Félix Máximo López

Félix Máximo López
Félix Antonio Máximo López (1820) by Vicente López Portaña (Museo del Prado).
Born	November 18, 1742 Madrid, Spain
Died	April 9, 1821 (aged 78) Madrid, Spain
Occupation	Music

Félix Antonio Máximo López Crespo (Madrid, November 18, 1742 – ibid., April 9, 1821) was a Spanish composer, organist and writer.

Life

He was the son of Antonio López, from Pastrana (Guadalajara), and Basilia Crespo, from Vallecas (now part of Madrid).

In 1766 he was publicly married in the Church of San Ginés to María Dominga de Bartholomé Remacha, with whom he had four children: Ambrosio (1769), Miguel (1772), Juliana (1775) and José (1777). Ambrosio would begin by assisting his father as organist in the Royal Chapel, and Miguel by studying at the College of Boy Choristers. Both would become court musicians, but the latter, a tenor, was expelled for his collaboration with the French during the occupation of 1808–1814, while the former fought in the heroic defense of Madrid.

In 1775, during the reign of Charles III, he won by competitive examination the post of fourth organist of the Royal Chapel of Madrid. In February 1780 María died suddenly, and Félix Máximo found consolation in a young woman of twenty-eight, Melchora Pérez Díaz, whom he married on June 21 of that same year, again in San Ginés. Three more children were born of this marriage: Juan Jorge Marcelino (1782), María Ángela (1784) and Francisco de Borja Carlos (1787). In 1784 he settled permanently at No. 11 Calle de las Fuentes, very close to Calle Arenal. Of his seven children only three survived, Ambrosio, Miguel and María; the first paid in 1820 for the famous portrait painted by Vicente López.

In 1787, on the death of the first organist, Miguel Ravaza, he was promoted to third organist. In 1801 he was appointed second organist, following the death of his predecessor in the post, the organist Juan Sessé. When the first organist, José Lidón, was appointed master of the Royal Chapel and rector of the Royal College of Boy Choristers, Félix Máximo López was chosen to replace him as first organist in 1805.

The economic situation during the reign of Ferdinand VII forced the Spanish Court to reduce expenses, which affected the musicians: his salary was reduced from 16,000 reales to 808 reales in 1809, although in 1816 a salary of 16,000 reales was restored to him. A skilled improviser, he devised various poems, for which he later composed the music. His most important work is the opera El disparate o La obra de los locos, whose score he holds in the portrait Vicente López painted of him.

Among his works, the Variaciones sobre los minués afandangados, for harpsichord or fortepiano, are the best known. Also worth mentioning as notable works are a Sonata pastoral and Ocho duetos para dos violines, works published in 1794, although his secular and religious output was very extensive, many of them with damaged or lost scores: lamentations, tonadillas, pasillos for Palm Sunday, villancicos for two and three voices with organ, humorous and mystical villancicos (1795); psalms, religious hymns, a pastoral sonata (1796), masses, motets, etc. Also notable is his book Obras poéticas, líricas y cómicas que su autor Félix Máximo López, organista de la Real Capilla de su Majestad compuso desde el año de 1874…, written by his friend Rafael Martínez de Ariza in 1785, and found in El Rastro by Barbieri, his principal biographer.

Works

Musical

It is not known how many works he composed, since many of them have been lost, but some are preserved in the bequest of manuscripts that Francisco Asenjo Barbieri donated to the National Library; some of these works are:

• Complete works for harpsichord and fortepiano, comprising:
  • Trece sonatas
  • Pieza de clave
  • Capricho
  • Dos Rondós
  • Stracto de la Polaca en Variaciones
  • Variaciones del fandango español
  • Minuet afandangado con 6 variaciones en Sol menor
  • 6 variaciones al Minuet afandangado en Re menor
  • Dos sonatas en Do mayor para cuatro manos
• Organ manuscripts:
  • Juegos de versos por los ocho tonos y cuerda de Gesolreut
  • Juego de versos de todos los tonos por la cuerda de Gesolreut
  • Música de órgano
  • Piezas al órgano
  • Siete glosas sobre el himno Sacris Solemnis
  • Versos de órgano para la Nona de la ascensión
  • Escuela orgánica
• Vocal works:
  • El disparate o la obra de los locos, opera in three acts
  • Villancicos

Written

• Reglas generales o Escuela de acompañar al órgano o clave (c. 1790? BN M. 1188) [Pedagogical method with rules and harmonic progressions]
• Obras Poéticas, Líricas y Cómicas, first volume (BN MS. 14101)

References

• "The Keyboard Works of Félix Máximo López", New York University Ph.D., 1976. Doctoral thesis by Alma Espinosa.
• Félix Máximo López: Integral de la Música para Clave y Pianoforte. Critical edition by Alberto Cobo. Música hispana. Ediciones AUTOR/ICCMU. Madrid, 2000. 300 pp. ISBN 84-8048-336-9.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Félix Máximo López.

• La primera zarzuela moderna (in Spanish)
• Integral de la Música para Clave y Pianoforte (in Spanish)
• Opera "Los Locos" (in Spanish)
• Playlist of YouTube recordings of the 'Integral Para Clave Y Pianoforte'
• Article in the magazine Scherzo: Monastery of Montserrat, lost works (in Spanish)
• Complete video playlist of the Opera "Los Locos"