Manuel Oltra, one of Catalonia’s most distinguished living composers, is Professor of Composition at the Conservatori Superior de Música, Barcelona. His highly varied compositions include symphonic works, chamber music, and especially choral music. In 1994 the Generalitat de Catalunya awarded him the Premi Nacional de Música. Composed in 1964–65, his Eco and Preludio are brilliantly written for chorus, and also recreate the vivid atmosphere of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poems from Three Songs of Love.