WHAT MAKES SPANISH MUSIC
SPANISH
To paraphrase Virgil Thomson, any music written
by a Spaniard deserves the designation. And to be sure, the twentieth
century saw experimentation in Spain with virtually every international
musical trend, from serialism to electronics. Nor was this the first
time that Spanish composers prided themselves in transcending or at
least eschewing obvious references to their nationality: throughout
much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the mania for Italian
musical tastes on the Iberian peninsula dictated a decidedly foreign
aesthetic as did Catalonia's slightly later Wagner-craze. Still, Spanish
classical music seems to reach its apogee when wed to nationalistic
expression. One need only recall the achievements of Isaac Albéniz,
Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla - all disciples of the ethnomusicologist
Felipe Pedrell - to affirm the validity of Spanish folk idioms as
a boundless source of musical inspiration. Indeed, the increasing
willingness of many gifted Spanish composers in the late nineteenth
century to turn to indigenous resources revitalized a moribund musical
culture.
These resources have varied from composer to composer. For some, the
direct quoting or imitation of folk music opened promising artistic
vistas. For others, the evocation of uniquely Spanish historical,
geographic, or cultural phenomena provided crucial stimulus. The possibilities
are virtually endless and by no means mutually exclusive.
Colorful orchestral scores, native-language vocal settings, guitar
solos, and piano works come to mind in conjunction with Spanish art
music of the last one hundred or so years. Music for traditional chamber
groupings - string quartets, piano trios, etc. - does not seem to
have flourished in the outputs of major Spanish composers. Why this
apparent lacuna? To some extent, the matter can be attributed to a
paucity of performances rather than actual compositions: important
contributions to the genre by the likes of Enrique Granados, Joaquín
Turina, Eduard Toldrà, and Roberto Gerhard too rarely figure
in the repertories of international chamber groups.
Nevertheless, there remains some legitimacy to the perception. One
explanation derives from the unique achievements of the Viennese and
German classicists: the chamber works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms set not only incomparable standards,
but also indelibly associated the music with a diametrically opposing
musical axis. Still, the string quartets of the Madrid-based Boccherini
or the Basque Arriaga speak at least to the possibility of reconciling
diverse musical traditions. Other causes must be sought.
Since the mid-nineteenth century many Spanish composers and musicologists
had been preoccupied with the socially redemptive potential of musical
education, leading to the formation of working-class choral societies
and municipal bands. Many composers who wished to appeal to the growing
Spanish industrial society of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries saw greater potential in large-scale symphonic and vocal
productions than in more intimate chamber works. Writing in the Revista
Musical in 1911, Spanish composer Julio Gómez articulated the
position with unequivocal resolve: "Let us seek out the people
to make great and lasting art... let us not struggle against the passionate,
vehement multitudes with weak string instruments; let us oppose mass
with mass, since the association characterizes society in the twentieth
century. May great societies for instrumental and vocal music be formed;
may symphonies, symphonic poems, and oratorios be composed, for these
are the genres that will excite the democratic public of our times."
Fortunately, in some circles other views prevailed during the explosion
of Spanish musical culture which characterized the first decades of
the twentieth century. In a paper delivered at the 1985 Congreso Internacional:
"España en la música de occidente" in Salamanca,
Jacinto Torres of the Escuela Superior de Canto of Madrid listed some
102 chamber groups active in Spain between 1900 and 1939, as well
as numerous societies devoted to the promotion of this intimate art.
In more recent decades many Spanish composers have embraced the genre,
composing for traditional instrumentations as well as unconventional
combinations. The devotion of such groups as the Trío Mompou
de Madrid and the Trío de Barcelona to commissioning and performing
new chamber works has provided further stimulus.
If ferreting out repertory for an evening of Spanish piano trios has
proved challenging, the effort has yielded rich dividends. The Damocles
Trio takes great pleasure in presenting the complete piano trios of
Joaquín Turina, along with the works of Ernesto Halffter and
Salvador Brotons. These three composers - natives of Seville, Madrid,
and Barcelona respectively - reconciled their Spanish identities with
their personal artistic visions in these chamber works.
Text by Adam Kent ©2000
