Goyescas, Op. 11, subtitled Los majo

Majo

Majo or Maja , also Manolo and Manola after the most popular names, were terms for people from the lower classes of Spanish society, especially in Madrid, who distinguished themselves by their elaborate outfits and sense of style in dress and manners, as well as by their cheeky behavior.They...

s enamorados (The Gallants in Love), is a piano suite written in 1911

1911 in music

-Events:*January 26 - Première of the opera Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, in Dresden; the librettist is Hugo von Hoffmansthal and the director is Max Reinhardt....

 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...

. This piano suite is usually considered Granados's crowning creation and was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...

, although the piano pieces have not been authoritatively associated with any particular paintings. The suite forms part of the standard Romantic

Romantic music

Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....

 piano repertoire.

Piano suite

The piano writing of Goyescas is highly ornamented and extremely difficult to master, requiring both subtle digital manipulations and great power. Some of them have a strong improvisational feel, the clearest example of this being the fifth piece, called El amor y la muerte (Love and Death). The fourth piece in the series (Quejas, ó la maja y el ruiseñor—The Maiden and the Nightingale) is the best known piece from the suite. It resembles a nocturne

Nocturne

A nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...

, but is filled with intricate figuration, inner voices and, near the end, glittering bird-like trills and quicksilver arpeggio

Arpeggio

An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...

s. Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez

Consuelo Velázquez

Consuelo Velázquez was a Mexican concert pianist, songwriter and recording artist.According to her obituary, she was 88 years old when she died...

 based her 1940 song Bésame Mucho

Bésame Mucho

"Bésame Mucho" is a Spanish language song written in 1940 by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez.-Inspiration:According to Velázquez herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin.She was inspired by the piano...

on this melody.

This piano suite was written in two books. Work on Goyescas began in 1909, and by 31 August 1910, the composer was able to write that he had composed "great flights of imagination and difficulty." Granados himself gave the première of Book I at the Palau de la Música Catalana

Palau de la Música Catalana

The Palau de la Música Catalana is a concert hall in Barcelona. Designed in the Catalan modernista style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built between 1905 and 1908 for the Orfeó Català, a choral society founded in 1891 that was a leading force in the Catalan cultural movement...

 in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 on 11 March 1911. He completed Book II in December 1911 and gave its first performance at the Salle Pleyel

Salle Pleyel

The Salle Pleyel is a concert hall in Paris, France. The resident ensembles are the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.-History and Design:...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on 2 April 1914.

El pelele (The Straw Man), subtitled Escena goyesca, is usually programmed as part of the Goyescas suite; Granados gave the première in Terrassa

Terrassa

Terrassa is a city in the east central region of Catalonia, Spain, in the comarca of Vallès Occidental, of which it is the co-capital along with Sabadell, the historic capital....

 Teatre Principal, on 29 March 1914.

In 1915

1915 in music

-Events:* Tom Brown's band from New Orleans goes to Chicago, Illinois and start advertising themselves as a "Jass Band"*Herbert Howells is given six months to live, and becomes the first person in the UK to receive radium treatment .*The ukulele becomes popular as a result of its appearance in the...

 Granados wrote a one-act opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, also called Goyescas

Goyescas (opera)

Goyescas is an opera in one act and three tableaux, written in 1915 by the Spanish composer Enrique Granados. Granados composed the opera to a Spanish libretto by Fernando Periquet y Zuaznabar with melodies taken from his 1911 piano suite, which was also called Goyescas...

, to a Spanish libretto by Fernando Periquet y Zuaznaba, using melodies from the piano suite. This was first performed in 1916.