ABSTRACT
Numerous accounts of Albeniz's life have been written since the first one, by Antonio Guerra y Alarcon (B47), appeared in 1886. Even a cursory examination of any half dozen of them soon reveals, however, that they are all plagued by inconsistencies and contradictions. This one says he stowed away on a steamer in Cadiz and traveled to Cuba when he was but twelve; that one says that the steamer was headed for Buenos Aires, not Havana; another says that it left from La Corufi.a, not Cadiz. This one says that he studied for nine months in Leipzig during the years 1875-76; that one says eighteen months; another, three years. This one says that he studied with Liszt in Weimar, Rome, and Budapest; that one says that he studied with him for a year in Italy, while another says that he played for Liszt but once, in the summer of 1880. And on and on it goes.
