Jesús Bal y Gay

Category: Musician
Birth Date: 23rd June 1905 († in 1993)
Birth Place: Lugo
 Curriculum

In 1914, he began to study Secondary Education and piano, taking his exams at the Conservatoire in Madrid. In 1925, he joined the Residence for Students in Madrid, where he met writers like García Lorca and Alberti. In 1927, he became a member of the Seminary of Galician Studies and started to investigate traditional music to make a collection of Galician songs. In 1933, he married Rosita García Ascot. In 1935, he travelled to England to get a post of Spanish lector at Cambridge University. Then he travelled to Mexico, where he became the chief of the Section of Musical Investigations at the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts. In 1965, he definitively returned to Spain.

 Work & Activities

Jesús Bal y Gay composed the following pieces: Seis piezas for piano and singing about poems by Amado Carballo (1931). Cuatro piezas for singing and piano about poems by Emilio Prados, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Rafael Alberti (1947), Serenata (1942), Tres piezas for symphony orchestra (1945), Sonata for clarinet and piano (1947), Concerto Grosso (1965), Hojas de Álbum for piano (1965) and some unpublished works of chamber and choral music. After he came back to Spain, he prepared the publication of his collection of songs titled Cancionero Gallego (1973) in two volumes that gathers about 1300 melodies. He published Hacia el Ballet Gallego (1924), Chopin (1959), Tiempos (1960) and Debussy (1962). He also transcribed old music: Treinta canciones de Lope de Vega (1935), Romances y villancicos españoles del s.XVI (1939), El cancionero de Upsala (1944) and Tesoro de la música polifónica en Méjico (1952).