Musicians - Antonio Soler

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	Musicians - Antonio Soler

Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos (baptised December 3, 1729 - December 20, 1783) was a Spanish composer.

He was born in Olot in Girona, Catalonia. He studied composition and the organ as a child, when, at age six, he entered the choir of the Monastery of Montserrat. In 1744 he was appointed organist at the cathedral in Seo de Urgel and appointed as a subdeacon there. Later in his life, he held posts as chapel master in Lleida and El Escorial.

He took Holy Orders at the age of 23 and his routine at the Escorial, near Madrid, was a simple one for the next 31 years. His 20 hour days were filled with prayer, contemplation and farming - a simple and unadorned life. Yet Soler managed to produce more than 500 musical works in these austere surroundings. Amongst these were around 150 keyboard sonatas - many were believed to have been written for his music pupil, the Infante Don Gabriel, a son of King Carlos III. No portraits of Soler are known to exist.

His best known works are the keyboard sonatas, which are comparable to those by Domenico Scarlatti (with whom he is rumored to have studied). Soler's works are more varied in form than Scarlatti's, however, with some pieces in three or four movements, for example (Scarlatti's are in one or two). Fortunately, these sonatas were catalogued in the early twentieth century by Fr. Samuel Rubio and so all have 'R' numbers assigned to them.

Soler also wrote concertos, quintets for organ and strings, motets, masses and pieces for solo organ. His treatise Llave de la modulación (1762) is on modulation.

Soler's very fine "Six Concertos for Two Organs" are still very much in the repertoire and have been often recorded. A fandango once attributed to Soler, and probably more often performed than any other work by him, is now thought to be of doubtful authorship.

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