Person
Pantión Pérez, Antonio (1898-1974)
Sevilla (España) 1898-02-01 - Sevilla (España) 1974-11-28
Spanish composer, pianist and teacher.
Born on 1 February 1898 in Seville (Spain). Son of Diego Pantión. He received his first music lessons from his father, and later expanded his formation with Joaquín Turina. Seville's Teatro del Duque premiered some of his lyric pieces in the 1920s, when he also wrote the coplas "¡Oh Jesús, qué compasivo!" (1923) for tenor, baritone, choir and orchestra, and the zarzuela "Irresponsables" (1923). In Madrid, he created an orchestra consisting of two violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano, two lutes and two guitars. This group played an exclusively Spanish repertoire of works by Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Joaquín Turina and other compatriots. For this reason, on 17 September 1834, he wrote to Manuel de Falla from Madrid, asking his permission to re-score and perform "La vida breve" (1904-1913), the "Danza del fuego" from "El amor brujo" (1915), and the "Dance of the Miller's Wife" from "The Three-Cornered Hat" (1917-1919).
Pantión devoted much of his career to religious processional music and was associated with the Brotherhood of Las Penas de San Vicente in Seville. He wrote the marches "Jesús de las Penas" (1943) and "Tus Dolores son mis Penas" (1970) for this confraternity. He also composed chapel music, such as "Silencio" (1953), "Christus vincit" (1955), "Mater Dolorosa" (1959) and "Vía Crucis" (1963).
Pantión taught at the Conservatorio Oficial de Música de Sevilla, where he held the solfège chair. The composer Manuel Castillo and pianist Mariles Rentería were among his pupils. He also contributed to the Seville-based magazine "Calvario", in which he published and shared his processional music. Other compositions in his catalogue are the zarzuelas "El ama del cortijo" and "El juguete nuevo"; "Saetas a Nuestro Padre Jesús de las Penas" for oboe, clarinet and bassoon; and the processional marches "Siete Palabras y Montserrat" (1955), "Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles" (1960), "Guadalupe" (1968), "Esperanza Trinitaria" (1971) and "Madre de Dios del Rosario" (1972). He passed away on 28 November 1974 in Seville (Spain).