Isaac Albeniz, beginning his musical career as an infant prodigy pianist, devoted his interest through life chiefly to his own instrument, although his first composition, produced when he was only seven, was a military band piece. After courses of study at Madrid, Brussels, and Leipzig, he toured Europe and America with Rubinstein, and at the age of twenty settled down in his native country as teacher. He soon gave that up, however, and most of his short life -
he was only forty-nine when he died in 1909, was spent between Paris and London. Here he was known for a ti me as a composer of operas, comic and serious, but, though several of these enjoyed temporary successes, none of them has survived.