Manuel Orlandi Blasco de Nebra (2 May 1750 – 12 September 1784) was a Spanish

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational ...

and composer who lived in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsul ...

. He was the son of José Blasco de Nebra (Lacarra), the organist of

Seville Cathedral The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See ( es, Catedral de Santa María de la Sede), better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along ...

since 1735, and became his assistant organist in 1768, taking over in 1778. He was renowned for his excellent

sight-reading In music, sight-reading, also called ''a prima vista'' (Italian meaning "at first sight"), is the practice of reading and performing of a piece in a music notation that the performer has not seen or learned before. Sight-singing is used to descri ...

and playing of the organ,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

and

fortepiano A fortepiano , sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. M ...

, of which some impression can be obtained from his surviving compositions. During his short life (he predeceased his father), he composed about 170 works, although only 30, all for

keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos ...

, are still in existence. Six sonatas were recovered and edited by musicologist Robert Parris from the first edition of the ''Sonatas'', ''Op.1'', held at the Library of Congress in Washington. Another twelve sonatas and the six pastorellas were found at the Monastery of Montserrat (Catalonia), which have since been published by Egtved in an edition by the Danish musicologist Bengt Johnsson. Later still María Inmaculada Cárdenas Serván discovered a further six sonatas at the Encarnación Monastery of Osuna (in the province of Seville), which she published with the support of the Spanish Musicology Society. Two other sonatas come from a manuscript found and studied by Pedro Casals at the Santa Clara convent in Seville which is now held at Madrid’s Universidad Complutense. A modern edition of these two pieces has yet to be published. *Seis

sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...

s para clave y fuerte-piano op.1 (

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

, 1780) *six

pastorella Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood. In Baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in thirds over a drone bass, recalling the Christmas music of ''pifferari'', players of the traditio ...

s and 12 sonatas ( manuscript of Montserrat) *six keyboard sonatas (

Osuna Osuna () is a town and municipality in the province of Seville, southern Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. , it has a population of c. 17,800. It is the location of the Andalusian Social Economy School. Among famous people associa ...

, Encarnación Monastery)

Discography

*Blasco de Nebra: Piano Sonatas by

Javier Perianes Javier Perianes (born in 1978 in Nerva, Spain) is a Spanish classical pianist. He is a participant at many renowned festivals within Spain, including Santander, Granada, Peralada and San Sebastián. He has performed in distinguished concert se ...

, Harmonia Mundi / IODA, 2010. *Blasco de Nebra: Complete Keyboard Sonatas Vol 1 by Pedro Casals, Naxos 2009. *Blasco de Nebra: Complete Keyboard Sonatas Vol 2 by Pedro Casals, Naxos 2010. *Blasco de Nebra: Complete Keyboard Sonatas Vol 3 by Pedro Casals, Naxos 2010. *Blasco de Nebra: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 by Pedro Piquero, Columna Música, 2009. *Blasco de Nebra: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 2 by Pedro Piquero, Columna Música, 2010. *Blasco de Nebra: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 3 by Pedro Piquero, Columna Música, 2011.

Sources

*José López-Calo: 'Blasco de Nebra (Orlandi), Manuel', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-05-23), http://www.grovemusic.com/ *Notes with cd recording by Pedro Casals, April 2009 Spanish classical organists Male classical organists Spanish classical pianists Male classical pianists Spanish harpsichordists Spanish male classical composers Spanish Classical-period composers Musicians from Seville 1750 births 1784 deaths 18th-century classical composers 18th-century male musicians 18th-century musicians 18th-century keyboardists {{Spain-composer-stub