Constança Capdeville

Constança Capdeville (16 March 1937 – 4 February 1992) was a Portuguese pianist, percussionist, music educator and composer. She was born in Barcelona and lived in the village of Caxias as a child, writing piano compositions at an early age. She studied piano and composition at the Lisbon Conservatorio Nacional.

After completing her musical studies, Capdeville taught music at the National Conservatory and the New University of Lisbon. She was a member of the Portuguese Council of Music and the Catalan Composers Association of Barcelona. She won the Portuguese Medal of Cultural Merit in 1990, and the Insignia of the Order of Santiago da Espada posthumously in 1992. She died in Caxias.^{[1] [2]}

Brief Bio.

• XXth Century music composer.

Born March 16th - 1937 in Barcelona (Spain), Constança Capdeville was a leading figure in XXth century contemporary musical composition in her country.

She came from a family closely knit to many of the arts. In her youth she had been exposed to towering creative geniouses among which include Salvador Dali and her sister
(Eunice Muñoz) is a highly regarded actress.

She began her music studies in Barcelona before having settled down permanently in Portugal in 1951. She pursued further in the field studying piano with Varela Cid and musical composition with Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos, having received her dimploma for Higher Education in Music from the National Conservatory of Lisbon. She thenceforth specialized her studies in music by applying herself to the "Study of Ancient Music" (paleography/transribing, organology, clavichord and Performance practice) with Macário Santiago Kastner.

A prolific Portuguese composer, already having begun her musical studies at an early age at the National Conservatory of Lisbon, she had composed many pieces of which were mostly for her instrument, the piano.

By 1969 she had begun to have her works commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for its orchestra.

Having her life cut short at the age of 54 she was an active writer having produced approximately 100 pieces for: orchestra, chamber ensembles, a variety of soloists using different instruments, music for films and plays, Ballet / Dance, 'dramatized' staged performances and an assortment of other types of pieces. From early on her music revealed close ties to the dramatic arts and to the imagery of the Human status evoked though sound and Mise en scène.

Always deeply and profoundly moved by the various Arts her work and mode of conduct in Music was, and is, laden with multiple artistic perception.

It is thus not surprising in the least that she had been throughout her life a close artistic and personal friend of music genius Jorge Peixinho whom had himself been a towering influence upon the contemporary Portugal of the latter half of the XXth century (in many fronts of music creation, development and divulging among other activities).

Also a talented percussionist, as a musician her main instrument was the piano.

She taught at the above mentioned conservatory and the Academia de Musica de Santa Cecilia (in Lisbon). Having taught in said institutions as well as at the Musicology department of the 'Universidade Nova de Lisboa' (New University of Lisbon) 's Faculty of Humanities ( UNL- FCSH ) she therefrom exerted high influence upon many, some of which not only pursued the life of music and composition but are themselves recipients of prestigious national and international awards (Eurico Carrapatoso among others).

Among other groups and entities Capdeville was an esteemed member of the Portuguese Music Council and also the Catalan Composers Association of Barcelona. By 1990 she had won the Portuguese Medal of Cultural Merit. The Insignia of the Order of Santiago da Espada was bestowed upon her posthumously in 1992.

Her life had been cut short that same year on February 4th due to Cancer. She was still residing in Caxias at the time.

Works

Capdeville composed about a hundred works, including orchestral music, theater works and film soundtracks. Selected works include:

• Diferenças Sobre o Intervalo for orchestra
• Convivium Musicum for chamber ensemble
• ColecViva, film music
• Opus Sic, film music
• Palavres para dentro, theatrical^[3]

References

1. ^ Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (2001). The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians: Volume 14. 
2. ^ Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian (1994) (Digitized online by GoogleBooks). The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers. http://books.google.com/books?id=IvoQQU1QL_QC&pg=PA103&dq=Constan%C3%A7a+Capdeville+norton&hl=en&ei=btU1TfXDJIyt8Aa53KzzCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 4 October 2010. 
3. ^ "Constance Capdeville (1937-1992)". http://almenara.blogs.sapo.pt/5672.html. Retrieved 19 January 2011. 

Persondata
Name	Capdeville, Constanca
Alternative names
Short description	Pianist and composer
Date of birth	16 March 1937
Place of birth	Barcelona, Spain
Date of death	4 February 1992
Place of death