Part 6

The collections of these songs are not in any sense complete and few of them attempt more than a collocation of the songs of one locality or people. Deductions have been drawn. For example it is noted that the Basque songs are irregular in melody and rhythm and are further marked by unusual tempos, 5-8, or 7-4. In Aragon and Navarre the popular song (and dance) is the jota; in Galicia, the seguidilla; the Catalonian songs resemble the folk-tunes of Southern France. The Andalusian songs, like the dances of that province, are the most beautiful of all, often truly oriental in their rhythm and floridity. In Spain the gipsy has become an integral part of the popular life, and it is difficult at times to determine what is _flamenco_ and what is Spanish. However, collections (few to be sure) have been attempted of gipsy songs.

Elsewhere in this rambling article I have touched on the _villancicos_ and the early song-writers. To do justice to these subjects would require a good deal more space and a different intention. Those who are interested in them may pursue these matters in Pedrell’s various works. The most available collection of Spanish folk-tunes is that issued by P. Lacome and J. Puig y Alsubide (Paris, 1872). There are several collections of Basque songs; Demofilo’s “Coleccion de Cantos Flamencos” (Seville, 1881), Cecilio Ocon’s collection of Andalusian folk-songs, and F. Rodriguez Marin’s “Cantos Populares Españoles” (Seville, 1882-3) may also be mentioned.

V

After the bullfight the most popular form of amusement in Spain is the zarzuela, the only distinctive art-form which Spanish music has evolved, but there has been no progress; the form has not changed, except perhaps to degenerate, since its invention in the early seventeenth century. Soriano Fuertes and other writers have devoted pages to grieving because Spanish composers have not taken occasion to make something grander and more important out of the zarzuela. The fact remains that they have not, although, small and great alike, they have all taken a hand at writing these entertainments. But as they found the zarzuela, so they have left it. It must be conceded that the form is quite distinct from that of opera and should not be confused with it. And the Spaniards are probably right when they assert that the zarzuela is the mother of the French opéra-bouffe. At least it must be admitted that Offenbach and Lecocq and their precursors owe something of the germ of their inspiration to the Spanish form. To-day the melody chests of the zarzuela markets are plundered to find tunes for French _revues_, and such popular airs as _La Paraguaya_ and _Y ... Como le Vá?_ were originally danced and sung in Spanish theatres. The composer of these airs, J. Valverde _fils_, indeed found the French market so good that he migrated to Paris, and for some time has been writing _musique mélangée ... une moitié de chaque nation_. So _La Rose de Grenade_, composed for Paris, might have been written for Spain, with slight melodic alterations and tauromachian allusions in the book.

The zarzuela is usually a one act piece (although sometimes it is permitted to run into two or more acts) in which the music is freely interrupted by spoken dialogue, and that in turn gives way to national dances. Very often the entire score is danced as well as sung. The subject is usually comic and often topical, although it may be serious, poetic, or even tragic. The actors often introduce dialogue of their own, “gagging” freely; sometimes they engage in long impromptu conversations with members of the audience. They also embroider on the music after the fashion of the great singers of the old Italian opera (Dr. de Lafontaine asserts that Spanish audiences, even in cabarets, demand embroidery of this sort). The music is spirited and lively, and in the dances, Andalusian, _flamenco_, or Sevillan, as the case may be, it attains its best results. H. V. Hamilton, in his essay on the subject in Grove’s Dictionary, says, “The music is ... apt to be vague in form when the national dance and folk-song forms are avoided. The orchestration is a little blatant.” It will be seen that this description suits Granados’s _Goyescas_ (the opera), which is on its safest ground during the dances and becomes excessively vague at other times; but _Goyescas_ is not a zarzuela, because there is no spoken dialogue. Otherwise it bears the earmarks. A zarzuela stands somewhere between a French _revue_ and opéra-comique. It is usually, however, more informal in tone than the latter and often decidedly more serious than the former. All the musicians in Spain since the form was invented (excepting, of course, certain exclusively religious composers), and most of the poets and playwrights, have contributed numerous examples. Thus Calderon wrote the first zarzuela, and Lope de Vega contributed words to entertainments much in the same order. In our day Spain’s leading dramatist, Echegaray (died 1916), has written one of the most popular zarzuelas, _Gigantes y Cabezudos_ (the music by Caballero). The subject is the fiesta of Santa Maria del Pilar. It has had many a long run and is often revived. Another very popular zarzuela, which was almost, if not quite, heard in New York, is _La Gran Via_ (by Valverde, _père_), which has been performed in London in extended form. The principal theatres for the zarzuela in Madrid are (or were until recently) that of the Calle de Jovellanos, called the Teatro de Zarzuela, and the Apolo. Usually four separate zarzuelas are performed in one evening before as many audiences.

_La Gran Via_, which in some respects may be considered a typical 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.