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

He was born in Olot in Girona, Catalonia. He studied composition and the organ as a child, and held posts as chapel master in Lleida and El Escorial.

His best known works are his keyboard sonatas, of which he wrote over a hundred and 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). He also wrote concertos, quintets for organ and strings, motets, masses and pieces for solo organ. His treatise Llave de la modulación (1762) is on modulation.

Soler's very fine "Six Concertos for Two Organs" are still very much in the repertoire and have been often recorded. A 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

• Biography, MIDI files and links