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Biography
(b Madrid, 3 March 1891; d Madrid, 12 Sept 1982). Spanish composer, conductor and critic. He first studied music with his father, José Moreno Ballesteros, an organist and teacher at the Madrid Conservatory, and with whom he collaborated on his first zarzuela, Las decididas (1912). He later studied composition with Conrado del Campo at the Royal Conservatory, where his tone poem La ajorca de oro was first performed in 1918. In 1924 he married Pilar Larregla, the daughter of a Navarrese composer; the folk music of Navarra along with that of Castile was to serve as a major source of inspiration in his music. Although not a guitarist himself, in the 1920s his growing friendship with Segovia inspired him to begin writing for the guitar, and the resulting compositions such as Sonatina (1924) and Piezas características (1931) are among his finest works. He also established himself as a composer for the stage, and his zarzuela La mesonera de Tordesillas was first performed to critical acclaim in 1925, while his most famous zarzuela, Luisa Fernanda (1932), is a representative of the last flowering of the zarzuela grande. Between 1925 and 1935 he was active as a music critic for Madrid periodicals, especially Informaciones, and used this position and his brief term in the Second Republic’s five-member Junta Nacional de Música to promote greater government support for music.
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Biography
Napolean Coste was born in France in 1806.
He received his first guitar lessons from his mother.
He began his teaching and performing carreer as a teenager.
He moved to Paris in 1830.
While there, he studied with Fernando Sor and became friends with Aguado, Carcassi and Carulli.
He quickly established himself as the leading French virtuoso guitarist.
Coste had difficulty finding patrons and publishers for his compositions.
His success as a performer and teacher allowed him to fund his own works.
Coste composed approximately fifty works, including some compositions for the 7-string guitar.
He was also one of the first guitarists to transcribe seventeenth century music to modern notation and is chiefly responsible for reviving interest in baroque guitar music.
He was forced to quit performing in 1863, when a broken arm left his right hand incapacitated.
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