Mitjana y Gordón, Rafael

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Mitjana y Gordón, Rafael

Mitjana y Gordón, Rafael, eminent Spanish music historian; b. Malaga, Dec. 6, 1869; d. Stockholm, Aug. 15, 1921. He studied music with Eduardo Ocón in Málaga, Felipe Pedrell in Madrid, and Saint-Saëns in Paris, then was employed in the Spanish diplomatic service in Russia, Turkey, Morocco, and Sweden. His most important work was the extensive contribution on the history of Spanish music in Lavignac’s Encyclopédie de la musique (Paris, 1920; Part I, vol. IV). He also wrote numerous valuable works of a critical or historical nature, including L’Orientalisme musical et la musique arabe (Uppsala, 1907), Catalogue critique et descriptif des imprimés de musique des 16e et 17e siècles, conservés à la Bibliothèque de l’Université d’Uppsala (Uppsala, 1911), Don Fernando de las Infantas, teólogo y músico (Madrid, 1911), and Cristóbal de Morales: Estudio crítico biográfico (Madrid, 1920).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire