High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Xavier Montsalvatge i Bassols (March 11, 1912, Girona May 7, 2002, Barcelona) was a Spanish Catalan composer and music critic. He was one of the most influential music figures in Catalan music during the latter half of the 20th century. Montsalvatge studied violin and composition at the Barcelona Conservatory. His principal teachers were Lluís Maria Millet, Enrique Morera, Jaume Pahissa, and Eduard Toldrà. After the Spanish Civil War, Montsalvatge began work as a music critic when he joined the newspaper Destino in 1942, a publication he would eventually direct in 1968 and 1975. He wrote additionally for the daily La Vanguardia after 1962. Montsalvatge also returned to teach at his alma mater, becoming a lecturer in 1970, and then a professor of composition in 1978.