Spain has one of Europe's richest musical traditions, in which art music and popular music have always fed each other.
From the Middle Ages to the Golden Age
In the thirteenth century King Alfonso X the Wise had the Cantigas de Santa María compiled, over four hundred songs in Galician-Portuguese dedicated to the Virgin, with precious miniatures of musicians and instruments. In the Renaissance Spain had great polyphonists such as Cristóbal de Morales and Tomás Luis de Victoria, who worked for many years in Rome, and composers for the vihuela, ancestor of the guitar. In the eighteenth century the Neapolitan Domenico Scarlatti worked in Madrid, writing hundreds of sonatas inspired by Spanish rhythms, and the Italian Luigi Boccherini lived and died there.
The guitar
The modern Spanish guitar took shape in the nineteenth century thanks to the Andalusian luthier Antonio de Torres. Composers and performers such as Fernando Sor, Francisco Tárrega, author of Recuerdos de la Alhambra, and above all Andrés Segovia made it a concert instrument. Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) is perhaps the most famous piece of Spanish classical music in the world.
Musical nationalism
Around 1900, while Europe discovered Spain through Bizet's Carmen and Ravel's rhapsodies, Spanish composers turned popular music into art music: Isaac Albéniz with the Iberia suite, Enrique Granados with Goyescas, Manuel de Falla with Love the Magician, The Three-Cornered Hat and Nights in the Gardens of Spain. The Catalan cellist Pau Casals, exiled for opposing Franco, became a symbol of freedom.
Zarzuela and opera
Zarzuela is Spanish musical theatre, alternating sung and spoken parts, born in the seventeenth century and hugely popular in the nineteenth, with titles such as La verbena de la Paloma. The Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid is its temple. Spain has given the world great opera singers: Victoria de los Ángeles, Teresa Berganza, Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Alfredo Kraus. Madrid's Teatro Real and Barcelona's Liceu are among Europe's leading opera houses.
Flamenco and regional music
Flamenco, born in Andalusia, has been UNESCO intangible heritage since 2010. But every region has its music: the Aragonese jota, the bagpipes (gaitas) of Galicia and Asturias, the Catalan sardana, sevillanas, the Basque txistu (see Spanish dances and folklore).
From singer-songwriters to pop
In the 1960s and 1970s the Catalan Nova Cançó of Raimon and Joan Manuel Serrat and Paco Ibáñez's protest songs opposed the regime, while Julio Iglesias and Raphael won international audiences. With democracy the 1980s Movida brought bands such as Radio Futura, Alaska and Mecano. In the 1990s and 2000s Alejandro Sanz, Joaquín Sabina, Héroes del Silencio, Estopa, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Enrique Iglesias and Pablo Alborán found success. Today the Catalan Rosalía, who has blended flamenco, pop and reggaeton in albums such as El mal querer and Motomami, is a global star, alongside artists such as C. Tangana and Aitana.