- Born May 29, 1860, in Camprodón, Spain
- Died May 18, 1909, in Cambo-les-Bains, France
- Composed in 1891
- Duration: 8 minutes

In 1890, Isaac Albéniz moved his family from Spain to London, where he had a contract with the businessman and theater impresario Henry Lowenfeld. Lowenfeld set Albéniz up with numerous recital opportunities and got him hired to compose a score for the operetta The Magic Ring, which proved successful. In exchange for a generous stipend, the pianist would come to the large Lowenfeld home in Lowndes Square and play for his patron on an upright. Alice Lowenfeld, Henry’s wife, would also host house concerts, which the tabloids gushed about: “Mrs Lowenfeld was an indefatigable hostess, and the afternoon proved a great success. There was some excellent music as indeed there always is, Mrs Lowenfeld’s taste being well known. . . . Senor Albeniz, the talented author of The Magic Ring, gave a brilliant piano solo.” 

The Lowenfelds had two daughters, Helena and Margaret, both of whom became famous doctors.¹ Helena was enthralled with the artistic activity of the house, and she had fond memories of eavesdropping on her father’s private sessions with Albéniz. When he published Mallorca, a lyrical piano work written during his London years, he dedicated it to her, “Miss Ellie Lowenfeld.” On the title page, the piece is described as a Barcarolle, a gondolier’s song. The middle of this miniature, in F-sharp major, displays the typical rocking rhythms of a Venetian boatman’s tune, and it employs the same tonality as Chopin’s famous piece of the same type. The outer sections include modal scales and harmonies, as well as distinctive trills and turns, which give the music a Spanish inclination.

After a few years in London, Albéniz moved to Paris, where he found the right artistic milieu. He befriended Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Gabriel Fauré, and others who were receptive to his experiments in rhythm and harmony; he taught at the Schola Cantorum; he mentored and inspired two younger Spanish composers, Manuel de Falla and Joaquín Turina. He tried returning to Spain between stints in France, but he found that people in his home country weren’t interested in his newer creations. He was writing piano sonatas and intricate reflections on Spanish style like the 1905–08 collection Iberia, and audiences in Spain wanted to hear more music like Mallorca. 

To his credit, Albéniz didn’t hold it against listeners at all for loving the appealing salon pieces he wrote throughout his life. His nephew, the journalist Victor Ruiz Albéniz, recalled his uncle speaking on the topic soon before his death: “People are right when they continue to be moved by Córdoba, Mallorca, by the copla of the Sevillanas, by the Serenata, and Granada. In all of them I now note that there is less musical science, less of the grand idea, but more color, sunlight, flavor of olives. That music of youth, with its little sins and absurdities that almost point out the sentimental affectation . . . appears to me like the carvings in the Alhambra, those peculiar arabesques that say nothing with their turns and shapes, but which are like the air, like the sun, like the blackbirds or like the nightingales of its gardens.”

¹Helena Lowenfeld specialized in contraception and became an important advocate for birth control in England. Margaret Lowenfeld was a child psychologist and is widely considered the inventor of play therapy.