Cristóbal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter, and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the generation of composers designated the Generación del 51.
Also recorded as Cristobal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter
- Full name
- Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina.
- Died
- 2021. · Villafranca del Bierzo.
- Nationality
- Spain.
- Occupation
- conductor, composer and university teacher.
- Fields
- opera.
- Education
- Madrid Royal Conservatory.
- Teachers
- Conrado del Campo.
- Honours
- Culture and Science Award of the City of Kiel, BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, honorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense and Goethe Medal.
- Languages
- Spanish, English and German.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter, and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the generation of composers designated the Generación del 51.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Cristóbal Halffter. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
museum · 101989775 · museum · 52bce034-77d2-4da6-a413-c41dd60fd661 · wikidata · Q375388 · wikipedia · Cristóbal Halffter
In this article
Early years
Early years
Cristóbal Halffter studied at Madrid Royal Conservatory. Training under Conrado del Campo is recorded. Manuel Balboa Rodríguez and Montserrat Bellés are recorded as having studied under Cristóbal Halffter. The recorded working language is Spanish, English and German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Employment is recorded with Madrid Royal Conservatory. Distinctions recorded are Culture and Science Award of the City of Kiel, BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts and Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise.
Halffter was born in Madrid, but in 1936 the family moved to Velbert, Germany, to escape the Spanish Civil War. They returned to Madrid in 1939, and Halftter studied with Conrado del Campo at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, graduating in 1951. He continued his studies, outside of his university education, with Alexandre Tansman and André Jolivet in Paris.
Career
Career
In 1955, Halffter was appointed conductor of the Falla orchestra. He forged a successful career as composer and conductor, writing music which combined a traditional Spanish element with avant-garde techniques. His neoclassical Piano Concerto (1953) won the National Music Prize in 1954. In 1961 he became Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, where he became Director in 1964 but remained only until 1966. Among his notable pupils are Jean-Luc Darbellay, David Philip Hefti, and Javier Jacinto. During the 1960s and 1970s, Halffter composed a number of works relating to human rights, including the 1968 choral work Yes, speak out, yes. In 1984 he served on the jury of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition. He was awarded Spain's highest award for composition, the Premio Nacional de Música, in 1989. Also he has received the 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Contemporary Music. Halffter's works include the opera Don Quijote (2000). His second opera, Lazarus, was premiered in 2008 at the Kiel Opera House to celebrate its centenary. A third opera, Schachnovelle, with a libretto by Wolfgang Haendeler after the eponymous novel by Stefan Zweig, was scheduled to premiere at the same house in May 2013.
Personal life and death
Personal life and death
He was married to pianist María Manuela Caro until her death on 18 December 2017, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. He died peacefully on 23 May 2021, at the age of 91, in Villafranca del Bierzo, province of León.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1965
AGP29: Cristobal Halffter (1965) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
2021
Cristóbal Halffter died at Villafranca del Bierzo.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Madrid.
Birth place
Villafranca del Bierzo.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q375388: Cristóbal Halffter
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Cristóbal Halffter”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Cristóbal Halffter, un melancólico excepcional, 2021
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2021
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Cristóbal Halffter
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 35
- Anon. Fallece en León la pianista María Manuela Caro, esposa del compositor Cristóbal Halffter. El Bierzo Digital. 19 December 2017.
- Anon. Muere a los 91 años el compositor y director de orquesta Cristóbal Halffter. RTVE. 23 May 2021.
- Anon. Premiados, Jurados, Orquestas y Artistas Invitados. Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition. n.d.d.
- . "Traditionsmomente in Kompositionen von Cristóbal Halffter, Klaus Huber und Wolfgang Rihm". In Die neue Musik und die Tradition. Sieben Kongress-Beiträge und eine analytische Studie, edited by Reinhold Brinkmann, 130–152. Mainz: Schott.
- Boulez, Pierre, Josef Häusler, and Cristóbal Halffter. 1985. Uber Répons: ein Interview mit Josef Häusler; Cristóbal Halffter: Variationen über das Echo eines Schreis: eine Analyse. Kassel: Bärenreiter. .
- Briner, Andres. 1986. "Menschlichkeit und Gewalt: Zum Werk von Cristóbal Halffter". In Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts in der Paul Sacher Stiftung, edited by Jörg Meyer Jans, 393–400. Basel: Paul Sacher Stiftung.
- Casares Rodicio, Emilio. 1980. Cristóbal Halffter. Colección Ethos-Música 3. Oviedo: Departamento de Arte-Musicología, Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Oviedo. .
- Charles Soler, Agustín. 1992. "La universalidad de un lenguaje, confrontación de dos obras: Debla y Preludio para Madrid 92 de Cristóbal Halffter". Nassarre: Revista Aragonesa de Musicología 8, no. 1:9–64.
- Charles Soler, Agustín. 2002. Análisis de la música española del siglo XX: En torno a la Generación del 51. Valencia: Rivera.
- Hermann Danuser. 1986. "Cristóbal Halffter: Ein Komponist engagierter Musik". Dissonanz, no. 10.
- Danuser, Hermann. 1987. "Cristóbal Halffter: Un ejemplo de la nueva música comprometida", translated by Bernardo Martínez. In España en la música de occidente, 2 vols., edited by José López-Calo, Emilio Casares Rodicio, and Ismael Fernández de la Cuesta, 2: 475–477. Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura. .
- Daschner, Hubert. 1993. "Líneas y puntos von Cristóbal Halffter: Voraussetzungen, Entstehung, Folgen". In Quellenstudien. II: Zwölf Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Felix Meyer, 149–168. Veröffentlichungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, no. 3. Winterthur: Amadeus-Verlag. .
- Daschner, Hubert. 2000. Spanische Musik auf der Höhe ihrer Zeit: Cristóbal Halffter. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag. .
- Daschner, Hubert. 2001. "Cristóbal Halffter und die Spanische Musik nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg". In An den Rändern Europas: Ein internationales Festival mit Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts—Konzerthaus, Kunstforum, Musikverein, Odeon, WUK Kulturabteilung: 31. Oktober bis 30. November 1998, edited by Marie-Therese Rudolph and Berno Odo Polzer, Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag. .
- . 2000. "Ein spanischer Weltbürger: Der Komponist Cristóbal Halffter". In Wien Modern: 27. Oktober bis 26. November 2000 – Elektronik, Raum, 'musique spectrale' – Ein Festival mit Musik unserer Zeit, edited by Berno Odo Polzer, translations by Elfi Cagale, Silva Manfrè, and Martin Kaltenecker, 137–140. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag. .
- Fernández-Cid, Antonio. 1984. "Cristóbal Halffter y Antón García Abril". Ritmo, no. 541:28.
- Halffter, Cristóbal. 1977. Cristobal Halffter. Zodiaque. Cahiers de l'atelier du Cam Ministry, ue 111. St. Liger Vanbau, Abbaji Sainte Marie de la Premequi-vore.
- Gan Quesada, Germán. 2003. "La obra de Cristóbal Halffter: Creación musical y fundamentos estéticos". PhD diss., Universidad de Granada.
- Gan Quesada, Germán. 2007. "Tópico folklórico, tradición e innovación en un ballet 'español': Jugando al toro de Cristóbal Halffter". Revista de Musicología 30, no. 1 (June) 181–206.
- . 1974. "Spanien rückt ins Blickfeld". Melos: Jahrbuch für zeitgenössische Musik 41, no. 5 (September–October): 271–277.
- Hochradner, Thomas. 2001. "Transformationen: Cristóbal Halffter und der Gedanke der Apokalypse". In Apokalypse: Symposion 1999, edited by Carmen Ottner, 296–311. Studien zu Franz Schmidt 13. Vienna: Doblinger. .
- Kassel, Matthias. 1998. "Cristóbal Halffter: Variation[en] über das Thema eSACHERe (1975) ". In Settling New Scores: Music Manuscripts from the Paul Sacher Foundation, edited by Felix Meyer, foreword by Charles E. Pierce Jr. and Paul Sacher, 223–225. Mainz: Schott. .
- Lewin-Richter, Andrés. 1985. "La música electroacústica a Catalunya". Revista Musical Catalana, 6 (April): 27–29.
- Mâche, François-Bernard. 1978. "Les mal entendus. Compositeurs des années 70". La Revue musicale, nos. 314–315:166.
- Marco, Tomás. 1972. Cristóbal Halffter. Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia.
- Medina Álvarez, Ángel. 1996. "Apuntes sobre la recepción de la música abierta en España". Anuario musical: Revista de Musicología del C.S.I.C. 51:217–232.
- Mosch, Ulrich. 1991. "Vom Neoklassizismus zur Avantgarde: Cristóbal Halffters Weg zur Neuen Musik". Neue Zürcher Zeitung 212, no. 231 (5–6 October): 69–70.
- Oehrlein, Josef. 1982. "Kettenklirren für die Freiheit. Musik versus Diktatur: Der spanische Komponist Cristóbal Halffter". Musik und Medizin 2:61–68.
- Reverter, Arturo. 1987. "Cristóbal Halfter habla de sus Tres poemas de lírica española". Scherzo: Revista de Música, no. 12 (February): 78–79.
- Rodríguez, María del Mar. 1993. "Entrevista sobre educación musical con...Cristóbal Halffter: Los conservatorios no pueden estar anclados en el pasado". Música y educación: Revista trimestral de pedagogía musical 6, no. 1 (April): 9–14.
- Romero, Ernesto. 2002. "Le Quichotte de Cristóbal Halffter: Texte et partition au service d'une nouvelle quête indentitaire". In Textuel. 41 (2002): Texte et partition, edited by Julia Kristeva with an introduction Arthur Thomassin, 185–199. Paris: Université de Paris VII [Denis Diderot].
- Ros, Enrique A. 1991. "'Kultur ist Beunruhigung': Der spanische Komponist Cristóbal Halffter". Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 152, no. 6 (June): 36–41.
- Sagastume, Manu. 1996. "La Generación del 51". Kantuz, no. 32 (July–August): 27.
- Ulm, Renate. 1995. "Cristóbal Halffter: Tradition ist das, was von der Kultur einer Zeit übriggeblieben ist". In Eine Sprache der Gegenwart: Musica Viva 1945–1995, edited by Renate Ulm, 325–331. Mainz: Schott. (cloth); (pbk).
- Vega Toscano, Ana Maria. 1989. "Cristóbal Halffter: Un luchador en mil fuentes". Ritmo, no. 600 (June): 12–13.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Cristóbal Halffter, un melancólico excepcional, 2021Crossref registry
VerifiedInstitutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Cristóbal HalffterMetaBrainz Foundation
Verifiedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q375388: Cristóbal HalffterWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
A further 1 witness is held back from this article because the person or object named in it is not yet resolved to this record. They are kept, not discarded, and return once the identity is established.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,307 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Cristina VeePerson
- Cristina ZavalloniPerson
- Cristóbal de MoralesPerson
- Cristóbal GalánPerson
- Cristóbal OudridPerson
- Cristobal Tapia de VeerPerson
- Cristòfor Taltabull i BalaguerPerson
- Cristoforo CaresanaPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Cristóbal Halffter?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.