Carles Santos (; 1 July 1940 – 4 December 2017) was a Spanish artist who began his career as a pianist and later worked in many other creative disciplines, including musical composition, filmmaking, screenwriting, acting, scenic musical shows, graphics, montage, sculpture, photography, poetry, and prose.

Biography

Born in

Vinaròs Vinaròs () () is a city located in eastern Spain and the capital of the Baix Maestrat in the province of Castellón. It is in the border between the Valencian Community and Catalonia. Vinaròs is a fishing harbour and tourist destination. His ...

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

(

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) Carles Santos began his formal musical education at the prestigious

Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu () is a music college in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was created in 1837 with the name ''Liceo Filo-dramático de Montesión''. In 1847 the institution inaugurated the opera house Gran Teatre del Li ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. There, he received awards that gave him the opportunity to continue his studies in Paris, where he worked with

Magda Tagliaferro Magdalena Maria Yvonne Tagliaferro (19 January 18939 September 1986) was a Brazilian pianist of French parentage. Magdalena Tagliaferro was born in Petrópolis, Brazil. Her father, who had studied piano with Raoul Pugno in Paris, was a voice a ...

, Jacques Février,

Robert Casadesus Robert Marcel Casadesus (; 7 April 1899 – 19 September 1972) was a renowned 20th-century France, French pianist and composer. He was the most prominent member of a Casadesus, distinguished musical family, being the nephew of Henri Casadesus an ...

, and

Marguerite Long Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long (13 November 1874 – 13 February 1966) was a French pianist, pedagogue, lecturer, and an ambassador of French music. Life Early life: 1874–1900 Marguerite Long was born to Pierre Long and Anne Marie Antoin ...

, among others. Later he studied with Harry Datymer in Switzerland. In 1961, he began his career as a pianist, with a repertoire that included works by

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

, and

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

. During these years, he also played the musical parts of

Joan Brossa Joan Brossa (; 19 January 1919 – 30 December 1998) was a Catalan poet, playwright, graphic designer and visual artist. He wrote only in the Catalan language. He was one of the founders of both the group and the publication known as Dau-al-Se ...

's ''Concert Irregular,'' which premiered in Barcelona and New York as part of the commemoration of the 75th birthday of

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

. A grant awarded by the Juan March Foundation in 1968 allowed Santos to move to the United States, where he met and worked with a number of avant-garde artists, principally Philip Corner and including

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

. In the late 1960s, Santos turned his attention to the production of films, and his oeuvre in this discipline eventually grew to include short films, full-length films, documentaries, and videos. Over the years, he collaborated with such directors as

Pere Portabella Pere Portabella i Ràfols (; born in 1927) is a Spanish politician, director, and producer. In 1977, he was elected Senator in Spain's first democratic elections and participated in the writing of the Spanish Constitution. As a filmmaker, his ...

, Jordi Cadena, and Carles Durán. His own first short film, ''L'Apat,'' premiered in 1967. During the 1970s, Santos increasingly devoted himself to performing his own compositions, and eventually he decided to play them exclusively. His compositions are decidedly minimalistic and at the same time bear the stamp of romantic, traditional Spanish, atonal, and 12-tone music. In these years and into the 1980s, he took part in a number of important musical events, including the Festival d'Automne in Paris, the Musicalia in Milan, the International New Jazz Festival in Moers, Germany, the Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the

Zürcher Theater Spektakel The Zürcher Theater Spektakel (''Zürich Theatre Spectacle'') is an international theatre and performing arts festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community ...

in Zurich, the Music Theatre Festival in London, Wintermusik '82 in Karlsruhe, Germany, and New Music America '83 in Washington, DC. In his performances, his goal was to avoid the boredom often caused in the audience by certain

avant-garde music Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elem ...

. In the 1980s, Santos began to design scenic musical shows, which he staged in such venues as the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

, the

Hebbel Theater The Hebbel-Theater (Hebbel Theatre) is a historic theatre building for plays in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Germany. It has been a venue of the company Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) from 2003. The theatre, with approximately 800 seats, was built by Oskar Kaufmann ...

in Berlin, and the

Palau de la Música Catalana Palau de la Música Catalana (, ) is a concert hall in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed in the Catalan ''modernisme, modernista'' style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built between 1905 and 1908 for Orfeó Català, a ...

in Barcelona. His musical shows are marked by extravagance, sexual themes, and deliberate provocation, with the goal of questioning established concepts, albeit with a sense of humor. The notes to the 2006 exhibition of Santos's costumes held in Barcelona at the Museu del Tèxtil i la Indumentaria (''Mariaelena Roqué desvesteix Carles Santos'' 'Mariaelena Roqué Undresses Carles Santos'', indicate that Santos, through his shows, is expressing his loves and fears and attempting to banish his personal demons. Santos was commissioned to compose works for a variety of special occasions, including the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

of the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

in Barcelona and the opening of the 2001 Biennial of Arts in Valencia. A major retrospective of Santos's works titled ''Visca el Piano'' (''Long Live the Piano'') was held in 2006 at the

Fundació Joan Miró The Fundació Joan Miró ( ; English: Joan Miró Foundation, Centre of Studies of Contemporary Art) is a modern art museum honoring the life and work of the Spanish artist Joan Miró, located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia ( ...

in Barcelona. The exhibition included videos of his scenic musical shows, graphic and photographic works, montages, and kinetic sculptures. The last category included a waltzing player piano that whirled around the exhibition hall under its own power while playing music by Bach and somehow avoiding running into the other exhibits (http://www.last.fm/music/Carles+Santos/+videos/+1-TZK3HCmZlmE). In 2009, he was the invited artist at the

Fira Mediterrania in Manresa Fira Mediterrània of Manresa (Catalonia-Spain) is a performing arts fair rooted in Mediterranean tradition. It has two main areas of focus: popular culture (based on a dialogue between traditional, regional culture and creative innovation) and wo ...

(

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Selected awards and prizes

*1990 Premi National de Composició de la Generalitat de Catalunya *1993 Premi Ciutat de Barcelona (for best musical composition) *1996 Premi Ciutat de Barcelona (for international projection) *1999

Creu de Sant Jordi The Creu de Sant Jordi (, in English language, English 'St George's Cross') is one of the highest civil distinctions awarded in Catalonia (Spain), surpassed only in protocol by the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Gold Medal of the G ...

de la Generalitat de Catalunya *2000

Premios Max The Max Awards for the Performing Arts (Los Premios Max de las Artes Escénicas, ), commonly known as the Premios Max, are presented annually to honour professionals and organisations in Spain for their contributions to the performing arts. The aw ...

(for best soundtrack) *2000 Premio de la Critica de Barcelona (for best musical show) *2001 Premios Max (for best composition and musical direction) *2002 Premios Max (for best musical composition) *2003 Premios Max (for best musical direction and musical composition) *2005 Premios Max (for best musical show, direction, and composition) *2006 Medalla de Oro del Circulo de Bellas Artes *2008

Premio Nacional de Música The National Music Award () is one of Spain's annual National Awards by the Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of ...

/ Composición *2009 Medalla de la Universidad Jaume I de Castelló

Discography

*1977 ''Piano - Obres de Cowell, Cage, Webern, Stockhausen i Mestres-Quadreny'' (Edigsa) *1981 ''Voice Tracks'' (R. A. Taylor) *1984 ''Pianotrack'' (Linterna Música) *1986 ''Perturbación inesperada'' (Linterna Música) *1988 ''Carles Santos: Piano'' ( Grabaciones Accidentales) *1989 ''Five Voices'' - Greetje Bijma/Shelley Hirsch/Anna Homler/David Moss/Carles Santos (Intakt Records) *1991 ''Belmonte'' - Banda Simfònica de la Unió Musical de Llíria - Carles Santos (Virgin España) *1992 ''Música para las Ceremonias Olímpicas Barcelona 92'' - Fanfàrria de Cerimònies, Banda Simfònica de la Unió Musical de Llíria, Cor de València, cor d'Asdrúbila, Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona - Carles Santos (On the Rocks) *1993 ''Promenade Concert: Músical per a una acció original de Xavier Olivé.'' 20 d’Abril de 1993 (Fundació Joan Miró) *1995 ''Himne del Segon Congrès Català de Cuina'' (Indústria Cultural) *1995 ''La porca i vibràtica teclúria'' (Institut d'Edicions de la Diputació de Barcelona) *1998 ''Un dit és un dit'' (CD inclós en el número 9 de la revista "Cave Canis", Barcelona 1999) *2001 ''L'adéu de Lucrècia Borja'' (Universitat de València) *2002 ''Sama Samaruck Suck Suck (Ópera-Circ)'' (K. Indústria Cultural) *2006 ''Amores Cage'' (Dahiz Producciones)

Filmography

Musical composition for full-length films

*1968 ''Nocturn 29'' (together with Josep Maria Mestres-Quadreny; directed by Pere Portabella) *1970 '' Cuadecuc, vampir'' (Pere Portabella) *1975 ''Informe general'' (Pere Portabella) *1977 ''L'obscura història de la cosina Montse'' (Jordi Cadena) *1981 ''Vértigo en Manhattan (Jet lag)'' (Gonzalo Herralde) *1981 ''Barcelona Sud'' (Jordi Cadena) *1984 ''Pà d'àngel'' (Francesc Bellmunt) *1990 ''Ponte varsòvia'' (Pere Portabella) *1988 ''És quan dormo que hi veig clar'' (Jordi Cadena) *1989 ''Pont de Varsòvia (The Warsaw Bridge)'' (Pere Portabella) *1998 ''El pianista'' (Mario Gas) *2007 ''Die Stille vor Bach'' (''

The Silence Before Bach ''The Silence Before Bach'', originally titled , is a 2007 Spanish musical drama film co-written and directed by Pere Portabella about the life and works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The film premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 64th edition o ...

'') (Pere Portabella)

Musical composition for short films

*1969 ''Miró l’altre'' (directed by Pere Portabella) *1970 ''Poetes Catalans'' (Pere Portabella) *1971 ''Semejante a Pedro'' (Francesc Bellmunt) *1971 ''Calidoscopi'' (Beni Rossell) *1972 '' Umbracle'' (Pere Portabella) *1972 ''Cantants 72'' (Pere Portabella) *1973 ''Advocats laboralistes'' (Pere Portabella) *1978 ''El barri del Besós'' (Carles Durán) *1979 ''Laberint'' (Agusti Villaronga) *1979 ''La delinqüència'' (Jaume Codina) *1979 ''Setmana de la sanitat'' (Jordi Cadena) *1979 ''L'ajuntament'' (Georgina Cisquella and Pere Joan Ventura) *1979 ''L'agressió quotidiana'' (Carles Durán) *1981 ''L'assemblea de Catalunya'' (Carles Durán) *1982 ''Eleccions a Las Cortes 28-10-82'' ( Isona Passola) *1989 ''Romàntic'' (Aurora Corminas) *1991 ''Clara foc'' (

Judith Colell Judith Colell i Pallarès (Barcelona, July 14, 1968) is a Catalan film director, screenwriter and producer. Since July 2021 she has been president of the Catalan Film Academy. Biography Colell was awarded a degree in art history at the Univer ...

) *1992 ''Art a Catalunya'' (

) *2000 ''Foc al càntir'' (Frederic Amat)

Film direction

*1967 ''L'apat'' *1967 ''L'espectador. Habitació amb rellotge. La Ilum. Conversa'' *1968 ''La cadira'' *1969 ''Preludi de Chopin, Opus 28 No. 7'' *1970 ''Play-back'' (together with Pere Portabella) *1972 ''Acció Santos'' (together with Pere Portabella) *1974 ''Preludi de Chopin, Opus 28 No. 18'' *1977 ''El pianista i el conservatori'' *1977 ''682-3133 Bufalo Minnesota'' *1978 ''Peça per a quatre pianos'' *1979 ''La Re Mi La''

Scenic musical shows

*1983 ''Beethoven, si tanco la tapa . . . què passa?'' *1983 ''Té fina la fina petxina de Xina?'' *1985 ''Arganchulla, Arganchulla Gallac'' *1989 ''Tramuntana Tremens'' *1991 ''La grenya de Pasqual Picanya'' *1992 ''Asdrúbila'' *1995 ''L'esplèndida vergonya del fet mal fet'' *1996 ''Figasantos-fagotrop: missatge al contestador, soparem a les nou'' *1996 ''La Pantera Imperial'' *2000 ''Ricardo i Elena'' *2000 ''El Barbero de Sevilla'' *2006 ''El fervor de la perseverança'' *2008 ''Brossalobrossotdebrossat''

References

External links

Un dit és un dit (a finger is a finger). 36 minutes piece for Cave Canis number 9. MP3.Official website.Carles Santos at Youtube.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Carles 1940 births 2017 deaths People from Vinaròs Composers from the Valencian Community Musicians from the Valencian Community Artists from the Valencian Community Film directors from the Valencian Community Spanish composers Spanish male composers Spanish pianists Spanish photographers Sculptors from the Valencian Community Spanish male actors Spanish poets Spanish film directors Spanish male poets Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu alumni