zarzuela, consists of a string of dance tunes, with no more
homogeneity than their national significance would suggest. There is
an introduction and polka, a waltz, a tango, a jota, a mazurka, a
schottische, another waltz, and a two-step (_paso-doble_). The tunes
have little distinction; nor can the orchestration be considered
brilliant. There is a great deal of noise and variety of rhythm, and
when presented correctly the effect must be precisely that of one of
the dance-halls described by Chabrier. The zarzuela, to be enjoyed,
in fact, must be seen in Spain. Like Spanish dancing it requires a
special audience to bring out its best points. There must be a certain
electricity, at least an element of sympathy, to carry the thing
through successfully. Examination of the scores of zarzuelas (many
of them have been printed and some of them are to be seen in our
libraries) will convince any one that Mr. Ellis is speaking mildly
when he says that the Spaniards love noise. However, the combination
of this noise with beautiful women, dancing, elaborate rhythm, and a
shouting audience, seems to almost equal the café-concert dancing and
the tauromachian spectacles in Spanish popular affection. (Of course,
as I have suggested, there are zarzuelas more serious melodically and
dramatically; but as _La Gran Via_ is frequently mentioned by writers
as one of the most popular examples, it may be selected as typical of
the larger number of these entertainments.)
H. V. Hamilton says that the first performance of a zarzuela took
place in 1628 (Pedrell gives the date as October 29, 1629), during
the reign of Felipe IV, in the Palace of the Zarzuela (so-called
because it was surrounded by _zarzas_, brambles). It was called _El
Jardin de Falerina_; the text was by the great Calderon and the music
by Juan Risco, chapelmaster of the cathedral at Cordova, according to
Mr. Hamilton, who doubtless follows Soriano Fuertes on this detail.
Soubies, following the more modern studies of Pedrell, gives Jose Peyró
the credit. Pedrell, in his richly documented work, “Teatro Lírico
Española anterior al siglo XIX,” attributes the music of this zarzuela
to Peyró and gives an example of it. The first Spanish opera dates from
the same period, Lope de Vega’s _La Selva sin Amor_ (1629). As a matter
of fact, many of the plays of Calderon and Lope de Vega were performed
with music to heighten the effect of the declamation, and musical
curtain-raisers and interludes were performed before and in the midst
of all of them. Lana, Palomares, Benavente and Hidalgo were among the
musicians who contributed music to the theatre of this period. Hidalgo
wrote the music for Calderon’s zarzuela, _Ni Amor se Libre de Amor_. To
the same group belong Miguel Ferrer, Juan de Navas, Sebastien de Navas,
and Jéronimo de la Torre. (Examples of the music of these men may be
found in the aforementioned “Teatro Lírico.”) Until 1659 zarzuelas
were written by the best poets and composers and frequently performed
on royal birthdays, at royal marriages, and on many other occasions;
but after that date the art fell into a decline and seems to have
been in eclipse during the whole of the eighteenth century. According
to Soriano Fuertes the beginning of the reign of Felipe V marked the
introduction of Italian opera into Spain (more popular than Spanish
opera there to this day) and the decadence of nationalism (whole pages
of Fuertes read very much like the plaints of modern English composers
about the neglect of national composers in their country). In 1829
there was a revival of interest in Spanish music and a conservatory was
founded in Madrid. (For a discussion of this later period the reader
is referred to “La Opera Española en el Siglo XIX,” by Antonio Peña y
Goñi, 1881.) This interest has been fostered by Fuertes and Pedrell,
and the younger composers to-day are taking some account of it. There
is hope, indeed, that Spanish music may again take its place in the
world of art.
Of course, the zarzuela did not spring into being out of nowhere and
nothing, and the true origins are not entirely obscure. It is generally
agreed that a priest, Juan del Encina (born at Salamanca, 1468),
was the true founder of the secular theatre in Spain. His dramatic
compositions are in the nature of eclogues based on Virgilian models.
In all of these there is singing and in one a dance. Isabel la Católica
in the fifteenth century always had at her command a troop of musicians
and poets who comforted and consoled her in her chapel with motets
and _plegarias_ (French, _prière_), and in the royal apartments with
_canciones_ and _villancicos_. (_Canciones_ are songs inclining towards
the ballad-form. _Villancicos_ are songs in the old Spanish measure;
they receive their name from their rustic character, as supposedly they
were first composed by the _villanos_ or peasants for the nativity and
other festivals of the church.) “It is necessary to search for the true
origins of the Spanish musical spectacle,” states Soubies, “in the
_villancicos_ and _cantacillos_ which alternated with the dialogue in
the works of Juan del Encina and Lucas Fernandez, without forgetting
the _ensaladas_, the _jacaras_, etc., which served as intermezzi and
curtain-raisers.” These were sung before the curtain, before the
drama was performed (and during the intervals, with jokes added) by
women in court dress, and later created a form of their own (besides
contributing to the creation of the zarzuela), the _tonadilla_, which,
accompanied by a guitar or violin and interspersed with dances, was
very popular for a number of years. H. V. Hamilton is probably on
sound ground when he says, “That the first zarzuela was written with
an express desire for expansion and development is, however, not so
certain as that it was the result of a wish to inaugurate the new house
of entertainment with something entirely original and novel.”
VI
We have Richard Ford’s testimony that Spain was not very musical in his
day. The Reverend Henry Cart de Lafontaine says that the contemporary
musical services in the churches are not to be considered seriously
from an artistic point of view. Emmanuel Chabrier was impressed with
the fact that the music for dancing was almost entirely rhythmic in its
effect, strummed rudely on the guitar, the spectators meanwhile making
such a din that it was practically impossible to distinguish a melody,
had there been one. And all observers point at the Italian opera, which
is still the favourite opera in Spain (in Barcelona at the Liceo three
weeks of opera in Catalon is given after the regular season in Italian;
in Madrid at the Teatro Real the Spanish season is scattered through
the Italian), and at Señor Arbós’s concerts (the same Señor Arbós who
was once concert master of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), at which
Brandenburg concertos and Beethoven symphonies are more frequently
performed than works by Albeniz. Still there are, and have always been
during the course of the last century, Spanish composers, some of whom
have made a little noise in the outer world, although a good many have
been content to spend their artistic energy on the manufacture of
zarzuelas--in other words, to make a good deal of noise in Spain. In
most modern instances, however, there has been a revival of interest
in the national forms, and folk-song and folk-dance have contributed
their important share to the composers’ work. No one man has done more
to encourage this interest in nationalism than Felipe Pedrell, who may
be said to have begun in Spain the work which the “Five” accomplished
in Russia. Pedrell says in his “Handbook” (Barcelona, 1891; Heinrich
and Co.; French translation by Bertal; Paris, Fischbacher): “The
popular song, the voice of the people, the pure primitive inspiration
of the anonymous singer, passes through the alembic of contemporary art
and one obtains thereby its quintessence; the composer assimilates
it and then reveals it in the most delicate form that music alone is
capable of rendering form in its technical aspect, this thanks to the
extraordinary development of the technique of our art in this epoch.
The folk-song lends the accent, the background, and modern art lends
all that it possesses, its conventional symbolism and the richness of
form which is its patrimony. The frame is enlarged in such a fashion
that the _lied_ makes a corresponding development; could it be said
then that the national lyric drama is the same _lied_ expanded? Is
not the national lyric drama the product of the force of absorption
and creative power? Do we not see in it faithfully reflected not only
the artistic idiosyncrasy of each composer, but all the artistic
manifestations of the people?” There is always the search for new
composers in Spain and always the hope that a man may come who will
be acclaimed by the world. As a consequence, the younger composers
in Spain often receive more adulation than is their due. It must be
remembered that the most successful Spanish music is not serious, the
Spanish are more themselves in the lighter vein.
I hesitate for a moment on the name of Martin y Solar, born at
Valencia; died at St. Petersburg, 1806; called “The Italian” by the
Spaniards on account of his musical style, and “lo Spagnuolo” by the
Italians. Da Ponte wrote several opera-books for him, _l’Arbore di
Diana_, _la Cosa Rara_, and _La Capricciosa Corretta_ (a version of
_The Taming of the Shrew_) among others. It is to be seen that he is
without importance if considered as a composer distinctively Spanish
and I have made this slight reference to him solely to recount how
Mozart quoted an air from one of his operas in the supper scene of
_Don Giovanni_. At the time Martin y Solar was better liked in Vienna
than Mozart himself and the air in question was as well-known as say
Musetta’s waltz is known to us.
Juan Chrysostomo Arriaga, born in Bilbao 1808; died 1828 (these dates
are given in Grove: 1806-1826), is another matter. He might have become
better known had he lived longer. As it is, some of his music has been
performed in London and Paris, and perhaps in America, although I have
no record of it. He studied in Paris at the Conservatoire, under Fétis
for harmony, and Baillot for violin. Before he went to Paris even, as
a child, with no knowledge of the rules of harmony, he had written
an opera! Cherubini declared his fugue for eight voices on the words
in the Credo, “Et Vitam Venturi” a veritable chef d’œuvre, at least
there is a legend to this effect. In 1824 he wrote three quartets, an
overture, a symphony, a mass, and some French cantatas and romances.
Garcia considered his opera _Los Esclavas Felices_ so good that he
attempted, unsuccessfully, to secure for it a Paris hearing. It has
been performed in Bilbao, which city, I think, celebrated the centenary
of the composer’s birth.
Manuel Garcia is better known to us as a singer, an impresario, and a
father, than as a composer! Still he wrote a good deal of music (so
did Mme. Malibran; for a list of the diva’s compositions I must refer
the reader to Arthur Pougin’s biography). Fétis enumerates seventeen
Spanish, nineteen Italian, and seven French operas by Garcia. He had
works produced in Madrid, at the Opéra in Paris (_La mort du Tasse_
and _Florestan_), at the Italiens in Paris (_Fazzoletto_), at the
Opéra-Comique in Paris (_Deux Contrats_), and at many other theatres.
However, when all is said and done, Manuel Garcia’s reputation
still rests on his singing and his daughters. His compositions are
forgotten; nor was his music, much of it, probably, truly Spanish.
(However, I have heard a polo [serenade] from an opera called _El
Poeta Calculista_, which is so Spanish in accent and harmony--and so
beautiful--that it has found a place in a collection of folk-tunes!)
Miguel Hilarion Eslava (born in Burlada, October 21, 1807, died at
Madrid, July 23, 1878) is chiefly famous for his compilation, the
“Lira Sacra-Hispana,” mentioned heretofore. He also composed over 140
pieces of church music, masses, motets, songs, etc., after he had been
appointed chapelmaster of Queen Isabella in 1844, and several operas,
including _Il Solitario_, _La Tregua di Ptolemaide_, and _Pedro el
Cruél_. He also wrote several books of theory and composition: “Método
de Solfeo” (1846) and “Escuela de Armonía y Composición” in three parts
(harmony, composition, and melody). He edited (1855-6) the “Gaceta
Músical de Madrid.”
There is the celebrated virtuoso, Pablo de Sarasate, who wrote music,
but his memory is perhaps better preserved in Whistler’s diabolical
portrait than in his own compositions.
Felipe Pedrell (born February 19, 1841) is also perhaps more important
as a writer on musical subjects and for his influence on the younger
school of composers (he teaches in the conservatory of Barcelona, and
his attitude towards nationalism has already been discussed), than he
is as a composer. Still, Edouard Lopez-Chavarri does not hesitate to
pronounce his trilogy _Los Pireneos_ (Barcelona, 1902; the prologue
was performed in Venice in 1897) the most important work for the
theatre written in Spain. His first opera, _El Último Abencerrajo_, was
produced in Barcelona in 1874. Some of his other works are _Quasimodo_,
1875; _El Tasso a Ferrara_, _Cleopatra_, _Mazeppa_ (Madrid, 1881),
_Celestine_ (1904), and _La Matinada_ (1905). J. A. Fuller-Maitland
says that the influence of Wagner is traceable in all his stage work.
(Wagner is adored in Spain; _Parsifal_ was given eighteen times in one
month at the Liceo in Barcelona.) If this be true, his case will be
found to bear other resemblances to that of the Russian “Five,” who
found it difficult to exorcise all foreign influences in their pursuit
of nationalism.
He was made a member of the Spanish Academy in 1894 and shortly
thereafter became Professor of Musical History and Æsthetics at the
Royal Conservatory at Madrid. Besides his “Hispaniae Schola Musica
Sacra” he has written a number of other books, and translated Richter’s
treatise on Harmony into Spanish. He has made several excursions into
the history of folk-lore and the principal results are contained in
“Músicos Anónimos” and “Por nuestra Música.” Other works are “Teatro
Lírico Español anterior al siglo XIX,” “Lírica Nacionalizada,” “De
Música Religiosa,” “Músiquerias y mas Músiquesias.” One of his books,
“Músicos Contemporáneos y de Otros Tempos” (in the library of the
Hispanic Society of New York) is very catholic in its range of subject.
It includes essays on the _Don Quixote_ of Strauss, the _Boris Godunow_
of Moussorgsky, Smetana, Manuel Garcia, Edward Elgar, Jaques-Dalcroze,
Bruckner, Mahler, Albeniz, Palestrina, Busoni, and the tenth symphony
of Beethoven!
In John Towers’s extraordinary compilation, “Dictionary-Catalogue of
Operas,” it is stated that Manuel Fernandez Caballero (born in 1835)
wrote sixty-two operas, and the names of them are given. He was a
pupil of Fuertes (harmony) and Eslava (composition) at the Madrid
Conservatory and later became very popular as a writer of zarzuelas. I
have already mentioned his _Gigantes y Cabezudos_ for which Echegaray
furnished the libretto. Among his other works in this form are _Los
Dineros del Sacristan_, _Los Africanistas_ (Barcelona, 1894), _El Cabo
Primero_ (Barcelona, 1895), and _La Rueda de la Fortuna_ (Madrid, 1896).
At a concert given in the New York Hippodrome, April 3, 1911, Mme.
Tetrazzini sang a Spanish song, which was referred to the next day
by the reviewers of the “New York Times” and the “New York Globe.”
To say truth the soprano made a great effect with the song, although
it was written for a low voice. It was _Carceleras_, from Ruperto
Chapí’s zarzuela _Hija del Zebedeo_. Chapí was one of the most prolific
and popular composers of Spain during the last century. He produced
countless zarzuelas and nine children. He was born at Villena March
27, 1851, and he died March 25, 1909, a few months earlier than his
compatriot Isaac Albeniz. He was admitted to the conservatory of Madrid
in 1867 as a pupil of piano and harmony. In 1869 he obtained the first
prize for harmony and he continued to obtain prizes until in 1874 he
was sent to Rome by the Academy of Fine Arts. He remained for some
time in Italy and Paris. In 1875 the Teatro Real of Madrid played his
_La Hija de Jefté_ sent from Rome. The following is an incomplete
list of his operas and zarzuelas: _Via Libra_, _Los Gendarmes_, _El
Rey que Rabio_ (3 acts), _La Verbena de la Paloma_, _El Reclamo_, _La
Tempestad_, _La Bruja_, _La Leyenda del Monje_, _Las Campanados_,
_La Czarina_, _El Milagro de la Virgen_, _Roger de Flor_ (3 acts),
_Las Naves de Cortes, Circe_ (3 acts), _A qui Base Farsa un Hombre_,
_Juan Francisco_ (3 acts, 1905; rewritten and presented in 1908 as
_Entre Rocas_), _Los Madrileños_ (1908), _La Dama Roja_ (1 act, 1908),
_Hesperia_ (1908), _Las Calderas de Pedro Bolero_ (1909) and _Margarita
la Tornera_, presented just before his death without success.
His other works include an oratorio, _Los Angeles_, a symphonic poem,
_Escenas de Capa y Espada_, a symphony in D, _Moorish Fantasy_ for
orchestra, a serenade for orchestra, a trio for piano, violin and
’cello, songs, etc. Chapí was president of the Society of Authors and
Composers, and when he died the King and Queen of Spain sent a telegram
of condolence to his widow. There is a copy of his zarzuela, _Blasones
y Talegas_ in the New York Public Library.
I have already spoken of _Dolores_. It is one of a long series of
operas and zarzuelas written by Tomás Bretón y Hernandez (born at
Salamanca, December 29, 1850). First produced at Madrid, in 1895, it
has been sung with success in such distant capitals as Buenos Ayres and
Prague. I have been assured by a Spanish woman of impeccable taste that
_Dolores_ is charming, delightful in its fluent melody and its striking
rhythms, thoroughly Spanish in style, but certain to find favour in
America, if it were produced here. Our own Eleanora de Cisneros at
a Press Club Benefit in Barcelona appeared in Bretón’s zarzuela _La
Verbena de la Paloma_. Another of Bretón’s famous zarzuelas is _Los
Amantes de Ternel_ (Madrid, 1889). His works for the theatre further
include _Tabaré_, for which he wrote both words and music (Madrid,
1913); _Don Gil_ (Barcelona, 1914); _Garin_ (Barcelona, 1891); _Raquel_
(Madrid, 1900); _Guzman el Bueno_ (Madrid, 1876); _El Certamen de
Cremona_ (Madrid, 1906); _El Campanere de Begoña_ (Madrid, 1878); _El
Barberillo en Orán_; _Corona contra Corona_ (Madrid, 1879); _Les Amores
de un Príncipe_ (Madrid, 1881); _El Clavel Rojo_ (1899); _Covadonga_
(1901); and _El Domingo de Ramos_, words by Echegaray (Madrid, 1894).
His works for orchestra include: _En la Alhambra_, _Los Galeotes_, and
_Escenas Andaluzas_, a suite. He has written three string quartets,
a piano trio, a piano quintet, and an oratorio in two parts, _El
Apocalipsis_.
Bretón is largely self-taught, and there is a legend that he devoured
by himself Eslava’s “School of Composition.” He further wrote the music
and conducted for a circus for a period of years. In the late seventies
he conducted an orchestra, founding a new society, the Union Artistico
Musical, which is said to have been the beginning of the modern
movement in Spain. It may throw some light on Spanish musical taste at
this period to mention the fact that the performance of Saint-Saëns’s
_Danse macabre_ almost created a riot. Later Bretón travelled. He
appeared as conductor in London, Prague, and Buenos Ayres, among other
cities outside of Spain, and when Dr. Karl Muck left Prague for Berlin,
he was invited to succeed him in the Bohemian capital. In the contest
held by the periodical “Blanco y Negro” in 1913 to decide who was the
most popular writer, poet, painter, musician, sculptor, and toreador in
Spain, Bretón as musician got the most votes.... He is at present the
head of the Royal Conservatory in Madrid.
No Spanish composer (ancient or modern) is better known outside of
Spain than Isaac Albeniz (born May 29, 1861, at Comprodon; died at
Cambo, in the Pyrenees, May 25, 1909). His fame rests almost entirely
on twelve piano pieces (in four books) entitled collectively _Iberia_,
with which all concert-goers are familiar. They have been performed
here by Ernest Schelling, Leo Ornstein, and George Copeland, among
other virtuosi.... I think one or two of these pieces must be in the
répertoire of every modern pianist. Albeniz did not imbibe his musical
culture in Spain and to the day of his death he was more friendly with
the modern French group of composers than with those of his native
land. In his music he sees Spain with French eyes. He studied at
Paris with Marmontel; at Brussels with Louis Brassin; and at Weimar
with Liszt (he is mentioned in the long list of pupils in Huneker’s
biography of Liszt, but there is no further account of him in that
book); he studied composition with Jadassohn, Joseph Dupont, and F.
Kufferath. His symphonic poem, _Catalonia_, has been performed in Paris
by the Colonne Orchestra. I have no record of any American performance.
For a time he devoted himself to the piano. He was a virtuoso and he
has even played in London, but later in life he gave up this career for
composition. He wrote several operas and zarzuelas, among them a light
opera, _The Magic Opal_ (produced in London, 1893), _Enrico Clifford_
(Barcelona, 1894; later heard in London), _Pepita Jiminez_ (Barcelona,
1895; afterwards given at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels),
and _San Anton de la Florida_ (produced in Brussels as _l’Ermitage
Fleurie_). He left unfinished at his death another opera destined for
production in Brussels at the Monnaie, _Merlin l’Enchanteur_. None
of his operas, with the exception of _Pepita Jiminez_, which has been
performed, I am told, in all Spanish countries, achieved any particular
success, and it is _Iberia_ and a few other piano pieces which will
serve to keep his memory green.
Juan Bautista Pujol (1836-1898) gained considerable reputation in Spain
as a pianist and as a teacher of and composer for that instrument. He
also wrote a method for piano students entitled “Nuevo Mecanismo del
Piano.” His further claim to attention is due to the fact that he was
one of the teachers of Granados.
The names of Pahissa (both as conductor and composer; one of his
symphonic works is called _The Combat_), Garcia Robles, represented by
an _Epitalame_, and Gibert, with two _Marines_, occur on the programmes
of the two concerts devoted in the main to Spanish music, at the second
of which (Barcelona, 1910; conductor Franz Beidler) Granados’s _Dante_
was performed.
E. Fernandez Arbós (born in Madrid, December 25, 1863) is better
known as a conductor and violinist than as composer. Still, he has
written music, especially for his own instrument. He was a pupil of
both Vieuxtemps and Joachim; and he has travelled much, teaching at
the Hamburg Conservatory, and acting as concertmaster for the Boston
Symphony and the Glasgow Orchestras. He has been a professor at the
Madrid conservatory for some time, giving orchestral and chamber
music concerts, both there and in London. He has written at least one
light opera, presumably a zarzuela, _El Centro de la Tierra_ (Madrid;
December 22, 1895); three trios for piano and strings, songs, and an
orchestral suite.
I have already referred to the Valverdes, father and son. The father,
in collaboration with Federico Chueca, wrote _La Gran Via_. Many
another popular zarzuela is signed by him. The son has lived so long in
France that much of his music is cast in the style of the French music
hall; too it is in a popular vein. Still in his best tangos he strikes
a Spanish folk-note not to be despised. He wrote the music for the
play, _La Maison de Danse_, produced, with Polaire, at the Vaudeville
in Paris, and two of his operettas, _La Rose de Grenade_ and _l’Amour
en Espagne_, have been performed in Paris, not without success, I am
told by La Argentina, who danced in them. Other modern composers who
have been mentioned to me are Manuel de Falla, Joaquin Turina (George
Copeland has played his _A los Toros_), Usandihaga (who died in 1915),
the composer of _Los Golondrinos_, Oscar Erpla, Conrado del Campo, and
Enrique Morera.
Enrique Granados was perhaps the first of the important Spanish
composers to visit North America. His place in the list of modern
Iberian musicians is indubitably a high one; though it must not be
taken for granted that _all_ the best music of Spain crosses the
Pyrenees (for reasons already noted it is evident that some Spanish
music can never be heard to advantage outside of Spain), and it is
by no means to be taken for granted that Granados was a greater
musician than several who dwell in Barcelona and Madrid without
making excursions into the outer world. In his own country I am told
Granados was admired chiefly as a pianist, and his performances on
that instrument in New York stamped him as an original interpretative
artist, one capable of extracting the last tonal meaning out of his own
compositions for the pianoforte, which are his best work.