Published by PILES, Editorial de Música, S.A. (Print edition) or Artal & Ferrandis Music Publisthing (PDF Download), copyright 2026, with an edition exclusively authorized for all countries.
Carmen is made up of 12 movements (Shepherdess’s Dance, Sleeping Beauty, Memories, An Organist in Heaven, Spring Fragrances, Shy Glance, Why Did You Leave?, Invisible, Only, In Memoriam, Rondo and Nana) that turn this project into a personal tribute to Carmen, companion and wife of Ernest Artal. Two of its movements also pay tribute to two deeply loved people who are no longer with us. A vital journey through musical portraits that recreate different states of mind rooted in love, absence and memory, with moments of profound spiritual tenderness.
The musical style reveals a harmonic language based on tonality and modality. Rooted in the classical and romantic tradition, with occasional impressionist touches (chromaticism and chords with added notes). The piano writing is essentially melodic: one hand carries a cantabile line, often with long, slurred phrases and abundant expressive markings, while the other hand provides an accompaniment of broken arpeggios, Alberti basses and spread chords.
As for technical level, the work is varied: there are movements of medium difficulty (suitable for advanced students at elementary/intermediate grade, such as “Shepherdess’s Dance”) and others that are clearly more virtuosic, with fast passages of sixteenth notes, leaps, textures and dense chords that already call for a higher grade level, such as “Invisible.”
Pianist Claudio Carbó
Claudio Carbó combines the ability to bring expressiveness and nuance to Carmen, by Ernest Artal, with impeccable technique. It is worth noting that Carbó trained with figures such as Dimitri Bashkirov at the Reina SofÃa School of Music and holds extraordinary end-of-degree awards, which guarantees the accomplished level this piece demands.
The complete musical score
The complete score runs to 59 pages and consists of twelve independent pieces, each with its own poetic title, tempo, and character, in the manner of an album or notebook of piano miniatures. Each piece carries a footer with the attribution “PILES Editorial de Música” or “Artal & Ferrandis Music Publisthing” (according to print or digital edition).
The 12 Movements of Carmen:
I. Shepherdess’s Dance
A light, graceful pastoral dance: a melody in skipping eighth notes in the right hand, with arched four-bar phrases and a left-hand accompaniment of single notes marking the waltz’s pulse. The dynamics move naturally between mf, p, and cresc./dim., and there is a “2nd time” indication marking a repeat with a variant. It is the technically simplest piece in the whole collection and serves as a gentle gateway.
II. Sleeping Beauty
For Sleeping Beauty, the composer has chosen a lyrical, dreamlike texture with broad arpeggios in the left hand that rise and fall across the register, while the right hand traces a wavering melody, full of long slurs and ornamental figurations. The character is that of a lullaby or reverie, consistent with the title, carrying significant expressive weight and a certain discreet virtuosity in the coordination between both hands, which often move within close registers.
IV. An Organist in Heaven
This piece seeks spiritual elevation by evoking the image of the church organ and how its music rises towards the heavens. It begins with tenderness and stillness, moves towards a livelier central section reminiscent of organ texture — sustained chords, parallel voices — and returns to the initial calm to conclude in a solemn Largo. Musically, it is one of the pieces with the most constant tempo changes, so the pianist will need to find just the right balance between fragility and strength to carry the piece.
VIII. Invisible
One of the technically most demanding pieces: fast sixteenth-note passages appear, along with dense chords and intense chromaticism in both hands, in writing much closer to Impressionism (at times recalling textures by Debussy or Ravel), with markings such as senza peso (“without weight”) that call for very fine tonal control. The title — “Invisible” — and this elusive, chromatic writing fit well with an idea of absence or a fading memory.
IX. Only
A more lyrical and contemplative piece, with passages combining fast figurations with moments of extended rallentando, suggesting a reflective, somewhat melancholic close — fitting with the English-language title that breaks from the rest of the Italian-flavored titles.
X. In Memoriam
The Latin title confirms the commemorative/elegiac reading noted earlier: a tribute in memoriam within the narrative arc of the Suite. Even so, the contrast comes through a rhythmic and resolute piece, with regular, constant figurations that give it drive. A powerful march, opening with a passage full of dramatic intensity within a solemn logic that shuns lament in order to rise up with majesty.