Gerónimo Giménez y Bellido (10 October 1854 – 19 February 1923) was a Spanish conductor and composer, who dedicated his career to writing

zarzuela () is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name o ...

s, such as ''La tempranica'' and ''La boda de Luis Alonso''. He preferred to spell his first name with a "G", even though his name at birth officially began with a "J". Written in Spanish, a very comprehensive biographical exposition by Ascensión García de las Mozas may be found at the Universidad de Cádiz institutional repository of Research and Learning Objects (RODIN) https://rodin.uca.es/bitstream/handle/10498/7788/33195031.pdf?sequence=1

Career

Giménez was born in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

. A son of the Granada musician José María Giménez and his wife Antonia Bellido, he moved with his family to the city of Cadiz, where he soon became a choirboy. Although the details of his early years are not entirely certain, Giménez spent his childhood and adolescence in

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

. A

child prodigy A child prodigy is, technically, a child under the age of 10 who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to describe young people who are extraordinarily talented in some f ...

, he began music lessons with his father and continued his education with Salvador Viniegra. By the age of 12, he was already playing among the first violins of the Teatro Principal orchestra in Cádiz. Five years later, he became the director of an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

and zarzuela company, making his debut in

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

with a production of

Giovanni Pacini Giovanni Pacini (11 February 17966 December 1867) was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas. The fam ...

's ''Safo''. A scholarship permitted Giménez to enrol at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

in June 1874, where he studied

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

with Jean-Delphin Alard and composition with

Ambroise Thomas Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (; 5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas ''Mignon'' (1866) and ''Hamlet (opera), Hamlet'' (1868). Born into a musical family, Thomas was a student at the C ...

. He received first prizes for

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

and

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

. After graduation, he traveled to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and then returned to Spain, settling in Madrid. In 1885, he was appointed director of Teatro Apolo de Madrid and shortly afterwards of the Teatro de la Zarzuela.

Ruperto Chapí Ruperto Chapí y Lorente (27 March 1851 – 25 March 1909) was a Spanish composer, and co-founder of the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers. Biography Chapí was born at Villena, the son of a loc ...

commissioned him to write the openings to his zarzuelas ''El milagro de la Virgen'' and ''La bruja''. As a conductor of the Sociedad de Conciertos de Madrid, Giménez helped cultivate the tastes of audiences in Madrid for symphonic music. According to "those who have seem him conduct ndhave transmitted to us the memory of his performances of great strength and great enthusiasm ��he obtained with imperceptible gestures what he wanted from the orchestra." A prolific composer, Giménez also collaborated with the leading authors of ''

sainete A sainete (farce or titbit) was a popular Spanish comic opera piece, a one-act dramatic vignette, with music. It was often placed at the end of entertainments, or between other types of performance. It was vernacular in style, and used scenes of lo ...

s'' (a comic genre found in Spanish theatre), including Ricardo de la Vega, Carlos Arniches, the brothers Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero, and

Javier de Burgos Francisco Javier de Burgos y del Olmo (22 October 1778—22 January 1848) was a Spanish jurist, politician, journalist, and translator. Early life and career Born in Motril, into a noble but poor family, he was destined for a career in the ...

, to obtain the libretti for his zarzuelas. He co-wrote the music of a number of his works with

Amadeo Vives Amadeu Vives i Roig (; 18 November 1871 – 2 December 1932) was a Spaniard, Spanish musical composer, creator of over a hundred stage works. He is best known for ''Doña Francisquita'', which Christopher Webber has praised for its "easy lyrici ...

, who hailed him the "musician of elegance" because of his sense of

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

and easy

melodies A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term ca ...

. In 1896, Giménez wrote ''El mundo comedia es'', subtitled ''El baile de Luis Alonso'', based on a text by Javier de Burgos. Following the success of this piece, he set to music another ''sainete'' by Burgos with the same characters, which became one of his most famous works: ''La boda de Luis Alonso'', subtitled ''La noche del encierro'' (1897). This second work, which achieved much greater success than the first, was actually meant to be a prequel, not a sequel. ''La tempranica'' was perhaps his most ambitious and successful work. Presented at the Teatro de la Zarzuela on 19 September 1900, it followed a text by Julián Romea. Giménez skillfully managed to combine moments of intense lyricism with scenes of colloquial explosion in a zarzuela which, according to Carlos Gómez Amat, "had all the qualities of the genre and none of the faults". Roger Alier: ''La Zarzuela'', ed. S. L. Robinbook (Barcelona, 2002); The influence of Giménez is often noticeable in the compositions of subsequent Spanish composers such as Joaquín Turina and

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was a 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 half of the 20t ...

(especially the stylistic correspondences between ''La tempranica'' and the latter's

'' La vida breve''). Federico Moreno Torroba adapted the celebrated zarzuela into an opera by setting the spoken parts to music. In 1939, Joaquín Rodrigo also paid his respects with a ''Homenaje a la tempranica'', which contained a solo part for

castanet Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument ( idiophonic), used in Spanish, Calé, Moorish, Ottoman, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Sephardic, Portuguese, Filipino, Brazilian, and Swiss music. In ancient ...

s. Beyond dramatic works for the stage, Giménez also wrote three

cadenza In music, a cadenza, (from , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist(s), usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display ...

s to

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

. Towards the end of his life, Giménez lived in a precarious economic situation, which was made worse by the Madrid Conservatory's refusal to grant him a professorship in

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

. He died in Madrid aged 68.

References

External links

* ''Gerónimo Giménez: faceta humana y profesional by Ascensión García de las Mozas'': https://rodin.uca.es/bitstream/handle/10498/7788/33195031.pdf?sequence=1 * ''Los Voluntarios March'': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWnj_HfoYf8 * ''La Boda de Luis Alonso'': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMCB4x6PLPU {{DEFAULTSORT:Gimenez, Geronimo 1854 births 1923 deaths 19th-century Spanish classical composers 19th-century Spanish conductors (music) 19th-century Spanish male musicians 20th-century Spanish classical composers 20th-century male composers 20th-century Spanish conductors (music) 20th-century Spanish male musicians Conservatoire de Paris alumni Spanish male classical violinists Spanish male conductors (music) Spanish male opera composers Spanish classical violinists Spanish opera composers Spanish Romantic composers