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Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos
(baptised December 3, 1729 - December 20, 1783)
was a Spain|Spanish composer.

He was born in Olot in Girona (province)|Girona,
Catalonia. He studied composition and the organ
(music)|organ as a child, when, at age six, he
entered the choir of the Monastery of Monserrat.
In 1744 he was appointed organist at the cathedral
in Seo de Urgel and appointed as a subdeacon
there. Later in his life, he held posts as chapel
master in Lleida and El Escorial.

He took Holy Orders at the age of 23 and his
routine at the Escorial, near Madrid, was a a
simple one for the next 31 years. His 20 hour days
were filled with prayer, contemplation and farming
- a simple and unadorned life. Yet Soler managed
to produce more than 500 musical works in these
austere surroundings. Amongst these were around
150 keyboard sonatas - many were believed to have
been written for his music pupil, the Infante Don
Gabriel, a son of King Carlos III. No portraits of
Soler are known to exist.

His best known works are the keyboard
instrument|keyboard sonatas, which are comparable
to those by Domenico Scarlatti (with whom he is
rumored to have studied). Soler's works are more
varied in form than Scarlatti's, however, with
some pieces in three or four movements, for
example (Scarlatti's are in one or two).
Fortunately, these sonatas were catalogued in the
early twentieth century by Fr. Samuel Rubio and so
all have 'R' numbers assigned to them.

Soler also wrote concertos, quintets for organ and
string instrument|strings, motets, mass
(music)|masses and pieces for solo organ. His
treatise Llave de la modulación (1762) is on
modulation (music)|modulation.

Soler's very fine "Six Concertos for Two Organs"
are still very much in the repertoire and have
been often recorded.  A Fandango (dance)|fandango
once attributed to Soler, and probably more often
performed than any other work by him, is now
thought to be of doubtful authorship.

==External links==
*http://home.sprynet.com/~izumirm/solerpag.htm
Biography, MIDI files and links