Isaac Albéniz, one of Spain’s most distinguished composers, was born in
Camprodón, Spain, on May 29, 1860. He was a child prodigy who gave piano
concerts in Spain after some spasmodic study in Paris with Marmontel. In
1868 he entered the Madrid Conservatory, but in his thirteenth year he
ran away from home and spent several years traveling about in Puerto
Rico, Cuba, and the United States, supporting himself all the while by
playing the piano. He was back in Spain in 1875, and soon thereafter
undertook music study seriously, first at the Brussels Conservatory and
then at the Leipzig Conservatory. He settled in Paris in 1893, where he
wrote his first important works, one of these being his first
composition in a national Spanish idiom: the _Catalonia_, for piano and
orchestra, in 1899. After 1900 he lived in his native land. From 1906 to
1909 he devoted himself to the writing of his masterwork, the suite
_Iberia_, consisting of twelve pieces for the piano gathered in four
volumes. _Iberia_ is a vast tonal panorama of Spain, its sights and
sounds, dances and songs, backgrounds. Albéniz died in Cambo-Bains, in
the Pyrenees, on May 18, 1909.
Albéniz may well be regarded as the founder of the modern Spanish
nationalist school in music. This school sought to exploit the rhythms
and melodies and styles of Spanish folk music within serious concert
works, thus providing a musical interpretation to every possible aspect
of Spanish life.
Albéniz’ first work in the national style is also one of his rare
compositions utilizing an orchestra. It is the _Catalonia_, written in
1899, and introduced that year at a concert of the Société nationale de
musique in Paris. This work is sometimes erroneously designated as a
suite, but it is actually a one-movement rhapsody. A single theme,
unmistakably Spanish, dominates the entire work. A brief rhythmic middle
section for wind, percussion, and a single double bass provides
contrast. This middle part is intended as a burlesque on a troupe of
wandering musicians playing their favorite tune: the clarinet plays off
key and the bass drum is off beat. The original dance melody returns to
conclude the work.
_Córdoba_, a haunting nocturne, is the fourth and most famous number
from the _Cantos de España_, a suite for the piano, op. 232. _Córdoba_
is a vivid tone picture of that famous Andalusian city. Sharp chords, as
if plucked from the strings of a guitar, preface an oriental-type melody
which suggests the Moorish background of the city.
_Fête Dieu à Seville_, or _El Corpus en Sevilla_ (_Festival in Seville_)
is the third and concluding number from the first volume of _Iberia_.
Besides its original version for the piano, this composition is
celebrated in several transcriptions for orchestra, notably those by E.
Fernández Arbós and Leopold Stokowski. This music depicts a religious
procession in the streets of Seville on the Thursday after Trinity
Sunday. At the head of the procession is the priest bearing the Host, or
Blessed Sacrament, under a lavishly decorated canopy. As the procession
moves, worshipers who crowd the streets improvise a religious chant.
_Fête Dieu à Seville_ opens with a brusquely accented march melody,
against which emerges an improvisational-type melody similar to those
sung by worshipers in the street. The march melody and the improvised
chant alternate, but it is the chant that is carried to a thunderous
climax. Then this chant subsides and fades away into the distance, as
the composition ends.
_Navarra_ is a poignant tonal evocation for piano of the Spanish
province below the Pyrenees. Albéniz never completed this work; it was
finished after his death by Déodat de Séverac. This composition is
perhaps best known in Fernández Arbós’ transcription for orchestra.
Against the provocative background of a jota rhythm moves a languorous
and sensual gypsy melody.
_Sevillañas_ (_Seville_) is the third number from _Suite española_ for
piano; it has become famous independent of the larger work and is often
heard in transcription. The heart of the piece is a passionate song,
typical of those heard in the haunts of Seville. As a background there
is an incisive rhythm suggesting the clicking of castanets.
The Tango in D major, op. 165, no. 2, for piano, is not only the most
famous one by Albéniz but one of the most popular ever written. With its
intriguing flamenco-like melody and compelling rhythm it is Spanish to
the core—the prototype of all tango music. The original piano version as
written by the composer is not often heard. When it is performed on the
piano, this tango is given in a brilliant but complex arrangement by
Leopold Godowsky. But it is much more famous in various transcriptions,
notably one for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler, and numerous ones
for small or large orchestras.
_Triana_ is the third and concluding number from the second book of
Albéniz’ monumental suite for piano, _Iberia_. Triana, of which this
music is a tonal picture, is a gypsy suburb of Seville. In the
introduction, random phrases bring up the image of various attitudes and
movements of Spanish dances. A triple-rhythmed figure leads to a light
and graceful dance melody against a bolero rhythm. As the melody is
developed and repeated it gains in intensity and is enriched in color
until it evolves climactically with full force. A transcription for
orchestra by Fernández Arbós is as famous as the original piano version.