At the age of nine he entered the Escola Municipal de Música de Barcelona, where he studied music theory with Amadeo Badía and bandurria with Miguel Ramos. In 1900 he received the first guitar and harmony classes from Francesc Tàrrega, a decisive figure in his training and who, over time, would end up being his favorite disciple and the great representative of his school. Later Pujol expanded his musical studies in Madrid with Agustín Campo and in Barcelona with Vicenç María de Gibert. In 1907 he offered his first concert at the Cercle Tradicionalista de Lleida with great success.
During these years he cultivated a great friendship with the guitarist Miquel Llobet. In 1909 he settled in Madrid, where he offered some recitals. His patron, the court painter Pablo Antonio de Béjar, took him to London, presenting him in the artistic circles of the capital, where he fully succeeded. After the First World War, Pujol sailed for South America with the purpose of making his art known; in Argentina he had great successes. In 1921 he settled in Paris and between 1923 and 1929 he toured Belgium, Holland, Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, consecrating his virtuosity and achieving a solid reputation.
Attentive to the teachings received from Felip Pedrell and following his advice, and those of the French musicologist Lionel de La Laurencie, he began in musicological research on the history of the guitar in times past. Through numerous publications and concerts, Pujol recovered an unknown heritage that had been hidden for centuries and that since then was already available to specialists from around the world.
From 1941 he began his important pedagogical work and in 1945 he was appointed director of the chair of historical Viola at the Conservatori de Música de Barcelona. Between 1946 and 1969 he gave classical guitar courses at the Lisbon Conservatory. Later he taught courses at the Chigiana Musical Academy and at this institution he founded the Matilde Cuervas Viola International Competition, in memory of his first wife. In 1964 he started the international courses in Lleida and Cervera on guitar, lute and vihuela, which became enormously popular.
Guitarist with a refined technique and exquisite sensitivity, always concerned with achieving maximum purity in sound. His phrasing was proverbial in its eloquence and expressive capacity, and he was appreciated by his contemporaries as one of the most complete and gifted interpreters of the time. His works are essentially guitaristic that demand great instrumental technique, although there is also works for didactic purposes and those of an ethnographic nature.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW BETTER THE ARTIST?
Emili Pujol AssociationEmili Pujol Archive in the Music Museum of Barcelona Emili Pujol Archive in the Institut d´Estudis Ilerdencs
PERFORMED WORKS
Cançó amatòria,
for guitar
Zortzico,
for guitar
Tango,
for guitar
