María Teresa Oller facts for kids

Quick facts for kids María Teresa Oller
(2015)
Born	María Teresa Oller Benlloch 1920 (1920) Valencia, Spain
Died	(2018-09-02)2 September 2018 (aged 97)
Occupation	composer folklorist
Organization	Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia
Awards	Joaquín Rodrigo Prize

María Teresa Oller (1920 – 2 September 2018) was a Spanish composer and a folklorist. A folklorist studies the traditions, customs, and stories of a community. María Teresa focused on the Valencian Community in Spain.

Starting in the 1950s, she worked hard to find and collect traditional Valencian music. She wanted to highlight this music and share it widely. She published many works about it. Oller was also a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia. This is a special academy for fine arts.

Her Life and Work

María Teresa Oller Benlloch was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1920.

From a young age, she loved popular music. She was interested in the sounds she heard every day. This included party music played by the dulzaina (a type of wind instrument) and the tabalet (a small drum). She also listened to street songs sung by workers and children. When she visited her family in Alcoy, she learned about rural folk music too.

She studied at the Conservatori Superior de Música Joaquín Rodrigo [ca]. There, she won a special award for her skills in piano and composition. Manuel Palau was her teacher for composition and conducting. He also taught her about music history and how to teach music. María Teresa became his favorite student. She followed his advice and continued her music studies with other famous teachers. In 1954, she received a grant to improve her composition skills.

Some of her first important works involved research in the Vall d'Albaida region. Oller visited every town there. She collected songs like the fandango from El Palomar. She also documented dances from Bèlgida. She did a lot of work in the Ribera Alta area. There, she recorded the music of Algemesí. She also collected the Porrots dances from Silla. She even studied and copied old polyphonic music from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. This music came from the archives of the Valencia Cathedral and other old churches.

Traditional Valencian dance (Valencian Museum of Ethnology)

From 1974, María Teresa focused on transcribing music. She worked with a team led by music expert Salvador Seguí Pérez [ca]. Other team members included Fermín Pardo and others. The Fundación Juan March helped fund this group. They traveled to different areas of the province of Valencia to collect songs and melodies. Oller was in charge of visiting villages in areas like Los Serranos and Camp de Túria.

In 1976, another group, the Institució Alfons el Magnànim - Centre Valencià d'Estudis i d'Investigació [ca], joined in. They wanted to create a traditional music songbook for Castelló and Valencia. This would complete a project that Salvador Seguí had started. In 1980, the Institució Alfons el Magnànim published the Cancionero Musical de la provincia de Valencia. María Teresa Oller helped a lot with this book. During this time, the team collected many songs and texts. They found music from towns in Requena-Utiel, Valle de Ayora, and other regions.

In 1988, Oller and Pardo worked together again. They proposed a project about mayos singing in the Valencian regions. Mayos are traditional songs sung in May. They received money to collect more texts and melodies. Oller then copied and studied these songs. Her research helped a lot to bring back and document Valencian musical culture. For example, her work on the Rosario de la aurora [es] was very important.

Oller also wrote for many publications about Cant valencià d'estil [ca] (Valencian style singing). She attended many conferences. She also wrote for the newspaper Levante. In the newspaper, she shared her research and wrote reviews of concerts and operas. María Teresa Oller passed away on September 2, 2018, at the age of 97.

Awards and Honours

In 1969, María Teresa Oller won the Joaquín Rodrigo Prize. She received it for her work called Veus del blau i del grisenc. This piece was for a mixed choir. It used three poems by Maria Ibars i Ibars. These poems were "Mar dormida," "Plany," and "Cançoneta del Montgó." The work was published in 1974.

Selected Works

María Teresa Oller wrote and contributed to many books about traditional Valencian music:

• Armiñana, Rosa; Oller, María Teresa. Voces de un pueblo (Voices of a People): Bechí. Valencia: Institut d'Estudis Valencians, 1983.
• Oller, María Teresa; Palau, Manuel. Madrigales y canciones polifónicas (Madrigals and Polyphonic Songs): anonymous authors from the 16th and 17th centuries. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Musicología, 1958.
• Oller, María Teresa. Las canciones de trilla del arroz en la valenciana Ribera del Júcar (The Rice Threshing Songs in the Valencian Ribera del Júcar). Zaragoza: Institución "Fernando el Católico", 1969.
• Oller, María Teresa. La música coral valenciana (Valencian Choral Music). Madrid: Sociedad Española de Acústica, 1972.
• Oller, María Teresa; Calatayud, Vicent Ramon. Contar y cantar (To Tell and To Sing): a collection of Valencian popular stories and songs. Valencia: Lo Rat Penado, 1994.
• Oller, María Teresa. Panorámica de la canço i la dansa tradicional (Overview of Traditional Song and Dance): a conference speech. Madrid: Lo Rat Penat, 1998.
• Oller, María Teresa; Martí, Enric. Panorámica de la música y danza tradicional valenciana (Overview of Traditional Valencian Music and Dance). Valencia: Universidad Politécnica, 1998.
• Oller, María Teresa. Cançons narratives valencianes (Valencian Narrative Songs). Valencia: Lo Rat Penat, 2000.
• Bartual, Rosa; Oller, María Teresa; Madrid, Jesús A. L'albà de l'Alcora (The Dawn of Alcora). Valencia: Lo Rat Penat, 2003.
• Oller, María Teresa. La navidad en Valencia (Christmas in Valencia). Valencia: Aula de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 2004.
• Oller, María Teresa. Canciones tradicionales valencianas infantiles y de cuna (Traditional Valencian Children's and Lullaby Songs). Valencia: Aula de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 2006.
• Oller, María Teresa. La canción campesina en el folclore musical valenciano (The Peasant Song in Valencian Musical Folklore). Valencia: Aula de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de València, 2007.
• Oller, María Teresa; Bartual, Rosa. Tot menos apurarse (Everything But Worrying): humorous Valencian songs. Valencia: Aula de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 2007.
• Oller, María Teresa; Martí, Enric. Panorámica de la música y danza tradicional valenciana (Overview of Traditional Valencian Music and Dance). Valencia: Aula Enric Martí de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de Valrncia, 2007.
• Oller, María Teresa. Los "gozos" en la tradición musical del pueblo valenciano (The "Gozos" in the Musical Tradition of the Valencian People). Valencia: Aula Enric Martí de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universitat Politècnica de València, 2009.
• Oller, María Teresa. La Pasión de Jesús de Nazareth en la canción tradicional valenciana (The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth in Traditional Valencian Song). Valencia: Aula Enric Martí de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 2010.
• Oller, María Teresa. Canciones tradicionales valencianas, pascueras (Traditional Valencian Easter Songs). Valencia: Aula Enric Martí de Cultura Tradicional Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 2011.
• Oller, María Teresa. Frases, sentències i dites valencianes (Valencian Phrases, Sentences, and Sayings). Valencia: Lo Rat Penat, 2011.
• Pardo, Fermín; Oller, María Teresa. Los mayos en el Campo de Requena-Utiel y otras comarcas valencianas (The Mayos in Campo de Requena-Utiel and other Valencian Regions). Requena: Centro de Estudios Requenenses, 1997.
• Seguí, Salvador; Oller, María Teresa; Pardo, Fermín; Jesús-María, José A. Danzas de Titaguas (Dances of Titaguas). Valencia: Sección Folclore Musical. Instituto de Etnología Valenciana. Institución Alfons el Magnánimo, 1979.
• Seguí, Salvador; Oller, María Teresa; López, José Luis; Pardo, Fermín; Garrido, Sebastián. Cancionero musical de la provincia de Valencia (Musical Songbook of the Province of Valencia). Valencia: Institución Alfonso el Magnánimo, 1980.

See also

In Spanish: María Teresa Oller Benlloch para niños