Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Alexandra Velasco-Svoboda
(i) the thesis comprises only my original work, except where indicated in the
preface,
(ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used,
(iii) the thesis is approximately 12,000 words in length, exclusive of tables,
musical examples, and bibliographies.
Signature:
! ii!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My sincere thanks to Ken Murray for supervising me for this thesis and
inspiring me to undertake research into Spanish music. Your help as an instrumental
teacher and an academic supervisor has been invaluable throughout my tertiary
education.
I am deeply grateful for the help Michael Christoforidis and Javier Surez-
Pajares have provided me throughout 2015 in my research for this thesis. Finally, Id
like to thank Michael Christoforidis and Linda Kouvaras for marking my thesis and
providing me with suggestions to improve it. These suggestions have been invaluable
and have allowed me to create this finalised edition.
! iii!
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
! iv!
Conclusion 43
Bibliography 45
! v!
MUSICAL EXAMPLES
! vi!
Example 9. Rodrigo, Canario mvt. IV in Fantasa para un 40
Gentilhombre (1954), no. 16.
! vii!
LIST OF FIGURES
! viii!
INTRODUCTION
Throughout much of the nineteenth century, Spain was considered part of the
exotic orient. Recognised for its influences by its Moorish past and the continual
presence of its ostracised ethnic groups like the gypsies,1 Spain came to be the
romanticised ideal that many Western writers, artists, and musicians both idolised and
patronised.2 This was prevalent throughout the USA and greater Europe, but was
particularly reflected in the relationship between the Spanish and French. The
literature of Chateaubriand, Gautier, and Merime, and the art of Gros, Gericault, and
Delacroix attest to Frances fascination for their exotic neighbour.3 In music, this can
be seen in compositions such as Symphonie Espagnole (1874) for violin and orchestra
by duoard Lalo (1823-1892). By the time Georges Bizets Carmen was premiered in
1875, these romanticised constructs were a strong undercurrent in French and Spanish
musical life. On an international level, Carmen came to represent authentic Spanish
music.4
This instilled a desire in some Spanish composers to create music that would
be elevated to the concert sphere and distanced from clich. This desire was also
influenced by the response to the domination of Germanic Romantic repertoire in
European concert halls throughout much of the nineteenth century. French composers
had already begun to seek the creation of a truly French art-music by looking to their
rich, pre-Romantic traditions. This was largely in response to the Franco-Prussian war
and growing political tensions with newly-formed Germany.
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1
Gypsies in Spain were the most easily exoticised, but other ethnic minorities such as the Jews,
Greeks, Ukrainians, and Cossacks resided in Spain and Europe. Jos F. Colmeiro, Exorcising
Exoticism: Carmen and the Construction of Oriental Spain, in Comparative Literature 54, no. 2
(2002): 127-144.
2
Colmeiro, Exorcising Exoticism, 130. Edward Said defined Orientalism as a Western style for
dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient. Edward Said, Orientalism (New
York: Pantheon, 1978), 3. For more information on Orientalism, see Said, Orientalism.
3
Ken Murray, Spanish Music and its Representations in London (1878-1930): From the Exotic to the
Modern, (PhD diss., University of Melbourne, 2013), 6.
4
For more information on Carmen and Orientalism in Spanish music, see James Parikilas, How Spain
got a Soul, in Jonathan Bellman, ed. The Exotic in Western Music (Boston: Northeast University
Press, 1998), 137-193.
! 1!
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). Fallas work in the initial decades of the twentieth
century impacted several generations of composers who sought to establish their own
cultivated musical language.
This thesis will focus on Joaqun Rodrigo (1901-1999), a Spanish pianist and
composer who belonged to the generation influenced by Fallas neoclassicism.
Rodrigo composed songs, orchestral works, solo works and chamber music, but his
output is particularly numerous for the guitar; an instrument that saw a revival in the
early decades of the twentieth century.5 The guitar came to represent the perfect
neoclassical instrument with its linking of the folkloric and the cultivated. It was also
desired for its ancestral connections to Spains Siglo do Oro (Golden Age). Rodrigos
guitar works were commissioned and played by prominent guitarists such as Andrs
Segovia, Regino Sainz de la Maza, and Emilio Pujol. Through their work, Rodrigo
quickly established himself as a significant composer of the instrument in the decades
after his first work, the Zarabanda Lejana of 1926.
The main period under examination in this thesis is from the late nineteenth
century through to the mid twentieth century. For much of this period, Spanish
composers sought to break away from the countrys image as part of the exotic
Orient, and to write music to stand alongside that of other modern European nations.
This desire aligned with the growing sentiments of the French artistic circles to break
away from Germanic Romanticism in the same period at the end of the nineteenth
century.
In this thesis I have examined the context in which Rodrigo composed for the
guitar, focusing on two pieces: one from the beginning of his career, Zarabanda
(1926), and the other a mid-period work, Fantasa para un Gentilhombre (1954). This
context includes the establishment of the neoclassical movement in France at the turn
of the nineteenth century, the influence of Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla, and
the rise of the modern guitar in Spain. The history of the modern guitar is a recurring
theme, with links frequently being made to Rodrigos work.
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5
Rodrigo composed over forty guitar works (solo, orchestral, and chamber) during his career.
! 2!
Methodology
The discussion of these recordings and scores has been largely informed by
the historical texts regarding the neoclassical movement in the first few decades of the
twentieth century. I have consulted texts that examine Manuel de Falla, the modern
guitar and its ancestors, and the impact of the Spanish Civil War on Spanish
composers such as Rodrigo. This thesis does not provide a detailed discussion of
Orientalism or the impact of the Spanish Civil War on changes in Spanish musical
aesthetics.
! 3!
Literature review
Research has largely neglected the context in which Rodrigo was composing
in the mid-twentieth century, in contrast to the substantial amount of scholarly
literature that has been devoted to neoclassicism, French musicians at the fin-de-
sicle, and Spanish music and musicians in the same period.
Isaac Albniz and Enrique Granados, both of whom were important Spanish
nationalist composers in the late nineteenth century, have extensive literature
dedicated to them. Gilbert Chases The Music of Spain proved to be helpful in gaining
some biographical insight on both of these composers.6 When placing these
composers in a pre-Spanish neoclassical context, Otto Mayer-Serras article Fallas
Musical Nationalism from The Musical Quarterly provided some interesting insight.7
Walter Aaron Clarks writings are invaluable sources for any discussion of Spanish
composers from this period,8 particularly his two books Isaac Albniz: A Portrait of a
Romantic and Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano for readers who want to know
more about Albniz and Granados.9
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6
Gilbert Chase, The Music of Spain (New York: Dover Publications 1959).
7
Otto Mayer-Serra, Fallas Musical Nationalism, in The Musical Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1943): 1-17.
8
Walter Aaron Clark, Federico Moreno Torroba: A Musical Life in Three Acts (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2013).
9
For information on Albniz see Walter Aaron Clark, Isaac Albniz: A Portrait of a Romantic
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). For information on Granados, see Walter Aaron Clark,
Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
! 4!
Smith and Potters and Myers Ravel.10 Scott Messings book Neoclassicism: The
Stravinsky/Schoenberg Polemic remains a significant resource for the neoclassical
movement, discussing its beginnings in France at length in the first chapter.11 While
French neoclassicism is discussed in books on Debussy and Ravel, less is written
about the important nexus between French and Spanish music.
Connected with this, James Tyler has covered the modern guitar and its
ancestors in great depth in his book The Early Guitar: A History and Handbook.
Tylers literature summarises the modern guitars ancestors in Spain, and assisted in
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10
Richard Langham Smith and Caroline Potter, ed., French Music since Berlioz (Ashgate, 2006). See
also: Rollo H. Myers, Ravel, Life and Works (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1973).
11
Scott Messing, Neoclassicism in Music: From the Genesis of the Concept through the
Schoenberg/Stravinsky Polemic (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1988).
12
Michael Christoforidis, Manuel de Falla, Debussy and La vida breve, in Musicology Australia 18,
no. 1 (1995): 3-12.
13
Carol Hess, Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936 (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2001).
14
Michael Christoforidis, Aspects of the Creative Process in Manuel de Fallas El Retablo Maese
Pedro and Concerto, (PhD diss., University of Melbourne, 1997).
15
Ken Murray, Spanish Music and its Representations in London.
! 5!
developing the contextual information I discuss in chapter two of the dissertation.16
Christoforidis and Piquers article Cubism, neoclassicism, and the revival of the
Spanish guitar in the early 20th century from Roseta allowed me to link Tylers
literature with Fallas neoclassicism and was invaluable for my discussion of
Rodrigos contemporaries and the guitarists active at the time.17 As mentioned above,
Aaron Clarks book Federico Moreno Torroba: A Musical Life in Three Acts also
assisted in my discussion of Rodrigos contemporaries and the musical trends of the
period.
I am not fluent in Spanish and therefore did not have access to much of the
literature in Spanish dedicated to Rodrigo. In my research for this dissertation, I
discovered that there is little written on Rodrigo in English, outside the world of
guitar books and magazines. While a substantial amount has been written in English
on Manuel de Falla and his contribution to Spanish music in the twentieth century and
his relationship with Stravinskys neoclassicism, comparatively little has been written
in English about Rodrigo and his importance to Spanish music. What largely exists
are segments in chapters about Spanish music devoted to him, as seen in literature like
Toms Marcos Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century, in which he discusses the
importance of Rodrigos compositional style as a movement away from modernist
neoclassicism to a restorative aesthetic following the devastating Spanish Civil War.18
The most prolific author writing on Rodrigo in English is the guitarist Graham
Wade. He specialises in the modern Spanish guitar, Rodrigo, and Segovia, but he does
little to discuss issues surrounding Rodrigos compositional evolution in his books
Joaquin Rodrigo: a life in music: travelling to Aranjuez 1901-1939 and Joaquin
Rodrigo and the Concierto de Aranjuez.19 Superficially delving into neoclassicism
and the impact of Fallas legacy on Rodrigos compositional development, Wade
provides some information by discussing the material without delving into contextual
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16
James Tyler, The Early Guitar: A History and Handbook (London: Music Dept., Oxford University
Press, 1980).
17
Michael Christoforidis and Ruth Piquer Sanclemente, Cubism, neoclassicism, and the Revival of the
Spanish Guitar in the Early 20th Century, in Roseta: Revista de la Sociedad Espaola de la Guitarra 6,
no. 6, (2011).
18
Toms Marco, Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1993).
19
Graham Wade, Joaqun Rodrigo: A life in Music: Travelling to Aranjuez (Leeds: GRM Publications,
2006). See also Graham Wade, Joaqun Rodrigo and the Concierto de Aranjuez (Leeds: Mayflower
Enterprises, 1985).
! 6!
information. Wade focuses solely on the solo guitar music of Rodrigo in his book
Distant Sarabandes: The Solo Guitar Music of Joaqun Rodrigo.20
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20
Graham Wade, Distant Sarabandes: The Solo Guitar Music of Joaqun Rodrigo (Leeds: GRM
Publications, 1996).
21
Enrique Rubio, ed. Memoria del homenaje internacional a Joaqun Rodrigo realizado durante
losaos 1991-1992: 90 Aniversario Joaqun Rodrigo (Madrid:SGAE, 1993).
22
Carol Hess, Manuel de Fallas Three-Cornered Hat and the Right-Wing Press in Pre-Civil War
Spain, in Journal of Musicological Research 15, no. 1-2 (1995): 55-84. See also: Michael
Christoforidis, Igor Stravinsky, Spanish Catholicism and Generalsimo Franco in Context 22 (2001).
! 7!
CHAPTER 1:
As the popularised and the appropriated flourished locally in the second half
and towards the end of the nineteenth century, the need for Spanish composers to
develop their own national aesthetic in cultivated art grew imperative.26 The
uncertainty that existed in Spanish artistic circles gave Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922),
musicologist and composer, the desire to create a Spanish musical art with a truly
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23!Hess, Falla and Modernism, 1.!
24
For a detailed discussion on exoticism and Spanish music, see James Parakilas chapter, How Spain
Got a Soul, in, Bellman, ed. The Exotic in Western Music, 137-193. For a detailed discussion on
Englands reception of Spanish music in the period discussed, see Murray, Spanish Music and its
Representations in London.
25
Zarzuela, a Spanish operetta, dominated musical life in Madrid in the second half of the nineteenth
century. The Spanish writers drew their plots from French romantic plays, and composers drew musical
idioms from Italian opera. The popularity of zarzuela with Spains general population during this
period in Spain was unprecedented; Ricardo de la Vegas music in La cancion de la Lola (1880) found
itself pouring out of barrel organs and bar pianos all over Madrid, with authorities considering banning
it. This became the main avenue in which composers would have their music heard in a local context.
Concurrent to the boom in popularity of zarzuela, the granting of citizenships to gypsies by Carlos the
Third in 1783 meant that throughout the nineteenth century, they were able to engage and develop their
cultural activities without fear of persecution. Their music, which largely consisted of songs about their
hardships and dreams of a better life, became popular in local taverns. By 1860, cante flamenco
became highly popular, and other folkloric genres from Andalusia became known as musica
aflamencada. For a discussion of zarzuela in nineteenth century Spain see Christopher Webber, The
Zarzuela Companion (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 3-5. For more information on flamenco
see Israel J. Katz, Flamenco, in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press,
accessed August 20, 2015,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/09780.
26
Hess, Falla and Modernism, 15.
! 8!
national identity.27 Pedrell was a thorough researcher who placed the details of the
Spanish musical tradition within reach of living Spanish composers who held
particular contempt towards the romantic zarzuela. While his work is not necessarily
reflected in his compositional output (many of his music dramas were modelled after
Wagnerian operas, particularly Tannhauser),28 it was his theories on the fusion
between the cultivated and the popular that paved the way for future composers to
develop his idea of an authentic, national musical identity he himself could not
realise. 29 Isaac Albniz (1860-1909) and Enrique Granados (1867-1916), both
composition students of Pedrell, took the initial steps in the late nineteenth century to
artistically realise his theories.30 It was through their efforts that these two composers
produced a large body of works that placed modern Spanish instrumental music in the
view of other European composers of high status.31
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27
Mayer-Serra, Fallas Musical Nationalism, 2.
28
J.B Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1934), 4.
29
Mayer-Serra, Fallas Musical Nationalism, 2.
30
Ibid., 2-3.
31
Chase, The Music of Spain, 150.
32
Jos Antonio Donis, The Musicologist Behind the Composer: The Impact of Historical Studies upon
the Creative Life in Joaqun Rodrigos Guitar Compositions, (Masters diss., Florida State University,
2005), 39.
33
Chase, Music of Spain, 152-156.
34
Chase, Music of Spain, 161.
! 9!
Both composers strengthened the connection between the French and the
Spanish, having placed cultivated nationalistic music onto the map of the Romantic
movement. Their work served as a foundation for many of the innovative composers
of the twentieth century, particularly Manuel de Falla.
It was only during the years prior to the twentieth century, or the fin de sicle,
that the pessimism regarding their lack of what they believed to be a truly French
musical identity overtook the predominant Wagnerism as a compositional model in
French artistic circles. This, combined with their humiliating defeat in the Franco-
Prussian war of 1871, proved to be fertile ground for the resurgence of French
national pride.38 The term neoclassicism was initially pejorative, attributed to
Germanic composers whom the French believed lacked innovation in composition.39
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35
Over half of the total performances in Paris concert halls were accounted to Beethoven, Mozart,
Mendelssohn, Haydn and Weber in the years immediately preceding 1870. Langham Smith and Potter,
ed., French Music Since Berlioz, 1.
36
Ibid.
37
Donis, The Musicologist Behind the Composer,10.
38
Scott Messing, Polemic as History: the case of neoclassicism, in The Journal of Musicology, 9, no.
4 (1991), 482.
39
French composers and critics had begun to antagonistically critique Germanic composers, with
Romain Rolland stating that Brahmss neoclassicism is ravaged by a pedantry which has become the
! 10!
During this time, various French schools of composition began to emerge.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Vincent dIndy (1851-1931) became important
figures in exploring the possibilities of a distinctly French sound. Debussys
compositional language, which was initially influenced by Wagnerism, began to
(imply) a rejection of the recent musical past and a revolutionary desire to abandon
the inherited forms and rules governing musical tradition, as stated by Donnellon.40
This briefly posited Debussy as the alternative to dIndy, who valued tradition and
looking to pre-Romantic French sources for inspiration.
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plague of German art, Vincent dIndy attacking the oppressive tonal clumsiness so frequent in the
works of Brahms and the German neoclassicists, and Jean Marnold making fun of the lamentable
agony [of contemporary German music as] rattling along in Brahmsian neoclassic chloroform. See
Messing, Polemic as History, 483.
40
Langham Smith and Potter, French Music since Berlioz, 10.
41
Ibid., 9.
42
Messing, Neoclassicism in Music, 18-19.
43
Messing, Polemic as History, 483.
44
Donis, The Musicologist Behind the Composer, 15.
! 11!
Debussy, whose nationalist inclinations were heightened at the turn of the
century, became deeply attracted to Frances rich musical tradition.45 There was a
clear development in his compositional style during this period, evolving into one that
was sympathetic towards the revival of interest in musicology. This can be seen in his
admiration for Baroque composer Jean-Philipe Rameau (1683-1764) whose opera Les
ftes de Polymnie he edited and even dedicated one of his movements from Images
(1905) to, entitled Hommage Rameau.46 Debussy avidly attended concerts that the
Schola held at the turn of the century.47 Maurice Ravel, ten years Debussys junior,
was also a huge supporter of these concerts.48 Regarding Baroque composer Franois
Couperin (1668-1733) highly, he composed the homage Le Tombeau de Couperin
(1914-1917), which contained movements all modelled on Baroque dances, such as
forlane, menuet, and rigaudon. All contain the phrase structures, metres, and rhythmic
and harmonic elements typical of the Baroque forms.49
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45
Messing, Neoclassicism in Music, 49.
46
Messing, Neoclassicism in Music, 44-45.
47
Ibid., 41.
48
Ravel is often lumped into the Impressionist category along with Debussy, although neither felt the
term accurately described their music. Their similarities only extend as far as their desires to protect
French music against what they felt were the dangers of Wagnerian influences at the turn of the
century. As Rollo H. Meyers states, the classicism of Ravels form alone was in marked contrast with
Debussys much more fluid construction, and whereas the former made a point of stressing the clarity
of his formal design, the latter was especially anxious that his music should sound like an
improvisation. Myers, Ravel, Life and Works, 97.
49
Ravel has stated that the homage implied is in fact to French music of the eighteenth century more
than it is to Couperin. Messing, Neoclassicism in Music, 51 (Taken from Ravels Esquisses
Autobiographique La Revue Musicale, Dec 1938, 17).
50!For more information on the forlane see Meredith Ellis Little, Forlana, in Grove Music Online.
Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed March 28, 2017,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/09980. For more
information on the minuet see Meredith Ellis Little, Minuet, in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music
Online. Oxford University Press, accessed March 28, 2017,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/18751. For more
information on the rigaudon see Meredith Ellis Little, Rigaudon, in Grove Music Online. Oxford
Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed March 28, 2017,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/23459. !
!!
! 12!
EX 1A Forlane theme, m. 1-8 violins.51
The growing political tensions between Germany and France at the turn of the
century fuelled the nationalist feelings of many important French composers prior to
World War I. A number of French composers, working in a variety of ways, explored
the possibilities of an authentically French sound, which paralleled the work of
Spaniards Pedrell, Albniz, and Granados at the end of the nineteenth century. The
aesthetics that came to be valued opposed the use of large-scale orchestras and the
formlessness and dramaticism of Germanic Romanticism, and included clarity,
simplicity, and precision. Behind these varied stylistic languages, the growing
sentiment which idealised the pre-Romantic French history prevailed, with
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51
Maurice Ravel. Le Tombeau de Couperin, mini score (Paris: Durand, 1919), 18.
52
!Ibid., 35.!
53
Ibid., 46. !
! 13!
distinguished composers such as Saint-Sans and dIndy, and later Debussy and
Ravel, sharing this common ground aesthetically and philosophically.
Falla began his career in 1896 Madrid exploring the possibilities that existed
in Spanish orchestral music and building on Granados and Albnizs work. Like
Pedrell, he was deeply disappointed with the limitations of Spanish musical life,
relying on zarzuela prior to studying in France to generate income during the early
years of his career in Madrid.58 His two-act opera La Vida Breve (1904) and one-act
ballet El Amor Brujo (1914) drew upon existing idioms such as evoking the
Andalusian flamenco guitar and including popularised rhythms and harmonies.59 His
exposure to the music of Debussy and other French composers during his years
studying in Paris (1907-1914) was of the utmost importance to his compositional
development. Debussy encouraged Falla in his work and brought works such as his
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54
Messing, Polemic as History, 489.
55
Hess, Manuel de Falla, 102.
56
Instruments used were flute, clarinet in B and A, two bassoons, trumpet in C and A, tenor and bass
trombone.
57
Hess, Manuel de Falla, 170-171.
58
Ibid., 22-31.
59
Messing, Polemic as History, 482. For a detailed discussion on La vida breve, see Christoforidis,
Manuel de Falla, Debussy, and La vida breve. For a discussion on both La vida breve and El amor
brujo, see Hess, Falla and Modernism, 45-78.
! 14!
Cuatro Piezas Espaolas (1906-1909) to the attention of various publishers.60 Carol
Hess argues that Debussys role in Fallas composition process is hard to quantify,
however, it is clear that he influenced Falla compositionally in works such as Trois
Mlodies and Noches en los Jardines de Espaa (1909-1915).61
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60
Hess, Manuel de Falla, 34.!
61
Hess, Manuel de Falla, 34-36
62
Ibid., 101.
63
Ibid.
64
Hess, Falla and Modernism, 130.
65
Ibid., 130-131.
66
Ibid., 206.
! 15!
incorporates eighteenth-century musical conventions, features historical plucked
instruments such as the harpsichord, and includes a broadened harmonic language
typical of the twentieth century.67
As seen in this chapter, the end of the nineteenth century and the initial
decades of the twentieth century saw a marked shift in attitudes toward the term
neoclassicism. The work of prominent French composers, Stravinsky, and Falla
ensured that neoclassicism developed from what was initially considered unoriginal to
one of the leading modernist aesthetics. Both composers developed neoclassicism in
such a way that it became the movement that influenced the next generation of
Spanish composers, including groups such as the Generation of 1927 and Grupo de
los Ocho in Madrid.69 Of particular importance, Fallas neoclassicism had significant
influence on Joaqun Rodrigo and the revived status of the modern guitar, which came
to be the predominant symbolic instrument of Spanish neoclassicism.
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67
Falla saturated himself in the music of the Cervantes period, particularly by that of the plucked
instruments. For a detailed discussion on this, see Christoforidis, Aspects of the Creative Process,
102-112.
68
Ibid., 236.
69
The Generation of 1927 comprised of artists, writers, poets and musicians. Grupo de los Ocho was
the group of musicians belonging to the Generation. Composers belonging to Grupo de los Ocho
include: Salvador Bacarisse (1898-1963), Julin Bautista (1901-1961), Juan Jos Mantecn (1897-
1964), Gustavo Pittaluga (1906-1975), Fernando Remacha (1898-1984), Rosa Garca Ascot (1906-
2002), Rodolfo Halffter (1900-1987), Ernesto Halffter (1905-1989). Hess, Falla and Modernism, 270.
! 16!
CHAPTER 2:
Joaqun Rodrigo: his early career and the growing interest in the guitar
Rodrigos first compositions date from 1923. His Juglares, premiered in 1924
by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Valencia was very well-received and gave him the
confidence to enter his Cinco Piezas Infantiles in a national composition competition
in the following year. These pieces share similarities with the childlike simplicity of
Stravinskys Trois pices faciles (1917) and Cinq pices faciles (1918).73
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70
Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer and harpsichordist, who spent much of his life in the
service of the Spanish and Portuguese royal families. He is most famous for having composed an
extensive amount of keyboard sonatas. For more information on Scarlattis contribution to Spanish
music, see Jane Clark, Domenico Scarlatti and Spanish folk music, in Early Music 4, no. 1 (1976):
19-21.
71
Aaron Clark, Federico Moreno Torroba, 109.
72
For more details on Rodrigos early life, see the following text: Victoria Kamhi de Rodrigo, Hand in
Hand with Joaqun Rodrigo: My Life at the Maestros Side, trans. Ellen Wilkerson (Pittsburgh: Latin
American Literary Review Press, 1992).
73
Scott Messing states in his literature that childlike simplicity is an element of Stravinskys
neoclassical work of the 1920s. The elements Messing outlines in Stravinskys music between Le
Sacre du Printemps (1913) and Octet (1923) are simplicity, which was how French composers at the
! 17!
The two pieces that brought him fame in the early stages of his career were
Preludio al Gallo Maanero (1926) for solo piano and Zarabanda Lejana (1926) for
solo guitar (see Chapter 3). Praised to this day for their originality and modernity,74
Rodrigo moved to Paris upon their completion to study with Paul Dukas between
1927 and 1934.75 For Spanish composers to study in Paris was not uncommon; many
before and during this time had made this move, including Albniz, Granados, and
Falla whom Rodrigo met in 1928. However, while it was a necessity for these
composers to leave Spain in the early years of their career, for Rodrigos generation,
comprised of composers born sometime between 1894 and 1908, it was not.76 At the
turn of the century, Paris was a place where Spanish composers had to go in order to
find their identity.77 These younger composers were able to choose to stay in Spain or
go to France to study, building on the bourgeoning trends in cultivated music. They
moved to Paris not to find themselves, but to, as Hess states, discover musics
universal qualities.78
One such trend was the use of the modern guitar in new compositions. The
guitar, an icon of folk music, remains to this day the most popular instrument used
across all styles of popular and cultivated art music. The instruments current model,
which underwent major construction and design changes during the second half of the
nineteenth century through the efforts of luthier Antonio Torres, proved itself to be an
instrument that was adaptable in many performance contexts and a wide range of
musical styles.79 Between 1890 and 1920, touring Estudiantinas,80 flamenco
guitarists, and a plethora of ensemble and solo styles from North America carried the
instrument across the globe. During this period, the guitar simultaneously established
its role in the flourishing development of flamenco as well as in the modern school of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
time were describing their music; youth in childrens pieces; objectivity; and cultural elitism by
alluding to or quoting from pre-nineteenth century sources. For a more detailed discussion, see
Messing, Neoclassicism in Music, 89-127.
74
Enrique Franco, Joaquin Rodrigo and the Generation of 1927, in Memoria del Homenaje
Internacional a Joaqun Rodrigo realizado durante losaos 1991-1992: 90 aniversario Joaqun
Rodrigo. Edited by Enrique Rubio (Madrid: SGAE 1993), 69-78.
75
Kamhi, Hand in Hand, 61.
76
Franco, ed. Rubio, Joaqun Rodrigo and the Generation of 1927, 69.
77
Hess, Falla and Modernism, 271-272.
78
Ibid.
79
Murray, Spanish Music and its Representations in London, 218.
80
Estudiantinas were Spanish students who performed Spanish music featuring plucked string
instruments. Murray, Spanish Music and its Representations in London, 116.
! 18!
classical guitar playing.81 The latter owes itself to the efforts of Francisco Trrega
(1852-1909) and his students, including Miguel Llobet (1878-1938), who was a well-
known concert guitarist and arranger and one of the most highly paid touring
guitarists in South America pre-World War I.82
The modern guitar, with its historical resonances and modern repertoire, was
the perfect neoclassical instrument. In the first decades of the twentieth century its
ancestors, particularly the vihuela de mano (or simply vihuela), the five-course
Baroque guitar, the six-course Classical guitar, and the Romantic guitar attracted
renewed attention. It is widely believed that the Spanish guitars earliest ancestor is
the vihuela. Luis Miln (c1500-c1560), to whom Rodrigo pays tribute in his
Zarabanda Lejana (1926), published the first book of vihuela music in 1536 entitled
El Maestro. This was significant for the instrument as there was little existing
literature dedicated to the vihuela prior to the books publication. In addition to
providing repertoire collected for the vihuela, El Maestro included detailed instruction
on the art of playing it.85
The five-course Baroque guitar evolved at the turn of the sixteenth century
and became widely known throughout all of Europe as the Spanish guitar. Zaragoza
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
81
Christoforidis and Piquer Sanclemente, Modernist Representations, 2.
82
Ken Murray, Manuel de Fallas Homenajes, (Honours diss., University of Melbourne, 1990), 12.
83
Christoforidis and Piquer Sanclemente, Modernist Representations, 2.
84
Murray, Spanish Music and its Representations in London, 138-139.
85
Tyler, The Early Guitar, 15-22.
! 19!
priest Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710) published his Instruccin de Msica Sobre la
Guitarra Espaola in 1674; a comprehensive tutorial and repertoire book for the
instrument. With its second edition published in 1675, and a third published later that
year, this book was unique in that it contained huge amounts of information on
tuning, forming chords, left and right hand technique, metre, and ornamentation.86
Michael Christoforidis work indicates that Falla saturated himself with the music of
Gaspar Sanz and other Baroque guitarists for El Retablo, with Sanzs works present in
early sketches.87 Rodrigo also pays tribute to Sanz in his Fantasa para un
Gentilhombre (1954), which will be discussed at length in Chapter 3.
The harpsichord was another plucked instrument that, along with the guitar,
saw a revival in the early decades of the twentieth century. The harpsichord has a rich
history in greater Europe and in Spain through the keyboard sonatas of Scarlatti.
Wanda Landowska, for whom Fallas El Retablo harpsichord part and the
Harpsichord Concerto were composed, was an important figure in the revival of the
harpsichord.88 Landowska was closely linked to the work of the French composers of
the early twentieth century and the Schola Cantorum in Paris where she taught.89
In these early decades of the twentieth century, Spanish composers had begun
to create connections between the modern guitar and the plucked instruments that
were commonplace in pre-Romantic Spain. Much like Debussy with Rameau and
Ravel with Couperin, younger Spanish composers like Rodrigo following in the
footsteps of Falla were deeply attracted to pre-Romantic composers and instruments.
These trends informed their development of a distinctly Spanish neoclassical
aesthetic, and the guitar was at the forefront of this movement.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
86
James Tyler, The Guitar and its Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 148-153.
87
Hess, Falla and Modernism, 209. For a detailed discussion on the sources Falla used for El Retablo,
see Christoforidis, Aspects of the Creative Process.
88
Mark Steinberg, Review: Some Observations on the Harpsichord in Twentieth Century Music,
Perspectives of New Music, 1, no. 2 (1963), 189.
89
For more information on Landowskas relationship with Schola Cantorum, see Annegret Fauser,
Creating Madame Landowska, in Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 10 (2006): 1-
23.
! 20!
Pioneers in the development of the classical guitar: Llobet, Barrios, Segovia,
Sainz de la Maza, and Pujol.
Falla was also closely connected to the Spanish guitar. His move to Granada
in 1920 was facilitated by the Granadine guitarist and composer Angel Barrios (1882-
1964) with whom he spent numerous nights playing music in his home.91 It was
during these meetings that Falla workshopped his only solo guitar work Homenaje
Pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy (1920) with Barrios, composed for Miguel
Llobet. Always treating the guitar very seriously, Falla believed that it was an
instrument of the past with a very rich tradition which was peculiarly suited to
modern music due to its tuning in fourths, with a third in the middle.92 The guitars
timbre resembled the purity and clarity of pre-Romantic instruments, such as the
harpsichord and vihuela, and evoked the musical idioms prevalent of these periods.
This cemented its role of bridging the cultivated and the popular, as well as the past
and the present.93
The programs presented by guitarists in this period also reflected the trend of
looking to the past in order to establish an identity in the present. Andrs Segovia
(1893-1987), who included arrangements of Bach in his repertoire, began surpassing
any previous guitarist in popularity. The international success of his performances
coincided with the wake of Fallas stylistic shift as seen in El retablo and The
Harpsichord Concerto.94 A key figure in the dissemination of the guitars
bourgeoning repertoire, Segovias commissions allowed the guitar to develop a
position in a cultivated setting internationally through his frequent and popular tours.
Segovia commissioned the first work composed by non-guitarist Federico Moreno
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
90
Christoforidis and Piquer Sanclemente, Modernist Representations, 4.
91
Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music, 39.
92
Ibid.
93
Christoforidis and Piquer Sanclemente, Modernist Representations, 4.
94
Ibid., 6.
! 21!
Torroba (1891-1982). Torrobas Suite Castellana (1920), followed closely by Fallas
Homenaje for Llobet, was innovative in its evocation of folk and flamenco guitar on
the instrument itself. This approach was adopted by other Spanish composers, most
notably Joaqun Turina (1882-1949) and Rodrigo.95
Falla led the way with his Homenaje, which inspired younger composers to
explore the possibilities of writing for the guitar. Torroba, Turina, Bautista, Pittaluga,
and Rodrigo all wrote significant solo compositions for the guitar during this period.
These composers worked closely with guitarists such as Llobet, Segovia, Sainz de la
Maza, and Pujol in order to gain a deeper understanding of the possibilities and the
limitations of the instrument.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
95
Aaron Clark, Federico Moreno Torroba, 110-112.
96
For Pujols publications, see Bibliothque de Musique Ancienne et Moderne pour Guitare by French
publisher Max Eschig.
! 22!
CHAPTER 3:
Pujol met Rodrigo in the same year of the Zarabandas genesis.100 He was one
of the first guitarists to have performed Fallas Homenaje a Debussy composed for
Miguel Llobet.101 His interest in Rodrigos guitar work is therefore unsurprising. As
the resurrection of interest in Bach and pre-Romantic music was intimately linked to
Fallas neoclassicism of the 1920s, Pujols musicological efforts aligned with the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
97
Yolanda Acker and Oscar Espla, Ernesto Halffter: A Study of the Years 1905-46), Revista de
Musicologia 17, no. 1 (1994), 106.
98
Ibid.
99
Zarabanda Lejana y Villancico (1927-30), accessed August 20, 2015, http://www.joaquin-
rodrigo.com.
100
Murray, Spanish Music and its Representations in London, 232.
101
Murray, Manuel de Fallas Homenajes, 14.
! 23!
trends of the time. His work in uncovering, editing, and publishing these pre-
Romantic works for the modern guitar allowed a range of pieces to be rediscovered
and made accessible to guitarists. Pujol encouraged Rodrigo to write for the guitar
and had significant influence on the later repertoire he wrote for the instrument.102
The work of Sainz de la Maza, Llobet and Pujol had implications for Segovia,
whose career and reputation as the most prominent Spanish guitarist on the
international stage was just beginning to take shape in the 1920s. Segovia met
Rodrigo in Paris in 1929 and although Zarabanda was not composed for him, he was
the first to record it in 1954.103 Sainz de la Maza, to whom the Zarabanda was
dedicated, also became the dedicatee of Rodrigos famous Concierto de Aranjuez
(1939). Fantasa (1954), the other work to be discussed, was a partial tribute to
Segovia.104
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
102
Wade, Distant Sarabandes, 9-11.
103
Brunswick AXTL 1069. Wade, Distant Sarabandes, 11.
104
A survey of the literature indicates speculation that the dedication of Zarabanda Lejana and
particularly the Concierto de Aranjuez to Sainz de la Maza displeased Segovia. This may be linked to
Rodrigos decision to dedicate Fantasa para un Gentilhombre (1954) to him, with Segovia being the
titular gentilhombre. Wade, Distant Sarabandes, 22-23.
105
Supplement 2, La Revue Musicale, Paris: 1920.
106
Murray, Manuel de Fallas Homenajes, 14.
107
Preludio y Danza, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.julianbautista.com.ar.
! 24!
characteristics of solemnity, and processional seriousness,108 it was banned in Spain in
1583 for its crudeness.109 The dance was often accompanied with the guitar, castanets,
and potentially a range of other percussive instruments, as well as by a text with a
refrain. The characterization of an intense, serious affect, set in a slow triple meter,
had begun to appear in the mid to late Baroque period in France and Germany and
became characteristic features of the sarabande in this period. Spanish Baroque
guitarists Gaspar Sanz and Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz wrote zarabandas for the guitar.110
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
108
Louis Horst, Pre-Classic Dance Forms (New York: Kamin Dance Publishers, 1960), 45-48.
109
Richard Hudson and Meredith Ellis Little, Sarabande, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
Oxford University Press, accessed August 28, 2015.
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/24574.
110
Ibid.
111
One motive of the Lento movement is intervallically related to Pange lingua, canonically used in
octaves throughout the movement. Another motive is intervallically related to plainchant, seen in its
stepwise motion. Carol Hess, Sacred Passions: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005), 160-161.
112
!Joaqun Rodrigo, ed. Emilio Pujol. Zarabanda Lejana, Guitar score (Paris: M. Eschig, 1934), 1.!
! 25!
EX. 2B: mvt. II, s. 1 of Harpsichord Concerto simplified motif.113
This is also comparable to the limited melodic range in some styles of Spanish
folk music such as cante hondo, in which there is often repetition of the same note
accompanied by an appoggiatura from above or below, the range rarely exceeding the
compass of a sixth.114 Additionally, Rodrigo evokes distance while maintaining its
unique and modern impression, seen by the modern harmonies composed over the
rhythmic framework of a sarabande. There is limited use of functional harmony and
each major or minor chord contains added notes and semi-tone clashes, as do many
dominant 7 chords scattered throughout.
! 26!
Figure 1.
! 27!
D minor 87 93 (7 bars) Phrase Four slight
variation; addition of Rall.
towards end of phrase and
a harmonic before end of
the cadence in bar 92.
As the structure and the phrases of the piece is simple with little variation,
much of the focus is directed towards the simplicity of the melody and the weight of
the harmony. Performers need to be wary of the symmetry and simplicity of the
structure. Trying to force or manipulate phrasing with excessive rubato may lead to a
distortion of the composers intentions.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
117
Rodrigo, ed. Pujol. Zarabanda Lejana, 2.
! 28!
Some of the editing maintains the harmony but changes the voicings. Pujol
spreads out the voices and includes wider intervals so as to include as much of the
guitars natural resonance as possible. In some cases, Rodrigo originally wrote
impossible voicings and stretches for the guitarist, for example during the D minor
modulation at the halfway point of the piece, measure 50 (see example 4A). The
original manuscript shows that most chords have to be played as barre chords, as seen
in measure 33 of ex. 4B. Pujol has edited his edition to allow the guitarist to play a
repetitive C minor chord in a more idiomatic way.121
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
118
Joaqun Rodrigos original manuscript was provided to me through email by Rodrigo musicologist
Javier Surez-Pajares on September 17, 2015.
119
Rodrigo, ed. Pujol. Zarabanda Lejana, 2.
120
Rodrigos original manuscript provided by Surez-Pajares on September 17, 2015.
121
Although Pujols version indicates that you do have to hold barre chords, the way he fingered the
chord structures allows guitarists to remove the barre chords. Perhaps he was simply indicating the
position in which to play the chord, and this was an editorial error.
122
Rodrigo, ed. Pujol. Zarabanda Lejana, 2-3.
! 29!
EX. 4B: Rodrigos original manuscript of Zarabanda Lejana, m. 33-41.123
Two commonly used editions of this piece exist; one edited by Pujol (1934)
and the other by guitarist Pepe Romero (1993). Pepe Romero and his family were
close friends and collaborators with Rodrigo.124 Both editions are quite similar, with
only a few exceptions. Some of these changes Romero has made in digitation appear
to be a publishing mistake as they are rather arbitrary. In measures 25 and 43,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
123
Rodrigos original manuscript provided by Surez-Pajares on September 17, 2015.
124
Clark is currently completing the manuscript of a new book, Los Romero: The Saga of an
Andalusian Family of Guitarists. See Walter Aaron Clark, accessed November 24, 2015,
https://music.ucr.edu/faculty/.
! 30!
Romeros version includes some disparity with these measures that are exact replicas.
Measure 43 includes the use of the second finger instead of keeping it barred down as
it appears in measure 25. In measures 26 and 44, Romeros version again contains
disparity; both are exactly the same, yet measure 44 has the same fingering as in
Pujols version, with the second finger on the C instead of the third in measure 26
(see excerpt 5A and 5B). These latter measures (25, 26, 43, and 44) could potentially
be a publishing mistake, and it is recommended that the performer maintains
consistency by using one set of fingerings as in Pujols edition.
EX. 5A: Romeros edition, m. 26.125 EX. 5B: Romeros edition, m. 44.126
Other changes in digitation that Romero has made address some of the
difficult stretches and shifts. In measures 9, 19 and 37, Pujols edition includes a
fourth finger on the A on the 4th string, whereas in Romeros version the stretch is
from the first finger on the A on the 3rd string. In measures 71 and 87 Romeros
version uses the second, third and fourth fingers to play F, D, and B on strings 2, 3,
and 4. Pujols edition uses the second, fourth, and an open B instead of a 4th string B,
ustilising more of the natural resonance of the guitar.
One of the main challenges for the guitarist in this piece is maintaining a
legato line when there are so many chords and position changes. This makes it
difficult to convey the intimacy and subtlety of expression inherent in the piece.
Challenging areas in which maintaining legato and resonance and navigating difficult
chordal spreads in both the left and right hands would be in the 5/8 bars in measures
58, 68, and 85 (see excerpts 2A and 2B). This irregular metre, combined with the
largest chordal spread in the right hand throughout the piece, a cadance, and a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
125
Joaqun Rodrigo, ed. Pepe Romero. Zarabanda Lejana, guitar score (Madrid : Ediciones Joaqun
Rodrigo, 1993), 2.
126
Ibid., 3.
! 31!
rallentando means that performers will need to take careful consideration of Rodrigos
intention. Specifically labelled 5/8, performers need to ensure that they do not
unintentionally transform the bar into a 6/8 metre with a hemiola rhythm due to the
placement of the rallentando. In order to effectively execute this combination of the
modern (irregular time meter) and the traditional (ensuring the maintenance of a
stately cadence), performers will need to carefully consider the melodic reinforcement
of the F note, which appears twice before the cadence, and finally sees that the section
rests there.
It is in the phrase markings on the score of both Pujol and later Romeros
version that the Baroque sarabande affect is highlighted the importance of the long
phrases is indicated by a slowing of tempo towards the ends of each phrase as marked
in the table above. It is in the chord voicings where Rodrigos lack of experience in
writing for the instrument and its limitations is revealed. The delicate nature of these
phrases built on simple melodies and coloured by modern harmonies is clearly
marked throughout the score by various indications: ritardando, tenuto,
rallentando, and the return to tempo which displays itself at the ends and
beginnings of most phrases. It is not easy to obtain these subtleties of line and
dynamic on the guitar and the performer must ensure that Rodrigos markings are
observed and the chord changes are achieved with maximum possible legato. Creating
sensible fingerings may help in achieving this aim. For example, the performer might
utilise the third finger on the F (instead of second as recommended by Pujol and
Romero), fourth finger on the third string D, and an open B in order to maintain as
balanced a hand as possible. This use of an open second string not only allows
performers to take breaks between difficult stretches, but also explores the natural
resonance and sonority of the guitar that was admired so greatly by Falla and so
carefully considered in his Homenaje.127 It is important for performers to find
moments like this as frequently as possible in Zarabanda Lejana.
Both of these editions show that some editing needs to be undertaken; while
each note and its place on the guitar is attainable by the guitarist, many of these
chords are made up of five or more notes that cannot be played unless the guitarist
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
127
Michael Christoforidis, Manuel de Fallas Homage to Debussy and the Guitar, in Journal of Music
Research 3 (1992): 3.
! 32!
rolls the chord, employs chicito (fifth finger) or leaves out notes. Examples of this can
be seen in the following measures:
! 33!
option, but players will have to ensure that the heaviness that could come with this
technique is monitored at all times.
Another consideration is the spread of the chords in the right hand. While
easily transferable to the piano, these dense harmonies are limited in its positioning on
the guitar; guitarists will find that they will have to spread the fingers quite
unnaturally in order to ensure that these notes provide an ample foundation upon
which the melodies sit. Examples of this can be seen quite consistently throughout the
entire piece. It therefore might be required of the performer to move some notes down
or up an octave in order to maintain musical fluidity that might be hindered by non-
idiosyncratic compositional elements.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
132
Ricardo Vies was a Catalan pianist who was a leader in premiering new music between 1900 and
1930. He is considered a key proponent of piano works of his French, Spanish, Russian and South
American contemporaries. An ardent advocator of contemporary music, Vies played works that many
of his contemporaries did not attempt. He premiered Debussys Estampes in 1904 and Ravels first
piano works, including the Menuet antique, Pavane pour une infante dfunte. (With the pavane a dance
popular in the courts of Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, links can be made in this
piece to Milan and Spains siglo do oro.) Ernesto Halffter composed Llanto por Ricardo Vies for him
and pianist Joaqun Nin Culmell, who gave the first performance of the piano arrangement of
Zarabanda Lejana in 1931, was his student. Other composers Vies premiered works for in Paris
include Albniz, Balakirev, Borodin, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Chausson, Debussy, Dukas, Falla, Faur,
Glazunov, Granados, Lalo, Mussorgsky, Poulenc, Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rodrigo, Satie,
Tailleferre, and Turina. David Korevaar and Laurie J. Sampsel, The Ricardo Vies Piano Music
Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder in Notes 61, no. 2 (2004): 361-364.
133
Warner Classics, 56175, 1997.
! 34!
different approaches and decide what approach they would like to adopt when
performing Zarabanda Lejana.
With a twelve-year gap between Zarabanda Lejana (1926) and Rodrigos next
solo guitar piece En Los Trigales (1938), it is apparent that his writing style and
knowledge of the guitars capabilities had evolved. Although his 1939 composition
Concierto de Aranjuez catapulted Rodrigo to huge critical acclaim and remains one of
the most played concerti of the twentieth century, Rodrigo then took a fifteen-year
gap before composing another concerto for the solo guitar. In the interim he focused
on solo guitar pieces and wrote Tiento Antiguo (1942), Tres Villancicos (1952), and
Bajando de la Meseta (1953); as well as composing concertos for other instruments
such as the Concierto Heroico for piano and orchestra (1942), Concierto de Esto for
violin and orchestra (1943), Concierto in Modo Elegante for violoncello and orchestra
(1949), and Concierto Serenata for harp and orchestra (1952).
The political and cultural climate in 1954 was still recovering from the
devastating Spanish Civil War that took place in the 1930s, with Francoist Spain well
established by this point. During this period, much of Europe was operating under
right-wing political systems. Neoclassicism had begun to assume the role of a
dehumanised and archaic aesthetic, which was seen to be a direct opposition to the
countrys Fascist and religious state.134 Falla and Stravinsky, renowned for their
religion, were in the states favour; the Right-wing press highlighting the intense
religious affect of their compositions of the 1920s despite the initial association with
the archaic.135 Rodrigo came to be one of the few leading figures in composition after
the Spanish Civil war. There was a clear shift in aesthetics in his works; one that
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
134
Many of the younger composers belonging to the Generation of 1927 and Grupo de Ocho were
involved in the cultural programs of the Left-wing governments of the Second Republic of the 1930s.
These composers were either exiled from the country or left and never returned. Eva Moreda-
Rodrguez, Early Music in Francoist Spain: Higini Angls and the Exiles, in Music and Letters 96,
no. 2 (2015): 209-227.
135
By the mid-1930s, Stravinsky had explicitly linked his aesthetics and political views to his religious
beliefs. His anti-Communist remarks meant that critics writing in the Right-wing press emphasised the
intense genuineness of his objective Religious expression. Christoforidis, Igor Stravinsky, Spanish
Catholicism and Generalsimo Franco, 63-64.
! 35!
moved from a modernist neoclassicism to the neoromanticism which influenced many
successful composers immediately following the Civil War.136
The work consists of four movements that are based on six of Sanzs works,
taken from his three-volume Instruccin de msica sobre la guitarra Espaola (1674,
1675, 1697). The six compositions of Sanz Rodrigo draws on are Villanos, Fuga 1
por primer tono al ayre Espanola Espanoleta, La Cavallera de Npoles con dos
Clarines, Danza de las Hachas, and Canarios. The following table indicates where
Sanzs material placed in each movement of the Fantasa:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
136
Eva Moreda-Rodriguez, A Catholic, a Patriot, a Good Modernist: Manuel de Falla and the
Francoist Musical Press, in Hispanic Research Journal 14, no. 3 (June 2013), 224.
137
Respighis music was free of nineteenth century mannerisms; sensitive to objective music. Towards
the middle of the twentieth century, a number of significant composers including Respighi, Pizzetti,
and Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944) were forced to modify their creative position due to political
pressure. These composers signed a document which proclaimed opposition towards objective music.
Gnter Berghaus, ed. Fascism and Theatre: Comparative Studies on the Aesthetics and Politics of
Performance in Europe, 1925-1945 (Providence: Berghahn Books, 1996), 271.
138
Moreda-Rodriguez, A Catholic, a Patriot, a Good Modernist, 221.
! 36!
Figure 2.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
139
Frank Koonce, The Baroque Guitar in Spain and the New World (Mel Bay Publications: Frank
Koonce Series, 2006), 29.
140
Ibid.
141
David Fuller, Suite. in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed November 27, 2015,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/27091.
! 37!
ii) Analysis of selected passages or sections
The opening, with the guitarist gently strumming the chords, sits on very
familiar chords to a folk guitarist. While there is use of barre chords interspersed
throughout the concerto, they are all tonal in nature, and act as the harmonic backbone
of the orchestral melody. Rather than having to reach for some difficult stretches as
seen in Zarabanda, chords like F major, C major, D minor etc. are frequently used
(see ex. 7).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
142
Joaqun Rodrigo, ed. Andrs Segovia. Fantasa para un Gentilhombre, reduction for piano and
guitar score (London: Schott, 1964).
143
Donis, The Musicologist behind the Composer, 75. There is a flute and orchestra arrangement
performed by James Galway in 1978.
! 38!
EX. 7: Opening chord progression in Danza de las Hachas, mvt. III, no. 12.144
The most difficult scale passages are in the final movement, in which the
guitarist spans three octaves in a five-measure semiquaver run, seen in excerpt 9.
However, the key and the possibility of using some open strings make the passage
playable with practice.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
144
Joaqun Rodrigo, ed. Andrs Segovia. Fantasa para un Gentilhombre, reduction for piano and
guitar score (London: Schott, 1964), 6.
145
Ibid., 4.
! 39!
EX. 9: Canario, mvt. IV, no.16.146
In Villano y Ricercar, guitarists would opt to use the sweeping strum motion
with the thumb in order to create a full and present tone. As the movement is rather
slow to moderate in tempo, guitarists want to aim to create as resonant a sound as
possible, and a percussive rasgueado can be used. One such place could be between
measures 26-28:
! 40!
accent, so guitarists would be wise to use a rasgueado technique in order to match
this percussive notation. In passages like the one shown below, guitarists will need to
be wary to not let the percussive effects completely drown the melody. For this
reason, it is recommended that the index finger is the one that follows through,
allowing the m or a finger to play any passing melodic notes.
EX. 11: Espaoleta y Fanfare de la Cabellera de Npoles, mvt II, no. 10.149
! 41!
modernism, Fantasa departs from modern neoclassicism and into a style that is
perhaps closer to neoromanticism. This has implications for performers and casts
Segovias 1958 recording in a new light. The use of rubato and extensive contrasts in
tone colour featured in his performance style may be heard as faithful to the
neoromantic aesthetic implied in Rodrigos works.
! 42!
CONCLUSION
In this thesis, I have explored how the neoclassical movement prior to and
following the Spanish Civil war affects current guitarists interpretation of two of
Rodrigos solo guitar works: Zarabanda Lejana and Fantasa para un Gentilhombre.
Zarabanda Lejana is Rodrigos first solo guitar work and one of the earliest works of
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his career, and is deeply connected with the modernist neoclassicism that revived
Spain musical life in the early decades of the twentieth century. In the thesis, I discuss
implications for guitarists who intend to perform this piece through a discussion of
musical aesthetics relevant to the conception of the work and a comparison of
recordings. I also conduct an analysis of the different editions of Rodrigos score
including Rodrigos original manuscript, Pujols edition published in 1934, and
Romeros edition published in 1993. Many notable performers working in the early
decades of the twentieth century, including Segovia, applied a romantic performance
aesthetic to neoclassical works. In my thesis, I argue that performers need to be
informed about these choices and consider details of rhythm, phrasing, tone colour
and legato with care. There is also much to be learnt from studying the various
versions of this piece including the original manuscript and arrangements for piano
and orchestra. As Rodrigo was unfamiliar with the guitar at the time of writing
Zarabanda Lejana, the piece requires some editing to make it work on the guitar. I
argue that guitarists consider deviating from some recommendations in digitation in
existing editions like Pujols and Romeros and revoice chords where necessary and
embrace the use of open strings for resonance.
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Scores
Falla, Manuel de. Concerto per clavicembalo, flauto, oboe, clarinetto, violino e
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Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne
Author/s:
Velasco-Svoboda, Alexandra
Title:
The influence of neoclassicism in selected guitar works by Joaqun Rodrigo: implications for
performance
Date:
2017
Persistent Link:
http://hdl.handle.net/11343/129685
File Description:
The Influence of Neoclassicism in Selected Guitar Works by Joaqun Rodrigo: Implications
for Performance