José Brocá y Codina (in Catalan: Antoni Josep Mateu Brocà i Codina) (21 September 1805 – 3 February 1882) was a Spanish guitarist and composer of the Romantic period.

Life and music

Brocá was born in

Reus Reus () is the capital of Baix Camp, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The area has always been an important producer of wines and spirits, and gained continental importance at the time of the Phylloxera plague. Nowadays it is k ...

province of Tarragona Tarragona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Castellón, Teruel, Zaragoza, Lérida and Barcelona and by the Mediterranean Sea. The province's p ...

. Mainly self-taught on the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, he also studied briefly with

Dionisio Aguado Dionisio, a variant of Dionysius, may refer to: People Given name * Dionisio Lazzari (1617-1689), Italian sculptor and architect * Dionisio Aguado y García (1784-1849), Spanish classical guitarist and composer * Papa Isio (1846-1911), Dionisio Ma ...

. He was reputed to have been an excellent performer on his instrument. As a teacher based in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, his best-known pupils included

Felipe Pedrell Felip Pedrell Sabaté (Spanish: Felipe) (19 February 1841 – 19 August 1922) was a Catalan composer, guitarist and musicologist. Life Pedrell was born in Tortosa (Catalonia), and sang as a boy soprano at Tortosa Cathedral from age 9, where he ...

and

José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime, w ...

who both dedicated compositions to him (and vice versa). He was a friend to

Julián Arcas Julián Arcas (25 October 1832 – 16 February 1882) was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer, who influenced Francisco Tárrega and Antonio de Torres. He was "one of the most important figures in Spanish music in the 19th century". Biogra ...

. In his teaching, Brocá used Aguado's method. Brocá died in Barcelona. Brocá composed around twenty works for the guitar; Bone (1914/54) singles out his opus 19 (''Fantasia and Tone Poem'') as his "principal guitar composition".Bone, as above, p. 60. Brocá's music was praised for its elegance and its stylistic proximity to Tárrega's, despite being several decades older.

Compositions for guitar

Dates after online catalogue of

Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by ...

. *''El destino''. Fantasía para guitarra (1864) *''El cortesano''. Schotisch (1864) *''Andante sentimental'' (1870) *''Andante'' (1885) *''El catalán''. Vals (1885) *''Fantasía'' (1886) *''Recuerdo triste''. Melodía (1886) *''Crepúsculos''. Tres valses 81886) *''El último canto''. Fantasía con variaciones (1886) *''Recuerdos juveniles''. Tres valses (1886) *''Tres piezas fáciles'' (1886) *''Albores''. Tres valses (1886) *''El veloz''. Vals (1886) *''El elegante''. Vals (1886) *''El patinador''. Schotisch (1886) *''La amistad''. Fantasía con variaciones (1886) *''Fantasía'' (1886) *''Una flor''. Mazurka (1886) *''Pensamiento español'' (1886) *''El ay''. Vals (1886) *''Un adiós'' (1886) *''Alegreto'' (1886)

References

External links

*Free scores b
Brocá
on

IMSLP The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki software ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broca, Jose 1805 births 1882 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century guitarists 19th-century Spanish male musicians Composers for the classical guitar Composers from Catalonia People from Reus Spanish classical composers Spanish classical guitarists Spanish male classical composers Spanish male guitarists Spanish Romantic composers