Manuel Saumell Robredo

Manuel Saumell
Born	Manuel Saumell Robredo (1817-07-17)July 17, 1817 Havana, Spain, now Cuba
Died	August 14, 1870(1870-08-14) (aged 53) Havana, Spain, now Cuba
Other name	Manuel Saumell
Occupations	Composer and Musician
Known for	Instrument: Piano; genre: Contradanza
Spouse	Concepción Amegui

Manuel Saumell Robredo (1817-1870) was a renowned Cuban pianist, Cuba then being part of the Spanish Empire, who specialized in the island's contradanzas and in the adaptation of operas and of songs by other artists. He also played the piano in churches, wrote criticism in the press under the pseudonym El Timbalero, and gave lessons to people close to him.

Many music historians hold that with Saumell's death the cultural world lost one of the key figures who initiated so-called musical nationalism, and they assert that, because of his contribution to Cuban culture, he was the most important musician of the 19th century on the island.

Saumell is likewise considered the father of the contradanza and of other musical forms such as the habanera, the danzón, the guajira, the clave, the criolla, and many other variants of Cuban Music.

Biography

Born on July 17, 1817, in Havana, he was regarded as a musical prodigy, even though he was forced to study music on a self-taught basis, since he was born into a humble family that could not send him to a music school.

He was the son of Cristóbal Saumell, a man of revolutionary thought who at an early age shared with him his ideals and his discontent with Miguel Tacón y Rosique, who at that time (1834-1838) was the governor of the Island. Although Saumell came from a family of scant means, over the years he made capital investments through his friend and sales broker, the pianist Pablo Desvernine. He also married Concepción Amegui, a woman native to Havana and the daughter of a "well-to-do" family, with whom he had 3 children.

Manuel wrote his first works around the age of 15 or 16, just as he was learning to play the piano with the help of his teacher Juan Federico Edelman, and when he was a devoted admirer of the American Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Shortly after turning twenty, he ventured into an opera that would have as its backdrop the settings and atmosphere of the capital, which was praised by Alejo Carpentier, who stated that with the birth of Saumell's work, the constituent elements of a Cubanness that until then had been "lost" were fixed and polished.

Years later Maurice Pyke, director of the Italian opera, taught him harmony, counterpoint, instrumentation and fugue, which, logically, allowed the author of "La música en Cuba" to assert that Saumell "means a great deal within the history of the musical nationalisms of our continent."

One of the most important events of his professional life was his appointment as President of the music section of the Havana Filarmónica Santa Cecilia, an event that was followed by the founding of the Liceo Artístico Literario, together with Ramón Pintó and the Spanish pianist José Miró.

Manuel Saumell Robredo died in Havana on August 14, 1870, at the age of 53. The Music Conservatory of Havana was named after him, the Conservatorio Manuel Saumell.

Style

Saumell strikingly transformed the style of Cuban music, which until then had been scattered throughout the milieu and did not go beyond the dance houses. Saumell's precursors, many of whom remain anonymous to this day, were the ones who instilled in it a more ambient style, influenced to a certain extent by Haitian music.

In addition to this, Saumell left a very personal touch in his style, which he absorbed throughout his life in the dance halls and in the company of his contemporaries, who, like him, were incredible visionaries. Saumell was a pupil of the Italian Pyke, who taught him harmony, counterpoint, instrumentation and fugue, elements that also left their mark on the contradanzas he composed, in which, for the first time, there appear rhythmic keys of the Cuban popular music that was heard in the 19th century.

Works

Some of his best-known works are:

• Los ojos de Pepa (which has a more contemporary jazz version by Chucho Valdés),
• El Pañuelo de Pepa.
• Ayes del Alma (a contradanza-étude that was dedicated to Don Julio Fontana),
• La Tedezco (which was dedicated to the Italian soprano Fortunata Tedezco),
• Luisiana (which was dedicated to his friend L.M. Gottschalk),
• La Virtuosa (a contradanza-minuet that was dedicated to his friend Pablo Desvennine),
• La Nené.
• ¡Toma, Tomás!
• El Somatén
• La suavecita

External links

• Martínez Molina, Julio (2008). "Manuel Saumell, músico clave de la identidad nacional" (in español). Retrieved September 27, 2008.
• El gran Manuel Saumell at OnCuba