Melcior de

Melcior de Ferrer i de Manresa

Baró de Ferrer

Peralada , 1828
La Bisbal d'Empordà , 18 de maig de 1884

Composer

Composer

He was descendant of a noble family. He studied organ at the Jesuits's School in Nice and law in Bologna. In the mid-1840s, he moved to Barcelona and studied with Barba. He premiered a Stabat Mater at the Casino Filharmònic. He became one of the largest landowners in Empordà, alternating his residence between La Bisbal and Barcelona. His compositions were mainly intended for social gatherings of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie and included ballables and songs for voice and piano. The rest of his surviving output includes mainly sacred music. A zarzuela, two keyboard symphonies and the opera Giuditta (1855) with a libretto by Solera have been lost. Ferrer's life and music puts forward musical forms of sociability in nineteenth-century Catalonia.