Program Notes - May 3, 2008
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Born March 6, 1844 in Tikhvin, Russia
Died June 8, 1908 in Lyubensk, Russia
Capriccio espagnol (1887)
Spain has always been a source of inspiration for European composers. Because it is somewhat removed from the rest of continental Europe by the Pyrenees Mountains (and very close to North Africa), Spain developed its own special musical flavor that contained influences from the Moors and dispersed Sephardic Jews. In the nineteenth century, the idea of “Spanish music” was typically linked to the wild, rhythmically energetic dance music from Andalucía known as flamenco, but in reality each region of Spain has its own distinct folk music tradition. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol draws mainly on the music of Asturias, a province in the Northwest. While the tunes in the piece are not his own (they come from a songbook by Spanish composer José Inzenga y Castellanos) Rimsky-Korsakov’s unique arrangement and orchestration is scintillating. He himself described it in the following manner:
The change of timbre, the felicitous choice of melodic design and figuration patterns, exactly suiting each kind of instrument, brief virtuoso cadenzas for solo instruments, the rhythm of the percussion instruments, etc., constitute here the very essence of the composition and not its garb or orchestration. The Spanish themes, of dance character, furnished me with rich material for putting in use multiform orchestral effects. All in all, the Capriccio is undoubtedly a purely external piece, but vividly brilliant for all that.
The piece begins with a festive Alborada, marked “vivo e strepitoso” (lively and noisy). The solo clarinet is featured prominently, and the whole atmosphere is one of a village celebration. The second movement consists of a set of variations on a lilting theme in the horns, and leads straight into a recap of the Alborada. The refrain is slightly altered though; a solo violin joins the clarinet and the entire movement is elevated up a single half step. Scena e canto gitano opens with a brass fanfare, and includes solo cadenzas based on the Alborada theme for various instruments (violin, flute, clarinet and harp). The harp cadenza leads directly into the brilliant last movement, a Fandango asturiano.
ÁSTOR PIAZZOLLA
Born March 11, 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina
Died July 4, 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Concerto for Bandoneón and Orchestra (1979)
Ever since the second half of the twentieth century, the Argentinean tango has been synonymous with the name of Ástor Piazzolla. Just as George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue brought jazz to the concert hall, Piazzolla’s “Nuevo Tango” style, which integrated classical ideas on form and counterpoint into the popular Buenos Aires dance, helped legitimize the tango as art music. As a child, the precocious Piazzolla learned to play the bandoneón, an accordion-like free reed instrument used in a tango band, and he spent many nights in his late teens and twenties playing in Buenos Aires nightclubs. At the same time, he studied classical composition with Alberto Ginastera, and through his recommendation, was awarded a grant to study in Paris with the famed Nadia Boulanger. While in Paris, Piazzolla realized (with Boulanger’s help) his true calling: to revitalize and reinvent the tango of his homeland. In his quest to do so, he composed over three thousand pieces, 500 of which he recorded himself. In the Concerto for Bandoneón and Orchestra, his unique fusion of the tango style and classical structure reached its pinnacle. Piazzolla’s publisher, Aldo Pagani, respected the piece so much that he even referred to and marketed the concerto as Aconcagua, the highest mountain top in South America.
The beginning of the first movement is like walking into a tango club in the middle of the night. From the first note, the bandoneón and orchestra are locked in a tight rhythmical embrace that resembles two passionate lovers dancing. But Piazzolla’s own equation for “nuevo tango” (“tango+ tragedy + comedy+ whorehouse”) requires variety. Throughout the movement, the bandoneón removes itself from the orchestra and dances alone with unsurpassable virtuosity. The second movement is an anguishing tune of grief, completing the tragic portion of Piazzolla’s stylistic recipe. The third movement betrays harmonic influences by Piazzolla’s Brazilian predecessor Heitor Villa-Lobos and virtuosic influences from the great gypsy fiddlers. Questions of musical innovation aside, this piece stands as an “Aconcagua” of the bandoneón literature based on the prerequisite technical facility alone.
EMMANUEL CHABRIER
Born January 18, 1841 in Ambert, France
Died September 13, 1894 in Paris, France
España: Rhapsody for Orchestra (1883)
The phenomenon of the one-hit wonder is not an invention of the pop music era. Long before The Kingsmen (the band that recorded Louie, Louie) were even born, there was Emmanuel Chabrier whose rhapsody for orchestra España made him an overnight sensation in his native France but remains his only lasting contribution to the symphonic repertoire. Chabrier’s inspiration for España came from a trip to Andalucía in 1882. The color and vivacity of Andalucían flamenco (not to mention the women who danced it) amazed him, and he resolved to commit his experience to music. The result was wildly successful, and while the authenticity of España as an actual representative of “Spanish music” is often called into question by Spaniards, it easily convinced the late nineteenth-century French. Of course it should also be noted that Chabrier never claimed to be a musicological realist, constructing an accurate picture of the sum of Spain’s musical culture. His experience there was that of a foreign tourist, and if España is evocative of a fantasy-land Spain, it may only be because Chabrier’s memories of the trip were highly romanticized. His letters home indicate that his interest in flamenco was not purely musical:
Since coming to Andalucía I haven't seen a really ugly woman [. . .] I won't let on what these women display, but they display it beautifully [. . .] If you could see them wiggle, unjoint their hips, contort, I believe you would not want to get away!
Chabrier’s wide-eyed fascination is wonderfully charming, and the same earnestness that pervades his letters home is embodied in his musical recollection. Animated folk tunes, seductive malagueña melodies, exotic flourishes from harps and tambourine: it all combines to create an imaginative dreamworld that continues to entrance audiences today.
ÁSTOR PIAZZOLLA
Born March 11, 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina
Died July 4, 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Oblivion (1984)
If Piazzolla’s Concerto for Bandoneón and Orchestra is his highest musical achievement, then Oblivion probably represents the peak of his popular acclaim. Since Piazzolla’s death in 1992, it has been performed and recorded by any and every imaginable combination of instruments, but the original recording of Piazzolla’s mournful bandoneón soaring over a pallet of hushed strings is particularly well suited to the character of this melancholy work.
MANUEL DE FALLA
Born November 23, 1876 in Cádiz, Spain
Died November 14, 1946 in Alta Gracia, Argentina
Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo (1915)
Manuel de Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician) was commissioned in 1914 as a ballet by gypsy dancer and choreographer Pastora Imperia. Originally written for a small chamber ensemble, de Falla later reworked the ballet for a larger company, full orchestra and mezzo-soprano. The plot of El Amor Brujo, which de Falla got from old gypsy legends via Imperia’s mother, seems more like something out of a nineteenth-century dramatic opera than a modern ballet. In it, a gypsy girl named Candelas is possessed by the ghost of her former husband. In order to rid herself of the evil spirit and consummate her love for her new fiancee Carmelo, Candelas and her friends form a circle around a fire and attempt to exorcize the ghost in a Ritual Fire Dance.
The opening trills are reminiscent of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, a similarly eerie account of a demonic encounter. Much of the piece’s harmonic and melodic content is derived from unstable diminished chords, which help create an occultic atmosphere. The dance begins at a moderate pace, but as the piece nears the final coda the tempo increases gradually into a triumphant gesture from the trumpets, representing the frenzied exultation of a successful exorcist.
ARTURO MÁRQUEZ
Born December 20, 1950 in Alamos, Mexico
Danzón No. 2 (1994)
The transformation of popular dance forms into art music for the concert stage is not a new story. What Piazzolla did for the tango in the twentieth century (and Johann Strauss and Chopin did for the waltz and mazurka in the nineteenth), Arturo Márquez is now proving to do for the Mexican danzón. Born and raised in Mexico, but also educated in France and California, Márquez began his series of Danzónes in 1992 and has already completed four. Originally from Cuba, the danzón later became popular in the Veracruz region of Mexico under influence from Cuban immigrants. To Márquez, who like Piazzolla has embraced this popular dance form as a mode of high art, the danzón is the perfect representation of the Mexican musical identity:
I discovered that the apparent lightness of the danzon hides a music full of sensuality and rigor, music that our old folks live with, nostalgia and joy, a world that we can still grasp in the dance music of Veracruz and the dance halls of Mexico City. Danzon No. 2 is a tribute to this world that nurtured it. It tries to get as close as possible to the dance, to the nostalgic melodies, its monotonous rhythms, and although it desecrates its intimacy, its form and its harmonic vocabulary, it is a personal way of expressing my admiration and feelings towards real popular music.
MAURICE RAVEL
Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France
Died December 28, 1937 in 1992 in Paris, France
Bolero (1928)
The design of Maurice Ravel’s Boléro is maddeningly simple. The entire piece consists of two exotic melodies repeated endlessly over a constant Spanish dance rhythm. The piece begins with a very thin texture, and as the melodies are passed from instrument to instrument the intensity grows imperceptibly. By the end of the piece, the glacial crescendo is complete, with the entire orchestra playing forte. Ravel found the overwhelming popularity of his Boléro surprising, but like any good composer, he accepted the forthcoming praise (and royalty checks) without complaint. For those who would delve deeper into the motivation behind this mystifying piece, (especially coming from the man who created the lush scores to Daphnis et Chloé and Rhapsodie Espagnole), Ravel gives this response:
There should be no misunderstanding as to my Boléro, It is an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and it should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from, or anything more than, it actually does achieve. [. . .] There are no contrasts, and there is practically no invention except in the plan and the manner of the execution. The themes are impersonal - folk tunes of the usual Spanish-Arabian kind. Whatever may have been said to the contrary, the orchestral treatment is simple and straightforward throughout, without the slightest attempt at virtuosity [. . .] I have done exactly what I have set out to do, and it is for listeners to take it or leave it.
Some listeners preferred to leave it. Following a performance in1932, critic Edward Robinson remarked that it was,
....the most insolent monstrosity ever perpetrated in the history of music. From the beginning to the end of its 339 measures, it is simply the incredible repetition of a single rhythm [. . .] and above it is the blatant recurrence of an overwhelmingly vulgar cabaret tune that is little removed, in every essential of character from the wail of an obstreperous cat.
Despite (or because of) its purported resemblance to a howling feline, Boléro remains popular with audiences and orchestras alike. First time listeners may even find themselves whistling one of the themes on the way home.
Harrison Hollingsworth is the program annotator for Symphony in C.
