Vicente Asencio y Ruano (29 October 1908 – 4 April 1979) was a Spanish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. He is perhaps best known for his works for

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 ...

of which guitarists

Andrés Segovia Andrés Segovia Torres, 1st Marquis of Salobreña (21 February 1893 – 2 June 1987) was a Spanish virtuoso classical guitarist. Many professional classical guitarists were students of Segovia or their students. Segovia's contribution to the m ...

and

Narciso Yepes Narciso Yepes (14 November 19273 May 1997) was a Spanish guitarist. He is considered one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century. Biography Yepes was born into a family of humble origin in Lorca, Region of Murcia. ...

were notable exponents.

Life

Born in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, Asencio began his musical training as a boy with his father. After studying

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

Castellón de la Plana Castellón de la Plana (officially in ca-valencia, Castelló de la Plana), or simply Castellón ( ca-valencia, Castelló, link=no) is the capital city of the province of Castellón, in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is located in the east ...

with Emilio Bou, he moved to

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 ...

to pursue studies at the ''Academia Frank Marshall'' with Frank Marshall and

Enric Morera i Viura Enric Morera i Viura (; 22 May 1865 – 11 March 1942) was a Spanish musician and composer. Career Morera was born in Barcelona but moved with his father, a musician, to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1867, studying organ, trumpet, and violin ther ...

. He also studied privately in that city with

Joaquín Turina Joaquín Turina Pérez (9 December 188214 January 1949) was a Spanish composer of classical music.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online (2014)"Joaquín Turina"/ref> Biography Turina was born in Seville. He studied in Seville as well as in Mad ...

and

Ernesto Halffter Ernesto Halffter Escriche (16 January 19055 July 1989) was a Spanish composer and conductor. He was the brother of Rodolfo Halffter and part of the ''Grupo de los Ocho'' ( en, Group of Eight), which formed a sub-set of the ''Generation of '27''. ...

. He also studied

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

in Paris and Milan. Asencio began composing in the early 1920s, and his first major success was the

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

'' Fuego de Fiesta'' (1926). His earlier music displays an evident influence of the composer

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first hal ...

. In 1932 he founded the Conservatorio de Música de Castellón de la Plana with violinist Abel Mus. In 1934 he helped formed the ''Grupo de los Jóvenes'', a group of talented young musicians in Valencia whose members also included Vicente Garcés and Ricardo Olmos among others. In 1943 Asencio married one of his pupils, the composer and painter Matilde Salvador. They became one of the most influential artistic couples in the Valencia music scene. Asencio, who was technically better prepared than his wife, worked with her in orchestrating many of her works, including her opera ''Vinatea'' which premiered at the

Liceu The Gran Teatre del Liceu (, English: Great Theatre of the Lyceum), known as ''El Liceu'', is an opera house in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Located in La Rambla, it is the oldest running theatre in Barcelona. Founded in 1837 at another loca ...

in 1974. In 1953 Asencio joined the music faculty at the Valencia Conservatory where he taught for many years. Among his notable pupils was composer

José Evangelista José Evangelista (5 August 1943 – 10 January 2023) was a Spanish composer and music educator who was based in Montreal, Canada. He was professor of composition at the Université de Montréal from 1979 to 2009. A member of the Canadian Leagu ...

. He died in Valencia after a long illness.

Music

Asencio's best-known works for the guitar are ''Elegía a Manuel de Falla'' (1946), ''Sonatina'' (1949), ''Collectici Íntim'' (1965), and ''Dipso'' (1973). He also wrote music for several successful

s, most notably ''La casada infiel'' (1949) which is considered his best work in that genre. A number of the songs from that ballet were later transcribed by the composer for the guitar. He also wrote a considerable amount of

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l music, including ''Preludio a la Dama de Elche'' (1949); ''Sonada alegre'' (1954); ''Llanto a Manuel de Falla'' (1955), and ''Danzas Valencianas'' (1963).

Sources

* *Bernardo Adam Ferrero. ''Músicos Valencianos''. Ed. Proip, S.A. 1988. València. *Diversos Autors. ''Historia de la Música de la Comunidad Valenciana''. Editorial Prensa Valenciana, S.A. 1992. *Article ''Asencio Ruano, Vicente'' de l' ''Enciclopedia de la Comunidad Valenciana''. Editorial Prensa Valenciana. València, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Asencio, Vicente 1908 births 1979 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Spanish musicians Composers for the classical guitar Spanish classical composers Spanish music educators