productive period as a composer, winning awards such as the City of Zaragoza Prize (1976) or the Cristóbal Halffter Prize (1980). His work shows a predilection for the organ, the instrument in which he had specialized as a student, and a theme abundant in religious motifs and related to Spanish folklore, as well as in references to the history of music that he taught as a teacher.

This pedagogical interest was constant in his career and remained strongly linked to the teaching of music. He taught musical courses in Segovia (1980-1986), at the University of Alcalá de Henares (1990) and at the Reina Sofía School of Music (1991-2002). He was also the author of various musical treatises¹ and a member of the jury for various music awards.

Selected Works

• Six Spanish songs for voice and piano (1963).
• Four songs for voice and piano (1964).
• Three movements for orchestra (1965).
• Eclogues on the birth and death of Christ (1965).
• Soledad, based on a text by Antonio Machado for voice and clarinet (1966)
• Antiphons for mixed choir.
• Sonata homenaje to Scarlatti para piano.
• Psalm CXXX for mixed choir to five voices (1967).
• The Servant of Yahweh for baritone, choir and orchestra (1969).
• String trio (1967-1968).
• Riflessi for orchestra.
• Interpolations for wind quintet (1970).
• Psychogram No. 1 (1970).
• Casida del sediento for voice and piano (1972)
• Catalog for flute (1972).
• Introspection I for harp (1973).
• Omicron 73 (1973).
• Red Ears (1973).
• Ayúdanos, Señor For the V Sunday of Lent for choir and organ (1973).
• Ofrenda del Vía Crucis, to verses by Gerardo Diego for soprano and piano (1973).
• Bariolage for solo violin (1973).
• Casida del sediento, to verses by Miguel Hernández for alto and piano.
• Epitaph for Gerardo Gombau for violin and piano.
• Episodes for thirty-four bowed instruments.
• Duets (1974)
• Chamber Groups (instrumental ensemble) (1975).
• Small suite in the old style for flute and piano (version for flute and string orchestra) (1975).
• Psychogram No. 3 for violin, viola, cello and piano (1975).
• Only the river sounds, to verses by Antonio Machado for a choir with eight mixed voices (1975).
• Duets (1975).
• D'Improvviso para viola y piano (1976).
• Verses a cuatro (1976).
• Collection of children's pieces, on popular Spanish themes I and II for piano (1976-1979).
• Piel de toro, imaginary ballet for percussion and piano (1977).
• Pregnancies for a percussionist (1977).
• Promenade for piano.
• Aorist for chamber orchestra (1977).
• Capriccio para piano.
• Proemio par orquesta).
• Laisses for clarinet quintet (1978).
• Short pieces for children for piano for four hands.
• French popular songs (1978).
• Studium (electroacoustic music) (1978).
• Planctus for horn and organ (1978).
• Two rhymes by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: Rhymes XVII and XLIV for mixed choir (1979).
• Nunc (string orchestra) (1979-1986)
• Cervantes triptych (1980)
• Eight popular Spanish songs for a choir with three white voices (1980).
• Asturian triptych for mixed choir (1980).
• Soliloquio I para oboe (1980).
• Song and dance for four mixed voices (1981).
• Ofa for orchestra (1981).
• Salve Regina for choir and organ (1982).
• Concerto for viola and orchestra (1983).
• In memoriam Ángel Arteaga for instrumental ensemble (1984).
• Mountain song and dance for cello and piano (1985-1986).
• Quartet No. 1 for violins, viola and cello (1986).
• Unknown (1986-1987).
• El pastorcito for choir, organ and orchestra (1989-1990).
• Hymn to San Juan de la Cruz (1990).
• Trio: homage to César Franck on the centenary of his death for violin, cello and piano (1990).
• Two pieces for guitar (1991-1992).
• Three love sonnets about poems by Pablo Neruda (1991-1992).
• Symphonic cuttings for orchestra (1992).
• Soliloquy II for viola (1994).
• Music for three initials for orchestra (1994).
• Bagatelas, for the cello (1994).
• Omaggio for clarinet, cello and piano (1994).
• Litanies of Madrid (1994-1995)
• A page for Radio Clásica for violin, cello and piano (1995).
• Offering to Manuel de Falla for harpsichord (1995).
• Short Suite (1996)
• Introduction, slow and final for cello (1997).
• Improvisatory miniatures -in memoriam Paco Guerrero for organ (1998).
• Lullaby for voice and piano (1999)
• Ave Maria (2000).
• Epsilon for instrumental ensemble (2000).
• Approach to a counterpoint by Bach for instrumental ensemble (2000).
• Four tientos for organ (2000).
• Music for María Moliner (Evocation and Prayer) for organ (2000)
• Two summer preludes (2001).
• Courtship for organ (2001).
• Recitative dialogue for flute and orchestra (2002).
• Quartet No. 2 for violins, viola and cello (2003).
• Readings of Don Quixote (2004).

Awards

• "Jesús Guridi" composition award from the Madrid Royal Conservatory for Three movements for orchestra (1965).
• Grand Prize of Rome from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, for Eclogues on the birth and death of Christ (1965).
• Honorary Award from the Castellblanch Art Endowment in the II Basque Choral Composition Contest for the work Arets gorri (1973).
• Silver Harp of the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks by Omicron 73.
• Special mention of the jury in the international composition competition "Ciudad de Zaragoza", for Versos a cuatro (1974).
• First prize of the IOC, permanent course of composition of chamber music of the General Commissariat of Music by Duos (1975).
• "Cristóbal Halffter" national prize in the first composition competition for organ works, for Cervantes Triptych (1980). ²
• First prize "Caja de Ahorros de Asturias" in a national choral composition competition on Asturian themes, with his work Song and dance (1981). ³
• First prize in the «V Reina Sofía International Composition Competition», of the Ferrer-Salat Music Foundation, for Nunc (1987). ⁴

References

1. Registry in the National Library of Spain
2. "Angel Oliver, Cristóbal Halffter Prize for Organ Composition" . The Country . December 31, 1980.
3. "Angel Oliver, winner of the IV Asturian Choral Composition Contest" . The Country . June 2, 1981.
4. Fundació de Musica Ferrer Salat, ed. (2015, September 9). "Winners / Reina Sofía Awards". Archived from the original on February 19, 2018. Retrieved on 2016 August 16.
5. Oliver Pina, Angel. Great Aragonese Encyclopedia. January 4, 2007. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
6. Biography at the March Foundation
7. Biography on the municipal website of his hometown

Text adapted from the Spanish Wikipedia