Joaquim Homs ( 1906 - 2003 )

I've just received the sad news. Joaquim Homs died last September. He
was one of the best Spanish composers from his generation.  This
biographic information can be found at the Catalan Association of
Composers' web site:

Pupil of Robert Gerhard, and a very individual and independent-minded
composer, Joaquim Homs forms a link between the generation of 1927 and
the avant-garde of the most recent decades.

Born in Barcelona in 1906 he completed his studies in cello in 1922,
and, in 1929, in industrial engineering, a profession which he was to
practise until 1971.

The musical output of Joaquim Homs consists of more than two hundred
and fifty instrumental and vocal works of all genres. Of these, three
have been selected to represent Spain in the prestigious Festivals of
the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) in Paris
(1937), Warsaw (1939) and Stockholm (1956).
>From the 1950s onwards, he experimented with twelve-note serial
technique with the Trio for flute, oboe and bass clarinet. Among his
most significant chamber works are: String Quartets Nº 3, 7 & 8, Piano
Sonata No.1 & 2, Wind Quintet nº 2 -in memory of Robert Gerhard-, a
series of Soliloquies for solo instrument or for different
instrumental groupings, Music for 11 in memory of Joan Prats and
Rhumbs, for ten players. His orchestral compositions include:
Presències (City of Barcelona Prize, 1968), Simfonia breu, Biofonia
and Memoràlia. From his extensive output of lieder must be especially
mentioned the songs Ocells perduts (Stray birds) based on texts by
Rabindranath Tagore and the song cycles Cementiri de Sinera (Sinera
Cemetery) and El caminant i el mur (The traveller and the wall) with
texts by Salvador Espriu, with whom he shares a remarkable stylistic
similarity.

He has practised as a cellist and has carried out important work as
translator, analyst, pedagogue, adviser and promotor of the 20th
Century Music. He has written the books: Robert Gerhard and his Music
and Anthology of Contemporary Music (1900-1959). First president of
the Catalan Association of Composers, formed in 1974, since 1989 he
has been Member Elect of the St. George Royal Catalan Academy for Fine
Arts.

He has received the following distinctions (among others): Gold Medal
for Artistic Merit-1981, (Barcelona Town Council), Gold Medal for
Merit in Fine Arts-1993 (Ministry of Culture), the Prize of Honour for
Catalan Music-1994 (Catalunya Música/Revista Musical Catalana) and the
National Music Prize-1992 and 1999 (Generalitat de Catalunya). He has
been also honoured with the Prize of the AMCC 2002 in Musical Creation
in its first edition.
These are constant features of his style: structural clarity and the
manifest wish to obtain sonorous effects and the greatest expressive
intensity with the minimum of means.

More than eighty of his works have been put together on different
record labels, including seven CDs dedicated solely to his works:
Joaquim Homs-Piano Music Vol.1 6 Vol.2 (Marco Polo), Chamber Music
(Decca/Autor). Complete works for solo clarinet and Lieder (Columna
Música), Religious Music (Anacrusi) which includes his work Via Crucis
for reader and string quartet with drum and Music for voice and
chamber ensemble and for instrumental grouping (Sello Autor). He
enjoys great international prestige and around eighty of his scores
have been published by various national and foreign publishing houses.
His works are frequently featuring in national and international music
festivals and on radio stations.