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Moisés Simons (born Moisés Simón Rodríguez; 24 August 1889 in Havana, Cuba – 28 June 1945 in
Madrid, Spain Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
),''Toi, c'est moi''
''L'Encyclopédie multimedia de la comédie musicale théâtrale en France''
was a leading Cuban composer,
pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...
, and orchestra leader. He was the composer of ''El Manisero'' (''
The Peanut Vendor "El manisero", known in English as "The Peanut Vendor", is a Cuban son- pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with " Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician. "The Peanut Vendor" has been rec ...
'' in English) which is considered by many to be the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician and has since been recorded by other musicians from around the world hundreds of times.


Biography


Early years

Moisés Simons was born on 24 August 1889 in Havana,
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. The son of a Basque musician, he started studying music with his father, Leandro Simón Guergué. By the age of 9, he was the organist at his local church in the barrio of Jesús María and choirmaster of the Pilar church. At 15, he undertook advanced studies under various maestros in composition, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and instrumentation.


Career

Later, Simons became a concert pianist and musical director of lyric theater companies. He worked at the
Teatro Martí Teatro Martí is a Neoclassical theater in Havana, Cuba. It was inaugurated on 8 June 1884 as the Teatro Irijoa, named after its founder and owner Ricardo Irijoa, from the Basque Country, Spain. It was originall used for the performance of za ...
, where musical comedies by Ernesto Lecuona were performed. He then moved to the ''Teatro Payret'' under contract to the Spanish composer, Vicente Lleó, who directed a zarzuela company with whom he toured throughout Latin American including
Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
, the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
,
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
, and
Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
. In 1924, Simons founded a
jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ...
which played on the roof garden of the Plaza Hotel in Havana. It consisted of
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
,
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 ...
, alto and
tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
s, flute,
banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
,
double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
, drums, and
timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfi ...
. With Simons on piano, other members included Virgilio Diego on violin, Alberto Socarrás on alto sax and flute, José Ramón Betancourt on tenor sax, and Pablo O'Farrill on double bass. In 1928 while still at the same venue, Simons hired the famous
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...
er, Julio Cueva, as well as vocalist and drummer, Enrique Santiesteban. These were top instrumentalists were garnered top fees in those times of $8 a day. Simons did research into the history of Cuban music publishing his articles in newspapers and magazines. He wrote the scores for stage shows and even several films. He was president of the Association of Musical Solidarity and the technical director of the Society of Wind Orchestras. Simons was renowned as a composer during the era of afrocubanismo, the time between World War I and World War II when the contributions of Afro-Cubans to Cuban culture were finally gaining recognition. Other celebrated composers during this Afro-Cuban awakening were Alejandro García Caturla, Amadeo Roldán, Ernesto Lecuona, Eliseo Grenet, Gonzalo Roig,
Rodrigo Prats Rodrigo Prats (February 7, 1909 – September 15, 1980) was a Cuban composer, arranger, violinist, pianist and orchestral director. Biography The son of a musician, Jaime Prats, Rodrigo began to study music at the age of nine. He studie ...
, and Jorge Anckermann.


Later years

For much of the 1930s, Simons lived and worked in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
, mostly in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
, and was still there when
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
broke out. He was finally able to return to Cuba in 1942. He then moved to the Spanish
Canary Island The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...
of
Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...
and later to Madrid, Spain where he signed a contract to provide music for the film, ''Bambú'', which included his last known composition, ''Hoy Como Ayer'' (''Today Like Yesterday'' in English). Moisés Simons died in Madrid, Spain, on 28 June 1945. He was 55.


'' El Manisero''

The fame of ''El Manisero'' ''(The Peanut Vendor)'' led to Simons' own worldwide recognition. It sold over a million copies of
sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, A ...
for E.B. Marks Inc., and this netted $100,000 in royalties for Simons by 1943.Sublette, Ned 2004. ''Cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo''. Chicago. Chapter 27: The Peanut Vendor. Its success led to a 'rumba craze' in the US and Europe which lasted until the 1940s. The consequences of the Peanut Vendor's success was thus quite far-reaching. The number was first recorded and released by singer Rita Montaner in either 1927 or 1928 on
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
. The biggest hit for ''El Manisero'' came from the 1930 recording released by Don Azpiazú and his Havana Casino Orchestra in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
on Victor Records. The band included a number of star musicians such as Julio Cueva (trumpet) and Mario Bauza (saxophone); Antonio Machín was the singer. There seems to be no authoritative account of the number of 78rpm records of this recording sold by Victor; but it seems likely that the number would have exceeded the sheet music sales, making it the first million-selling record of Cuban (or even Latin) music. The
lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer ...
were based on a street vendors' cry, a pregón; and the rhythm was a son, so technically this was a ''son-pregón''. On the record label, however, it was called a ''rhumba'', not only the wrong genre, but misspelled as well. On the published score both music and lyrics are attributed to Simons, though there is a persistent story that they were written by Gonzalo G. de Mello in Havana the night before Montaner was due to record it in New York. Cristóbal Díaz says "For various reasons, we have doubts about this version... ''El Manisero'' was one of those rare cases in popular music where an author got immediate and substantial financial benefits... logically Mello would have tried to reclaim his authorship of the lyrics, but that did not occur." The second attack on the authorship of the lyrics came from none other than the great Fernando Ortíz. For Ortíz, the true author was an unknown Havana peanut seller, of the second half of the 19th century, who served as the basis for a danza written by
Gottschalk Gottschalk or Godescalc ( Old High German) is a male German name that can be translated literally as "servant of God". Latin forms include ''Godeschalcus'' and ''Godescalcus''. Given name * Godescalc of Benevento, 8th-century Lombard duke *Godesca ...
. Of course, it may well be that elements of the song were to be found in real life. The English version is by
Gilbert Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...
and Sunshine; the latter was Azpizú's sister-in-law, who toured with the band in the US as singer. According to Sublette, the English lyrics are of almost unsurpassed banality. In 1947, ''The Peanut Vendor'' had a second life as a hit number when
Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Ke ...
and his big band recorded and released it on
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
. It was such a popular hit for Kenton that he would go on to rerecord it for a second time. Several films included versions of ''El Manisero''. It appeared in the MGM movie, ''The Cuban Song'', with Ernesto Lecuona as musical advisor;
Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in ''The ...
sang a fragment of the song in the 1954 film, '' A Star is Born''.


Other works

Simons' musical compositions include lyric theater scores for the following operettas or zarzuelas: ''Deuda De Amor'', ''La Negra Quirina'', ''Le Chant Des Tropiques'', ''Niña Mercé'', and ''Toi, c'est Moi'' ‒ several of which were premiered in Paris during the 1930s. ''Toi, c'est Moi'', the operetta co-written with popular French novelist,
Henri Duvernois Henri Duvernois (4 March 1875 in Paris - 30 January 1937 in Paris) was a French novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Filmography *''La Guitare et le Jazz-band'', directed by Gaston Roudès (1923, based on the play ''La Guitare et le Jazz-b ...
, and starring Simone Simon, opened at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris in September 1934. The work consisted of a series of extremely varied numbers punctuated by humorous comedy scenes. The Cuban-born
musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...
, Alejo Carpentier, praised Simons' excellent musical and technical accomplishment saying that ''Toi C'est Moi'' was by far the peak of Simons' creative career.Carpentier, Alejo 1934. Moisés Simons el los Bufos Parisienses. ''Carteles'', La Habana, 23 December 1934. Noted compositions written by Simons include the following: ''Cubanacan'', ''Los Tres Golpes'', ''Así Es Mi Patria'', ''Chivo Que Rompe Tambó'', ''La Trompetilla'', ''Paso Ñáñigo'', ''Serenata Cubana'', ''Vacúnala'', ''Marta'', ''Hoy Como Ayer'', ''Danzas Cubanas'', and ''Rumba Guajira''.


References


External links

* Article on ''Toi c'est moi'' from Kurt Gänzl's ''Encyclopedia of the Musical Theater'

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Moises 1889 births 1945 deaths Cuban pianists Cuban composers Male composers Cuban conductors (music) People from Havana Cuban people of Basque descent 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century pianists Cuban male musicians Cuban expatriates in France Cuban emigrants to Spain