Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
Filed under the name Enrique · July 5, 2026
Music that lasts is a funny thing to me — I love old hymns and Patsy Cline myself, nothing fancy, but I understand Enrique Granados's piano suite Goyescas is still considered one of his finest achievements more than a century later, which is its own kind of miracle in a world that forgets songs faster every year. Writing something meant to capture a whole mood or era in sound, the way Goyescas apparently does with its inspiration from Goya's paintings, takes an artist who trusts the slow work of getting small details exactly right rather than chasing whatever's popular that season. I always tell my third graders that the things worth doing usually take longer than you'd like, and I suspect that held true for a composer working out every note of a serious piano suite too. It doesn't surprise me that a piece built with that kind of care outlived its own century. Some things earn their staying power the old-fashioned way, one careful measure or one careful lesson at a time.