José, Antonio [Martínez

Palacios, Antonio José]

(b Burgos, 12 Dec 1902; d Estépar, 8 Oct 1936). Spanish
composer and conductor. He studied with the organists Julián
García Blanco and José María Beobide Goiburu in Burgos. In 1920
the regional government of Burgos awarded him a scholarship to
further his studies at the Madrid Conservatory for four years. He
supplemented his income by conducting zarzuelas at the Teatro de
la Latina and the Teatro Apolo, and by music copying. He worked
as a music teacher at a Jesuit school in Miraflores de El Palo,
Málaga (1925–9), and returned to Burgos in 1929 to conduct the
revived choral society Orfeón Burgalés.
The final period of his life was dominated by his commitment to
Burgos and its people. He was awarded the National Music Prize
for his collections of folksongs from Burgos (1932) and was invited
to present a paper on this subject at the Third Congress of the IMS
(Barcelona, 1936). In the early days of the Civil War he was
arrested by Falangists and imprisoned in Burgos. On 8 October
1936 he was driven to the nearby town of Estépar and shot,
accused of being a Republican spy and Jewish sympathizer, and of
inciting the people to revolt.
Antonio José's love of the folksong of his native region penetrated
his entire output, from the series of Danzas burgalesas and the
Sonata castellana for piano (which formed the basis for his
Sinfonía castellana) to later choral and vocal works such as the
Cinco coros castellanos and the Cuatro canciones populares
burgalesas, and even his unfinished opera El mozo de mulas.
Many of his works are based on literal quotations of popular
melodies taken from Federico Olmeda's Cancionero de Burgos
(1902) or on folksongs collected by the composer himself. Ravel is
said to have referred to him as potentially the greatest Spanish
composer of the 20th century.
WORKS
(selective list)

Stage: La antesala de la gloria (sainete, A.G. Arbeo and E. Marceu), 1921;

La memoria de Doctor Coronado (operetta), 1923–4; Minatchi (La aurora
de un reino) (lyric drama), 1925; El mozo de mulas (op, 3, M.F. Fernández
Núñez and L. Mateo), 1927–, unfinished [completed by A. Yagüe]; Marcha
para soldados de plomo (ballet, E. de Ontañón), pf, orch, 1929 [completed
by A. Yagüe]
Orch: Alla Haydn, 1923; Sinfonía castellana, 1923; Lamentación segunda,
1927; Evocaciones no.2, 1928; Suite ingenua, pf, str, 1928; Preludio y
danza popular, 1934
Vocal: Ave María, 4 solo vv, org, 1917; Ave maris stella, 1v, org, 1917;
Tantum ergo, 2 solo vv, org, 1917; Dulce cayado, 1v, chorus, org, 1918;
Letanía lauretana, 1v, chorus, org, 1920; Mass, D, solo vv, orch/org, 1920;
Himno de la Asociación de antiguos alumnos de San Antón, chorus, pf,
1922; Villancico, 1v, 5vv, org, 1923; Himno escolar, chorus, orch, 1924; La
primavera, 1v, pf, 1924; Tota pulchra, T, B, org, 1924; Un suspiro de amor,
1v, pf, 1925; Elegía, T, org, 1926; A Beobide, chorus, org, 1926; A San
Luis Gonzaga, 1v, chorus, org, 1926; 10 canciones burgalesas, 1926;
Inmaculada, chorus, pf, 1927; Faro de amor (Gaspar G. Pintado), 1v,
chorus, org, 1929; Ave María, lv, org, 1929; 4 canciones populares
burgalesas, SATB, 1929; 3 cantigas de Alfonso X, 1v/chorus, pf, ?1929;
Himno a Castilla, SATB, 1929; 5 coros castellanos, chorus, 1929–32; El
divino Rey abandonado, 1v, org, 1930; El molinero (Canción burgalesa),
S, orch/pf, 1932; Colección de cantos populares burgaleses, 1932;
Romance de rosa fresca, SATB, ?1933; Himno al Valle de Valdivielso
(G.G. Pintado), chorus, pf, 1933
Chbr and solo inst: Sonata, G, pf, 1917; Vals, A, pf, 1917; Variaciones, pf,
1918; El canto de dolor, pf, 1918; Ecos taurinos, pf/band, 1919; Hojas
sueltas nos.1 and 2, pf, 1919; Danza de concierto, vn, pf/band, 1919;
Preludio no.1, E , pf, 1920; Preludio no.2, G, pf/sextet, 1920; Danza de
bufones, pf, 1920; Nocturno (Paisaje), pf, 1920; Sonata castellana, pf,
1920–22; Tiempo de tarantela, pf, 1921; Alla Haydn, pf, 1922; Danza
burgalesa no.1, pf, 1922; El paso de la galante estudiantina, pf, 1922; La
muñeca rota, pf, 1922; Canción escolar, pf, 1922; La case del gigante, pf,
1923; Danza burgalesa no.2, pf, 1923; Danza burgalesa no.3, pf, 1923;
Sonata no.3 (Alla Clásica), pf, 1924; Sonata no.4 (Poema de la juventud),
pf, 1924; Evocaciones (Cuadros de danza campesina), pf, 1925; Sonata
gallega, pf, 1926; Romancillo infantil, gui, 1927–8; Improvisación, org,
1928; Danza burgalesa no.4, pf, 1928; Sonata, gui, 1933
Arrs. for chorus

BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. Paisán Serrano: ‘Silueta artistica: Antonio José’, Ritmo, no.92
(1934), 5–6
S. Rodríguez Santerbás: ‘En busca de un músico perdido:
Antonio José’, Triunfo, no.482 (1971), 24–9
M.A. Palacios Garoz: ‘Antonio José: “Sinfonia castellana”, con
preludio y cuatro tiempos’, Ritmo, no.496 (1979), 51–9
J. Barriuso Gutiérrez et al.: Antonio José: músico de Castilla
(Madrid, 1980)
M.A. Palacios Garoz: ‘Lo cervantino y lo popular en la ópera
inédita de Antonio José “El mozo de mulas”’, Revista de
folklore, xli (1982), 147–57
J. Parra: ‘La obra pianistica de Antonio José’, Ritmo, no.572
(1986), 50
M.A. Palacios Garoz: ‘Antonio José, el compositor de Castilla’,
Anuario de Castilla y Léon (1993), 407–14
YOLANDA ACKER