Manuel Saumell
Manuel Saumell Robredo (19 April 1818 – 14 August 1870), was a Cuban composer known for his invention and development of genuinely creolized forms of music. For this reason he gets the credit for being the first to cultivate Cuban musical nationalism, and is of similar standing to Glinka who initiated Russian musical nationalism with A Life for the Tsar at about the same time. Life Saumell, from a destitute family, "destined to die young, after leading a miserable, peripatetic, sorrowful existence" was born in Havana. He studied piano with Juan Fédérico Edelmann, and harmony, arranging, counterpoint and fugue with Mauricio Pyke, the director of an Italian opera company which visited Havana. Saumell played the organ in church and interpreted Beethoven for trios, organized musical meetings, made orchestrations and arrangements, and taught classes. "Saumell was a truly hard worker, sensitive, generous with others, demanding of himself; he was eager to achieve great things [and] inspired to great projects." At 21 he fell heavily in love with a singer, Dolores de Saint-Maxent, who had introduced Schubert's work to Cuba. Unfortunately for him, she came from a wealthy family who would not countenance their marriage. All the same, for a time she