Spanish Music and its Representations in London (1878-1930):

From the Exotic to the Modern.

Kenneth James Murray

Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

July 2013

Melbourne Conservatorium of Music University of Melbourne

Produced on archival quality paper

ABSTRACT

This thesis argues that the landscape of Spanish music in London evolved between 1878

and 1930 from Romantic exotic constructions to a recognition and appreciation of

Spanish musical nationalism, which reflected some of the concerns of post-war musical

modernism in a newly cosmopolitan context. This transformation will be traced through

the study of specific protagonists and events that contributed to the English reception of

Spanish music during this period. While the development of Spanish nationalist music

and its important intersections with French music have been studied in numerous texts,

little has been written on the English engagement with Spanish music. A key event in

defining musical and theatrical Spain in the latter part of the nineteenth century came

from France in the guise of George Bizet's Carmen (1875, London 1878). The opera,

and its many parodies and theatrical re-workings in London, provides a foundation for

discussions of Spanishness in late nineteenth-century England, and influenced the

reception of Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz.

In the Edwardian era, closer ties between England and Spain, increased travel

possibilities and specialist writers rekindled enthusiasm for Spanish music. The anti-

German currents of the pre-war years and the influence of French writers and musicians

set the scene for the further English appreciation of Spanish music in the aftermath of

the death of Enrique Granados in 1916. The English success of the Ballets Russes

production of The Three-Cornered Hat (1919), with music by Manuel de Falla, marked

the broader acceptance of Spanish musical nationalism. With the critical recognition of

Falla's neoclassical works of the 1920s Spanish music achieved further

acknowledgement in England from cosmopolitan critics. At the same time the Spanish

guitar was seen to embody many aspects of post-war Spanish music, and through the

concerts of Andrés Segovia established itself in a new guise in London. By 1930, the

recognition and popularity of Spanish music indicated the extent to which it had

integrated and evolved beyond the Romantic stereotypes prevalent half a century

earlier.

This is to certify that

(i) the thesis comprises only my original work, except where indicated in the preface

(ii) due acknowledgment has been made in the text to all other material used,

(iii) the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices.

Signature:

Name in Full: Kenneth James M

Date: 28 July 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My sincere thanks to my supervisor Michael Christoforidis who inspired me to

undertake research into Spanish music and has been a great support throughout my

candidature.

I am grateful to library staff who have assisted me at the following archives and

libraries during my research: the Archivo Manuel de Falla and Centro de

Documentaciôn Musical de Andalucia in Granada, the Percy Grainger Museum in

Melbourne, the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, the British Library Newspaper

Library in Colindale, London, the Theatre Museum in London, and especially the staff

at the University of Melbourne Music Library.

To my wife Tracy, thank you for your love and understanding and my sincere thanks

for your help in putting together the final document. A special thank you to our children

Lydia, Lachlan and Ruben for their patience. The love and support of my family has

been invaluable and special thanks to Mum, Dad, Jo, Gran and Beth.

Thanks to all my colleagues at the Conservatorium of Music, the University of

Melbourne, especially Professor Gary McPherson. To Elizabeth Kertesz and Alexandra

Williams, many thanks for your valuable feedback, advice and encouragement. Thanks

also to Andrys Onsman and Stephen Langley for their generous assistance.

CONTENTS

Introduction 1

1. Spanish music in London from the Peninsular War to the premiere of 21 Bizet's Carmen: travel writers, the guitar and Spanish dance Travel writers on Spain 22

The Spanish guitar in England in the nineteenth century 29

Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London 34

2. Carmen and Victorian musico-theatrical notions of Spanishness 42

The reception and performance history of Bizet's Carmen in London 42

Carmen burlesques and adaptations 60

Arthur Sullivan and Spanish music 70

3. Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz: Prominent Spanish performer- 77 composers in late Victorian London Pablo Sarasate in London 77

Isaac Albéniz in London 87

4. Estudiantinas and Spanish dancers as popular entertainment in 116 fin-de-siècle London Estudiantinas and spectacle in Victorian London 117

Spanish dance in late Victorian and Edwardian London 127

The Carmen ballet 135

The Spanish guitar in London from Francisco Tarrega to Angel Barrios 138

5. English fin-de-siècle literary and musical evocations of Spanish music 143

Three Edwardian travel writers on Spain 143

Edward Elgar and Spanish Music 148

Percy Grainger and Spanish Music 154

6. Changing Political Alliances and Spanish Music: From the Entente 160 Cordiale (1904) to the death of Granados (1916) The Entente Cordiale and Spanish music in Edwardian London 162

Spanish music and French music in London 165

The Death of Enrique Granados, Anglo-Spanish relations and Spanish music 172 in London

7. Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat and Flamenco 182 The English critical reception of The Three-Cornered Hat 185

The Ballets Suédois and Cuadro Flamenco 189

Falla and images of flamenco 194

Critics writing on Spain: Georges Jean-Aubry and J.B. Trend 198

Lord Berners and the Fantaisie Espagnole 206

8. Spanish Musical Nationalism, Neoclassicism and the guitar 217

Falla and Spanish Neoclassicism in 1920s England 219

Spain and English musical cosmopolitanism and the writings of Morales and 228 Trend

Andrés Segovia and the new classical guitar 234

Conclusion 245

Bibliography 250

MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Example la. Meyer Lutz, "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!" Carmen Up to 66

Data, act 1, no. 5, ms.1-8.

Example lb. Lutz, "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!" Carmen Up to Data, 67

act 1, no. 5, ms.24-31.

Example 2. Arthur Sullivan, "Hullo! What's That?," La Contrabandista, act 73

1, no. 6, ms.234-249.

Example 3. Sullivan, Dance, La Contrabandista, act 1, no. 7, ms.1-14. 74

Example 4. Francisco Barbieri, "Jota de los Estudiantes," El Barberillo de 119

Lavapiés, act 1, no. 6, ms.23-29.

Example 5. Edward Elgar, Sérénade Mauresque, op. 10, no. 2, ms.5-6. 150

Example 6. Elgar, Movement 1, Moderato-Allegro, Piano Quintet in Amin., 152

op. 84, ms.78-92.

Example 7a. Lord Berners, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.1-6. 210

Example 7b. Berners, bassoon melody, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, 211

ms.20-21.

Example 8a. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.1-5. 212

Example 8b. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.62-64. 213

Example 9. Berners, "Pasodoble," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.140-148. 215

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. An advertisement for Donato the one-legged Spanish dancer in 40

matador's costume and with castanets.

Figure 2. Minnie Hauk as Carmen. 45

Figure 3. Advertisement for the sheet music for musical items from Carmen 63

up to Data, featuring Letty Lind as Mercedes.

Figure 4. Arthur Sullivan and F.C. Burnand, La Contrabandista, dialogue 72

from the end of Act 1.

Figure 5. Program for Albéniz's first London concert of Spanish Music, 96

(St. James's Hall, 7 Nov. 1890).

Figure 6. Program for Albéniz's second London concert of Spanish Music, 103

(St. James's Hall, 21 Nov. 1890).

Figure 7. Spanish Estudiantina in Paris, 1878. 118

Figure 8. Repertoire from the Estudiantina Figaro's Viennese tour October- 122

December 1878.

Figure 9. A list of countries visited by Estudiantina Figaro between 1878 124

and 1884.

Figure 10. Poem from the Clarion in praise of Otero. 128

Figure 11. Carmen as played by a real Spaniard. Signorina Guerrero at the 136

Alhambra. July 1903.

Figure 13. Program for Andres Segovia's concert at the Wigmore Hall, 240

29 January 1927.

Introduction

From a musical point of view Spain has for generations been a sort of Ruritania, an

imaginary country which existed only as a department of the theatrical costumier's

warehouse. Thanks to Albéniz, Granados and others, we are at last beginning to

realize that Spain has a musical life of its own...De Falla arrives at an opportune

moment. He finds here in London an audience ready prepared with a knowledge of

his Spanish predecessors, and with a knowledge, too, of Stravinsky and other non-

Spanish composers whom he has evidently studied to some purpose.'

So wrote Edward Dent in response to the 1919 London premiere of The Three-

Cornered Hat presented by the Ballets Russes with music by Manuel de Falla. As

Dent observed, London audiences had an extensive and significant history of

engagement with Spanish music and dance, and Falla's music for The Three-

Cornered Hat marked a new critical appreciation of Spanish works in London. In this

thesis I will draw on selected examples of the English experience of Spanish music

(and to a lesser extent dance) over the previous four decades in order to illustrate

changes that led to the acceptance of Spain as a nation with its own musical

nationalism.

The main period under consideration in this thesis is from the London premiere of

Carmen in 1878 to 1930. For much of the nineteenth century Spain was considered

part of the exotic Orient, a place where traditions remained unchanged, while

powerful Western nations were creating empires. Throughout the 1800s London was

a significant hub for Spanish artists, and Spanish music was a regular and ever-

changing presence on the stages of nineteenth-century London.

A key event in defining musical and theatrical Spain in the latter part of the century

came via France in the guise of Georges Bizet's Carmen (1875), which incorporated a

highly original synthesis of Spanish musical and theatrical styles. The opera quickly

became the standard by which other Spanish entertainments were measured.

' Edward J. Dent, 'A Spanish Ballet,' Athenaeum, 1 Aug. 1919.

1

In this thesis I have investigated a range of responses to Spanish music in London and

the engagement of English writers with Spanish music and dance. The scope of this

study includes references to instrumental music, opera, light opera, burlesque, outdoor

entertainments and music hall performances. The Spanish guitar in London is also a

recurring theme, from the Estudiantina phenomenon of the 1880s and 1890s, to the

reception of concerts given by the Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia in the mid 1920s.

It has not been possible to provide an exhaustive survey of Spanish music in London

from 1878 to 1930 and I have focused on pivotal figures and episodes in my narrative.

Nor could the study encompass the presence of Latin-American music and performers

during this period. Spanish music cannot be divorced from dance, opera and musical

theatre and I will consider these related artforms alongside concurrent political and

social movements which provide context for the critical commentary cited in my

discussion. It is outside of the scope of my study to examine the reception of Spanish

music in private English salons. The English press provided invaluable sources such

as reviews of concert music, opera, ballet and theatre, whereas critical commentary on

salon music has proved harder to find.

In the early twentieth century the emerging political rapprochement between England

and Spain grew into an artistic alliance, matching trends in Paris that had been

documented by a body of French musical criticism. As a significant centre of Spanish

cultural activity, London played a role comparable to that of Paris in the support and

dissemination of the new nationalist school of Spanish music. By the 1920s the new

Spanish school was promoted and supported by specialist critics in London and Paris.

I conclude my research at the end of the 1920s, as the 1930s—with the

pronouncement of the Republic and the ensuing Civil War—marked a new political

landscape in Spain and different modes of engagement with Spanish entertainment in

Europe.

Methodology

The methodology for this dissertation is based principally on the study of the

reception of Spanish music and dance in London as chronicled in press reviews,

periodicals and critical writings during the years 1878 to 1930. I have drawn on a

2

range of sources in order to contextualize and understand these responses and the

ways in which they changed. Principal sources for this study have been: reviews in

newspapers and music journals, supplemented by the writings of specialist critics,

scores, recordings, concert programs, correspondence and travel writings. Secondary

sources such as biographies and general historical texts have provided the background

for my research.

The sources I have consulted reflected various opinions about Spain and Spanish

music. Rather than provide an exhaustive survey of press or critical responses I have

focused on particular periods or events in order to give a sense of this evolution. My

investigations have focused on finding references to the presentation of Spanish music

and dance in London, and within these references, evidence of changing attitudes. I

have also searched for indications of the English engagement with Spanish music and

how this may have been conditioned by the political and cultural interaction between

the two countries.

The examination of the reception of Spanish music in London has been largely

informed by the English press. The papers I have looked at most frequently include

The Times and The Manchester Guardian. Both papers are available on microfilm at

the University of Melbourne library, although since I began my investigations a

decade ago some newspapers have become available online, including The Times

through The Times Digital Archive and a collection of nineteenth-century papers in

the 19" -Century British Library Newspaper Database? There are often

inconsistencies and divergent views given in different papers and by various authors,

and I have consulted a range of sources in order to piece together a more complete

picture of my subject. In this respect information gained from concert programs and

musical scores has informed my reading of the press reviews and articles.

In the course of researching material for this thesis I visited a number of archives. At

the Archivo Manuel de Falla in Granada I consulted Falla's correspondence,

manuscripts and musical sketches. Falla's extensive library of books and scores were

also viewed. Scores and sketch material by Angel Barrios are housed at the Centro de

2 The Times Digital Archive, 1785-2006, www.gale.cengage.co.uk; 19'h Century British Library Newspaper Database, www.gale.cengage.co.uk.

3

Documentaciôn Musical de Andalucia in Granada and provided valuable insights into

Barrios' musical career. At the Percy Grainger Museum in Melbourne I studied

concert programs, press reviews and scores in preparation for the discussion of

Grainger and Spanish music in Chapter 5. I examined the two scrapbooks in the Isaac

Albéniz collection at the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, kept by Albéniz as a

record of his time in London during the 1890s. These press cuttings were collected

for Albéniz by the Romeike and Curtice Press Cutting and Information Agency.

Albéniz's correspondence with Francis Money-Coutts was also consulted at the

Biblioteca de Catalunya. I used the British Library Newspaper Collection in

Colindale, London to search the daily and periodical press for reviews, references to

important concerts and visits to London by Spanish artists. I also visited the Theatre

Museum in London where I found useful material relating to the various theatrical re-

workings of Carmen in the 1880s and 1890s. The Dent Archive at the library of

King's College, Cambridge holds a small amount of material relating to his work with

the International Society of Contemporary Music and correspondence between

Edward Dent and J.B. Trend. These papers were not viewed as part of the research

for this thesis but constitute an area for future research (see conclusion).

This thesis will not be framed primarily in terms of current critical theories relating to

exoticism or orientalism, although some of the literature as it relates to Spanish music

informs my discussion. Rather, the approach is based on a reading of historical

sources informed by contemporaneous aesthetic debates, and to a lesser extent the

social and political events that had an impact on Anglo-Spanish relations.

Literature review

Scholarly literature has largely neglected fin-de-siècle English engagement with

Spanish music, in contrast to the significant body of research devoted to Spanish

music and musicians during the same period. In addition to studies of specific

composers, Spanish and French exchanges in the late nineteenth and early twentieth

centuries have received more sustained attention. Louis Jambou and François Lesure

have edited books investigating the interactions between Spanish and French music.3

s Louis Jambou, ed., La musiquee Entre France et Espagne: Interactions stylistiques. Actes du colloque international tenu à Paris, en Sorbonne-Paris IV et à l'Instituto Cervantes, les 14-16 mai 2001 (Paris: Presses de I'Univ. de Paris-Sorbonne, 2003); François Lesure, ed., Échanges musicaux

4

Stéphan Etcharry has published pioneering work on the influence of French

musicologist and composer Henri Collet, and Monserrat Bergadà's thesis focused on

Catalan pianists in Paris from 1875-1925.4 These ideas have been expanded upon by

Samuel Llano in his recent book Whose Spain?: Negotiating Spanish music in Paris,

1908-1929, a major addition to the literature on twentieth-century Spanish music.5

Llano analyzes the powerful influence of French critics and musicians on the

development of a national style of Spanish music. He writes extensively on the

French critic Henri Collet and composer Raoul Laparra, in this detailed and wide-

ranging exploration of Spanish music. Whose Spain? is a landmark work and has

influenced my understanding of the French influence on Anglo-Spanish musical

relations.

For much of the nineteenth century Spain was viewed as part of the exotic Orient,

with an emphasis on its Moorish heritage and the exotic status of marginalized groups

such as the gypsies. There are, however, difficulties in trying to fit Spanish music

into the standard definitions of, and arguments about, orientalism, which is often

studied with reference to either the Middle East or the Far East. Spain was a distinct

case partly because it was an internal exotic "Other" within Europe. Llano refers to

Spain as a "low Other" in the French imagination due to the minimal political and

economic authority it exerted in Europe in the nineteenth-century.6 Both France and

England have had a centuries-long history of engagement with Spanish culture, and

these relationships have not been static.

The French invaded Spain twice in the nineteenth century, first during the Napoleonic

Wars (1808-1813) and later in the 1823 military intervention to restore the Bourbon

monarchy. Military superiority gave France a dominant position in the relationship

with Spain, however, the basis of the nineteenth-century affiliation between England

and Spain was different. England had fought alongside Spain against Napoleon and

franco-espagnols XVlle-XIXe siècles: Actes des Rencontres de Villecroze, 15 au 17 octobre 1998 (Paris: Klincksieck, 2000). 4 Monserrat Bergadà, Les pianistes catalans à Paris entre 1875 et 1925 (PhD diss., Université François Rabelais, Tours, 1997); Stéphan Etcharry, "Henri Collet (1885-1951), compositeur: Un itinéraire singulier dans l'hispanisme musical français" (PhD diss., Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2004). 3 Samuel Llano, Whose Spain?: Negotiating Spanish music in Paris, 1908-1929 (New York: OUP, 2013). 6 Ibid., 3.

5

the English appreciation of Spain in the nineteenth century was framed by this

political alliance. In the late nineteenth century England and Spain had much in

common, both searching for the inspiration for a nationalist revival in the music of the

golden age of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the early twentieth century

France viewed Spain as a junior partner in a Latin alliance of nations, whereas the

relationship between England and Spain had evolved on a different footing.

To complicate the issue of exotic "Otherness", within Spain there were various

internal "Others" who were exoticised by the Spaniards themselves, such as the

Andalusians and gypsies. Studying Spanish music as an exotic construct is

problematic because of the numerous, divergent influences operating throughout the

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The influence of Romantic writers and

artists and their fascination with the Orient was pivotal in establishing modes of

thinking about Spain. Also important were the outcomes of military conflict with

France and the changes brought about by Spain's loss of empire. The many English

and French artists who performed and interpreted Spanish music and dance played a

central role in the dissemination of stereotypes, as did Spanish musicians and dancers

who responded to foreign notions about "true" Spanish music in their concerts.

Edward Said set the agenda for discussions on exoticism and Western perceptions of

the Orient in his seminal book Orientalism.8 He redefined orientalism as the means

by which Western nations asserted power over weaker nations by emphasizing their

cultural differences, thereby demonstrating their inferiority.9 Said also wrote on

music but did not address the issue of orientalism or exoticism in Spain. The debate

on orientalism has extended to all artforms and John MacKenzie's book Orientalism:

History, Theory and the Arts, is a concise summary of the issues in orientalist

discourse across the visual arts, architecture, design, theatre and music.10

7 I will discuss the writings of Washington Irving, George Borrow and Richard Ford in Chapter 1. The most dominant nineteenth-century French writings on Spain include: François-René Chateaubriand, Atala: René; et Les aventures du dernier Abencérage (Paris: De Mat, à la Librairie Nationale, 1826); Victor Hugo, Odes et ballades: Les orientales (1829; Paris: L'imprimerie nationale, 1904); Prosper Mérimée, Carmen: 1845; (suivi de) Les âmes du purgatoire: 1834, ed. by Nicolas Leclerc (Paris: Hatier, 2006); Théophile Gautier, Voyage en Espagne (Paris: Charpentier, 1862). 8 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978). 9 Said described Orientalism as "A Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient." Ibid., 3. 10 John M. MacKenzie, Orientalism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995).

6

The discussion of orientalism and exoticism in the field of music has been led by

some distinguished scholars, most notably Jonathan Bellman and Ralph Locke.

Bellman edited the important collection of essays, The Exotic in Western Music,"

which contains an extensive chapter on exoticism and Spanish music by James

Parakilas, `How Spain Got a Soul.' 12 Locke's recent contribution to the field is the

2009 book Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections, a culmination of his ideas on

musical exoticism.13 Locke has also written on Carmen and in his essay `Spanish

Local Color in Bizet's Carmen,' he analyses Bizet's borrowings and inspirations for

the Spanish colour evident in the opera.14 Bellman offers an explanation for the

dearth of studies of Spanish music and exoticism: "The cultural complexities are

forbidding, so aside from James Parakilas's definitive study `How Spain Got a Soul,'

people tend to stay away from the subject, despite the obvious cultural and musical

richness."15 One author who has tackled the subject of Carmen and the gypsies as

symbols of Spanish orientalism is José Colmeiro in his excellent article `Exorcising

Exoticism: "Carmen" and the Construction of Oriental Spain.' 16 The most

comprehensive and thought-provoking examination of Spanish music and exoticism is

Samuel Llano's Whose Spain?, discussed earlier in this section.

Given the importance of English press sources to this dissertation, some secondary

literature proved useful in guiding my research. Meirion Hughes' book The English

Musical Renaissance and the Press 1850-1914,17 offers valuable insights into the

thinking of English music critics and the English press in the long nineteenth century.

One of the most famous critics in this period was George Bernard Shaw and a number

11 Jonathan Bellman, ed., The Exotic In Western Music (Boston: Northeast University Press,1998). 12 James Parakilas, `How Spain Got a Soul,' in The Exotic in Western Music, ed. Jonathon Bellman (Boston: Northeast University Press,1998), 137-193. 13 Ralph P. Locke, Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections (Cambridge: CUP, 2009). 14 Ralph P. Locke, `Spanish Local Color in Bizet's Carmen,' in Music, Theater, and Cultural Transfer: Paris, 1830-1914, eds. Annegret Fauser and Mark Everist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 316-360. 15

Jonathan D. Bellman, 'Musical Voyages and Their Baggage: Orientalism in Music and Critical Musicology,' Musical Quarterly 94, no. 3 (2011): 433. 16 José F Colmeiro, 'Exorcising Exoticism: "Carmen" and the Construction of Oriental Spain.' Comparative Literature 54, no. 2 (2002): 127-144. 17 Meirion Hughes, The English Musical Renaissance and the Press 1850-1914: Watchmen of Music (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002).

7

of his reviews were pertinent to my study of the reception of Albéniz and Sarasate in

London.18

Travel writing has emerged as a serious field of academic enquiry in recent years and

publications such as The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing have contributed

to the expansion of the field.19 Research on English travel writers to Spain in the

nineteenth century is still relatively sparse, but Ana Hontanilla's article `Images of

Barbaric Spain in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Writing' highlights the

prejudices that existed toward Spain during the 1700s and the portrayal of it as a cruel

country 20 The British and the Grand Tour by Jeremy Black contains some references

to British travel to Spain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 21

Much of the scholarly work on the political relationship between England and Spain

has focused on two main periods, the sixteenth century and the Spanish Civil War

(1936-1939) and its aftermath. Little has been written on Anglo-Spanish relations in

the period focused on in this thesis (1878-1930), however, writings examining the

relationship outside of my main area of research have provided valuable context and

insights. Kirsty Hooper from the University of Liverpool was granted a Phillip

Leverhulme Prize in 2011 to study the development of the English fascination with

Spain between the years 1888 and 1919.22 Her forthcoming book on the topic will be

titled The Edwardians and the Making of a Modern Spanish Obsession and I have

engaged in discussion with the author on aspects of this research.23

In the sixteenth century both England and Spain were expanding their interests into

America and competing for colonies and influence. The English writer Richard

Hakluyt (c.1552-1616) perpetuated a view of imperial Spain as a cruel and violent

18 George Bernard Shaw, Music in London, 1890-1894, vols. I-III (London: Constable, 1937); London Music in 1888-89 as Heard by Corno di Bassetto: (Later Known as Bernard Shaw) with some Further Autobiographical Particulars (London: Constable, 1917). 19 Peter Hulme and Tim Young, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (Cambridge: CUP, 2002). 20 Ana Hontanilla, `Images of Barbaric Spain in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Writing,' Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture 37 (2008): 119-143. 21 Jeremy Black, The British and the Grand Tour (London: Croom Helm, 1985). 22 Kirsty Hooper, `The Leverhulme Trust', accessed 7 May 2013, www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/news item.cfm/news id/3 8/newsid/ 14 8. 23 Kirsty Hooper, `Dr Kirsty Hoope-r', accessed 7 May 2013, www.kirstyhooper.net.

8

country.24 Francisco J. Borge has examined Hakluyt's writings on Spain in a book

chapter titled: `We (upon peril of my life) shall make the Spaniard ridiculous to all

Europe.'25 Alexander Samson has published on Anglo-Spanish relations in the 1500s

and examines the changing nature of the alliance up to the seventeenth century.26 The

influence of Cervantes on British writing and on the English appreciation of Spain is

the subject of the book The Cervantean Heritage: Reception and Influence of

Cervantes in Britain edited by J. A. G. Ardila.27 The period of Anglo-Spanish

relations best served by scholars is the Spanish Civil War. In this area the work of

Enrique Moradiellos has been particularly influential, focusing on the tacit British

support of the right-wing Nationalist supporters.28

Of the general literature on Spanish history, Salvador Madariaga's simply titled Spain

was first published in 1930, before the onset of the Spanish Civil War.29 The book

provides a unique perspective on the Anglo-Spanish relationship, having been written

in English by a prominent Spaniard living in London. Other Spanish histories that

have informed my work include the excellent collection of essays by leading Spanish,

American and British authors, Spanish History Since 1808,3° and Mary Vincent's

Spain, 1833-2002: People and State.31

In this thesis I will argue that the guitar's presence in London, as both a solo and

ensemble instrument and as an accompaniment to Spanish dance, was a significant

contributor to perceptions of Spanish music from 1878 until 1930, yet little has been

written on the subject. Stuart Button's book The Guitar in England 1800-1924,32 is a

24 Daniel Carey and Claire Jowitt eds., Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern Europe (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012). 25 Francisco J. Borge, 'We (upon peril of my life) shall make the Spaniard ridiculous to all Europe": Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse" of Spain,' in Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern Europe, eds. Daniel Carey and Claire Jowitt (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), 167-176. 26 Alexander Samson, `A Fine Romance: Anglo-Spanish Relations in the Sixteenth Century,' Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 39, no. 1 (2009): 65-94. 27 J. A. G. Ardila, ed., The Cervantean Heritage: Reception and Influence of Cervantes in Britain (London: Legenda, 2009). 28 See Enrique Moradiellos, `The Origins of British Non-Intervention in the Spanish Civil War: Anglo-Spanish Relations in Early 1936,' European History Quarterly 21, no. 3 (1991): 339-364; `British Political Strategy in the Face of the Military Rising of 1936 in Spain,' Contemporary European History 1, no. 2 (1992): 123-137, and `The British Image of Spain and the Civil War,' International Journal of Iberian Studies 15, no. 1 (2002): 4-13. 29 Salvador de Madariaga, Spain (London: Ernest Benn, 1930). 30 José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert, eds., Spanish History Since 1808 (London: Arnold, 2000). 31 Mary Vincent, Spain, 1833-2002: People and State (Oxford: OUP, 2007). 32 Stuart Button, The Guitar in England 1800-1924 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1989).

9

selective survey of guitar players and teachers in London. He focuses on the history

of the concert guitar rather than the popular manifestations of the instrument in the

late nineteenth century, paying particular attention to British guitarists such as

Catharina Josepha Pratten (later known as Madame Sidney Pratten) and Ernest Shand.

Phillip J. Bone's dictionary The Guitar and Mandolin, first published in 1914,

provides an authoritative survey of major figures in the guitar world of late Victorian

and Edwardian England.33

Brian Jeffrey has researched the life and music of Spanish guitarist and composer

Fernando Sor, an influential figure who was based in London from 1815 until 1823.

His biography provides many insights into Sor's time in London.34 Also valuable for

my discussion of the guitar and Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London was the

collection of essays on Sor edited by Luis Gasser.35 Very little has been published on

the plucked-string Estudiantina ensembles that first visited London in 1879 and in

Chapter 4 I will document their role in the dissemination of the Spanish guitar in the

late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.36

The classical guitar was reinvented and remade by the Spanish guitarists Andrés

Segovia, Emilio Pujol and Miguel Llobet, all three of whom toured internationally in

the early decades of the twentieth century. Segovia was especially successful in

London where he concertized, made recordings and broadcast concerts for the BBC.

Graham Wade and Gerald Garno's book, A New Look at Segovia: His Life, His

Music, considers the early reception of Segovia in London.37 More recently, Alberto

López-Poveda's Spanish-language biography thoroughly surveys all the tours of

Segovia's long career.38 Both books include some reviews of London concerts given

by Segovia. Through a survey of reviews and responses to Segovia's first concerts I

have been able to raise important themes in the critical reception of his first London

33 Phillip J. Bone, The Guitar and Mandolin, 2nd ed. (1954; reprint London: Schott, 1972; originally published 1914). ° Brian Jeffrey, Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist (London: Tecla, 1971).

35 Luis Gasser ed, Estudios sobre Fernando Sor (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003). 36 Two authors who have written about the Estudiantina phenomenon of the late nineteenth century are Paul Sparks, The Classical Mandolin, (New York: OUP, 1995) and Jeffrey J. Noonan, The Guitar in America: Victorian Era to Jazz Age (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008). 37 Graham Wade and Gerald Garno, A New Look at Segovia: His Life, His Music, vol. 1 (Pacific, MO: Mel Bay, 1997). 38 Alberto Lopez-Poveda, Andrés Segovia: vida y obra, vol. 1 (Jaén: Universidad de Jaén, 2010).

10

concerts and those of his Spanish predecessors Pujol and Llobet. Michael

Christoforidis and Ruth Piquer Sanclemente's article on the guitar and neoclassicism

highlights the importance of the visual arts and neoclassical currents to both the

repertoire and reception of the twentieth century classical guitar.39

The reception of Spanish music cannot be divorced from Spanish dance, with

stereotypes of Spanishness linked firmly to both. Ivor Guest's study of The Romantic

Ballet in England is an insightful history of dance in London in the nineteenth

century,40 and the work of Kurt Gänzl, particularly The Encyclopedia of the Musical

Theatre, covers popular theatre forms such as operetta, burlesque and musical

comedy.41

After the London premiere of Carmen in 1878 the landscape changed significantly

and a series of Spanish dancers, most notably Carolina "La Belle" Otero and Rosario

Guerrero, introduced a new style of Spanish dance to London, incorporating elements

of flamenco. There have been few studies written on these dancers and much of the

literature is either anecdotal or inaccurate.42 The Spanish dancer Carmencita was

particularly successful in the United States and she served as a model for Otero.

Camille Hardy has used press reviews to document and discuss the reception of

Carmencita and Otero in New York, but there have been no comparable studies on the

London context.43 A recent book in Spanish on Carmencita by José Luis Navarro

Garcia and José Gelardo Navarro has helped to correct many misconceptions about

her life and career.44 I will examine the reception of Spanish dancers in London in the

light of changing fashions and perceptions of Spain.

39 Ruth Piquer Sanclemente and Michael Christoforidis, 'Cubism, Neoclasicismo y el renacimiento de la guitarra espafiola a principios del siglo XX,' Roseta. Revista de la Sociedad Espanola de la Guitarra 6, no. 1 (2011): 6-19. 4o Ivor Guest, The Romantic Ballet in England: Its Development, Fulfilment and Decline (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1972) 41 Kurt Gänzl, The Encyclopedia of The Musical Theatre (New York: Schirmer, 2001). 42 For example Arthur H. Lewis, La Belle Otero (New York: Trident Press, 1967) contains many unverified anecdotes and inaccurate historical facts. Even the more recent Spanish biography by Javier Figuero and Marie-Helene Carbonell, Arruiname pero no me abandones: La Belle Otero y la Belle Epoque (Madrid: Espasa-Culpe, 2003) perpetuates many of the errors of earlier texts. 43 Camille Hardy, `Flashes of Flamenco: The American Debuts of Carmencita and Otero,' Arabesque: A Magazine of International Dance 9, no. 1 (1983): 16-23. 44 José Luis Navarro Garcia and José Gelardo Navarro, Carmencita Dauset: Una bailaora almeriense (Almeria: La Hidra de Lerna, 2011).

11

The Ballets Russes' performance of The Three-Cornered Hat in London was an

important milestone in the appreciation of Spanish music in London, as will be argued

in Chapter 7. The work of Lynn Garafola on the Ballets Russes and the reception of

their performances in London provided valuable background material for my

research.45 Los Ballets Russes de Diaghilev y Espana, edited by Yvan Nommick and

Antonio Alvarez Canibano, provides a wide-reaching examination of the Ballets

Russes in Spain and highlights many of the issues that affected responses to these

works in London.46 Michael Christoforidis' article on the London reception of The

Three-Cornered Hat has provided invaluable guidance for my work.47

A number of scholars have studied the French reception of the opera Carmen, notably

Lesley Wright and Kerry Murphy.48 Elizabeth Kertesz and Michael Christoforidis

have analysed the reception of Carmen in Madrid, where responses to the opera were

very different to the London context.49 There have been no recent studies of the

reception of Carmen in London. I have surveyed English press reviews and

documented the evolution of stereotypes of Spanishness as seen through the work, in

particular changes in how the character of Carmen was portrayed. The opera is

central to my thesis because it served as the backdrop for the reception of Spanish

music and dance from its premiere until World War I, and had a profound influence

on the evolution of Spanish stereotypes.

Until relatively recently Isaac Albéniz's activities as a pianist, composer and concert

promoter in London from 1889-1893 have been paid scant attention. Previously,

musicologists concentrated more on his time spent in Spain and Paris, although

Walter Aaron Clark's book, Albéniz, Portrait of a Romantic (1999), provided some

45 See Lynn Garafola's survey of the Ballets Russes in London: Lynn Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (New York: OUP, 1989), 300-329. 46 Yvan Nommick and Antonio Alvarez Canibano, eds., Los Ballets Russes de Diaghilev y Espana (Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla, Centro de Documentaci6n de M6sica y Danza, 2000). See also Yolanda Acker, Los Ballets Russes en Espana: recepciôn y gula de sus primeras Actuaciones (Granada: Fundaci6n Archivo Manuel de Falla, 2000). 47 Michael Christoforidis, `Issues in the English Critical Reception of The Three-Cornered Hat,' Context 19 (Spring 2000): 87-94. 48 Lesley Wright, ed., Georges Bizet, Carmen: dossier de presse parisienne (1875) (Weinsberg: L. Galland, 2001); Kerry Murphy, ̀ Carmen: Couleur Locale or the Real Thing?,' in Music, Theatre and Cultural Transfer: Paris, 1830-1914, ed. Annegret Fauser and Mark Everist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 293-315. 49 Elizabeth Kertesz and Michael Christoforidis, `Confronting "Carmen" Beyond the Pyrenees: Bizet's Opera in Madrid, 1887-1888,' Cambridge Opera Journal 20, no. 1 (2008): 79-110.

12

balance with a discussion of the theatre and operatic music Albéniz wrote in London,

and the effect this period had on his later, more influential works.50 Albéniz wrote

three operas to libretti by the wealthy English patron Francis Money-Coutts, Henry

Clifford (1895), Pepita Jiménez (1896) and Merlin (1902), and Clark has written

perceptively on this relationship.51 Other scholars who have contributed to an

understanding of Albéniz's operas from his London period include Clifford Bevan

and Robert Haller.52 Sonia Maria Rodriguez Bermejo's thesis, "Discovering Isaac

Albéniz as a song composer" includes a chapter on his English songs with words by

Money-Coutts.53 Through archival research, namely the Albéniz scrapbooks in the

Biblioteca de Catalunya, I have been able to piece together a more complete picture of

the reception of Albéniz's concerts in London and how he was received as both a

pianist and a composer. A number of Albéniz's piano pieces were first performed

with titles that were later changed. Where possible I have chosen to use the titles

given by Jacinto Tones in his catalogue of Albéniz's works, Catcilogo sistematico

descriptivo de las obras musicales de Isaac Albéniz.54

Pablo Sarasate's activities in London and his prominent profile as a Spanish artist in

London have received limited scholarly consideration. Luis Iberni's ground-breaking

biography provides many new details on Sarasate's activities and his relationships

with his contemporaries, but does not focus extensively on his performances in

London.55 His violin playing style and recordings have been analyzed in recent

research, but rarely with any reference to his identification as a Spanish performer and

composer.56

50 Walter Aaron Clark, Isaac Albéniz: Portrait of a Romantic (Oxford: OUP, 1999). 51 Clark's Albéniz biography synthesizes material from his earlier work `Isaac Albéniz's Faustian Pact: A Study in Patronage,' Musical Quarterly 76, no. 4 (1992): 465-487; and his doctoral thesis: Spanish Music with a Universal Accent: Isaac Albéniz's Opera Pepita Jiménez (UMI, Dissertation Information Service, 1995). 52 Clifford James Bevan. `Albéniz, Money-Coutts, and "La Parenthese Londonienne"' (PhD diss., University of London, 1994); Robert S. Haller, `Malory Meets Wagner in Madrid: Albéniz's Merlin and the Mythologizing of Arthur,' Ars Lyrica 15, no. 1 (2006): 67-78. 53 Sonia Maria Rodriguez Bermejo, `Discovering Isaac Albéniz as a Song Composer,' (PhD diss., University of Cincinnati, 2010) 82-130. 54 Jacinto Torres, Catcilogo sistematico descriptivo de las obras musicales de Isaac Albéniz (Madrid: Instituto de Bibliografla Musical, 2001). 55 Luis G. Iberni, Pablo Sarasate (Madrid: ICCMU, 1994). 56 See David Milson Theory and Practice in Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance: An Examination of Style in Performance 1850-1900 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003); Pablo L. Rodriguez, `De la Manière des Zigeuner: On Pablo Sarasate's 1904 recordings,' in Henryk Wieniawski and the 19m-Century Violin Schools: Techniques of Playing, Performance, Questions of Sources and Editorial

13

During World War I Enrique Granados was the victim of a German U-boat attack on

a civilian vessel in the English Channel. This incident became a defining moment in

the history of Spanish music in London. Subsequently, Granados' works and the

music of his Spanish contemporaries were promoted with zeal, due in large part to the

anti-German sentiment aroused by the war and the emerging alliance between

England and Spain. Carol Hess' book Enrique Granados - A Bio-Bibliography was

for a number of years the primary resource for Granados studies.57 Walter Aaron

Clark's comprehensive biography of Granados has been a welcome addition to

twentieth-century Spanish music studies, providing valuable context for Granados'

works and a broad survey across his entire output.58 Through an assessment of

critical writings I will establish the context for the acceptance of modern Spanish

music in London that began with the death of Granados in 1916 and culminated in the

critical response to the neoclassical works of Manuel de Falla.

The music of Manuel de Falla and its reception in England in the 1920s is discussed

in Chapter 8. Of all the Spanish composers I have considered, Manuel de Falla's life

and works have received the most detailed attention from scholars. Two books by

Carol Hess situate Falla's music and life in new contexts.59 Manuel de Falla and

Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936 focuses on the Spanish context for Falla's works and

follows on from her PhD dissertation `Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat

and the Advent of Modernism in Spain' (1994).60 Chapter 5 of Hess' book, ̀ The

Three-Cornered Hat and its Spanish Critics' examines the reception of the work in

Spain and illustrates important issues in the reception of the work, which are relevant

to my research even though very different issues were played out in the London

context.61 Her more recent book Sacred Passions is a thoroughly-documented

biography of Falla and, amongst other new research, explores the American reception

Issues, Maciej Jablonski and Danuta Jasinska (Poznan: The Henryk Wieniawski Musical Society, 2006). 57 Carol Hess, Enrique Granados - A Bio-Bibliography (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991). 58 Walter Aaron Clark, Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano (Oxford: OUP, 2005). 59 Carol Hess, Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001); Carol Hess, Sacred Passions: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla (Oxford: OUP, 2005),138. 60 Carol Hess, `Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat and the Advent of Modernism in Spain' (PhD diss., University of California, Davis, 1994). 6t Hess, Manuel de Falla, 130-160.

14

of Falla's work. In terms of the English context, Chris Collins' article `Falla in

Britain' is a fascinating and detailed survey of Falla's activites in London and his

network of friends, colleagues and supporters 62 The 2005 Falla volume by Nancy

Lee Harper, Manuel de Falla: Life and Works, includes a comprehensive survey of

Falla's output and features specialist chapters written by Chris Collins, Michael

Christoforidis and Louis Jambou.63 Several articles by Michael Christoforidis have

provided invaluable guidance in my work,64 and his PhD thesis, `Aspects of the

creative process in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro and Concerto' is a

key study of Falla's neoclassical style.65

J.B. (John Brande) Trend was one of the most influential English critics to write on

Spanish music. He transcended the role of travel writer and became an authority on

Spanish music, playing an active role in its performance and dissemination in

England. In addition to his work for newspapers and music periodicals, Trend's

books range from early Spanish music to the music of his friend Manuel de Falla.66

Nigel Dennis has edited the letters between Falla and Trend in Epistolario (1919-

1935), a correspondence that details the close relationship between the two men.67

Trend's music criticism published in the Criterion is the focus of an article written in

Spanish by Margarita Garbisu Buesa.68 In Chapters 7 and 8 I will examine Trend's

role in advancing a modern perspective on Spanish music for an English readership.

I have chosen to include three brief case studies of English composers and their

interactions with Hispanic music as examples of the English engagement with

different aspects of "Spanish" music, that relate to some of the issues raised in this

62 Chris Collins, `Falla in Britain,' Musical Times 144 (Summer 2003): 33-48. 63 Nancy Lee Harper, Manuel de Falla: His Life and Music (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005). 64 Michael Christoforidis, `Igor Stravinsky, Spanish Catholicism and Generalissimo Franco,' Context, 22 (Spring 2001): 61-67; 'Invasion of the Barbarians:" Spanish Composers and Challenges to Exoticism in Belle-epoque Paris' Context: Journal of Music Research 29/30 (2005): 111-118 65 Michael Christoforidis, `Aspects of the creative process in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro and Concerto,' (PhD diss., University of Melbourne, 1997). 66 J.B. Trend, Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas (London: OUP, 1925); J.B. Trend, The Music of Spanish History to 1600 (London: OUP, 1926); J.B. Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music (New York: Knopf, 1934). 67 Manuel de Falla - John B. Trend: Epistolario (1919-1935), ed. Nigel Dennis (Granada: Universidad de Granada and Archivo Manuel de Falla, 2007). 68 Margarita Garbisu Buesa, `La recepcibn de la mi Sica espafiola de The Criterion a traves de los escritos de John B. Trend,' Anuario Musical, 63 (Jan.-Dec. 2008): 153-180.

15

thesis. Selected works by Arthur Sullivan, Edward Elgar and Lord Berners will be

considered, alongside Percy Grainger's pioneering performances of Albéniz.69

Arthur Sullivan's early music theatre work La Contrabandista (1867) is set in Spain

and riddled with Spanish clichés. Written in collaboration with the writer F.C.

Burnand, it was reworked in the wake of the success of Carmen and renamed The

Chieftain (1894). This piece has received little attention from Sullivan scholars with

his later, more successful, collaborations with William Gilbert the subject of more

discussion. Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician by Arthur Jacobs includes a brief

discussion of the Spanish elements in this work.70

Robert Anderson's study of Elgar's manuscripts has brought to light many new

sketches and source materia1.71 His biography of Elgar makes several references to

the English composer's penchant for Spanish music.72 The Cambridge Companion to

Elgar includes articles by a number of scholars who provide insights into Elgar's

early Spanish-flavored works such as the Sevillana and the Intermezzo Moresque.73

The lack of studies on Grainger and Spanish music has contributed to the scarce

recognition of his role as a pioneer in the dissemination of contemporary Spanish

music in the early twentieth century. His own writings and letters are the best sources

for his thoughts on the subject and the volumes edited by Malcolm Gillies, Bruce

Clunies Ross, David Pear and Mark Carroll are the main published resources for

Grainger's writings.74 Kay Dreyfus' book of Grainger' letters, The Farthest North of

Humanness is also essential reading for insights into Grainger's activities in the first

decades of the twentieth century.75 Michael Christoforidis and I have co-authored a

69 Born in Australia in 1882, Grainger was based in London from 1901 to 1914 and established himself at the heart of English musical nationalism through his folksong collecting and associations with key English composers and artists. 70 Arthur Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician (Oxford: OUP, 1984), 52, 352-354. 71 Robert Anderson, Elgar in Manuscript (London: British Library, 1990). 72 Robert Anderson, Elgar (London: Dent, 1993), 15. 73 Daniel M. Grimley, and Julian Rushton, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Elgar, (Cambridge: CUP, 2004). 74 Percy Grainger, Grainger on Music, eds., Malcolm Gillies and Bruce Clunies Ross (Oxford: OUP, 1999); Malcolm Gillies and David Pear, Portrait of Percy Grainger (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2002); Malcolm Gillies, David Pear and Mark Carroll, eds., Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger (Oxford: OUP, 2006). 73 Kay Dreyfus, The Farthest North of Humanness: Letters of Percy Grainger, 1901-14 (London: Macmillan, 1985).

16

chapter titled `The Hispanic Grainger: Encounters with the Modern Spanish School,'

in the forthcoming book Grainger the Modernist, edited by Suzanne Robinson and

Kay Dreyfus to be published by Ashgate in 2014.

The English composer Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, the 14t" Baron Berners, better

known as Lord Berners, has been the subject of two recent monographs. Bryony

Jones' The Music of Lord Berners (2003) includes a biographical chapter and focuses

on Berners' music, including a discussion of the composition and orchestration of his

Fantaisie espagnole.76 Peter Dickenson's 2008 book on Berners reproduces

interviews with a number of the composer's friends and focuses on his activities as a

painter, writer and composer.77

Chapter overview

The nineteenth-century English fascination with Spain grew in part out of the broader

Western European fascination with the Oriental East. Novels, travel writings and

images from the visual arts all influenced the creation of stereotypes that defined

Spanish culture for international audiences. In Chapter 1, I provide some background

to English engagement with Spain and its music in the decades prior to the London

reception of Bizet's opera Carmen. To illustrate the important role played by travel

writers in the formation of nineteenth-century ideas about Spain I have selected three

of the most widely read books published in English on Spain: The Bible in Spain by

George Borrow, Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving and Richard Ford's

Hand-book for Travellers in Spain.78 References to music in these works often relate

to dance and the guitar. To contextualize my ensuing discussions of Spanish music

and dance, I present an overview of the Spanish guitar and changing responses to

Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London.

The second chapter of this thesis examines and discusses Carmen and Victorian

musico-theatrical notions of Spanishness. I consider the performance history of

76 Bryony Jones, The Music of Lord Berners (1883-1950): 'The Versatile Peer' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003) 52-61. 77 Peter Dickinson, Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008) 78 George Borrow, The Bible in Spain (London: J. Murray, 1843); Washington Irving, Tales of the Alhambra (1851; Tarrytown: Sleepy Hollow Press, 1982); Richard Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain, and Readers at Home (London: John Murray, 1845).

17

Carmen in London, followed by a discussion of various burlesques and adaptations of

the opera. To be successful in the title role, performers had to measure up to the

expectations of audiences and critics who demanded evidence of Spanish traits in

performances. In this chapter I also discuss Spanish elements of another musico-

theatrical work on the London stage, Arthur Sullivan's La Contrabandista. This work

looks back to clichés of Spanish music prominent in the first half of the nineteenth

century and was later revised for performance in the aftermath of London's

engagement with Carmen.

The two most prominent Spanish musicians to perform regularly in London in the

1880s and 1890s were Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz.79 In Chapter 3 I will discuss

the reception of their activities in London, with an emphasis on how they presented

themselves as Spanish artists and English references to their nationality and local

colour. Both Sarasate and Albéniz were performing and composing in London at a

time when Carmen provided the overriding template for Spanishness. In response

Sarasate performed his own Spanish works, and his Carmen Fantasy, which he often

played at the end of concerts or as encore pieces. Albéniz organized two concerts of

his own music and music of his Spanish contemporaries in 1892 in an effort to

disseminate a broader view of what constituted Spanish music. My discussion of the

reception of Sarasate and Albéniz in London reveals the tension between English

expectations of Spanish music, and the way Spanish performers and composers

viewed themselves.

Chapter 4 focuses on popular entertainments featuring Spanish music and dance in

fin-de-siècle London.80 Coinciding with increased British tourism to Spain, traveling

groups of Estudiantinas presented a fresh perspective of Spanish music in London,

one that featured plucked instruments, and often provided the accompaniment for

Spanish dance acts. Dancers such as Carolina Otero introduced a new type of Spanish

79 The Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1867-1973) first performed in London in 1899 and played for Queen Victoria. Due to the repertoire he performed Casals was less influential than Sarasate and Albéniz in propagating ideas of Spanishness and is not discussed in Chapter 3 for this reason. B0 The French phrase fin de siècle has become widely used outside France to denote the period of rapid cultural change from the 1890s to the early years of the twentieth century. Examples of the use of the term in a broader context may be found throughout Gail Marshall, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), a series of essays focusing on influential English writers and artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

18

dance to London audiences in the 1890s, at times incorporating elements of flamenco.

These Spanish attractions were still strongly linked to Carmen and this connection

was borne out in the highly successful Carmen ballet of 1903 featuring Rosario

Guerrero. Through my discussion of these popular entertainments I will examine the

evolution of Spanish stereotypes in this period and demonstrate their importance to

the continuing English fascination with Spanish music and dance.

In Chapter 5 I will consider three Edwardian literary reflections on Spain, authored by

L. Higgin, Havelock Ellis and Bogue Luffman, all of whom sought to project a more

modern and contemporary picture of modern Spain in the first decade of the twentieth

century. The engagement with some aspects of Spanish music by eminent English

composer Edward Elgar and the London-based Australian pianist and composer Percy

Grainger, are discussed to show contrasting interactions with Spanish music in this

period. Elgar's musical interpretations of Spain hark back to well-known and

established Spanish forms. Grainger, through his friendship with the painter John

Singer Sargent, engaged with the new school of Spanish piano music and was one of

the first pianists to present movements from Albéniz's Iberia in London. His

appropriation of the guitar in several of his works shows an awareness of the

popularity of the Estudiantinas and the expanding Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar

movement. The fin-de-siècle was a period of rapid change and the coexistence of

both old and new perceptions of Spanish music and dance.

The alliance between England and Spain grew closer in the Edwardian period and two

pivotal events in solidifying the relationship were the Entente Cordial (1904) between

England and France (with reference to Spain) and the royal wedding of Princess

Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg to King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1906. These events

will be discussed in Chapter 6, along with the anti-German musical alliances

promoted by French critics Henri Collet and Raoul Laparra which influenced

developments in England, especially in the work of critics such as Edwin Evans and

the editor of The Chesterian, Georges Jean-Aubry. The death of Enrique Granados in

1916 was the catalyst for concerts of Spanish music and greater awareness of the

modern school of Spanish music in England. The anti-German currents of the pre-

war years and the developing relationship between Spain and England account for the

19

reaction to the death of Granados, and set the scene for the further English

appreciation of Spanish music in London as discussed in Chapters 7 and 8.

The English critical reception of the Ballets Russes production of The Three-

Cornered Hat in 1919 marked the broader recognition of Spanish musical

nationalism. The reception of The Three-Cornered Hat in London forms the first part

of Chapter 7. The work spawned a number of other Spanish-themed ballets that

played in London in the 1920s, each with a different take on Spanish music and

dance. Flamenco continued to influence perceptions of Spanish music, while

specialist critics promoted new Spanish music in London. The engagement of

English composers with Spanish music continued in this period, including Lord

Berners' Fantaisie Espagnole (1919), which was closely aligned to the aesthetic of

The Three-Cornered Hat.

In the aftermath of World War I the recognition of both modem and popular forms of

Spanish music and dance in London set the scene for the positive reception of Falla's

neoclassical works. In Chapter 8 I will consider the level of popularity and critical

acclaim attained by Falla in the 1920s. He forged a new path for Spanish music with

El retablo de maese Pedro and the Concerto for harpsichord and five instruments,

synthesizing diverse elements to forge a modem Spanish neoclassical style. At the

same time works such as the Siete canciones populaces espanolas and Noches en los

jardines de Espana kept his name before the public as a composer of folk-derived

Andalusian music. During this period Spanish music achieved further

acknowledgement in England, aided by cosmopolitan critics who fostered musical

alliances with other continental nations. The activities of music associations and

publishers attest to the increasing recognition of Spanish music in London in this

period. The Spanish guitar embodied many aspects of Spanish music in the 1920s,

with a repertoire showcasing transcriptions of early Spanish music, folk-inspired

piano music and modern neoclassical works. The new classical guitar, as popularized

by Andrés Segovia, thrived in London and established itself at the heart of Spanish

music by the late 1920s. By 1930, the recognition and popularity of Spanish music

indicated the extent to which it had integrated and evolved beyond the Romantic

stereotypes prevalent half a century earlier.

20

Chapter 1:

Spanish music in London from the Peninsular War to the premiere

of Bizet's Carmen: travel writers, the guitar and Spanish dance.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Spain was seen as a dangerous,

inaccessible place for English travellers.' Not only was the country physically

remote,2 but Spaniards were thought of as cruel, and Spain was regarded as a bastion

of intolerance.3 This characterization of Spain later became known as the `Black

legend' .4

Relations between England and Spain improved dramatically with the Peninsular War

of 1808-1814 when England and Spain fought together against Napoleon's forces.5

Numerous returned English soldiers published books about their time in Spain and

many Spanish refugees settled in London.6 The Peninsular War was the catalyst for

greater interest in Spanish culture and the Romantic generation of writers promoted

an exotic image of Spain. The English fascination with Spain in the nineteenth

century was stimulated by the publications of travel writers and novelists, especially

the three writers discussed in this chapter, Washington Irving (1783-1859), George

Borrow (1803-1881) and Richard Ford (1796-1858).8 These authors featured

observations on Spanish music and dance in their works and their views on Spanish

life and culture were disseminated to a broad audience.9

I Black, British and the Grand Tour, 24. 2 The construction of much of the Spanish rail network relied on foreign capital and was not completed until the 1870s. See Henry Kamen, The Disinherited: The Exiles who Created Spanish Culture (London: Allen Lane, 2007), 216. Salvador de Madariaga opened his book on Spain with the sentence, "The main fact about the land is its inaccessibility." Madariaga, Spain, 15.

José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert, Introduction to Spanish History Since 1808, eds. José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), 2-3. 4 William D. Phillips, Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips, A Concise History of Spain (Cambridge: CUP, 2010), 152-153. In England, this rhetoric had its roots in the rivalry between England and Spain in the quest for territories and power in the New World. See also Borge, `Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse" of Spain,' 167-176. s This war is known as the War of Independence in Spain. See Enrique Moradiellos, 'Spain in the World: From Great Empire to Minor European Power,' in Spanish History Since 1808, ed. José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), 111-112. 6 Alvarez Junco and Shubert, Spanish History Since 1808, 4. 7 Ibid., 4-5. s Irving, Tales of the Alhambra; Borrow, Bible in Spain; and Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain. 9 Books on Spain by these authors were published in multiple editions during the nineteenth century.

21

A key element of the cultural image of Spain projected by these writers was the guitar,

both as an icon of folk music and as the instrument that accompanied Spanish dance.

In the nineteenth century the Spanish guitar became the dominant version of the

instrument in England.10 Early in the century the Spanish guitar was commonly

taught to young English ladies as an accompaniment to singing," however, with the

onset of the Peninsular War and the arrival in London of Spanish refugees, the guitar

also rose to prominence as a concert instrument.

Spanish dance was a crucial medium for the dissemination of Spanish stereotypes in

England.12 Interest in Spanish dance reached a peak in the 1830s and 1840s, but was

still most often performed by non-Spaniards. The desire to see native Spaniards

performing the dances, songs and music of their country grew stronger throughout the

nineteenth century. This chapter presents the background to the English reception of

Spanish music in the late nineteenth century through an examination of travel writers,

the guitar and Spanish dance in London from 1800 to 1870.

Travel writers on Spain

Englishmen rarely travelled to Spain in the seventeenth century and a strained

political relationship meant that travel visas were only rarely issued.13 A lack of

contact between the two countries led to suspicion and misunderstanding and, as

Christopher Baker wrote in The Discovery of Spain, "Spain was invariably considered

a threatening power, a stronghold of Catholicism, a bastion of cruelty and sensuality,

or more often than not as simply unknown—and therefore frightening."14

Although during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, political

allegiances between England and Spain grew closer, English travellers on the Grand

Tour still rarely visited Spain. The Pyrenees were both a physical and a cultural

obstacle, furthermore, Spanish roads were badly maintained and accommodation was

limited. In his book The British and the Grand Tour, Jeremy Black outlines some of

10 Button, Guitar in England, 22. 11 Ibid., 31. 12 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 121. 13 Antoni Maczak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, trans. Ursula Phillips (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995), 47. 14 Christopher Baker, Introduction to The Discovery of Spain (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2009), 9.

22

the reasons Spain did not attract visitors during this period. He writes, "There was no

vogue for the beach, the mountains lacked the interest of the Alps, the Roman

antiquities were less well known than those of Italy and there was little interest in

Moorish remains."15 Those who did make the journey south of the Pyrenees were

seen as risk-taking adventurers. One such man was the ninth Earl of Huntingdon

about whom The Gentleman's Magazine wrote, "some part of his younger years he

gave to Italy and France, and at last finished his travels with a tour, which few of our

nobility, of late years, have had the courage to make, through Spain."16 Spanish ports

had always been frequented by foreigners, but travel to the heart of the country was

much less common and the Carlist Wars continued to make travel to Spain hazardous

in the nineteenth century.17

The catalyst for greater exploration of Spain was the boom in publication of travel

books and literature with a Hispanic focus. Three books in particular had a profound

effect on English audiences, Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra (1832), The

Bible in Spain (1843) by George Borrow and Richard Ford's Handbook for Travellers

in Spain (1845). These writers were largely responsible for making travel to Iberia

fashionable and their books played a fundamental role in projecting images and

stereotypes of Spain.18 While all three writers acquired considerable knowledge of

Spain and the variety of cultures within it, the most powerful and influential elements

of their writing concerned the south of the country, particularly the region of

Andalusia.19 The gypsy and Moorish elements of this region came to define Spain in

the eyes of many. These stereotypes were reinforced by the huge success of Georges

Bizet's (1838-1875) opera Carmen (1875), based on Prosper Mérimée's (1803-1870)

story Carmen (1845), which had drawn from Borrow's writings.20

15 Black, British and the Grand Tour, 24. 16 Ibid., 24. 17 The Spanish Carlist Wars were fought sporadically between 1833 and 1875. The supporters of King Carlos V stood for traditional monarchist values and a conservative Catholic church. They were pitted against liberal government forces in this series of conflicts. For a discussion of these conflicts see Vincent, Spain 1833-2002, 9-15. 1s Black, British and the Grand Tour, 24. 19 British possession of the southern Iberian peninsula of Gibraltar dates back to the early eighteenth century and this colony continues to play a role in the development of Anglo-Spanish relations. During the nineteenth century Britain invested heavily in Gibraltar and the peninsular was visited by many of the British tourists who came to Spain. The colony has facilitated British access to the south of Spain, particularly the region of Andalusia. °Colmeiro, `Exorcising Exoticism,' 134.

23

In 1829 Washington Irving visited Granada and stayed for some months in the

Alhambra itself, accumulating much of the material for his book Tales of the

Alhambra. Irving was an American author, known for his satirical humour and his

interest in both history and folk tales. His works combine historical facts with myth

and creative storytelling, placing them in the Romantic tradition of historical novels 2'

Tales of the Alhambra brought Spain's Arab past, especially the city of Granada and

the Moorish palace the Alhambra, to the attention of an international audience.

Music is a central and recurring theme throughout Irving's book. He described the

natural musicality of Spaniards and depicted numerous social and festive occasions

where everyone participated either by clapping hands, playing castanets, strumming

the guitar, singing or dancing. The sounds of guitars resonate throughout these tales

and Irving provided numerous descriptions of musical life in Southern Spain.22 The

instrument is so prominent that he referred to "the all-pervading tinkling of the

guitar."23 He wrote of the Spanish guitar providing accompaniment to nocturnal

serenades, a recurring theme in later Spanish-themed ballets, opera and music hall

productions.24

21 Irving achieved considerable success on both sides of the Atlantic with stories such as Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Tales of the Alhambra was not Irving's first book on Spain, although it was his most successful. He first ventured to Spain on the advice of his friend, the American diplomat, Alexander Everett. While there he had access to the materials in the American consul's library, much of which related to the discovery of the Americas. His interest in the journeys of Columbus led to the publication of The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1828 and the success of this book led to a series of related publications. In 1829 he published The Chronicles of the Conquest of Granada and a follow up, Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus, appeared in 1831. See Andrew Burstein, The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving (New York: Basic Books, 2007). 22 A good example of Irving's style is his description of an after-dinner party in the Hall of Ambassadors (Salon de Embajadores) within the Alhambra. Here he portrays a festive occasion where everyone participates in singing and dancing, with the natural musicality of the Spanish people to the fore. "The banquet ended, the company adjourned to the Hall of Ambassadors. Here every one endeavoured to contribute to the general amusement, singing, improvising, telling wonderful tales, or dancing popular dances to that all-pervading talisman of Spanish pleasure, the guitar." Irving, Tales of

the Alhambra, 351. 23 In reference to the famous gardens of the Generalife, Irving wrote: "While thus seated, the all- pervading tinkling of the guitar and click of the castanets came stealing up from the valley of the Darro, and half way down the mountain we descried a festive party under the trees enjoying themselves in true Andalusian style, some lying on the grass, others dancing to the music." Irving, Tales of the Alhambra, 75. 24 The serenading Spaniard had a long history in music and literature, for example Rossini's Barber of Seville and the story of Don Juan.

24

In Irving's stories the guitar is an instrument most Spaniards, particularly men, play to

some degree. He writes of it being "passed from hand to hand" at social gatherings,25

and highlights its central role as a rhythmic complement to Spanish dance.26 For

English readers in the nineteenth century, Spanish dance was a defining national

feature and the bolero and fandango are the two dances most often referred to by

Irving in The Alhambra.27

Irving projected a primitive view of Spanish society, reinforcing the idea that Spanish

culture and way of life had remained unchanged for centuries.28 This was an

attractive notion for English audiences living in a rapidly changing, industrialized

world.29 He also perpetuated popular stereotypes about Spanish character, including

the belief that Spaniards were lazy and indolent, tying this to the guitar, Irving wrote,

"Give a Spaniard the shade in summer, and the sun in winter; a little bread, garlic, oil,

and garbances, an old brown cloak and a guitar, and let the world roll on as it

pleases."30 These stereotypes about Spanish character have a long history in literature,

particularly travel writing. The Scottish traveller William Lithgow observed in 1632,

"the Spanish peasants' laziness was the result of natural instincts inherited from their

ancestors, the Moors."3 t

25 "While we were supping with our Drawcansir friend, we heard the notes of a guitar, and the click of castanets, and presently a chorus of voices singing a popular air. In fact mine host had gathered together the amateur singers and musicians, and the rustic belles of the neighborhood, and, on going forth, the courtyard or patio of the inn presented a scene of true Spanish festivity. We took our seats with mine host and hostess and the commander of the patrol, under an archway opening into the court; the guitar passed from hand to hand, but a jovial shoemaker was the Orpheus of the place." Irving, Tales of the Alhambra, 25. 26 Irving wrote, "The soldier...had procured an old guitar also, and would sit by his window and sing ballads and love-ditties to the delight of the women of the neighbourhood, who would assemble on the esplanade in the evening and dance boleros to his music." Ibid., 344. 27 For example, "There lived once in a waste apartment of the Alhambra, a merry little fellow, named Lope Sanchez ...he would sit on one of the stone benches of the esplanade, strum his guitar, and sing long ditties about the Cid, and Bernardo del Carpio, and Fernando del Pulgar, and other Spanish heroes, for the amusement of the old soldiers of the fortress, or would strike up a merrier tune, and set the girls dancing boleros and fandangos." Ibid., 354. 28 Richard Ford wrote one of the most highly regarded guidebooks to Spain, published in 1845 and he too emphasized the Western perception of Oriental Spain as an unchanged and ancient place and related these concepts to music. For example Ford wrote, "the genuine airs and tunes are very Oriental, of most remote antiquity, and a remnant of primitive airs, of which a want of the invention of musical notation has deprived us." Ford, Hand-book for Travellers in Spain, 107. 29 For a discussion of this attraction see Alvarez Junco and Shubert, Spanish History Since 1808, 1-11. 39 Irving, Tales of the Alhambra, 73. 31 Maczak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, 284-5.

25

There are very few references to gypsies in Tales of the Alhambra and no examples of

gypsy protagonists or characters. The gypsy component of Spanish exoticism was

drawn into focus a few years later by George Borrow in his books The Zincali, an

account of the Gypsies of Spain and The Bible in Spain.32

The Bible in Spain (1843) was an account of Borrow's travels in the Iberian peninsula

between the years 1835 and 1840.33 This book was extraordinarily successful and

widely disseminated in multiple editions, making it perhaps the most influential work

from this period in portraying notions of Spanishness and Spanish culture. Borrow's

earlier book on the gypsies of Spain, The Zincali, an account of the Gypsies of Spain

was released in 1841 with only limited success. The Bible in Spain was published on

10 December 1842 and was instantly popular. The second edition was published in

January of the following year and subsequent editions came out in March, June and

July.34 The Athenaeum stated on 29 May 1843 that 30,000 copies of the book had

been sold in America.35 Borrow became a celebrity and the book remained in print

through many editions. The American writer Carl Van Vechten, whose seminal book

on Spanish music was published in 1920, wrote of Borrow's influence,

It is interesting enough to realize that "The Bible in Spain," in itself a masterpiece,

was the inspiration for another masterpiece, one of the great short stories of all

literature (Mérimée). Curiously enough still a third masterpiece emerged from the

activities of the British Bible Society, Carmen, the opera.36

As José Colmeiro notes, powerful myths about Spain converge in Carmen including

"the conflation of Gypsy, Andalusian, and Spanish identities as mutually

interchangeable signifiers."37 Through the success of The Bible in Spain and his

32 Borrow, Bible in Spain; and George Borrow, The Zincali, an Account of the Gypsies of Spain (London: J Murray, 1946; originally published 1841). 33 Prior to his travels in Spain, Borrow worked as an agent for the British and Foreign Bible SocietY. He spent two years in Russia from 1833 and during this time he met and observed Russian gypsies on the outskirts of Moscow. This was the beginning of Borrow's fascination with the Romani people of Europe. He had a keen in interest not only in the gypsy language of Spain but also in all of the languages of the Iberian peninsula. 34 Herbert Jenkins, The Life of George Borrow (London: John Murray, 1912), 350. Accessed 10 Feb. 2012 at Project Gutenburg, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3481/pg3481.html. 35 Ibid., 351. 36 Carl Van Vechten, The Music of Spain (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1920), 134. 37 Colmeiro, `Exorcising Exoticism: "Carmen",' 127-144.

26

influence on Mérimée, Borrow was a key influence on the creation and dissemination

of these mythologies.

The idea that Spanishness was synonymous with gypsy culture may be traced directly

to Borrow and most of the musical references in The Bible in Spain concern gypsies.

He makes fewer references to music than Irving but when he does discuss music or

dance, the main protagonists are gypsies who commonly play the guitar which

Borrow refers to as "the favourite musical instrument of the Spaniards."38 He even

presents the instrument in gypsy contexts using their idioms, as in the following

excerpt from The Bible in Spain, "Now,' said Antonio to the youngest female, `bring

me the pajandi [guitar], and I will sing a gachapla [song].' The girl brought the

guitar, which, with some difficulty, the Gypsy tuned, and then strumming it

vigorously, he sang."39

Ford's Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain, and Readers at Home, based on his travels

in Spain from 1830 to 1833, was published in 1845 by London publisher John

Murray.40 Ford travelled around the Iberian Peninsula with his wife and made

hundreds of drawings. He arrived back in England in 1834 and settled in Devon

where he spent the next ten years completing his Hand-Book. He first met Borrow in

1841 and was one of the first readers of The Bible in Spain.'" He enjoyed a close

friendship with Borrow and recommended that John Murray publish Borrow's The

Zincali. Although his books were not as widely disseminated as those by Irving or

Borrow, his work was highly regarded and influential.

The Hand-Book is often viewed as one of the most insightful books on Spain, praised

by Hispanist Ian Gibson as "the greatest guidebook on Spain ever written."42 Ford's

comments on music are astute and showed a superior level of musical understanding.

He highlighted the importance of the guitar to national identity and observed, "Spain

is still the land of the Fandango, the Bolero, and the guitar."43 He saw music-making

38 Borrow, Bible in Spain, 200. 39 Ibid., 85. Borrow's interest in the gypsy language was a key feature of his work. 49 Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain. 41 E. W. Gilbert, `Richard Ford and His Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain,' The Geographical Journal 106, no. 3/4 (1945): 148. 42 Ian Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca (London: Faber and Faber, 1989), 5. 43 Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain, 101.

27

in Spain as a communal experience and wrote, "There is always in every company of

Spaniards, whether soldiers, civilians or muleteers, someone who can play the guitar,

poco mas o menos."44

Ford wrote of the role of women in Spanish musical life and their lack of inhibition

and training, imagining that the abandon and fire necessary for a woman to play the

guitar "could not be risked by ladies of more northern climates and more tightly laced

zones."45 He observed, "To feel the full power of the guitar and Spanish song, the

performer should be a sprightly Andaluza, taught or untaught... she is good for

nothing when pinned down to a piano, on which few Spanish women play even

tolerably."46 Ford articulated the idea that recurs in later English writings and reviews

that only Spanish performers could perform Spanish music and dance with authority

and conviction.

A new level of detail was evident in Ford's musical description, as illustrated by the

following excerpt from the Hand-Book, which demonstrates his familiarity with the

Spanish terms for strumming and tapping on the guitar and his close observation of

Spanish guitar technique.

The performers, seldom scientific musicians, content themselves with striking the

chords, sweeping the whole hand over the strings, rasqueando [sic], or flourishing,

floreando, and tapping the guitar-board with the thumb, golpeando, at which they are

very expert. Occasionally in the towns there is a zapatero or a maestro of some kind,

who has attained more power over this ungrateful instrument; but the attempt is

generally a failure, for it responds coldly to Italian words and elaborate melody,

which never come home to Spanish ears or hearts...The multitude suit the guitar to

the song; both air and words are frequently extemporaneous."

Ford was writing at the end of the early nineteenth-century wave of European

guitarists such as Fernando Sor (1778-1839), A.T. Huerta (1804-1874) and Mauro

44 Ibid., 105. 45 Ibid., 107. 46 Ibid., 106. 47 Ibid., 106.

28

Giuliani (1781-1829) who had made such an impact in England and throughout

Europe.

The Spanish guitar in England in the nineteenth century

During the nineteenth century the Spanish guitar became the most prominent version

of the instrument in London and throughout Europe. 48 In England it displaced the

steel-strung English guitar or cittern that had reached a peak of popularity in the

second half of the eighteenth century.49 The profile of the Spanish guitar was

enhanced by the presence in London of Spanish emigrants who fled the Peninsular

War fought by the British, Spanish and Portuguese against France from 1808 to 1814.

These countries battled together to rid the Iberian peninsula of Napoleon and his

armed forces and in the process stronger ties were forged between the three allies.

This alliance had a marked effect on the popularity of the Spanish guitar in Britain, as

illustrated by a travellers' reminiscence of encountering the instrument in Spain

during the conflict.

Mixing, as did our warriors, with the people of Spain and Portugal; and domesticated

as many of them were, and are to this day, with the families of those countries, it was

only natural that they should have discovered the immense influence which the guitar

there possessed, and have felt themselves, the witching power of its

fascination...How delightful must be the associations connected with this instrument

to those who first heard its sound, and learnt its touch, amid the danger and terror of

warfare, now that they can recall to their memories those days of chivalry and

romance, by their own peaceful hearths in old England!50

This article appeared in The Giulianiad, a journal dedicated to the guitar and inspired

by the Italian guitarist Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829). First published in 1833 by the

London based guitar aficionados Ferdinand Pelzer (1801-1861) and Felix Horetzky

(1796-1870), it was the first publication of its kind devoted to the guitar.5'

48 Jeffrey, Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist, 71. See also Button, Guitar in England, 22, 44-45. 49 James Tyler and Paul Sparks, The Guitar and its Music (New York: OUP, 2002), 239. 5° Quoted in Tyler and Sparks, The Guitar and its Music, 241. 51 The writers had hoped to stimulate interest in compositions for the guitar but The Giulianiad ceased publication in 1835 and the fortunes of the guitar in England declined for a period. See Button, Guitar in England, 122-123. The only known source of this magazine are the thirteen issues held at the British Library.

29

The Spanish guitarist Fernando Sor (1778-1839) had arrived in London in 1815,

staying until 1823. He was one of the many refugees from the persecution of Spanish

liberals under Fernando VII who began arriving in London after the Restoration of the

Spanish monarchy in 1813. The largest congregation of exiled Spaniards lived in

London between 1823 and 1830.52

Sor's first documented performance in England was on 24 April 1816 alongside some

of London's most well-known performers at a benefit concert featuring both

instrumental and vocal items.53 Shrewd when dealing with the aristocracy and

successfully cultivating contacts with wealthy patrons, Sor enjoyed considerable

success with the publication of his own compositions in London, particularly songs

for voice and guitar.54 He was also a popular performing guitarist and teacher in

London, although he chose to concentrate more on his composition activities after

1819.55 During his stay in London Sor published Italian arias, piano solos, duets,

guitar pieces and works based on operatic themes. The popularity of his vocal works

was highlighted in 1820 with the comment, "Mr. Sor's vocal compositions have

gained such favour among the higher order of musical dilettanti, that a new set of

ariettas from his pen causes almost as much sensation as the publication of a new

novel by the author of Waverley."56

Sor's influence was undeniable, but he was certainly not the first to introduce the

Spanish guitar in London.57 An examination of guitarists operating in London before

Sor shows significant activity and increasing interest in the instrument. Before

52 Vicente Llorens, Liberales y românticos. Una emigraci6n espaiiola en Inglaterra (1823-1834), (Madrid: Castalia, 1968) quoted in Maria Encina Cortizo Rodriguez, `Arietas y duetos italianos de Fernando Sor,' in Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis Gasser (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003), 314. 53 Button, Guitar in England, 24. 54 Ibid., 26. 55 Jeffrey, Fernando Sor: Composer and Guitarist, 53. 56 Rudolph Ackermann, Repository of Arts (London: March 1820) quoted in Jeffrey, Fernando Sor: Composer and Guitarist, 49. 57 Sor is frequently cited as a major influence on the popularity of the guitar in England, however, according to Stuart Button, his influence is often over-stated. See Button, Guitar in England, 22. An example of an exaggeration of Sor's authority may be found in Bone, Guitar and Mandolin, 279'280.

Bone was an enthusiastic amateur mandolinist who wrote the most comprehensive survey of guitarists and mandolinists active at the turn of the century, with a strong focus on musicians who had either lived in or travelled to the U.K. Bone believed that Sor was responsible for bringing the Spanish guitar to London and wrote, "his playing created a furore in London; the èlite of society greeted the new instrument with unbounded enthusiasm... it is to this Spanish refugee that England owes its introduction to this charming instrument," 279-280.

30

Spanish immigration to London as a result of the Peninsular War, the city was home

to Spanish and Italian guitarists performing and teaching the art of guitar playing,

particularly accompaniment. These foreign artists arrived in London at an opportune

time. In the late eighteenth century the patronage system for musicians was changing

and musicians were able to support themselves by working for a number of different

patrons without being tied to one employer only.58 London was quickly becoming

one of the most important musical centers in Europe with new concert halls being

built and the emergence of musical societies such as the Royal Philharmonic Society.

In this period the guitar was seen as an instrument that was understood more naturally

by natives of Spain or Italy. In the introduction to his book Instructions For the

Spanish Guitar (London, 1819), Charles Sola wrote, "Several of the natives both of

Spain and Italy, possess a natural talent for this instrument, and can sing Solos, Duets,

Trios, and accompany their voices with the guitar, without any instruction

whatever."59

In the period immediately after Sor left London there were regular visits by foreign

guitarists, including the Spaniard A.T. Huerta. Born in 1804, Huerta fought in the

Peninsular War and composed a well-known Spanish soldier's hymn, the Hymn of

Riego. He fled to Paris after the war and began to concertize as a guitarist, a career he

maintained from the 1820s until the end of his life in 1874, performing in England,

Spain, Europe and America.60 Huerta wrote numerous generic waltzes and

divertimentos for the guitar and also penned characteristic Spanish pieces such as A

Spanish National Cachucha, with Variations, Bolero and Souvenir of the Fair at

Mairena in Spain.61 Huerta lived permanently in London until 1830 and married the

daughter of instrument maker Louis Panormo. A correspondent in the English

women's magazine La Belle Assemblée wrote in 1827 of the growing popularity of

the guitar and the role of both Huerta and Sor in elevating the profile of the

instrument:

58 Cyril Ehrlich, The Music Profession in Britain Since the Eighteenth Century: A Social History, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 73. 59 Charles Sola, Instructions For the Spanish Guitar (London, 1819) quoted in Button, Guitar in England, 30. 60 Javier Suarez-Pajares and Robert Coldwell, A.T. Huerta: Life and Works, (San Antonio: DGA Editions, 2006). 61 These scores are published in Suarez-Pajares and Coldwell, A.T. Huerta, 88-162.

31

This little instrument is daily becoming more and more fashionable. We formerly

considered it as a mere accompaniment, too trivial to be worth taking any pains

about; but since Huerta, Sor, and some of the continental performers have been over,

we begin to understand its capabilities, and to appreciate it accordingly.62

Interest in the guitar reached a high point with the publication of The Giulianiad in

the 1830s and by 1850 most of the foreign guitarists who had come to England had

left.63 There were other important guitarists who performed in London in the

following decades, including the Spanish virtuoso Julian Arcas (1832-1882). Arcas

was a vital figure in the history of the Spanish guitar who incorporated musical styles

from Spanish folk music into his compositions and established the foundation for

modern Spanish guitar technique. He composed and performed a large body of

characteristic Spanish pieces and, following the fashion of the time, wrote many

fantasies and variations on operatic themes. While he spent most of his career in

Spain, as his fame spread abroad he travelled to England where he performed a recital

at the Brighton Pavilion in 1862 before a distinguished audience that included

members of the Royal family.64 A very favourable review in the Brighton Guardian

highlighted the impression his music made on important members of the aristocracy:

Monday afternoon, the King's salons of the Pavilion were filled by a select crowd

that had been invited by a Gentlemen's commission to hear Mr. Arcas (Don Julian), a

new guitarist of extraordinary merit. This professor, quite a celebrity in Spain, has

enjoyed the protection of the upper aristocracy since his arrival in England. He gave

this concert under the protection of H.R.H. the Duchess of Cambridge and the

Princess Mary Adelaide, who honoured him with their presence. Their Highnesses,

accompanied by a distinguished entourage, arrived in the Salon at three o'clock, and

barely seated, Arcas came out to play. The guitarist's execution bordered on the

marvelous; even though he produces previously unknown effects with this instrument,

everything is in perfect agreement. We would not be exaggerating if we said that the

guitar, in the hands of Arcas, is a minature orchestra. He gets a variety of sounds,

62 La Belle Assemblée; or, Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, 1 Oct. 1827, 179. 63 Button, Guitar in England, 123. 64 Bone, Guitar and Mandolin, 11.

32

fully imitative, out of its strings...His Royal protectors were quite pleased and

delighted, as could be said of all those present.65

In most writings on Arcas, this is the only English performance mentioned.66 An

examination of the English press reveals that he returned in 1863 and not only gave

further performances, but attempted to set up a base for his teaching and playing

activities. Arcas revisited the Brighton Pavilion on 4 February 1863 for a recital with

the singer Herr Reichardt.67 The clearest indication that Arcas intended an extended

stay in London comes from an advertisement in The Morning Post, placed on 31

March 1863.

Senor Julian Arcas begs to announce that he has arrived in town for the season, and is

open to engagements for public and private concerts. He will likewise give lessons

on the guitar and Spanish songs. All communication to be addressed to Senor Julian

Arcas, care of Mrs Pittman, 58 Queen Anne-Street, Cavendish Square, W.68

Areas participated in a morning recital on 30 April 1863 as reported in The Morning

Post. His ability as a guitarist impressed the critic who was less complimentary about

the guitar as a concert instrument referring to it as "that decidedly unsatisfactory

instrument."69

The most detailed and revealing review of Areas performing in London comes from

May 1863, in which The Era's critic mentioned the rarity of a hearing a solo guitar

performance in London and the excitement of hearing a real "Spanish minstrel."70

Arcas' programme featured a number of fantasies on operatic themes including

arrangements from Bellini's Il Pirata, Verdi's II Trovatore and his Fantasy on a

Theme from The Carnival of Venice. He also played some of his own pieces

65 Reprinted in Julian Arcas, Guitar Works: A new edition based on original editions, ed. Melchor Rodriguez (Madrid: Soneto, 1993), 15-16. 66 For example there is no mention of any further English performances in Bone, Guitar and Mandolin or Arcas, Guitar Works. 67 Morning Post, 2 Feb. 1863, 1. Arcas performed as one of the accompanists at this concert and was not listed as a soloist in the advertising. A review of this concert in The Era praised his performance: "Senor Arcas played some of his choicest efforts and received his share of applause." Era, 8 Feb. 1863. 68 Morning Post, 31 Mar. 1863, 1. 69

Morning Post, 30 Apr. 1863, 6. 7° `The Opera and Concerts,' Era, 3 May 1863.

33

including a Spanish bolero which was singled out for praise.71 The audience response

was reported to be overwhelmingly positive, although some wanted to hear more

Spanish music: "if Senor Arcas would give a concert exclusively devoted to Spanish

national music—and the store is rich and ample—he would meet with considerable

public patronage."72

The final notice of an upcoming guitar recital by Arcas comes from The Morning Post

in July 1863, advertising a concert to be held at the Duke of Wellington's Aspley

House in Piccadilly on 20 July with Arcas the featured soloist.73 It was still difficult

for a foreign musician to secure enough work to remain in London permanently and

Arcas returned to Spain shortly thereafter. Interest in the guitar as a concert

instrument in London fluctuated throughout the nineteenth-century. It was not until

the visits of the Estudiantinas in the late 1870s that a broader audience for the

instrument was developed.

Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London

Spanish dance was an important medium for the dissemination of Spanish stereotypes

in nineteenth-century London. In the Romantic ballet Spanish dances were

exceedingly popular, with the cachucha, bolero and fandango some of the dances

routinely inserted into ballet productions, irrespective of their location.74 In the

second half of the century Spanish dance became a regular feature of the music halls

as Spanish dance crossed over effortlessly from the formal context of high art ballet to

popular variety entertainment. Spanish character dances were featured in many

nineteenth-century classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The

Nutcracker and Coppélia.

Ballet in London during the nineteenth century endured peaks and troughs of

popularity. Until the last decades of the century it was considered an imported

artform and most of the stars were foreigners.75 One of the most popular ballet

71 "A bolero espanol, of the most genuine kind." `The Opera and Concerts,' Era, 3 May 1863. 72 Ibid. 73 Morning Post, 10 July 1863, 1. 74 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 121. 75 "lt [ballet] was also essentially foreign, an exotic import." Rupert Christiansen, The Victorian Visitors: Culture Shock in Nineteenth Century Britain (London: Chatto and Windus, 2000), 200.

34

dancers in London in 1820s London was the Spaniard Maria Mercandotti (1807-1863)

who, like Sor and many other Spanish refugees, came to London as a direct result of

the Peninsular War. Mercandotti was brought to London by Scottish nobleman James

Duff, also known as Lord Fife, who had travelled to Spain in 1811 to fight with the

Spanish against the French occupation. There he met Mercandotti and her mother,

rumored to have become his mistress, and accompanied them to London, introducing

the young dancer to the local scene. She became known as the "Andalusian Venus"

and for a short time was the darling of the London dance world. In 1814 at the age of

thirteen Mercandotti danced a typical Spanish cachucha at the Kings Theatre with

great success.76 She then spent several years studying dance in Paris until she returned

to London for a successful season of performances in 1822. After an initially cool

reception due to claims of indecency, she was featured in the August Bournonville

ballet (1830) Les pages du duc de Vendôme which was set in Spain. Her performance

of the bolero and playing of the castanets captivated audiences.77

After her early success Mercandotti was offered the lead role of Cinderella in Sor's

ballet Cendrillon, and her performance attracted many positive reviews: "Cinderella

was represented by Mercandotti... [who] drew down the loudest plaudits by the

accuracy of her pantomimic expression, and the cadenced lightness and beauty of her

dancing.i78 Like Sor, she capitalized on the attention granted her by virtue of her

exotic Spanish nationality. In his memoir Seven Years of the King's Theatre the

theatre manager John Ebers remembered Mercandotti dancing a typical Spanish

bolero in Cendrillon.79

Mercandotti's achievements as a dancer were almost eclipsed by interest in her

private life, and her career ended after she eloped with the wealthy man-about-town

Edward Hughes Ball Hughes (known as Golden Ball). Their marriage was widely

76 Sandra Noll Hammond, `Sor and the Ballet of his Time,' in Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis Gasser (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003), 192. 77 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 41. 78 `The King's Theatre,' Lady's Magazine 3, no. 4 (Apr. 1822), 222 quoted in Christoforidis and Kertesz, `Cendrillon, Cinderella, and Spectacle: Insights into Sor's Most Successful Work' in Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis Gasser (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003), 134-5. 79 "Mercandotti, too, was there with her inimitable bolero" from John Ebers, Seven Years of the King's Theatre (London: William Harrison Ainsworth, 1828), 39 quoted in Christoforidis and Kertesz, `Cendrillon', 134. As Christoforidis and Kertesz explain, Ebers was probably confused with Mercandotti's performance of a bolero in Les Pages du Duc de Vendome at the King's Theatre during the same season.

35

reported in the gossip pages, even as far afield as the USA, where one London

correspondent declared that her marriage to Mr Hughes Ball "made as much noise in

England as the war against Spain."80

Interest in ballet reached a peak in London during the 1830s and 40s, coinciding with

a period of popularity for Spanish dance, particularly the cachucha as danced by the

French dancer Pauline Duvernay (1812-1894) and the Austrian dance prodigy Fanny

Elssler (1810-1884).81 Elssler achieved fame in London in 1833 with La Cachucha, a

featured dance from the ballet Le diable boiteux. She did much to encourage a

fascination with Spanish dance in London and her success extended to continental

Europe and America.82 Her great rival was the Italian dancer Marie Taglioni (1804-

1884) who introduced the Spanish dance La Gitana into her repertoire in 1839.

Elssler returned to London in 1838, and again in 1843 for a benefit concert, and

London audiences still greeted her with enthusiasm.

In this period Spanish dance was most often seen in performances by non-Spanish

dancers with Romantic ballet training, however, newspaper critics and travel writers

began to express the desire to see and experience Spanish dance and music performed

by native Spaniards. When the young English explorer George Dennis published his

first travel book A Summer in Andalucia in 1839, he documented his first-hand

experience of Spanish dance and compared it with the cachucha as danced in London

by Duvernay. Dennis observed,

The cachucha, with which Duvernay has so delighted the British public, has little of

the spirit of the Spanish dance. It loses half its charms, and, from the very nature of

the dance, all its meaning, by being performed alone: and Duvernay again, with all

her elegance, wants Spanish fire; she is too soft and Italianized for this dance; her

movements are unquestionably very beautiful, but the fire, the soul of the genuine

cachucha, is lost in her excess of gentleness.83

80 Rhode-Island American and General Advertiser, 3 June 1823. The original and a transcript may be viewed at ridance archive, accessed 11 July 2012, www.ridance.comJDANCEHISTORY/ria1823b.html 81 The cachucha is a Spanish dance in triple time, closely related to the bolero and it was one of the most identifiable Spanish dances seen in London during the nineteenth century. 82 "Fanny Elssler [sic] indeed is most frequently seen pictured in Spanish costume, and the cachucha was danced by her as often, I fancy, as Mme. Pavlova dances Le Cygne of Saint-Saëns." Van Vechten,

Music of Spain, 44. 83 George Dennis, A Summer in Andalucia, vol. 1 (London: Richard Bentley, 1839), 74.

36

Dennis equated fire and passion with authentic Spanish dance, but most of all he

wanted to see real Spanish dancers on the London stage. English expectations of

Spanish dance were changing.

Some ambitious dancers invented false Spanish personas and tapped into popular

perceptions of Spanishness and Spanish dance. A young Irish woman, known in

London as Betty James (1821-1861), but best remembered by the pseudonym Lola

Montez, fancied herself as a Spanish dancer. For her debut London performance on 3

June 1843 Montez was hailed as a dancer from Seville's Teatro Rea1.84 In a preview

of her performance The Times described Montez as the culmination of a period of

interest in Spanish dance,

We have had many varieties of Spanish dance since Duvernay figured in the

Cachucha. The graceful Taglioni floated through the Gitana with the perfection of

elegance; the buoyant Cerito inherited the same Gitana, and infused a charming

playfulness into its stately movements; the artsitical [sic] Fanny Elssler brought us the

Saragossa, and gave it a peculiar feature of her bewitching hauteur and polished

coquetry; and the zealous Guy Stephan did wonders in the Boleros de Cadiz. But we

were not to stop here, we were to have not only a Spanish dance ornamented and

modified by the artists of France and Italy, but a Spanish dance by a Spaniard,

executed after the Spanish fashion. Accordingly Dona Lola Montez, from the Teatro

Reale, Seville, made her appearance on Saturday in the original Spanish Dance "El

Olano. "85

The first reviewers of her dance believed she was Spanish, convinced by her olive

complexion and dark eyes. There are similarities in the type of language used to

describe Montez and Spanish dancers such as Carolina "La Belle" Otero (1868-1965)

later in the century, including mention of "a national reality" and "intensity."86

Another quality later associated with Spanish dancers was the total commitment to the

84 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 123. 85 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 5 July 1843, 6. 86 Ibid.

37

performance. A critic in The Times wrote of Montez, "The whole soul of the artist

seems worked up to a stern purpose."87

Montez was playing on expectations of Spanish dance and the exotic overtones of

Spanishness, including pushing the boundaries of decency. As Bee Wilson wrote,

It was a clever stroke to adopt the persona of a Spaniard, for in this guise she could

make her act far more erotic than would have been tolerated had a more respectable

(i.e. English) woman been dancing; and yet she could still present herself as a victim,

a poor refugee from Seville, in desperate need of rich protectors.88

However, Montez did not just adopt a Spanish persona to mask an erotic routine, she

was clearly tapping into the fascination with Spanish dance and the general desire to

experience more authentic proponents of the genre. Her credibility in England was

destroyed when she was outed as an imposter shortly after her famous debut

performance and she swiftly left London to reprise her Spanish act throughout Europe,

America and Australia. The manager of Her Majesty's Theatre, Benjamin Lumley,

had suffered from the controversy that followed Montez's unmasking, but two years

later he presented the bona fide Spanish dancer Manuela Perea, better known as La

Nena Perea. She would become one of the strongest ambassadors for Spanish dance

in London in the 1850s.ß9

The English actor, dancer and theatrical producer Lydia Thompson (1838-1908) was

a pioneer of burlesque in London and in a number of her early roles concentrated on

Spanish and oriental dance. Her life and career shared some similarities with Montez:

both Thompson and Montez were Irish and changed their names to sound more exotic

or "southern." Thompson was born Eliza Hodges Thompson in 1838, while Montez

was christened Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in 1818. In 1854, at the young age of sixteen,

Thompson appeared as a solo dancer in the Grand Oriental Spectacle of Mr

Buckstone's Voyage Round the Globe. In this show she was featured in a ballet

sequence titled "Dance of the Bayadères" in the Asian part of the production. Later

87 Ibid. 88 Bee Wilson, "`Boudoir Politics", a Review of: Lola Montez: Her Life and Conquests by James Morton,' London Review of Books 29, no. 11 (June 2007): 27-29. 89 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 126.

38

that year, she caused a minor sensation in Thomas Selby's The Spanish Dancers with

her imitation of La Nena Perea.90

There was a hiatus in Spanish dance in London and Paris from 1860 until 1880, as

stated by Gerhard Steingress in his book Y Carmen se fue a Paris.91 There were,

however, still some memorable Spanish dancers playing to London audiences during

this period, notably Signor Donato the one-legged dancer who was a great success in

the Grand Christmas Pantomime of 1864 at Covent Garden. Donato reportedly lost

his leg in the First Moroccan War of 1859-1860,92 and developed an act based on his

ability to dance on one leg. His act intrigued audiences and he presented himself as a

Spanish dancer in a toreador's costume, accompanying himself with castanets. He

was known for his Spanish cloak dance and the amazing combination of Spanish

dance and acrobatic skill on one leg. Donato's act combined fascination with the

exotic with grotesque novelty and he was the talk of London in late 1864 and early

1865.93

90 Kurt Glinzl, Lydia Thompson, Queen of Burlesque (New York: Routledge, 2002), 19-20.

91 Gerhard, Steingress, Y Carmen se fue a Paris (Cordoba: Almuzara, 2006). 92 Known in Spain as the African War. 93 `Music and the Drama,' Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 7 Jan. 1865, 3.

39

Figure 1. An advertisement for Donato the one-legged Spanish dancer in matador's

costume and with castanets,94

WeitaMailifilinninattC4XMAWCZN:,:i ..z. ., -.:.r.

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA I 00,:E1 14' '.T' C .,bi. Rap É .

>B}_i.A 0OMP\Ti1 f,t"MCi'k".71.

94 Edward H. Pask, Enter the Colonies Dancing: A History of Dancing in Australia 1835-1940, (Melbourne: OUP, 1979), 67.

40

One critic observed of Donato's success, "The young Spanish dancer Donato

continues to exhibit his extraordinary prowess on one leg. The danse avec manteau is

about as extraordinary a specimen of grace, agility and dexterity as has been

witnessed."95 The danse avec manteau or Spanish cloak dance was a particular

favourite with audiences and the magazine Punch made fun of Donato's extraordinary

act, "It is not generally known that Donato, the one legged dancer, has six toes. One

is at the end of his name, and with the other five he performs his graceful

evolutions."96 According to the Sporting Gazette, Donato died not long after his

successful series of London shows in July 1865.97 He was fondly remembered and

his act inspired many other one-legged dancers who appeared on London stages in the

ensuing years.

In both the ballet houses and the music halls, Spanish dance was fashionable

throughout most of the nineteenth century, at times approaching the level of a craze.

This activity set the scene for the popularity of Carmen which included a ballet and

dance scenes. Later Spanish dancers such as Carmencita (1868-1910) and "La Belle"

Otero rode the wave of popularity for Spanish dance created by the success of

Carmen and their impact on London audiences will be discussed in Chapter 4.

95 `Music and the Drama,' Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 7 Jan. 1865, 3. 96 Punch, 14 Jan. 1865, 13. 97 "Donato died while on tour in France." Sporting Gazette, 15 July 1865, 546.

41

Chapter 2:

Carmen and Victorian musico-theatrical notions of Spanishness

The Reception and Performance History of Bizet's Carmen in London

The success of Bizet's opera Carmen had a profound influence on perceptions of Spanish

music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Carmen was premiered in London

at Her Majesty's Theatre on 22 June 1878 and, in spite of its French origins, Bizet's music

and the character of Carmen were seen as quintessentially Spanish. Over the ensuing decades

Carmen was performed almost continuously in the English capital and provided a backdrop

to the rising interest in Spanish music. In this chapter English reviews and writings on

Carmen will be examined to illustrate the important role played by the opera in defining

images of Spain for London audiences.

The first performance of Carmen in London was eagerly anticipated, and the work's ongoing

reception reveals valuable insights about English perceptions of Spanish music and culture.

The following examination of the critical response to Carmen, largely based on accounts in

contemporary newspapers, shows how reactions to the opera changed in the first decades

after the London premiere. Successful performers in the title role were in demand and had to

cope with close scrutiny of their renditions. They were expected not just to sing the role but

to act and embody the character of the volatile gypsy. There was a gradual evolution towards

performers who espoused a Spanish background and the incorporation of elements of Spanish

dance, staging and costume to project changing notions of Spanishness.

The 1875 Paris premiere of Carmen at the Opéra-Comique was received with a mixture of

hostility and indifference. Susan McClary, in her book on Carmen, identifies two main

reasons for this frosty reception: "moral propriety and musical style",' but argues that these

issues were less of a barrier for audiences outside of France.' In October 1875 the opera was

premiered in Vienna to great critical and popular acclaim. The musical style of the work was

less problematic for the Viennese who had no cultural claim to the genre of opéra comique.

In addition, the Wagnerian influence highlighted by some French critics was imperceptible to

a Germanic audience. The opera continued to gain popularity with performances in Brussels

Susan McClary, Georges Bizet, Carmen (Cambridge: CUP, 1992), 111. 2 Ibid., 111-115.

42

(February 1876), Budapest (October 1876), St. Petersburg (February 1878) and Stockholm

(March 1878). The London premiere was given in Italian and contained the recitatives

prepared by Ernest Guiraud for the first season in Vienna. These recitatives replaced the

spoken dialogue of the original French production.

The success of Carmen in London was immediate but tempered by some reservations about

the suitability of the libretto for an opera-going public. Initial misgivings centered on the

appropriateness of basing the opera on Prosper Mérimée's (1803-1870) story Carmen (1845)

and whether or not the novella's themes would be acceptable to English audiences. The

Times critic voiced these concerns directly after the premiere as follows:

What will be the English appreciation of Carmen—we refer particularly to the libretto—

remains to be seen. Whether the famous romance of Prosper Mérimée was a source to

explore for personages, incidents, and situations that could effectively be used for the

purposes of lyric drama is a question at least worth considering.3

As the opera became more familiar through repeated performances, the quality of the libretto

and Bizet's successful fusion of music and text were praised by writers.

Meilhac and Halévy have done so much to make the story of Carmen acceptable as a libretto,

how much more the composer has heightened the illusion and deepened the interest by aid of

music which must have come to him as spontaneously as the narrative would seem to have

flowed from the pen of a novelist.4

Earlier reservations about its suitability for a London audience were forgotten and after each

subsequent performance, the reviews became more effusive. On 13 July 1879 one critic

wrote, "Carmen...becomes more attractive at every repetition, and bids fair to prove one of

the most popular of modern operas.s5

In part, the long running success of Carmen was due to the broad audience attracted to the

opera, which in turn furthered the widespread dissemination of stereotypes of Spanish music

and dance. As early as December 1878 The Times critic observed,

3 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 24 June 1878, 8. 4 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 28 Apr. 1879, 12. 5 Unknown paper, 13 July 1878, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.

41

Carmen may be said already to have taken a place in the repertory which has every chance of

becoming permanent...Its attraction now is as great as it was in the regular season, thus

showing the power to interest and satisfy two, in a large measure, distinct audiences. People

who go to the opera, in ordinary costume, for the sake of hearing the music, and with no other

object in view, appreciate it even more, perhaps than those who, as a majority, attend because

at a certain time of the year the opera is a "fashion.s6

Some critics even lamented the fact that Carmen had not been brought out in England earlier.

Consensus began to grow about the merits of the opera and public interest increased

exponentially. Through the opera Carmen, Spanish music and characters were before the

public on a regular basis and stereotypes associated with Spanish music evolved as the

audience demanded greater realism, particularly from performers in the title role.

The role of Carmen required a unique talent capable of both acting and singing. The

American soprano Minnie Hauk (1851-1929) was an instant success when in early 1878 she

played Carmen for the first time in Brussels.8 This experience in Brussels paved the way for

her subsequent success in London. Hauk explained in her autobiography that the stage

manager and cast of the Brussels production were determined to present a new type of

operatic performance with acting and scenic effects treated equally to the singing.9 Recalling

the London premiere Hauk claimed, "The audience were so taken aback by the innovations in

regard to the action in the first act, that they even forgot to applaud when the curtain was

lowered."10

6 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 3 Dec. 1878, 6. After the initial short run of six performances in 1878 came to an end The Times reviewer wrote, "This was the

sixth representation of the late Georges Bizet's opera, which, considering that it increases in attraction with each

successive performance, it is a pity not to have brought it out earlier. There seems to be but one opinion as to its merit, its continual flow of tune, its spontaneity, and bright local colouring. The production of such a work, combined with so animated, dramatic and altogether charming an impersonation of the impetuous, wayward,

gipsy heroine as that of Miss Minnie Hauk, would alone have sufficed to make the somewhat brief s remembering." `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 16 July 1878, 4.

eason worth

8 Minnie Hauk, Memories of a Singer (New York: Arno Press, 1977), 148-9. 9 Ibid., 163. 10 Ibid.

44

_•••• --,••,•••■ ••••• .•••.• ^ ',a_ -

MULLS MtNNIE 11.%

Figure 2. Minnie Hauk as Carmen.

No. 22.4 —VOL. LX. SATURDAY. MAY t8, t.47R. I. 1 Itt VIIMPLIL Mr P. *0

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 18 May 1878, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.

A 4

For at least the next decade Minnie Hauk was celebrated in the English capital as the creator

of the role of Carmen and subsequent interpreters were measured against her groundbreaking

rendition. Critics admired her singing and acting but marveled most of all at her total

identification with the role. Zelia Trebelli (1838-1892) was the next singer to perform

Carmen in London and there were inevitable comparisons with Hauk. The Times critic

reflected on Trebelli's first London appearance in the role as follows:

The chief interest of the performance centred in the assumption of the title part by Madame

Trebelli. Bizet's heroine is in the memory of London audiences so thoroughly identified with

the admirable acting and singing of Mdlle. Minnie Hauk that a criticism of Madame

Trebelli's performance becomes almost impossible without some comparing side glances at

her gifted predecessor...it may be said that Madame Trebelli sings Carmen, while Mdlle.

Hauk is Carmen...Both ladies conceive the part in an intensely realistic spirit, the only

difference being, perhaps, that Madame Trebelli accentuates the healthy robust energy of the

girl, while Mdlle. Hauk dwells chiefly on her gracefully "Daemonic" characteristics.'2

The statement that Hauk is Carmen was repeated often in the pages of The Times during the

next ten years. Selina Dolaro (1849-1889) was the first to sing the role in English and her

acting abilities were widely recognized, whereas Trebelli was admired mainly for her voice.

In 1882 The Times summed up the field with the statement, "Madame Trebelli sings Carmen,

Madame Dolaro acts Carmen, and Mdlle. Minnie Hauk is Carmen."13 Minnie Hauk was

proud of this oft-repeated comment and quoted it in her autobiography.14

There were some early critics of Hauk's realistic interpretation of Carmen, as the highly-

charged nature of her performance offended the sensibilities of some writers, who preferred

Trebelli's more measured interpretation. French critics had been particularly scathing of the

portrayal of female sexuality in Carmen and English commentators expressed concern about

the realism of the opera and the questionable morality of the libretto.'S The particular

interpretation of the lead role could highlight or repress elements that were seen as

distasteful. In the following description of Trebelli, she is applauded for her restraint as

Carmen.

12 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 24 Oct. 1878, 6. 13 `Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 29 May 1882, 8. 14 Hauk, Memories of a Singer, 164. is McClary, Georges Bizet, Carmen, 111.

46

In the first and second acts she realised the irrepressible gaiety and recklessness of the

character without bringing into prominence its shamelessness and immorality, and for this she

is entitled to the thanks of those who believe that the interests of the lyric drama are best

consulted by the repression of vulgarity and prurient suggestiveness...so do we prefer the

Carmen of Madame Trebelli to the eminently characteristic, but occasionally offensive,

representations which have been presented by other exponents of that role.16

The controversial nature of the opera's themes and the "realistic" interpretation of the

performers elicited this response from the same critic: "Realism must be kept within decent

limits, if operas with courtesans for their heroines are to be witnessed by our sisters and

daughters.s17 These concerns, held by a minority of critics, did not hamper the success and

wide-ranging appeal of Carmen. Bizet's opera reinforced some powerful myths about Spain

and exoticism and in the process brought together Andalusian and gypsy characteristics as

key signifiers of Spanish exoticism. The move towards greater realism in opera stemmed in

part from Carmen and the operatic verismo movement as typified by works by Mascagni and

Puccini.'$ The demonstrative and extrovert or realistic aspects of Carmen increased the

public fascination with the title role and the interest in all things Spanish.

English critics were quick to point out Bizet's evocation of Spanish themes and the musical

devices he used to signify Spain. As James Parakilas claims, "There are no examples of

exoticism in the Western musical tradition more famous than the `Gypsy' numbers in

Carmen: the Habanera and Seguidilla in act 1, the song of the three Gypsies and Carmen's

castanet dance for Don José in act 2."19 The term "local colour" was a common term used in

the English press to describe the scales and rhythms which evoked oriental music.

Bizet's Habanera, famously added during rehearsals for the first Paris season,20 was singled

out as a prime example of Spanish style music by the English press and it was recognized as

16 Sporting and Dramatic Times, no date, 1878, 15, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box. 17 Ibid. 18 The term verismo signifies a trend toward realism in Italian literary works of the 1870s and Italian opera from 1890 until roughly 1920. Key works in the style are Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, premiered in 1890, and the operas of Puccini. Realistic scenarios and themes were presented and the mythological subjects of German Romanticism were largely rejected. Carmen has much in common with verismo opera and predates the works of Mascagni and Puccini by several years. 18

James Parakilas, `The Soldier and the Exotic: Operatic Variations on a Theme of Racial Encounter Part 1,' Opera Quarterly 10, no. 2 (1993): 33. 2° McClary, Georges Bizet, Carmen, 26.

47

a melody by Spanish composer Sebastian Iradier (1809-1865).21 The Times identified

important elements of local colour in the work:

That Bizet threw himself heart and soul into the task before him is evident. He admirably

caught what is termed "local colour"...Examples of this may be found in every one of the

four acts, spirited and characteristic examples moreover, beginning with the first and not least

charming—the "Havanaise" ("Avanera") "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" ("Amor

misterioso," in the Italian version), borrowed if we remember well, from Iradier's Album des

Chansons Espagnoles.22

While local colour was a key factor in the attraction of the opera Carmen, Bizet's music was

also appreciated for its novelty and sophistication. A writer in the The Illustrated Sporting

and Dramatic Times observed, "Originality is the distinguishing feature of M. Bizet's music

in Carmen. He has adopted Spanish rhythms for the sake of the couleur locale, but the

melodies are fresh and original, and are embellished by orchestral accompaniments of the

utmost piquancy and grace." 23

Other critics noticed how the use of evocative Spanish phrases gave coherence to Bizet's

opera, as one writer explained, "The occasional touches of Spanish and gipsy character, and

the recurrence of distinctive musical phrases, give a general tone of consistency to the

work."24 Parakilas has described how this aspect of Carmen transcends local colour:

Musical exoticism in Carmen is a matter of dramatic structure, not simply of local color. Its

function is not to characterize Carmen and her fellow Gypsies so much as to map a change in

the relationship between Carmen and Don José. The silencing of the exotic music in the

middle of the opera marks the moment when Don José follows Carmen into her world and

discovers that he can neither force her to be the Carmen he has dreamed of nor escape from

his own world, from himself.25

For some English critics, however, the use of Spanish colour was seen as a defect. This was

not only related to Bizet's use of idiomatic Spanish devices in his music, but part of a

21 Bizet's famous Habanera, `L'amour est un oiseau rebelle,' based on the song El Arreglito by Sebastian Iradier is featured in Act I of Carmen. 22 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 24 June 1878, 8. 23 Sporting and Dramatic Times, 29 June 1878. 24 Unknown paper, 29 June 1878, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box. 25 Parakilas, `Soldier and the Exotic,' 33-56.

48

discussion about the suitability of folk music sources being used in concert music and opera.

The Times wrote,

Being left in the charge of José, she (Carmen) immediately resumes her work of temptation

by singing another song, this time a Seguedilla, again evidently founded on a popular air, and

again treated by the composer with consummate skill. But, in spite of this, one of the chief

defects of the opera becomes here apparent for the first time. It is the undue prevalence of the

national or local over the purely human element. A heroine whose deepest emotion finds

expression in a popular Spanish song cannot be said to fulfil the demands of high dramatic

art.26

Another step in the acceptance of Carmen into the operatic canon was the first English

version produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company at Her Majesty's Theatre on 5 February

1879. This rendition was prepared by Henry Hersee and was an adaptation rather than a

literal translation. Spoken dialogue was introduced in place of the recitatives employed in the

Italian version first performed in London, provoking a mixed critical reaction.27

The English singer Selina Dolaro was cast in the role of Carmen and praised for the realism

of her performance. Her acting skills were widely applauded, although her singing was

criticized.28 Dolaro was one of the first of many singers to invent or exaggerate Spanish

heritage in order to gain credibility as an authentic Carmen. Born into a Jewish family and

christened Selina Simmons, Dolaro married an Italian of Spanish descent,29 and achieved

success in light opera and burlesque. After success with the Carl Rosa production she played

the lead in the Carmen parody Carmen or Soldiers and Seville-fans by Frank Green and

Frank Musgrave on Broadway in 1880.30 Crossing over from opera to burlesque or parody

was common practice for performers in this period. Opera themes were parodied and adapted

26 `Carmen,' Times, 20 July 1878, 10. 27 The Times critic was not convinced by the use of spoken dialogue: "The third performance of Carmen, which was given on Wednesday, was again witnessed by a large and enthusiastic audience, which bore testimony to the popularity of Bizet's work, in spite of the tedious spoken dialogue which encumbers the plot and strangely jars with the elevated character of the music. Our censure does not apply to the particular dialogue supplied by Mr. Hersee, but to the fact of the spoken words having been needlessly reintroduced into Bizet's score." `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 13 Feb. 1879, 8. 28 "The character of Carmen, the fickle and volatile gipsy-girl, recently identified with the excellent performances of Mdlle. Minnie Hauk and Madame Trebelli, was on this occasion sustained by Madame Dolaro, who acted with great spirit, and was more successful in the demonstrative than in the musical aspect of the character." Illustrated London News, 15 Feb. 1879, 162. 29 Michele Siegel, 'Dolaro Selina,' Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, Jewish Women's Archive. 1 Mar. 2009, accessed 17 Feb. 2012. http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dolaro-selina. 3° Gänzl, Encyclopedia of The Musical Theatre, 515.

49

in comic opera and Carmen was one of the most parodied of all operas. Theatrical

reconfigurations of Carmen are discussed later in this chapter.

Carmen was finally staged at Covent Garden, London's premiere opera venue in 1882, a

significant sign of the work's acceptance by the cultural elite. The title role on this occasion

was sung by Pauline Lucca and her performance was analysed and evaluated alongside the

other successful Carmens to have played in London. The name of Minnie Hauk, recognized

as the benchmark for Carmen performers, is well to the fore in the following discussion of

Carmen protagonists:

The great success of Carmen when produced at Her Majesty's Theatre four years ago is in

everybody's memory. The part of the fascinating gipsy was on that occasion "created" by

Mdlle. Minnie Hauk, who had realized the character in its musical as well as its dramatic

aspects with a degree of realistic power rarely seen on the operatic boards. Mdlle. Hauk was

succeeded by Madame Trebelli, who brought her fine artistic merit to bear upon a character

not altogether congenial to her, and whose singing of the famous "Avanera" and other songs

assigned to the wayward heroine could not well be surpassed. In an English version of

Carmen written by Mr. Hersee and produced by Mr. Carl Rosa, Madame Dolaro showed her

peculiar fitness for the dramatic requirements of the character, although her singing left much

to be desired...Madame Lucca holds a kind of intermediate position among the embodiments

of Bizet's heroine thus indicated. She has evidently studied the character in all its nuances

with great care, and she sings and acts in a style peculiarly her own.31

The popularity of Carmen meant that new versions of the work were much anticipated. In

November 1886 the original French version of Carmen was staged at Her Majesty's Theatre

with Célestine Galli-Marié (1840-1905) who had created the role at the Opéra Comique in

1875. Galli-Marié toured widely as Carmen, giving the Italian and Spanish premiere seasons.

She sang Carmen in Barcelona in 1881 and modified her initial interpretation of the role,

claiming a greater awareness of Spanish national traits and music as a result of her time spent

in Spain.32 This new production was a major event in the London musical calendar and an

opportunity to hear the opera with the singer who had worked with Bizet.

31 `Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 29 May 1882, 8. 32 See Kertesz and Christoforidis, `Confronting "Carmen",' 79-110.

50

The exuberance of Galli-Marié's interpretation made a positive impression in London. The

closeness to the original French production was highlighted by the inclusion of the original

dialogue. She was praised for her whole-hearted portrayal of Carmen: "She made no attempt

to tone down the wayward Spanish gipsy's character, and every action and gesture of a most

finished performance made its mark...she won her high celebrity for general artistic

excellence."33

As the fascination with Carmen continued to grow, there were attempts to make productions

more authentically Spanish. On 31 May 1887 there were two performances of Carmen on

the same day, an afternoon performance in Italian with Minnie Hauk at Covent Garden and

Marie Roze's interpretation of Carmen in a staging of the opera in English at Drury Lane.

The latter incarnation of Bizet's opera was notable for the inclusion of crowd scenes and an

elaboration of the bullfight scene in the final act. These additions, particularly to the bullfight

scenario, were given added credibility by the fact that the theatre manager and member of the

production's creative team, Augustus Harris, had recently been to Madrid and observed a

bullfight first hand. A writer in The Times applauded the accuracy of the portrayal of a bull-

fight:

Many new effects in the grouping of crowds and the by-play of the minor characters have

been introduced, and the bull fight, or at least its preliminaries, in the last act have been made

the occasion for a most gorgeous and elaborate pageant, in which, as we understand, Mr.

Harris has turned the experiences of a recent visit to Madrid to excellent account. The pomp

and circumstance of the national pastime of Spain are set forth with an accuracy of detail, a

splendour of costume, and a blaze of colour almost too dazzling for the comparitively

insignificant part which the entire scene plays in the dramatic design and in the score of

Bizet,3a

Carmen was continuing to appeal to the Victorian fascination with exotic Spain and as

audiences became more knowledgeable and insisted upon greater authenticity, productions

evolved to meet this need. Travel to Spain was at a new height during this period, a demand

fed by the Carmen phenomenon.

33 Graphic, 13 Nov. 1886. 34

`The English Opera Season,' Times, 2 May 1887, 10.

51

By the mid 1880s Carmen was dominating the operatic landscape in London. The title role

was recognized as one that could change a career. Singers, both young and old, were eager to

take on the role of the gypsy including many of the famous singers of the day such as Adelina

Patti (1843-1919).35 Patti was one of the most celebrated and lauded singers in the world,

who had made her name singing roles from Italian operas by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi.

When it was announced that Patti would sing Carmen, press reports indicated that

expectations were high. She sang the role in 1885 and by this time both the public and critics

were very discerning in their appreciation of Carmen singers. Her vocal performance was

unconvincing but more significantly, her acting skills were not suited to the demands of the

role. Patti was unable to project the total identification with the role which had characterized

Hauk's rendition of the part. The Times revisited an old theme when remarking on Patti's

Carmen, comparing her with Hauk's classic interpretation. The critic observed,

She [Hauk] did not, as we remarked at the time, sing Carmen or act Carmen, she was Carmen.

The same cannot as yet be said of Madame Patti...Carmen as presented appears to us to be

little more than a heartless flirt, delighted to inspire feelings in others which she does not

mean to reciprocate, or could not if she would."36

Carmen had ushered in a new style of opera performance, which did not suit a singer of

Patti's background or experience. The role required a dramatic projection of spirit and

emotion, and English critics were sensitive to which elements should be emphasized and

when a more balanced approach was needed. Patti over-emphasized peripheral aspects of

Carmen's character and was unable to present the more demonstrative or passionate side of

the character when required. The Times critic outlined the faults in her interpretation:

Her by-play was a great deal too elaborate, too lively, without showing much reference to the

essential features of the character. She did some extremely pretty and graceful

things...Unfortunately, she did not reserve her force for the salient points belonging to

33 Patti was born in Madrid to Italian parents and spoke Spanish fluently. Carmen is a role she had looked forward to playing. Klein reported that Patti said of her upcoming performance Carmen, "Yes, Carmen! I have been longing to sing it for years, and I am going to do so at last. I adore the opera. Ah, poor Bizet, how I wish he were still alive to hear me! I love the story, I love the music, I love the Spanish scenes and types...You will see me dance; you will hear how I play the castanets. I have never longed so impatiently for anything in my life. Herman Klein, The Reign of Patti (New York: Century Co., 1920), 225-6. 36 'Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 16 July 1885, 8.

52

Carmen as a distinct individuality, and when the aforesaid "daemonic" influences came into

play her resources were exhausted.37

Her performance also missed the mark simply because she misunderstood the dramatic vocal

style required. In the context of a generally favourable review The Times critic remarked,

"Moreover, the brilliancy of Madame Patti's vocalization finds no scope in this music. Bizet

employs the voice as a means of dramatic expression; the meaningless fireworks of the

Italian school he despises."38 Patti did not return to Carmen and her performance of the role

was described by Herman Klein as the single failure in a glittering career.39

As discussed in Chapter 1, Spanish dance was a key element of the British experience of

Spanish music and helped define Spanish culture for many. A range of dance elements were

incorporated into Carmen as early as 1875 and commentators were divided about the merits

of an added ballet interlude wedged into the already satisfying structure of the opera. The

history of an added ballet in Carmen may be traced to the Vienna production of 1875 when a

ballet was inserted at the beginning of the fourth act. Most London critics protested that there

was no place for extraneous elements in Bizet's work, especially as music for these ballets

was often not by Bizet. A ballet item was inserted into a new London production of Carmen

in 1887 with music by Anton Rubinstein added as an accompaniment to a featured Pas

Espagnol. The Times declared this an "act of barbarism" and wrote in protest, "Carmen is a

work of continuous and well-balanced design, to interfere with which shows signal want of

artistic conscience.s40 Part of the problem was that the ballet items were not always well

rehearsed and these dance items added very little to the opera in terms of Spanish content,4t

however, ballet, Spanish dance and Carmen were to become inextricably linked in the

decades to follow.

37Ibid. 38 Ibid. 39 Klein wrote: "Then her essay as Carmen was to culminate in the one decisive disappointment of her career: an artistic failure!" Klein, Reign of Patti, 221. Interestingly, four months later, a report by a Parisian correspondent for The Times spoke of a performance of Spanish guitarists and mandolinists in the French capital. After describing the scene and relating some clichés about Spaniards, the report went on to describe a Spanish dancer predictably named Carmen and the appearance of Adelina Patti in the audience. Could she have been researching the "daemonic "influences on Bizet's Carmen in anticipation of another attempt at the role? `The "Figaro" Soiree,' Times, 16 Nov. 1885, 4. 4° `Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 25 Mar. 1887, 10. 41 "The ballet, like those of the preceding evenings, showed signs of insufficient rehearsals." `Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 13 Apr. 1891, 12. "In strange contrast to last night the house was crowded from floor to ceiling by a very enthusiastic audience, who did not seem to admire the ballet in the last act of Carmen." `Covent Garden Opera,' Times, 9 Oct. 1897, 12.

53

By 1881, the music of Carmen was so familiar to London audiences that music with a

Spanish flavour was instantly compared with Bizet's opera. One of the great Spanish violin

showpieces, Eduard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, was written in 1874 for the Spanish

virtuoso Pablo Sarasate (1844-1908). In a review of the work from a London concert given

by French conductor Charles Lamoureux and his orchestra in March 1881, The Times

reviewer reached for Carmen as the nearest comparison and wrote,

More individual in character, however, was the Symphonie Espagnole (op. 21) for violin and

orchestra by M. Edouard Lalo...The Symphonie Espagnole is full of the Spanish rhythms and

melodies familiarised by Carmen. In addition to this it is charmingly scored and very brilliant

in the solo part, which we believe was originally destined for M. Sarasate 42

Sarasate was one of the most active Spanish musicians in the English capital at this time. He

took advantage of the vogue for Spanish music through his own Spanish works and his

virtuosic violin showpiece the Carmen Fantasy (1883). His experiences as a Spanish

musician in London will be discussed in Chapter 3.

The pervasive influence of Carmen as a measure of Spanishness even marked instrumental

music. An 1884 review of piano Serenades in The Times celebrated the influence of different

folksong styles on the various national styles represented in the collection. In reviewing the

book the writer turned to a discussion of nationalism in music:

An original and a very pretty idea has been carried out in the collection of pianoforte pieces

for four hands before us. Music, the universal language of the world, has of late been

frequently made the medium of national expression. The folksongs and popular dances of all

countries, from Norway to the far south and east, have been turned to artistic account, and

many reputations have been made in this manner. The example of Liszt in his "Hungarian

Rhapsodies" has been followed to an extent which will leave its permanent mark on the

history of music in the latter half of the 19th century...Dvorak the Bohemian, Tschaikowski

the Russian, and many others have in the same manner become the international interpreters

42 `M. Lamoureux's Concerts,' Times, 17 Mar. 1881, 6.

54

of their respective countries, and Bizet's Carmen owes much of its charm to the Spanish dress

in which the highly-gifted composer has clothed his genuine inspiration.43

This coincided with one of many calls for the establishment of an English school of opera, as

English composers were being encouraged to write new works in their native tongue. Julian

Edwards (1855-1910), perhaps cashing in on the popularity of Carmen and all things

Spanish, wrote a four-act opera entitled Victorian, based on Longfellow's 1843 tragedy, The

Spanish Student.44 Edwards mimiced Bizet's use of local colour with unsuccessful results.

Of the first performance on 21 January 1884, The Times reviewer wrote:

The subject dealing with Spaniards, and more especially with Spanish gipsies, it need not be

added that the couleur locale we refer to is accomplished by the same rhythmical and melodic

means which Bizet has employed in his Carmen...The appearance of his opera while the

melodies of Bizet's masterpiece are still in everyone's memory is Mr. Edward's misfortune,

not his fault 45

The next generation of Carmen performers built on the established traditions of the role while

adding their own unique slant on the interpretation of Spanishness. By 1891 when American

soprano Zélie de Lussan (1861-1949) played Carmen in London, critics were able to write of

the "recognised traditions of the part."46 Lussan's success as a Carmen for the 1890s was

enhanced by her Southern European heritage. To be successful a new Carmen needed to

bring something unique to the role and anything that drew the audience closer to the source

was valued highly. Lussan's combined French and Spanish background gave her a direct

connection to Carmen: "Her Southern type of countenance and an attractive face...are

decidedly in favour of the new Carmen.s47

For a late nineteeth-century English audience Spain and Spanish music became increasingly

synonomous with gypsy culture. There had been a strong interest in gypsies in Britain since

43 'A Book of Serenades,' Times, 23 Feb. 1884, 3. The reviewer went on to discuss the Eastern musical

influences in some of the works from the collection, pointing to the Arab influence in Félicien David's orchestral work Le Désert. On this topic he observed, "apart from this, Rubenstein, Bizet, in Carmen, Liszt, and others have made frequent use of certain augmented intervals (the second and fourth of our scale) which are common to all Eastern nations, including the gipsies." 44

The Spanish Student: A Play in Three Acts, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was first published in 1843. 45 `Mr. Edwards's "Victorian,"' Times, 21 Jan. 1884, 10. 46

'Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 18 May 1891, 3. 47 'Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 9 July 1888, 8.

55

the travels of Borrow, and Carmen was seen as the quintessential gypsy. In 1891 a critic of a

Covent Garden Carmen production commented on the familiarity of audiences with gypsy

traits,

Mme. Deschamps-Jebin made a conspicuous success in the part of the heroine... If she failed

at times to bring out the full force of the conception, it must be remembered that some of the

greatest representatives of the part have not escaped the same reproach; and now that every

educated person is aware of the true character of the gipsy, it is a comfort to find a new

Carmen who does not view the part as a vehicle for mere horseplay.s48

In this period discussion of the opera become more sophisticated but also more confused.

Many words were written about the true nature and character of the gypsy Carmen.

From the 1890s over-exaggerated performances of Bizet's heroine were warned against, for

example, Giulia Ravogli was praised for her restraint and the focused passion of her Covent

Garden performance: "the Italian artist does not allow a crowd of superfluous coquetries to

obscure the general impression she intends to produce, that namely, of intense passion. The

note of animalism, which is undoubtably present, is never exaggerated, as it has been by

some notable representatives of the part."49

The singer who became most closely identified with Carmen in the late 1890s and early

twentieth century was the French opera diva Emma Calvé (1858-1942). She first played

Carmen in Paris in December 1892 and embodied that role for a new generation of opera-

goers. Herman Klein admired Calvé's Carmen of which he wrote,

It had the calm, easy assurance, the calculated, dominating power of Galli-Marié's; it had the

strong sensual suggestion and defiant resolution of Minnie Hauk's; it had the pantherlike

quality, the grace, the fatalism, the dangerous, impudent coquetry of Pauline Lucca's; it had

the sparkle, the vim, the Spanish insousiance and piquancy of Zélie de Lussan's.5°

Calvé was born in the French Pyrenees and spent part of her childhood in northern Spain.

She played up her Spanish ancestry to promote her connection to Carmen and enhance her

claim to the role. Looking back to her youth in 1922 she reflected,

48 `Opera At Covent Garden,' Times, 26 Oct. 1891, 4. 49 'Covent Garden Opera,' Times, 12 Dec. 1892, 8. 5o Nicholas John, ed., Carmen, George Bizet (London: John Calder, 1982), 14.

56

Although I often saw my friends, the gypsies, in the marketplace, I did not again attempt to

join them. From the safe distance of my doorstep, I admired their dances and listened to their

songs, many of which I learned to sing myself. Was it because of this that, when I came to

act Carmen, I never needed to be taught the dances and gestures of the Spanish gypsies? Was

it because of these early years in Spain that I seemed to know by instinct how to carry the

shawl, how to walk and move and dance, when I found myself impersonating the lawless

gitana of Bizet's famous opera?51

Calvé travelled to Spain to conduct research for her approach to Carmen. Naturally she

visited Seville and also Granada. At this time Granada had acquired deep significance as the

cradle of gypsy and therefore exotic Spain. The 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris had a

number of Spanish exhibits centering on Granada, emphasizing its Moorish past and cave-

dwelling gypsy inhabitants.52 One of the trademarks Calvé adopted from these trips was the

manton de Manilla, a Spanish shawl she wore in place of the traditional bolero dress worn by

earlier Carmens. Years later Calvé wrote of her visit to Granada,

I had been to Grenada and I had visited the district of the Albaycin, where the gypsy bands

lived in mysterious caves and grottos. I had watched them in their daily life. I had seen them

dance and sing, and had studied their gestures and movements. I had learned how the women

dressed, and had bought from them the very shawls they were wearing.53

Calvé first played Carmen in London in 1893 and by 1895 her ownership of the role was

clear. Her return to Carmen was announced as "The reappearance of Mme. Calvé in the title

part, with which she has so completely identified herself in the eyes of the present generation

of opera-goers."54 Calvé was a particularly dominant Carmen in America, responsible for

elevating the popularity of the opera to new levels. According to Van Vechten, "It was not

until Emma Calvé appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1893-4 that Carmen became

a fetish."55

5I Emma Calvé, My Life, trans. Rosamond Gilder (New York, London: D. Appleton, 1922), 13.

52 Annegret Fauser, Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair (Rochester: University of Rochester

Press, 2005), 263-4. 53 Calve, My Life, 81. 54 'Royal Opera,' Times, 11 July 1895, 7. 55 Van Vechten, Music of Spain, 152-153.

57

A later Carmen, the Scottish singer Mary Garden (1874-1967), had success in the title role,

especially in America. In an interview for an American newspaper she made fun of the trend

for Carmen singers, such as Calvé, who talked up their travels to Spain, writing, "No I didn't

go to Spain for the atmosphere of Carmen, nor to Babylon for Salome."56

The English press also had a long love affair with Calvé, especially her interpretation of

Carmen which was to be the defining role of her career. By 1903 The Times commented that

"she has long established herself as the ideal representative of the part."57 Her singing came

in for some criticism but her performance was considered "lifelike" and the "Carmen of

Mérimée.s58 The characteristics of Calvé's Carmen that made her claims of Spanish heritage

and research believable were the demonstrative aspects of the character and her mastery of

both acting and singing. Calvé projected some of the mercurial, magical qualities associated

with gypsies. She was praised by The Times for bringing out "the witchery of the earlier

scenes and the savage power of the two last acts."59 Her commitment to and realization of

the part was routinely applauded in the press.6°

Unlike previous Carmen interpreters, Calvé was commended for the rhythmic flexibility and

inventiveness of her performances. To some this meant she often deviated too far from

Bizet's score, for others these qualities reinforced the wild, untamed and unpredictable

qualities of the Spanish gypsy:

Some one has said that Mme. Calvé recreates for herself every part she undertakes. This is

perfectly true of her Carmen. She goes even farther. She recreates the part each time she

sings it, for never is it twice precisely the same. In the little changes of stage "business"

Mme. Calvé's rendering is kaleidoscopic.°

56 Milwaukee Journal, 28 Dec. 1911, 30. 57 `Royal Opera,' Times, 27 June 1903, 8. 58 "As time goes on, she departs further and further from the rhythmic outline of the phrases as laid down by the composer; but in spite of this license in regard to the time of her notes her realization of the part is so complete that she must be admitted to be by far the most lifelike and enthralling Carmen before the public at the present day." `Royal Opera,' Times, 24 June 1901, 9. Also from The Times, "though the singer is rather the Carmen of Mérimée than the more refined heroine of Bizet's work, her performance is in the very front rank of artistic excellence." 'Royal Opera,' Times, 21 May 1900, 14. 59 Ibid. 60 "Her realization of the part is so complete that she must be admitted to be by far the most lifelike and enthralling Carmen before the public at the present day." 'Royal Opera,' Times, 24 June 1901, 9. "It is one of the most remarkable impersonations to be seen on the lyric stage...The subtlety, the humanness, the immense vitality and the actuality of it are absolutely convincing, and it is well-nigh impossible to decide which to place highest, the fine singing or the intensity of the dramatic action." 'The Royal Opera,' Times, 23 June 1902, 7. 61 'The Royal Opera,' Times, 23 June 1902, 7.

58

Calvé's career intersected with the emergence of the film and recording industries as

powerful players in the music world. Although it would be another Carmen, Geraldine

Farrar, who reached the widest audience so far through the media of film and recording,

Calvé created the definitive Carmen for the early twentieth century.62 Her performance was

compared to the emergence of new technology: "in her portrayal of Bizet's heroine there is

more of the cinematograph than of the ordinary photograph—that she is, in a sense, a quick-

change artist.s63 She continued to play Carmen well into the 1900s, recording items from the

opera in 1902. While she felt limited by the success of her Carmen, she continued her

association with Spanish music, recording a traditional Spanish song, Copias Andaluz, in

1920 for Pathé in Paris.64

The Catalan soprano Maria Gay (1879-1943) inherited the mantle of the greatest Carmen

from Calvé, and her Spanish nationality gave her added authority. As had been the case with

Calvé, her singing was widely praised and she was said to embody the Carmen of both

Mérimée and Bizet. Gay combined superior vocal technique with a forceful dramatic

approach to the role. According to The Times, "In her hands the wild animalism of the

dramatic performance is united with phrasing that is as flawless as that of an accomplished

violinist."65 Her conviction in the part was applauded and for a period she was the most

popular Carmen in England.66 Gay had her detractors too and was criticized for being too

coarse and realistic in some of her stage mannerisms. She was known to eat an orange and

spit out the seeds before singing the Habanera and perceptions of her Carmen as unrefined

led to a truncated career in the role. In the words of Van Vechten, "Maria Gay, the Spanish

Carmen, attempted realistic touches such as expectoration; a well-sung, well-thought-out

consistent performance, but lacking in glamour."67

62 Geraldine Farrar starred in Cecil B. de Mille's 1915 silent movie based on Carmen.

63 'Royal Opera,' Times, 27 June 1904, 5.

64 Victor Girard, `Emma Calvé,' Marston Records webpage, accessed 21 Feb. 2012,

www.marstonrecords.com/Calvé/Calvé liner.htm. 65

`Royal Opera,' Times, 4 Nov. 1907, 9. 66 From The Times, "The impersonation of the principal part is so excellent in a musical sense that even if Mme. Gay were a second rate actress her singing would ensure her success. Since, as everybody knows, she acts the part with matchless vigour and conviction, she stands easily above all who have made it their own since it was written. Here is the Carmen of whom Mérimée and Bizet dreamed, and the oftener it is seen the more heartily it must be admired. Every time she does it she puts in some new detail of business and perpetrates some new and delightful impertinence. Let us hope this is not a sign that she will ever allow an incomparable performance to suffer from exaggeration." `Royal Opera,' Times, 3 July 1908, 14. 67 Van Vechten, Music of Spain, 155.

59

Bizet's Carmen defined stereotypes of Spanish music for English audiences from the

premiere London performance in 1878 until well into the twentieth century. Even as late as

1920 Van Vechten's monograph on The Music of Spain concludes with a long chapter on

Carmen and protagonists in the title role.68 In his preface to this book, Pedro Morales, a

prominent Spanish writer and musician resident in London, indicated that he was

simultaneously encouraged by the rise of interest in new Spanish music in England, and

frustrated by out-dated attitudes that remained closely tied to images of Carmen. He wrote:

"What was a dead wall, and could not lead anywhere, was the old-fashioned attitude, with all

its natural consequences, of considering Carmen the quintessence of everything Spanish."69

Only with the English acceptance of the new Spanish national school in the aftermath of

World War I did Carmen stop being the measure for Spanish music.

Carmen burlesques and adaptations

The success of Bizet's Carmen in London provided the impetus for a plethora of theatrical

reconfigurations of Mérimée's story and Bizet's music on the English stage in the late

nineteenth century: from short exotic turns to full-length ballets, plays and parodies,

including the hugely popular burlesque Carmen up-to-data (1890). An examination of a

selection of the many adaptations of Carmen illustrates the popularization of the Hispanic in

this period, as the focus of Spanish music in London shifted from high art to popular forms of

entertainment.

The practice of making theatrical burlesques of current operas was common in the nineteenth

century and Verdi's operas were regular topics for such parodies.70 Theatrical

reconfigurations of Carmen began to appear in England as early as 1879, a mere six months

after the opera's premiere in London. The first was the burlesque Carmen, or Sold for a

Song!, written by Robert Reece, which premiered at the Folly Theatre on 25 January 1879.

The role of Carmen in this show was played with success in both Britain and America by

Lydia Thompson, a star of the London stage who excelled in comedy and burlesque. In his

book Lydia Thompson, Queen of Burlesque, Kurt Gänzl describes her as "one of the most

technically skilled and effective dancers of her generation, a dazzling comedienne... and the

68 The chapter is titled 'From George Borrow to Mary Garden: Histoire sommaire de Carmen,' Van Vechten,

Music of Spain, 127-159. 69 Morales, preface to Music of Spain by Van Vechten, xv. 70 See' Roberta Montemorra Marvin, 'Verdian Opera Burlesqued: A Glimpse into Mid-Victorian Theatrical Culture,' Cambridge Opera Journal 15, no. 1 (2003): 33-66. Marvin discusses burlesques of the Verdi operas Ernani, ll Trovatore and La Traviata and their reception in nineteenth-century London.

60

possessor of both a pretty, if unambitious soprano, and of a deliciously winning way with a

popular song of the comic, piquant, or merry kind."71 Thompson's Carmen is described by

Gänzel as a "flirty young person, engaged in twisting cigarettes and also lovers round her

fingers.s72 Thompson danced a Spanish `Madrilena' and the music included snippets from

Bizet alongside known melodies and topical songs.73 The show was a success but due to the

sale of the theatre and the subsequent break up of the company, Carmen, or Sold for a Song!

ended its London season in March 1879.

Cruel Carmen, or the Demented Dragoon and the Terrible Toreador (1880) by J. Wilton

Jones was premiered in Manchester's Princes Theatre in 1880. Puns on Spanish names were

also common in burlesque titles, for example Carmen, or Soldiers and Seville-fans by Frank

Green and Frank Musgrave played in the same year, moving to Broadway with Selina Dolaro

as Carmen. As already noted, Dolaro had been the first to sing Carmen in English at Her

Majesty's Theatre in early 1879, and her career is a prime example of the cross-over that

occurred between the opera and popular forms of theatre such as burlesque.

The success of Bizet's opera was such that some Carmen burlesques were rushed into

production with little preparation. An example of this is the burlesque Little Carmen by

Alfred Murray that was first staged at London's Globe Theatre on 7 February 1884. The

Times gave this new work a positive review, however this is partly due to the respect shown

for the appearance of society lady and part-time actor Bella Howard in the title role:

A new burlesque of Carmen, by Mr. Alfred Murray, was produced tentatively at the Globe

Theatre yesterday afternoon with somewhat more success than usually attends such fugitive

experiments. As the Spanish gipsy, Miss Bella Howard, in whose name the matinée was

given, played and danced with a degree of intelligence which only required to be

supplemented with a little more vivacity of manner in order to be thoroughly pleasing; and in

Miss Susie Vaughan as the amorous brigadier Don Jose, she found a coadjutor well skilled in

the rendering of burlesque. The piece, though presented under unfavourable circumstances,

was bright and lively, and its topical songs and puns were of a superior order.74

'1 Gänzl, Lydia Thompson, 2. 72 Ibid., 193. 73 Ibid., 194. 74

`The Theatres. Globe,' Times, 8 Feb. 1884, 10.

61

Even though this was clearly a parody, the believability of the gypsy character was important.

She needed to be realistic and vivacious to be credible and these qualities were desirable in

any portrayal of Carmen, whether in a popular or high-art context. A writer for The

Sporting Times declared that Little Carmen failed in both requirements of a new burlesque:

wit and topicality.

That a lady so universally respected as Miss Bella Howard was about to embark in theatrical

management, if only for a few hours, naturally attracts a distinguished audience to the Globe

Theatre on Thursday afternoon. Numerically, perhaps, they were not strong, but

aristocratically considered, nothing choicer could have been procured...All the choristers

smoke cigarettes, so do the principals, throughout the progress of the soul-inspiring

entertainment...Yet the play is of smoke, smoky dim and dirty...Had the burlesque by Alfred

Murray been produced a couple of centuries ago the topical songs could no doubt have been

much appreciated. Even now they are received with such applause as they merit. The silliest

portions of Little Dr. Faust, Blue Beard, and Fra Diavolo have been extracted and presented

to Miss Bella Howard, in the form of a new three-act burlesque.75

In 1890 the burlesque Captivating Carmen by Martin Byam and Byam Wyke was staged at

the Folkstone Pier, although it does not appear to have toured or made a significant impact.

Later that year the most successful of all Carmen parodies was produced at the Gaiety

Theatre, Carmen Up to Data. This work was premiered at the Liverpool Shakespeare

Theatre on 22 September 1890, in preparation for its London opening at the Gaiety Theatre

on 4 October 1890. The piece was a burlesque in three acts by George R. Sims and HenrY

Pettitt with music by Meyer Lutz, the same creative team responsible for other Gaiety

burlesques, including the successful parody of Gounod, Faust Up to Date (1888). Carmen

Up to Data was one of the most successful shows of this period and ran for 248 performances

in London followed by numerous provincial performances.76 The work also had an

international reach and in 1892 toured to Germany, Austria, Hungary and Australia. In each

country topical references, puns and jokes were added for the local audience.

Figure 3. Advertisement for the sheet music for songs from Carmen up to Data, featuring

Letty Lind as Mercedes 77

75 Sporting Times, 9 Feb. 1884, 2. 76 Kurt Gänzl, Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, 317. 77 London: Theatre Museum, Gaiety Theatre Archive Box.

62

t 4;0•' tt;

. • t

4 'f „.

'I! 4.1

t

Iron tke, ieSburk5quv.,

GAPME14 UP To DI\Tko .-e0 /lip e el

ETE art z

ACCFMR8fROJ C'46 8f6Nfi?S' 0 Ar(PRO S W

Proice fiat OAGH111,74

SeArt rt

63

Carmen Up To Data was a success from the first performance. The combination of interest

in Bizet's opera and the reputation of the Gaiety team had heightened expectations. The

performers were applauded vigorously at the conclusion of each song, and many items were

repeated by popular demand. There were some difficulties with the final thirty minutes of the

show and adjustments were made early in the season, but critics predicted that this would be

a long running show. Under the headline `Rapturous reception,' the Daily Chronicle reporter

wrote, "there is no reason why the new burlesque, Carmen Up to Data, should not occupy the

Gaiety stage as long as Faust Up to Data or Ruy Blas.s78

The work differed from other burlesques in that it stayed close to the original plot of the

opera, a fact noted by many critics, "The authors, Messrs. Sims and Pettitt, have written a

parallel rather than a burlesque of Bizet's opera and Merimée's story."79 Prior to this it was

not essential for a burlesque to make more than superficial references to the plot or the

structure of the parent work. Musical parody and the lampooning of key characters were the

most important ways of connecting with the original model. Balancing the vital ingredients

of humour and light entertainment with this adherence to the operatic story, presented "an

intelligible and dramatic story—of course treated in comic fashion."80 This signalled a new

approach to burlesque and a blurring of the boundaries between music hall, operetta, opera

and music theatre. One writer summed it up:

The authors have taken the plot of Bizet's opera for the foundation of their play, and instead

of distorting it until not the least resemblance is left as is usual with burlesque writers, they

have kept very closely to the original, though naturally treating the incidents in a humorous

fashion, and introducing good jokes, merry songs, and pretty dances to any extents'

Burlesque was a genre in transition during the early 1890s and writers were experimenting

with a greater variety of songs, topical references and set pieces. The Times critic observed

that Carmen Up to Data was a superior example of this new type of entertainment, indeed "a

78 Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890. Also from the same review, "Mr. Meyer Lutz has composed music that, by turns vivacious and sentimental, is always effective and melodious. Little wonder then, that, except at the termination, "Carmen up to Data" was on Saturday night rapturously received, nearly all the solo vocal pieces and some of the dances being followed by demands for repetition so unanimous and decisive as to leave the

performers no option but concession, whilst in two or three instances double encores were insisted upon. Until half-an-hour before the curtain finally descended no burlesque could have gone better with a Gaiety audience,

some of whom had assembled at the pit and gallery entrances four or five hours prior to Mr. Meyer Lutz taking his place in the orchestra to conduct the overture." 79 Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 1 Nov. 1890, 6. 80 Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890. 8i Unknown paper, 4 Oct. 1890, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.

64

very good specimen...Burlesque, like pantomime, becomes more and more a variety

entertainment, supplemented by bright costumes and catching music."82

The use of topical references was an important part of this show and the Daily Chronicle

review of the London premiere observed: "There are many happy references to current

topics in the text.s83 As the season progressed new items were added to retain a topical

flavour and to prolong interest. Towards the end of its run in May 1891 new songs and

dances were added in an attempt to keep it current and to entice audiences who had seen the

original version to return to the show.84

The composer Meyer Lutz (1829-1903) was restricted by copyright from quoting passages of

any significant length from Bizet, and was required to write his own music to some of the

opera's most famous scenes. The Observer's critic recognized the difficulty of this

undertaking, "The numerous lyrics have been set to music by Mr. Meyer Lutz, who had an

onerous task; being called upon to illustrate, musically, a number of scenes in which Bizet

has been heard at his best."85 With the rights to Bizet's music tightly controlled, Lutz was

ingenious in his suggestion of aspects of the original score.

Mr Lutz has produced for the occasion quite a solid volume of music, including choruses,

songs, duets, and dances, wherein a sort of haunting suggestion, even at times a bar or so, of

Bizet's music is cunningly designed to mark the theme without invading the composer's

jealously guarded rights.86

Lutz was largely successful in furnishing the burlesque with music that was recognized by

the English audiences of 1890 as identifiably Spanish. It is informative to note the

seriousness with which the issue of Spanish character was discussed in relation to Carmen up

to Data. A writer in the Observer analyzed the Spanish features of Lutz' music and made

comparisons with similar passages in Carmen,

82 `The Theatres in 1890,' Times, 10 Jan. 1891, 3.

83 Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890. 84 The Times commented on this injection of new material, "Hedda Gabler is shortly to be withdrawn from the Vaudeville, so that the interest manifested in Ibsen by the general public has not been great. It is instructive to note by the side of this failure that the Gaiety burlesque, Carmen Up to Data, has just taken a new lease of life, having been provided with a fresh assortment of songs and dances." `The Theatres,' Times, 25 May 1891, 6. 85 Observer, 5 Oct. 1890, 6. 86 Daily News, 6 Oct. 1890, 6.

65

Many of the best numbers, the "Fandango" for instance, and the chorus of cigarette girls, are as

distinctly Spanish in character as anything that can be found in Bizet's opera, and this characteristic is

to be found in almost all the ballet music. For Miss Florence St. John (Carmen) a capital substitute for

Bizet's "Habanera" was furnished in the song "Ask me to marry," and a still more characteristic and

piquant specimen of music after Spanish patterns was the "Calasera"...Her sentimental songs were less

original, and less in harmony with the character of Carmen.87

The following excerpts (Ex. 1) from Carmen's song in Act 1 of Carmen Up to Data illustrate

the closeness of the parody to the original. The song opens with an instrumental introduction

based on the habanera rhythm Bizet borrowed from Iradier.

Example la. The introduction to Carmen's song "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!", from

Carmen Up to Data, act 1, no. 5, ms.1-8.88

5 8"̀

vmamalma ,. l•■ m____, . Er-

—M ■r '.

. S . --- 3 -- 3 3

..a.

3

Y EMU.Jg■ -

Carmen's vocal line in "Ask Me to Marry" refers directly to the melody adapted by Bizet

from Iradier's El Arreglito. The comparison is most obvious in the chromatic descending

melody of bars 28 and 29 (Ex. lb).

87 Observer, 5 Oct. 1890, 6. as Meyer Lutz, George Robert Sims, Henry Petit, Carmen Up to Data, Piano-vocal score (London: E. Ascherberg, 1890), 36.

66

3 Car-men knows how to flirt a - few Don't you know it? yes you

■ I■NOMIN= MP" a1•••••1111111111

Example lb. Excerpt from "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!," from Carmen Up to Data,

act 1, no. 5, ms.24-31.89

18

' A111110AMION I rß - 1■• ■t

dolA to mar - ri - age chains you see

/:1 ■ I.1=1■1=11 .1MI AIM IMI■MIIIIMIMI•ZUM■1111111=■IMI ■t M.MIM■EMM■IMIIIIL!■■ YEINI11111t ■W'■a■Y

Not one link of them for

'AM.. ..■.e . — 7 . : ■ ■ .i-..... M■ 1:1/.171M111 ■ ■ U r !■a . ■ Mt.1.-• OM ■ i ■MmN■M■ - IMI•MllMMJNNMMI■.•IW J=s •_

11111111.11111111M1

■i .

I •• ril•IMI MI

■i A= Ep■wms—

Lutz successfully manipulated the expectations of audiences who were very familiar with the

music and story of Carmen. The closeness of the plot of Carmen Up to Data to the opera

served to enhance the musical parody and a critic in the Daily Telegraph explained the

success of Lutz' score,

They have so led up to well-known musical points in Bizet's opera that the audience seemed to wait for

the familiar music. But here came in the wonderful skill of Herr Lutz. He was deliberately forced into

a contest with Bizet on his own ground. How admirably the musician came out of the struggle we need

not say. The music like Bizet's, had all the brightness and sparkle and abandon of the Spanish

character. But with all that, the greatest adorers of Bizet will not fail to be delighted with Lutz.9°

89 Meyer Lutz, George Robert Sims, Henry Petit, Carmen Up to Data, Piano-vocal score (London: E.

Ascherberg, 1890), 37-8. 90 Daily Telegraph, 6 Oct. 1890.

NUM

67

As composer, musical director and conductor, Lutz was the driving force behind Carmen Up

to Data. A writer in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News summed up his influence

on the show by stating, "Carmen Up to Data might perhaps be more properly called Meyer

Lutz up to everything. The talented musical director of the Gaiety appears to me to be the

moving spirit of the whole performance. His eye and his baton give impulse to the show and

sustain it."9 t

In addition to the music, the costumes and staging played a pivotal role in portraying Spanish

colour. The Daily News critic was impressed by the exotic locations and staging and wrote,

"The scenery was exceptionally picturesque, Mr. Hann's Square in Seville, Courtyard of the

Gipsy Club, and Rocky Retreat on the the seacoast being particularly noteworthy."92

The closeness of the burlesque and operatic genres is demonstrated by the way many singers

crossed between these genres, as has already been noted in the case of Dolaro. It is

noteworthy that the performance of Florence St. John as Carmen in Carmen Up to Data was

critiqued with almost as much seriousness as a performance of the operatic role. The Daily

Chronicle wrote:

Vocally Miss St. John is as excellent as ever. Four solo airs are at present alloted her. In place of the

"habanera" of the opera stands a lightsome morceau, "Ask me to marry, I laugh, ha, ha!" a tender air in

F, "One who is life to me," a calasera (thoroughly Spanish in character), whilst beguiling José to

remain in the inn instead of responding to the bugle summons to rejoin his regiment...A more

fascinating and persuasive Carmen has not been seen on the metropolitan stage.93

In the Daily Telegraph review, Miss St. John's performance was seen as evidence of her

ability to sing the operatic Carmen, "Miss St. John might be a very delightful Carmen on the

serious stage. She has all the temperament for the character. She would have done for the

part what Selina Dolaro did for it."94

This quest for more variations on the Carmen character and above all a more authentically

Spanish Carmen led naturally to dramatic versions of Mérimée's novella. A dramatic

production of Carmen adapted by the playwright Henry Hamilton had some success in

91 Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 1 Nov. 1890, 6. 92 Daily News, 6 Oct. 1890, 6. 93 Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890. "Daily Telegraph, 6 Oct. 1890.

68

America before being presented in London at the Gaiety Theatre on June 6 1896. The

English actress and theatre manager Olga Nethersole (1867-1951) played Carmen in this

presentation. She was already well known in theatre circles as manager of the Royal Court

Theatre in London and as a director of her own plays and scenarios. Nethersole pioneered a

realistic approach to acting and was an important figure in the evolution of a modern style of

drama in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She aimed to bring this realistic

style to Carmen, an extension of what had already been happening on the operatic stage in

the work of Calvé. In preparation for her turn as Carmen, Nethersole drew on her first-hand

experience of travel to Spain in an attempt to put an authentic stamp on her dramatic Carmen

interpretation. In response to negative commentary about the play, Nethersole's biographer

Archie Bell wrote, "who of these critics has spent hours and days of study upon the real soul

of the girl Carmen, as she lives in Spain to-day? Miss Nethersole has made the true

representation of Carmen one of the artistic ideals of her life."95

The play caused a stir, most notably the lengthy kiss between Carmen and Don Jose which

became known as the "Nethersole kiss," however, reviews in London were not favourable.96

Perceptions of Spanish music and the Carmen story were so closely united to the musical

context that for many a purely dramatic setting did not have the ring of truth. The Times's

critic pointed out the difficulties London audiences found in appreciating a Carmen devoid of

operatic artifice and music:

The story of Carmen is so entirely wedded to the music of Bizet that Miss Olga Nethersole is

necessarily handicapped to some extent in appearing in a purely dramatic version of the loves and

infidelities of Prosper Merimée's heroine. That is one reason, doubtless, why the efforts of this clever

young actress were not so cordially appreciated at the Gaiety on Saturday night as they might have

been 97

Music was not totally absent from this production and selections from Bizet's score and some

original music were included in between the dramatic movements of the show. In the

opinion of a number of critics Nethersole's performance did not live up to the lofty standards

of expression and realism set by the opera stars Hauk and Calvé. A dramatic portrayal was

95 Archie Bell, Olga Nethersole (Paris: Herbert Clarke, 1907), 7. 96

"In her performance of Carmen, Nethersole had become famous for what became known as 'the Nethersole kiss'—a kiss on the lips that lasted so long that stagehands were rumored to lay bets on its duration each evening." Katie N. Johnson, Sisters in Sin: Brothel Drama in America, 1900-1920 (Cambridge: CUP, 2006), 45. 97

'Gaiety Theatre,' Times, 8 June 1896, 13.

69

deemed too realistic to be plausible. The Times was quite adamant on this point and wrote,

"The truth is—and Miss Nethersole will do well to lay it to heart—that there is no more room

on the stage for a realistic Carmen than there is for a Jeanne d'Arc who should be merely a

cow-girl of Lorraine, too familiar with the officers of the French army."98

Nethersole added Spanish colour to her performance with the inclusion of a Spanish dance

routine with castanets, however, it was deemed unconvincing and the writer in The Times

commented that "she does well not to try too much the nerves of a public called upon to

accept a Carmen who does not sing, and who attempts, without much success, a dance with

the castanets."99

Arthur Sullivan and Spanish music

A number of English composers wrote Spanish music as part of music hall revues or

theatrical works that evoked Spain. One of the most notable nineteenth-century English

composers to write Spanish music for the theatre was Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900).

Sullivan was probably the most successful English composer of the Victorian era, known for

the light operas and burlesques he composed to libretti by his partner William Gilbert.

Sullivan's grandfather had taken part in the Peninsular War, serving at Vittoria, Salamanca

and Badajoz, and Spanish themes and characters feature in several of his theatrical works.100

One of his earliest, The Contrabandista, or The Law of the Ladrones, is set in Spain and stars

thieves, bandits, Spanish dancers and musicians. The Contrabandista predated his

partnership with Gilbert and opened at St George's Hall in London on 18 December 1867.

The piece was an important stepping-stone for the young composer, even though it played to

mixed reviews and remains a rarely performed work.10' This was his first work in more than

one act and was written at a time when when a distinctly British form of musical theatre was

emerging. La Contrabandista marked Sullivan's second collaboration with the writer F.C.

Burnand who worked for Punch magazine and was experienced in the field of burlesque.102

Even though the script for The Contrabandista is comical, it attempted to conjure up images

98 Ibid. 99 Ibid. 1°° Arthur Lawrence, Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life Story, Letters and Reminiscences (1899; New York: Haskell House, 1973), 253. 1°1 The Contrabandista was performed occasionally in England and the USA until 1880 and not again until the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society revived it in a concert version in 2002. A recording of the work was issued in 2004

on the Hyperion label. Soloists, The New London Orchestra, The London Chorus, Ronald Corp cond., Arthur

Sullivan: The Contrabandista — The Foresters, Hyperion Records, CDA67486, 2004. 1°2 Their collaboration had already produced the successful one-act comic opera Cox and Box (1866)•

70

of Spain and provided Sullivan with the opportunity to incorporate sections of Spanish

colour. To suggest the Spanish context Sullivan utilized typical Spanish dance forms such as

the bolero and the cachucha, which were common markers of theatrical Spanish music and

dance in the mid-nineteenth century.

The story, playing on the familiar stereotype of the Spanish bandit, is set in mountainous

terrain in the area between Compostello and Seville. A group of bandits capture an English

woman, who is engaged to marry a Spanish Count. As retribution, the Count kills the leader

of the bandits and they are forced to choose a new leader. According to the "Law of the

Ladrones," the first stranger to pass by will be named their new chief and a hapless

Englishman named Aldolphus Cimabue Grigg is the first stranger to pass. Copied below is a

stretch of dialogue from this scene at the end of Act 1 where two of the robbers, José and

Sancho have confronted Mr Grigg (Fig. 4). The scene ends in a bolero, featuring castanets.

71

Figure 4. Arthur Sullivan and F.C. Burnand, La Contrabandista, dialogue from the

end of act 1.103

Both [José and Sancho]: We're members of a robber band,

We offer you, as Captain, the command.

Mr. Grigg: Upon my word, I do not understand,

In fact I'd rather not.

Both: Our Captain you must be!

Refuse! Then choose, be Captain or be shot!

Mr. Grigg: What?

Both: Shot!

Mr Grigg: Not—

Both: Shot!

Mr. Grigg: What?

Both: Shot!

Mr. Grigg: For what?

Both: Yes, shot!

Mr. Grigg: Well, agreed!

Both: `Tis agreed!

Dance the bolero! Dance the bolero!

Mr Grigg: Mad! `Tis my belief.

Both: Wild tarantellas will welcome our Chief.

Dance the bolero!

Mr Grigg: Why the bolero?

Both: Bolero! Bolero! The robber's pet,

We'll dance to the pipe and the gay castanet.

Mr Grigg: Bolero! Bolero! A dreadful set!

I wish that I'd never these gentlemen met.

All: Bolero! Bolero!...

We'll dance to the sound of the pipe...

The following excerpt (Ex. 2) of the piano score of this trio shows some of the musical

devices Sullivan used to suggest the Spanish setting. The trio is in a sprightly triple meter

and is marked `Allegro, tempo de cachucha.' The rhythmic inflections setting of the word

"bolero" mimic the rhythm of the dance, and the harmonic movement from D major to E flat

103 Arthur Sullivan and F.C. Burnand, La Contrabandista, (London: Boosey, 1867), 30-36.

72

234

#

Tenor

Bass

Bo - - ro! pipe and the gay cas - ta • net

-_,MOI= . Nr.iMirrs s>1■11•111••1111.>- ■I..1•111f..= MM" I•YI= '

J/Mhi■ .i4=M1

JI■Ia •11.„NCEN1==>_ •=1 ■=1. . =■=■•••I■••=1=11=1,11= M.I •■• ====11111•1•11.11MIK t.I'0=7'1=1•111111■l MEN ,/ ! 111■1■111■11■N.aJIMAJI■r

r• >_ >_ . . r = . .

111

r r _r 7

tle- men met Bo - le - ro!

245

Piano

1

# •• •

— s • • s

p .•N

{

major (over a D pedal) in bars 242-245 is a reference to the distinctively Spanish sounding

Phrygian mode.

Example 2. Arthur Sullivan, `Hullo! What's That?,' La Contrabandista, act 1, no. 6, ms.234-

249.104

cre.sc.

tli .

• b I wish that gen - tle - men met,— These gen rd ne - ver These

.) h h a a

Bo le ro! We'll dance to the

-----ow.

le II

le ...--•

- ro! le - ro!

t

- ro! Bo ---,

le - ro! Bo

ï:=. ,_ ,. ,_ .,, \I.1/ , .1.J 71.1: .1 . i •

Jb - Y. . 1. JIIYm

m l-I_ m- .

Bo - le - ro! Bo - le - ro! Bo dim.

le - ro! Bo le - ro! Bo

siMiNIMINNE Si •+-s s

I

sMM I ===r , (.) I

_1

9 0 T T T1 T 11 7 7

toa Sullivan and Burnand, La Contrabandista, 34.

73

4'4 4

11

1i% 1— /m:■ 111! l•..I.311■ 11■1■1■l Jat_tl.l JslNI■al

Il/ • iY--- J•IIIMIN-- -i 1•NIMOM MUMl

{

Sullivan followed this trio with a Spanish dance marked "tempo di Bolero." Here (Ex. 3) the

staccato articulation in the bass clef (bars 1-4), cascading triplet figures (bars 3-4), dotted

rhythms (bars 1-2), use of the Phrygian mode (bars 3-4) and the typical guitar key of A

minor, are some of the means by which Sullivan creates a Spanish dance pastiche (Example

3).

Example 3. Sullivan, Dance, La Contrabandista, act 1, no. 7, ms.1-14.05

• • 3

—'ANIC)— a a J•---•- -7 E.Sl— M—Mt' a \l•N r 1 r—=t--li: t-11=M 7 ■f t/—l—/—■PlI.t/ 1J .I 1 l—J—■Jt.1.t►

. If a J♦--•--- .—!b1 J.aM..I AW tx tma I 17—

ma ! lJ 1Ja.aJJ )1 l./ _ —M-- —. m N VrL" i --!b1 Z.

if

p -T

/ .JJ

i P 3 3

M --

3 _ _

3 3 3 3

maw alt =•—. • J—.-- .. tô•—. s.a► t ../' J•

IMMEi—vt' =

Am, al 1•■••..

Y tl= Q I 1711 =._ ..S . M'AIME 'ENIIMIi--.—=1IMM■I

Q f.1711 11M.Jt ..S ..1■11111.Il` =1•1■—.—■1■

it-1 i>• t.7.—i i E■i.! Jr il■/ 7 l• —\! . Y—n.i — .l—t.tli i i i. l••■l—l/—iilIt'il _:•------------- ---- ..'rl– W..■ ~W • — _–. ,--,—

:3 1:■■

111 A==== — J• 1111■1■111—

Y.>• ..Jt—_— —...f..s..7..•a..i,.f..7_.i J.. 1

---• . . . r: • t . i.. 1—' —\` J• .t'asl i. .7. .f . J—. .71• _ MIIIIIMM'—S7

_

Sullivan's biographer, Arthur Jacobs, argued that in this early work Sullivan's use of dances

to suggest the Spanish setting was not always handled smoothly. He writes that the dances

were introduced "effectively as music, but with a clumsy interruption to the action, which

Sullivan would avoid when reintroducing such dances in The Gondoliers."106

105 Sullivan and Burnand, La Contrabandista, 37 '06 Arthur Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician (Oxford: OUP, 1984) 52.

74

By the time of The Gondoliers, the writing partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan was at its

zenith. First produced at the Savoy Theatre in 1889, The Gondoliers was an instant success

and one of their most enduring works. The story moves between Venice and Barataria, the

imaginary island given to Sancho Panza in Cervante's Don Quijote. Character names such as

"The Duke of Plaza-Toro" and "Don Alhambra del Bolero" indicate the play on Spanish

themes in this work. The most famous Spanish number in The Gondoliers is the Chorus and

Dance, "Dance a Cachucha." Sullivan was writing for an audience already familiar with the

Spanish stereotypes promoted by Carmen and its manifold spin offs. The effortless comedy

of The Gondoliers played on expectations of the lighter side of the Spanish or "southern"

temperament. A reviewer in The Telegraph wrote, "The `Gondoliers' conveys an impression

of having been written con amore. It is as spontaneous as the light-hearted laughter of the

sunny south and as luminous as an Italian summer sky.s107

Twenty-seven years after the premiere of The Contrabandista, and in the aftermath of the

success of Carmen, Burnand and Sullivan joined forces again to resurrect and rework the

piece under a new title, The Chieftan. The music was substantially re-written, particularly the

second act.108 The Chieftan was first put on at the Savoy Theatre on 12 December 1894 and,

after a strong opening, attendances declined. Sullivan made a last ditch effort to save the

show by amplifying the use of Spanish colour. He wanted to replace Inez's song from act 1

with a new habanera but had difficulty setting Burnand's words. Sullivan wrote to Burnand

about the problems he was having setting the new words to a habanera rhythm:

I have tried hard [with Burnand's new words] but cannot get it into shape. The metre is against my

setting it in a Spanish, dancing rhythm, and it is disjointed in form, which wouldn't matter except that

in this particular place I want a strongly marked, catchy rhythmical [sic] number, like the quintet in 2"d

act...Here are nonsense words and music which give an idea of a characteristic Spanish rhythm [sic].

Two or three verses of this, with words which will admit of a 'la la la' in the chorus, and I could make

a bright, lively opening number.109

107 Quoted in Lawrence, Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life Story, 183. 108 Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan, 352. 1°8 Ibid., 353.

75

Sullivan later sent Burnand examples of the rhyming scheme he wanted and in the new

edition of the vocal score Inez's song is marked `Allegro molto alla habanera'."° In the end

it was to no avail and The Chieftan only lasted for 96 performances, a failure for someone

with Arthur Sullivan's track record." Florence St John, who had such success in Carmen up

to Data, was in the cast of The Chieftan, playing the role of Rita.

Throughout the 1880s, the 1890s and into the new century, London audiences had developed

their own, much discussed, multiple understandings of Spanishness through the opera

Carmen, its various English adaptations, and Spanish-themed theatre works. Performers and

productions had to be convincing and realistic but could only push the boundaries so far. At

the same time, Spanish musicians performing in London were frustrated with stereotypes

derived from Carmen. The following chapter is a discussion of the fortunes and impact of

two renowned Spanish musicians active in late-nineteenth century London, Pablo Sarasate

and Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909).

11° Ibid. "I The Gondoliers ran for 554 performances.

76

Chapter 3:

Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz: Prominent Spanish performer-

composers in late Victorian London

In their book Musical Visitors to Britain, David and Peter Gordon discuss the reasons

why Britain has attracted a steady stream of foreign musicians since the sixteenth

century.' They identify a distinct increase in the number of musical visitors to

London in the nineteenth century when tours by foreign musicians in Britain were

more viable than ever before due to the increased possibilities of travel and a larger

and more educated musical public.2 The early nineteenth century also marked the rise

of celebrity conductors and performers and music festivals where foreign artists were

showcased. The emergence of the musical entrepreneur and bodies such as the

Philharmonic Society of London facilitated concerts and tours for foreign performers

and composers. London in particular was a place where money could be made, not

only through performing but also teaching. The strong culture of amateur music

making in Britain ensured successful musicians could make a living from a

combination of activities.

The two most significant Spanish musicians to appear on the London scene in the

final decades of the nineteenth century were the violinist Pablo Sarasate and pianist

and composer Isaac Albéniz. They were both prominent Spanish musical

ambassadors who spent significant periods of time in London and in this chapter their

significance to musical perceptions of Spain in London is examined via a survey of

published reviews and writings focused on their activities in the English capital.

Pablo Sarasate in London

Sarasate's brilliance as a violinist transcended national boundaries, however, his

Spanish or "Southern" nature was often a topic for critics. His rise to prominence

coincided with the first wave of popularity of the opera Carmen and the subsequent

interest in Spanish music and dance. Sarasate's Fantasia on themes from Carmen

and his own Spanish compositions were responses to this trend and in turn helped to

David Gordon and Peter Gordon, Musical Visitors to Britain, (London and New York: Routledge, 2005). 2 Ibid., 5-9.

77

generate interest in Spanish instrumental music. Sarasate was one of Spain's most

famous musical exports and an important figure in cultivating perceptions of Spanish

music in London. The level of success and popularity he attained was unprecedented

for a Spanish instrumentalist and he paved the way for later Spanish performers,

especially Albéniz.

Sarasate was born in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona in 1844 and from an early

age learnt the violin from his father. In 1854 he went to Madrid for lessons and

within two years gave his first concert at the Teatro Real and played for the Spanish

King and Queen.3 According to the recollections of his mother he played

instrumental fantasies on themes from the operas Norma, Rigoletto and Macbeth for

the royal couple.4 In 1856 Sarasate and his mother set out for Paris with a letter of

introduction to the renowned pedagogue Delphin Alard whose violin method had

been translated into Spanish, German and Italian.5 Tragically, Sarasate's mother died

suddenly of cholera during the journey but Sarasate continued on to Paris with the

help of a Spanish businessman who arranged for his studies with Alard to proceed.

He showed his talent by winning the Paris Conservatoire prize for violin in 1857,

followed by a prize for harmony the following year. Alard had a reputation for

"purity of style and execution,"6 qualities Sarasate was also famous for, but Sarasate

later remarked that all he learnt from Alard was posture.? After graduating from the

Conservatoire Sarasate's reputation grew steadily and he attracted the attention of

Rossini who famously remarked that he was "a giant in talent whose modesty doubles

his charm."8

Sarasate's activities in the 1860s are not well documented. He made his first visit to

London as a teenager in 1861 for concerts at the Crystal Palace in London organized

by the American impresario Bernard Ullman. Newspaper coverage of these concerts

was limited and in press previews he was referred to as Neapolitan.9 The Standard

3 Pedro Garcia Morales, `Sarasate y Navascués, Pablo de,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A. Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 436. 4 According to the nineteenth-century virtuoso tradition exemplified by Liszt. S Iberni, Pablo Sarasate, 35. 6 Milsom, Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance, 24.

Ibemi, Pablo Sarasate, 38. 8 Morales, `Sarasate y Navascués,' 436.

Morning Chronicle, 17 May 1861.

78

published a brief review, indicating that the repertoire was confined to fantasies and

arrangements of operatic items, and not even mentioning Sarasate's Spanish

nationality.10

After 1861 Sarasate focused his energies on performing in America and continental

Europe. He reappeared in London in 1874, when he played the Concerto in F written

for him by his close friend the French composer Edouard Lalo (1823-1892). Born

and bred in France, Lalo's family background was actually Spanish and his second

violin concerto, the Symphonie espagnole (1874) is his best known composition."

Sarasate probably met Lalo in Paris during his years at the Conservatoire and knew

Lalo's chamber works featuring violin.12 On 29 November 1873 three of the most

important names who would be associated with Spanish music combined when

Sarasate played Lalo's Violin Sonata with Bizet at the piano.13 The 1874 London

premiere of Lalo's Concerto in F was advertised as Sarasate's first visit to England,14

and reviews noted Sarasate's tone and technical mastery, with the Morning Chronicle

describing him as "Senor Sarasate, whose execution is facile and whose tone is pure,

lucid, sweet, and true."15 His regular visits to London date from this time and he

continued to visit England frequently until his final years.16

A measure of Sarasate's popularity in late Victorian London is the fact that he was

presented as a favourite violinist of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective

Sherlock Holmes. In the Conan Doyle story The Adventure of the Red-Headed

League," Holmes invites Watson to St. James's Hall to hear Sarasate perform, noting

that, "there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is rather more

to my taste than Italian or French. It is introspective and I want to introspect.s18

Watson relates the effect of Sarasate's concert on Holmes' mood,

10 Standard, 18 May 1861, 6. 11 Elaine Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope, 1870-1925 (New York: George Braziller, 1987). 12 Iberni, Pablo Sarasate, 50. 13 Ibid., 50. 14 Standard, 11 May 1874, 1. 15

Morning Post, 21 May 1874, 6. 16 Iberni, Pable Sarasate, 39. 17

First published in The Strand Magazine in August 1891. 15 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 1992), 139-140.

79

All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently

waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and

languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes, the sleuth-hound Holmes, the

relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent as it was possible to conceive.19

An examination of critical responses to Sarasate's performances illustrates not only

his impact on perceptions of Spanish music in London but also provides invaluable

information on Sarasate's performance style, perhaps more so than the recordings he

made towards the end of his life.20 The entry on Sarasate in the 1899 edition of

Grove's Dictionary of Music described the salient features of his playing, suggesting

Sarasate did not bring to the fore qualities generally expected of a Spanish musician:

Sarasate's distinguishing characteristics are not so much fire, force and passion,

though of these he has an ample store, as purity of style, charm, flexibility, and

extraordinary facility. He sings on the instrument with taste and expression, and

without that exaggeration or affectation of sentiment which disfigures the playing of

many violinists.21

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) noted the difference between Sarasate's

personality and public expectations of him. "He is always alert, swift, clear, refined,

certain, scrupulously attentive and quite unaffected. This last adjective will surprise

people who see him as a black-haired romantic young Spaniard, full of fascinating

tricks and mannerisms."22 Features of his musical style mentioned time and again in

reviews include technical brilliance, accurate intonation, consistency of tone and

tasteful or civilized playing. These features could conceivably describe dull music-

making, however, Sarasate's performances were far from lacklustre. He had the air of

a showman about him. The wife of violinist Fritz Kreisler remembered him as:

19 Ibid., 140. 20 David M ilsom in Theory and Practice in Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance compares performances by prominent nineteenth-century violinists through an analysis of their recordings. The results are problematic given the age of the performers and the constraints of recording technology in the early twentieth century. Sarasate's recordings date from 1904 when he was in the twilight of his professional career. For more on Pablo Sarasate's 1904 recordings see Rodriguez, `De la manière des zigeuner.' 21 Christopher Fifield, Max Bruch: His Life and Works (London: Victor Gollancz, 1988), 149. 22 Star, 24 May 1889, 132.

80

the greatest grand seigneur in musical history. He looked like a grand duke. He has

a mass of grey hair, but his moustache was dyed pitch black. He played with the

greatest nonchalance. When he had already placed his violin under his chin and

everybody thought he was about to start, he would drop it again, clamp a monocle

into his eye and survey his audience. He had a way of seeming to drop his fiddle that

would take the audience's breath away. That is, he would let it slide down his slender

figure, only to catch it by the scroll of the neck just in time. It was a regular

showman's trick of his.23

In his book Thirty Years of Musical Life in London (1903), the critic Herman Klein

(1856-1934) recalled the impression Sarasate made at an early concert in 1877,24

Senor Sarasate had just turned thirty when he made his first appearance before a

London audience. Three years later (October 13, 1877) his rendering of

Mendelssohn's violin concerto at the Crystal Palace fairly took the town by storm,

and he repeated his triumph at the Philharmonic in the following spring. After 1885

he became an almost annual visitor to England, and he also toured several years with

unvarying success in the United States.25

Klein was right about Sarasate's success but his memory of the repertoire was faulty.

According to press reports Sarasate played Max Bruch's (1838-1920) Violin Concerto

No. 1, in G minor (1866), at the Crystal Palace on 13 October 1877, and local critics

were well aware of his growing reputation in Europe:

Herr Bruch...was lucky in such an interpreter as Senior Sarasate, a Spanish virtuoso,

who, but little known in England, has nevertheless of recent years been winning

golden opinions on the Continent, and not infrequently through the medium of the

same concerto.26

Sarasate forged close musical allegiances with a number of composers including the

German Bruch. They first met in 1877 at performances of the Violin Concerto no. 1,

23 Fifield, Max Bruch, 149-150. 24 Klein dated Sarasate's debut in London to 1874. The earlier tour of 1861 seemed to have been erased from the public memory. 25

Hermann Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900 (London: William Heinemann, 1903), 96. 26

`Crystal Palace Concerts,' Times, 15 Oct. 1877, 11.

81

originally written for Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.27

Bruch was fascinated with Sarasate's playing and subsequently dedicated his Violin

Concerto no. 2, in D minor (1878), to him.

Joachim and Sarasate enjoyed an active rivalry, not only of personalities but between

rival schools of violin playing. Joachim represented the more cerebral, academic

German school, 28 while Sarasate was aligned with the French school. As The Times

critic explained, "the French school of violinists, using that term in the wider

sense...refers to style and training rather than to birth. Vieuxtemps and Sarasate, the

first a Belgian, the second a Spaniard... [both belong] by `elective affinity' to the

school just referred to."29

In many ways Sarasate was a unique artist who transcended the limits of any school.

No less an authority than Carl Flesch wrote in his memoirs that "from him, in fact,

dates the modern striving after technical precision and reliability." 30

Joachim was seen as the more cerebral of the two violinists and this perception

extended to repertoire choices. Shaw mused in print on a number of occasions about

their relative merits, reflecting in 1890 on what he considered the hypocrisy of

Joachim's conservative repertoire choices:

Joachim is famous for the austerity of his repertoire. He will play nothing

meretricious: he stands inflexibly by the classics; and will [play] none of your

Sarasate dance tunes and national airs...I cannot, for the life of me, see that Joachim

has any valid standard of criticism. It seems to me that if he is prepared to tolerate

second-hand Mozart, faked by Spohr, and mechanical padding by Sgambati, he is

hardly in a position to turn up his nose at the free and original compositions of

Sarasate and Wieniawski3l

27 Fifield, Max Bruch, 149. 28 Maciej Jablonski and Danuta Jasinska, Henryk Wieniaski and the 19'1'-Century Violin Schools (Poznan: The Henryk Wieniawski Musical Society, 2006), 105. 29 `Crystal Palace,' Times, 13 Dec. 1881, 4. 30 Carl Flesch, Memoirs (Harlow: Bois de Bologne, 1973), 38. 31 Star, 21 Mar. 1890, 350.

82

While Sarasate was renowned for the accuracy of his intonation, Joachim was less

technically exact, but evidently consistent in his own way. Shaw wrote of his desire

to hear a violinist who combined Sarasate's technique and Joachim's interpretative

powers after hearing Joachim's performance of the Bach Chaconne in D minor at a

concert in 1893:

If the intonation had only had the exquisite natural justice of Sarasate's, instead of the

austerity of that particular scale which may be called the Joachim mode, and which is

tempered according to Joachim's temperament and not according to the sunny

South...But the thought that the miracle of miracles might arrive in the shape of a

violinist with Sarasate's intonation and Joachim's style made me forbear.32

After the premiere in London of Carmen in 1878 Sarasate was characterized more

prominently as a Spanish musician, and writers and critics dwelt on aspects of

Spanish character and temperament in his performances. Critics repeatedly

characterized Sarasate's playing as fiery and passionate, particularly in comparison

with Joachim's interpretations. Inevitably, these traits were attributed to his Spanish

or "southern" heritage. The repertoire did not have to be by southern European

composers for these comparisons to be made. A performance of Mendelssohn's

Violin Concerto led The Times reviewer to write: "The peculiar fire which the

Southern artist imparts to the German composer's thoughtful conception...

distinguishes his reading from that of Joachim."33 The same critic described

Sarasate's performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto as "played...with the fire and

energy peculiar to his southern nature, and differing from, although by no means

inferior to, the so-called `classical style' in which that masterpiece is generally

rendered."34 Here Sarasate's nationality is referred to in a positive light and his

Spanishness became the defining feature of his performance.

In his own compositions, Sarasate also furthered the racially oriented expectations of

style. On the cover of the 1878 edition of Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) Sarasate

wrote that it should be played "in the style of the gypsy people" ("de la manière des

zigeuner"). The conflation of gypsy and Spanish identities, particularly in the wake

32 World, 29 Mar. 1893, 276. 33 'Senor Sarasate's Concert,' Times, 23 Apr. 1883, 4. 34

`Senor Sarasate's Concerts,' Times, 4 May 1885, 6.

83

of Carmen, meant that Sarasate's take on gypsy melodies, largely based on Eastern

European violin styles, reinforced the exotic allure of his persona. Sarasate's score

for Zigeunerweisen has detailed markings to convey his approach his ideas of tempo

and rubato. In his 1904 recording of Zigeunerweisen Sarasate stays closer to the

marked indications of the score than most modern interpreters.35 In his analysis of

this recording, Rodriguez makes a comparison with a recorded performance by Itzak

Perlman (1945-) and observes, "this nineteenth-century precision of Sarasate manages

to give a feeling of improvisation or flexibility that Perlman's twentieth-century

precision does not have."36

Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, written for Sarasate in 1874 became a signature work

for the violinist and one of the most popular Spanish-themed works performed in

London before Carmen. According to James Parakilas, "Lalo can be said to have

invented Sarasate in this work—to have invented for Sarasate the style on which he

would build his career.i37 It is an exaggeration to claim that Lalo "invented" Sarasate

in this work given he was well known for his precocious talents and virtuosity from

an early age, and that these attributes had already inspired composers such as Camille

Saint Saëns (1835-1921) to write for him virtuosic works exhibiting elements of

Spanish or gypsy musical style.38

Parakilas also discusses the difficulties Sarasate faced in conforming to preconceived

ideas of Spanish musical personality. He writes,

To fulfill international expectations of the Spanish "type," his music and playing had

to be passionate; to match the manners of the concert hall, they could not be too

passionate. His music settles for elegant lyricism. The more successfully he

cultivated the role of the Spanish fiddler, the more he played into condescension

abroad when he insisted on breaking out of that role, as when he performed

Beethoven in Berlin.39

"Rodriguez, 'De la manière des zigeuner,' 149-151. 36 Ibid., 151. 37 Parakilas `How Spain Got a Soul,' 162. "For example the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863, revised 1870) mentioned later in this chapter. 39 Parakilas, 'How Spain Got a Soul,' 162-3.

84

Reviews of Sarasate's performances in London do not necessarily support these

assumptions. It is difficult to imagine a performer of such prodigious talents as

Sarasate, who was successfully performing a wide range of works in both Europe and

America, adapting his performance style to meet expectations of Spanish type.

Negative reactions to his playing of Beethoven in Berlin probably had as much to do

with local support for the German style represented by Joachim, as they did with

Sarasate's own performance. As has been seen in a number of the reviews quoted

earlier, English critics enjoyed hearing Sarasate play a wide range of music. After his

success with the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, Sarasate wrote and performed more of

his own Spanish pieces. Rather than being viewed solely as a concession to public

expectations, this was an opportunity to present original Spanish-themed works in

concert, often as encore pieces or at the end of a recital. These pieces were popular

character works, akin to the lighter salon pieces that many performers included in

their programmes.

Before 1874 Sarasate had written numerous fantasies and variations on operatic

themes but after the Lalo success he began to write almost exclusively Spanish pieces.

As a performer, however, Sarasate refused to be locked into playing Spanish works.

His musical interest extended to northern European folk music and he encouraged

composers to use these themes in works written for him. Lalo wrote the Fantasie

norvégienne (1878) for him to play and the Scottish composer Alexander Mackenzie

composed a suite for violin and orchestra based on Scottish themes (Pibroch, 1889)

dedicated to Sarasate. These choices baffled some commentators including The

Times music critic who wrote:

M. Sarasate gave Mendelssohn's concerto for the violin, with the verve and technical

mastery for which the Spanish artist is justly famous. In addition to this, he produced

one of the novelties of the evening, a "Fantaisie Norvégienne," for violin, by Edouard

Lalo, the well-known composer and violinist. Why an artist of Southern origin who

lives in France and acquired his reputation by a "Symphonie Espagnole" should have

chosen a Norwegian theme for his subject may seem surprising at first sight 4°

a° 'Fifth Philharmonic Concert,' Times, 2 May 1879, 8.

85

Another composer close to Sarasate was the distinguished French composer Saint-

Saëns. Sarasate asked him to write a concerto for the violin at their first meeting

resulting in the Violin Concerto, in A major (1872), Saint-Saën's first violin concerto,

and a perfect match for Sarasate's playing style. James Harding has observed of this

work,

It was tailor-made for Sarasate's bewitchingly elegant style, all silver sheen and ice-

cold sweetness, a style achieved without practising scales or exercises, and nurtured

by sight-reading classics and new works which gave him opportunities to develop his

remarkable facility for understanding and immediately overcoming the most

complicated problems4'

Among the other works Saint-Saëns wrote for Sarasate were the Introduction and

Rondo Capriccioso and the Violin Concerto No. 3, in B minor, premiered by Sarasate

in 1880. The first of these pays homage to Spanish music especially in the

accompaniment figures in the Rondo section which recall the guitar.42 The virtuosic

writing of this work, particularly in the finale, suited Sarasate and it was one of his

favourite works to perform. Bizet prepared the arrangement of this piece for violin

and piano 43

Perhaps, rather than Lalo inventing Sarasate with his Symphonie espagnole, it might

be more accurate to suggest that Sarasate was an important inspiration for both Lalo

and Bizet. Luis Iberni speculates that Sarasate was actually a key inspiration for his

friend Bizet in his writing of the opera Carmen.44

By 1881, the music of Carmen was so familiar to London audiences that music with a

Spanish flavour was instantly compared with Bizet's opera and Lalo's Symphonie

espagnole was described as being, "full of the Spanish rhythms and melodies

familiarised by Carmen.s45 Sarasate's own Carmen Fantasy (1883) took some of the

most recognisable themes from the opera and arranged them into a virtuosic violin

41 James Harding, Saint-Saëns and his Circle (London: Chapman and Hall, 1965), 78. 42 Brian Rees, Camille Saint-Saëns:A Life (London: Chatto and Windus, 1999), 116. 43 lbemi, Sarasate, 41. 44 Ibid., 53. 45 The work was conducted by Charles Lamoureux at St. James's Hall. Times, 17 Mar. 1881, 6.

86

showpiece, becoming one of his most popular works. An 1884 Times review of

Sarasate's performance of his Carmen Fantasy, not only praised his playing, but

celebrated Bizet's music for its authenticity: "In the fantasia on airs from Carmen

Senor Sarasate played the national airs of his country, which Bizet has embodied in

his opera, with a fire and piquancy of rhythm unattainable by anyone not to the

manner born."46

As the most successful Spanish musician of his generation, championing the music of

other composers and performing his own works, Sarasate placed Spanish-themed

instrumental music before the English public on a regular basis during the 1870s and

1880s. In his book Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, Klein highlighted

Sarasate's role in educating London audiences about Spanish music:

How amazingly clever they sounded, how tender and exciting by turns, how well

written for the instrument! Above all, how exquisitely Sarasate played them!—the

"Jota Aragonese," the "Zapateado," the "Sevillana," and the "Habaflera." We were at

last beginning to learn something about Spanish music. Then in 1889 came Isaac

Albéniz.47

Isaac Albéniz in London

Albéniz is generally considered to be the father of Spanish nationalist music as it

developed in the twentieth century. Pedro Morales wrote of Albéniz in 1924,

With him came into existence the "new Spanish school," and his name as piano

composer has now extended to all countries...He revealed to the world the artistic

significance of Spanish music, and awoke musical Spain to the reality of a modern

sensibility 48

Albéniz's compositions, particularly the piano suite Iberia (1905-1909), had a

profound influence on the next generation of Spanish composers, especially Manuel

46 `Senor Sarasate,' Times, 12 May 1884, 12. 47

Klein, Musical Life, 252-4. 48

Pedro Garcia Morales, `Albéniz, Isaac,' in A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A. Eaglefield-Hull (London: J.M. Dent, 1924), 9-10. Albéniz's status and influence is still widely recognised. Walter Aaron Clark wrote in 1999, "If we consider Falla as the central point towards and from which we measure the progress of Spanish nationalism in music, Albéniz is Falla's most important predecessor." Clark, Albéniz, 284.

87

de Falla (1876-1946) and Joaquin Turina (1882-1949).49 Iberia is considered a major

work in the development of a modern aesthetic for the piano and some of its famous

admirers include Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Percy Grainger (1882-1961) and

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).5°

Albéniz was based in London for a crucial phase of his career, spanning the years

1889-1893. During this time he developed key relationships with entrepreneurs and

other musicians, while successfully cultivating an audience for his pianism and for

new Spanish music. In the English capital he was able to develop all the aspects of

his creative personality: performing, concert organization, composing and his love for

the theatre. This was an eventful period in his evolution as a composer. Albéniz

arrived in London at a time when interest in Spanish music was high, however, he had

to deal with frequent comparisons to the music of Bizet and Sarasate. He played

many of his own compositions in London and also promoted the works of other

Spanish composers. Reviews of concerts Albéniz presented in 1889 and 1890,

introducing the English public to new Spanish music, provide further insights into the

English engagement with Spanish music in the late nineteenth century. The last part

of Albéniz's time in London was devoted to the composition of new works for the

stage and commentators continued to evaluate Albéniz with reference to Spanish

music and his Spanish nationality.

Albéniz gave his first piano recitals in London in 1889 and his impact was immediate.

The music critic in the weekly society magazine Vanity Fair wrote:

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing a really remarkable new pianist. His name is

Senor Albéniz, and he hails from the land that has given us Sarasate and has been

immortalised on the lyric stage by Bizet. In addition to technical ability of the first

order, he possesses that rare gift, the art of charming.51

These comparisons were common and English critics were quick to point out the

similarities between Albéniz and Sarasate. Although Albéniz's playing was marked

by restraint and subtlety, his instrumental virtuosity was widely recognised. In this

49 Joaquin Turina observed "Our father Albéniz showed us the road we had to follow." Ibid., 284. 5° Ibid., 5. 51 Vanity Fair, 25 June 1889, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 2. Biblioteca de Catalufla, Barcelona

88

aspect of the art of performance, Sarasate and Albéniz were alike. The Dramatic

Review published an eloquent comparison of the two performers:

Never overmuch inclined to the thunder and lightning style of the pianists of the day,

Mr. Albéniz has now played his rivals a remarkable trick; for abandoning altogether

the style in which they most excel, he now moves his audience not by astonishing

them but by charming them. There is much in the style of this Spanish pianist which

reminds one of our incomparable Spanish violinist; the same dazzling brightness, the

same exquisite delicacy, that mark the playing of Sarasate distinguish also that of

Albéniz.52

According to English reviewers, both performers displayed brilliant tone and

technique and a delicate expressiveness without resorting to a more demonstrative

style favoured by some contemporary performers. Both Sarasate and Albéniz gained,

somewhat unfairly, a reputation for specializing in lightweight repertoire. This was

partly due to specific repertoire choices, including their own Spanish works, but also

the result of national stereotypes. Spanish music was widely considered to be light

and undemanding, and this view extended to Spanish musicians. In 1890 Shaw

referred to Albéniz as "the most distinguished and original of the pianists who confine

themselves to the rose-gathering department of music",53 in reference to the

supposedly frivolous nature of some of the repertoire he presented.54 An examination

of Albéniz's concert programmes from this time belies this, revealing that alongside

shorter works he played many substantial works from the German piano repertoire,

often earning high praise for his interpretations. Beethoven Sonatas and arrangements

of Wagner for the piano were regularly included in his programmes, and like Sarasate,

he encountered in London the prejudice that Spanish, Latin or Southern European

musicians could not satisfactorily interpret Germanic music. Albéniz continued to

present diverse programmes to the London public although the weight of commentary

continued to fall on his own Spanish pieces and so-called "light" repertoire.

52 Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28.

53 George Bernard Shaw, World, 9 July 1890, 33-34.

54 Clark explains that here Shaw was "presumably alluding to his [Albéniz's] penchant for playing

popular and accessible pieces." Clark, Albéniz, 77.

89

Albéniz's exotic appeal as a Spanish performer was heightened by comparisons with

Bizet and London's continuing fascination with Carmen. In an article titled "Albéniz

and Bizet" a London writer compares the composers' "Spanishness":

Albéniz, Bizet, "Carmen"—here is a beautiful example of the alphabet of music.

There is an obvious connection between the popular and pretty pianist who gave

another concert yesterday afternoon, and the opera [Carmen] which Mr. Harris kindly

gave us in the evening at Covent Garden. Both are Spanish; the opera a great deal

more so than the pianist. Both are good in their very different ways.55

This report illustrates the double bind Albéniz encountered in London: an intense

interest in Spanish music from a public reluctant to change dearly held stereotypes.

Reviews and critical writings from this time show that public expectations of Spanish

music were not always matched by the reality of Albéniz's style. Like Sarasate,

Albéniz satisfied the audience craving for Spanish music with his own works. In

London Albéniz wrote a number of his most popular and well-loved piano works,

including the Deux Morceaux Caractéristiques (1889), Serenata espan"ola (1889),

Zambra Granadina (1889) and the six piano pieces published under the title Espana

(1890),56 pieces that displayed the influence of guitar music and the sound of

flamenco. Albéniz identified himself with the Moorish history of Spain and claimed

at times he was a descendant of the Moors.57

Albéniz's piano compositions were warmly received by London audiences, and were

perceived as being superior to the works of Sarasate. Some critics appreciated the

sophistication of his Spanish works and applauded the avoidance of cliché in his

compositions:

Almost everything he writes has a Spanish flavour; though he has but rarely recourse

to certain too familiar rhythms which have somehow got to be looked upon as

thorough Spanish, though in many instances they are not Spanish at all. It is

ss Albéniz and Bizet,' Star, 10 Apr. 1891, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 63. 56 See Torres, Catdlogo. " Clark, Albéniz, 17.

90

interesting to hear Spanish music played by one who is "to the manner born," and

doubly so when the music is the composition of the player himself.58

Albéniz's performances of the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

were regularly singled out for praise in the London press. Scarlatti lived in Spain and

Portugal in the service of the royal families for much of his professional life and many

of his more than 500 sonatas for the keyboard bear the strong imprint of Spanish

music. They exerted a key influence on a number of late nineteenth-century and early

twentieth-century Spanish composers, most notably the music of Granados and

Falla.59 During the late nineteenth century there was also a revival of interest in the

music of Scarlatti in England.

Albéniz played Scarlatti on the keyboard in his student years in Brussels where he

entered the Royal Conservatoire in 1876.60 The influence of Scarlatti's works is

heard throughout Albéniz's piano music, in the adaptation of guitaristic figurations

and chords onto the keyboard. The use of pedal points, repeated note figures and the

imitation of guitar strumming effects point to the influence of Scarlatti. Because of

his nationality, Albéniz's playing of Scarlatti was watched closely by English critics:

he was considered to be "one of the few who can play Scarlatti as he ought to be

played."61 Even when presented in the context of a "long and varied programme",

Albeniz's performances of Scarlatti stood out, as works "in the rendering of which he

especially excels."62 His playing of Scarlatti, drew a backhanded compliment from

Shaw: "His playing of harpsichord music is prodigiously swift and dainty; but it gives

no gauge of his capacity for serious playing."63 Shaw's comment indicates lingering

reservations about Albeniz's ability to tackle larger, more substantial works. Perhaps

"Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28. The phrase "to the manner born" has a long history and appears in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 1 Scene iv. It was popular amongst Victorian writers and was used to refer to someone well suited to something, in this case Spanish music, by virtue of their upbringing or the culture they were born into. This phrase is used regularly in the press to describe Albéniz's performances. His impact as an authentic Spanish musician was magnified when he played his own Spanish-themed works. S9 On Granados and the influence of Scarlatti in his works see Maria-Alexandra Francou-Desrouchers, `Resituating Scarlatti in a Nationalist Context: Spanish Identity in the Goyescas of Granados,' PhD diss., Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, 2009 and Clark, Enrique Granados, 114-115. 60 Clark, Albéniz, 37, 39. 61 Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28. 62

Daily Graphic, 9 June, 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 6. 63 Shaw, London Music in 1888-89, 221

91

because of this and the ease and brilliance with which he played his own pieces and

the keyboard Sonatas of Scarlatti, he was typecast as lacking the depth to tackle the

major works from the mainly Germanic nineteenth-century piano repertoire. A

review of his performance of Beethoven's so-called Moonlight Sonata op. 27 no. 2

pointed out what were generally believed to be his strengths and weaknesses:

He is not heard at his best in works which require much interpretative power. In a

short piece by Scarlatti (which he played as an encore), and in two of his own

graceful compositions, which came at the end of the programme, Senor Albéniz's

delicate and refined style was heard to far greater advantage.TM

Two of the features of Albéniz's playing most commented upon were his tone and his

ability to play softly, traits not necessarily expected of a Spanish performer. A writer

in Bazaar observed,

His great excellence lies in the power to play softly—a capacity which is often wanting

in executants nowadays...The sensational effects of the Liszt-Rubinstein School he

never indulges in, being content with the cultivation of symmetrical execution and

superlative beauty of tone 65

Shortly after he arrived in London, Albéniz looked to expand his performance

opportunities and to tap into the general interest in Spanish music. To this end he

organized a series of concerts in 1889 and 1890 showcasing his own compositions

and music written by Spanish colleagues. In organizing these activities Albéniz went

further than Sarasate or any other musician of this period in his promotion of Spanish

music in London. This was a bold venture and the concerts were only moderately

successful. A survey of reviews shows that there was a significant disparity between

the current English expectations of Spanish music and some of the compositions

chosen by Albéniz for these concerts.

In June 1889 the London press announced that Albéniz was planning to introduce

Spanish music, old and new, at concerts in the capital. Reports that he had consulted

64 Saturday Review, 21 Feb, 1891, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 24. 65 Bazaar, 16 Feb 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 33.

92

rare manuscripts from the vaults of El Escorial added to the authenticity of the

exercise. Along with a number of writers, the music critic for The Morning Post

demonstrated an eagerness to hear:

A special programme of Spanish music which [Albéniz] will introduce to the public

early in the new year. It will include works representing both ancient and modern

masters. Mr. Albéniz has received permission from the Spanish government to copy,

for the purpose of this concert, several important manuscripts in the library of the

Escorial. Considering how little is know here of Spanish composers, this should be

an interesting and instructive entertainment.66

At a concert given in July 1889 Albéniz played his own Sonata and the Rapsodia

Espanola (1886) for two pianos.67 Spanish pieces by Albéniz's friend, the violinist

Enrique Fernandez Arb6s (1863-1939), were also on the programme.68 Vanity Fair

reviewed the concert and foreshadowed the introduction of works by Ruperto Chapi

(1851-1909) and Tomas Breton (1850-1923) in future concerts. Albéniz was

beginning to focus on promoting contemporary Spanish composers:

Spanish music of a higher order is to us almost an unknown quantity, and Senor

Albéniz's recital on Wednesday was of the greatest interest, as the programme

included several examples of the music of the Peninsula. The concert-giver was

represented by a most interesting and cleverly written Sonata and an admirable

Rhapsody for two pianos...The national element predominates in the latter

composition, and the effect of melodies alternately sad and gay, interwoven in a

masterly manner, is irresistible. The above remarks apply to the three Spanish pieces

by Yermandos [sic] Arb6s for piano, violin, or `cello. These eminently characteristic

compositions which are written in classical form, gain additional charm from the

piquancy of the Spanish rhythms. Senor Arb6s, who is a favourite pupil of Joachim,

and professor of the violin at the Madrid Conservatoire, is a composer of remarkable

ability. When Senor Albéniz returns here, I hope he will introduce us to more works

of Senor Arb6s, as well as of his compatriots Chapi and Bret6n.69

67 The Rapsodia Espanola was originally written for piano and orchestra. See Torres, Catâlogo, 320-322.

69 Vanity Fair, 13 July 1889, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 2. Ibid.

66 Morning Post, 25 June 1889, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 2.

93

Albéniz would introduce works by both Chapi and Breton at concerts in November of

the following year. As a preview to this venture, he presented a concert focused on

his own works at the Steinway Hall in June 1890. Initially this was to have been an

all-Albéniz programme, but due to difficulties in finding enough orchestral players,

the promised Suite Espagnole was replaced by a selection of Sonatas by Scarlatti and

some violin solos.70 Two of Albéniz's own works for piano and orchestra were very

well received: the Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 1, in A minor (1887), and the

Rapsodia Espan"ola. The Concerto was described as, "a work of some beauty and

originality, orchestrated with much knowledge of effect, and calculated to display the

soloist's best characteristics in a favourable light."71 The Rapsodia was deemed to be

a more typically Spanish-sounding piece. The Times critic commented on "an

abundance of local colour" in this work, 72 while it was described in Country

Gentleman as, "a composition very characteristic of the national music, with the

occasional introduction of tambourines and castanets."73 To some who had come to

admire Albéniz's pianism and short Spanish compositions, it was a revelation to hear

these more ambitious works. Vanity Fair placed him "amongst the leading composers

of the day" and stated that he had "proved that Spain is a country which will have to

be reckoned with musically."74 Albéniz's piano solos remained highlights of the

programme and were described as "a suite of compositions for piano alone by Albéniz

himself; brilliant works indeed—some of them so sparkling as to be almost

intoxicating."75

Shortly after this triumph, Albéniz and the publicist N. Vert set about organizing two

orchestral concerts. Vert, full name Narciso Vertigliano, was a well known artist

manager who had represented Sarasate in the 1880s and helped organize some of

70 The Times reported, "Considerable variety was given to the recital of Seftor Albéniz at Steinway Hall on Tuesday afternoon by the employment of an orchestra of moderate size. The programme was to have consisted exclusively of compositions by the concert giver, but it was found impossible to obtain a sufficient number of players for the purely orchestral work announced, a "suite Espagnole," and accordingly the place this would have occupied was filled by a group of pieces by Scarlatti, played with all Sefior Albéniz's usual skill, and by violin solos played by M. Nachez." `Recent Concerts,' Times, 27 June 1890, 13. 71 `Recent Concerts,' Times, 27 June 1890, 13. 72 Ibid. n Country Gentleman, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28. 74 Vanity Fair, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 26. 75 Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28.

94

Albéniz's first appearances in London.76 The concerts were planned for 7 and 21

November 1890 at St. James' Hall and would showcase his own music and works by

his countrymen Chapi and Breton. Organised and promoted on a much larger scale,

orchestral players were carefully selected and Breton was engaged to conduct in his

first London appearance. 77 Albéniz's enterprise enjoyed considerable support and

numerous articles appeared in the press, often accompanied by lengthy biographies

and portraits. It was widely advertised that this would be a chance to hear authentic

Spanish music by some of Spain's most important composers. The programme for

the event is reproduced in Figure 5:

76 Christopher Fifield, Ibbs and Tillet: The Rise and Fall of a Musical Empire (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 203. Vert also helped organize the first visits to London of Grieg and Busoni. 77 The Daily Telegraph wrote of Breton, "Mr. Breton comes to London expressly for this engagement, and will, it is understood, introduce examples of the Spanish school of music not known in this country. This should be very interesting." Daily Telegraph, 17 Oct. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 58.1. From the Daily News, "The orchestral concerts to be given by Senor Albéniz at St. James's Hall on 7 and 21 November promise to be of exceptional interest," Daily News, 31 Oct. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 60.

95

Figure 5. Programme for Albéniz's first London concert of Spanish Music. St.

James's Hall, 7 November 1890.78

Ruperto Chapl

Mozart

Schumann

Tomas Breton

Franz Liszt

Isaac Albéniz

Programme

Moorish Fantasia "La Corte de Granada"

I. Granada (March to the Tournament)

II. Reverie

III. Serenade

IV. Finale

Piano Concerto no. 26 in D (Coronation)

Piano Concerto in A

Prelude to "Guzman el Bueno"

En la Alhambra

Symphony in Eb

Hungarian Fantasia (piano and orchestra)

Scherzo

Rhapsodie Cubaine

Felipe Pedrell Cantique from the "Feast of Tibullus"

Triumphal March

The concert ended with two pieces by Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), a key figure in late

nineteenth century Spanish musical nationalism and mentor to Albéniz, Falla and

Enrique Granados (1867-1916).79 Unfortunately for Albéniz the concert was not a

great success. Audience numbers were lower than expected and some of the Spanish

78 Morning Post, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 78. 79 Harper, Manuel de Falla, 28.

96

works received a lukewarm reception. Added to this the programme was overly long,

starting at Bpm and not finishing until 11.15pm.S0

Critical responses to the concert varied, but most writers agreed that there was a

desire and a need to hear more Spanish music written by Spanish composers. The

Daily News summed up the goodwill felt towards Albéniz and his enterprise:

Music by living Spanish masters was made a special feature of the programme, and

thus the Spanish pianist not only paid a suitable compliment to his own country,

where he rightly enjoys high popularity, but also permitted London amateurs to gain

some experience of a school which has been hitherto been more or less neglected here. 81

Much of the negative commentary focused on Breton's Symphony in El). Breton and

Albéniz had been friends since their student days in Madrid. The Symphony in Eb

did not pretend to have any folk music influence or references to Spanish local colour

and was composed when Breton was a student as an exercise in imitation of

Beethoven's symphonic style, with particular reference to the Eroica Symphony. In

press previews for the concert, Breton's work was described as a Spanish symphony

and considered something of a novelty:

Spanish music in its most exalted form will present itself to London amateurs at the

Albéniz concert, in St. James's Hall, this evening. Spanish Dances are familiar

enough, but not often is the chance of hearing a Spanish Symphony presented. Mr.

Breton's work of that class might have been written by a composer of any other

country, but the programme contains a good deal of music essentially characteristic

of the land where the Moors held sway.82

Albéniz had put together a programme showcasing the breadth of Spanish

composition but also showcasing his pianistic virtuoso abilities as a performer of

Mozart, Schumann and Liszt. Most English critics were mystified by the inclusion of

Breton's symphony and Shaw was particularly savage:

8° St James' Gazette, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 80. S1 Daily News, Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 62. 82

Daily Telegraph, 7 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 66.

97

Unfortunately the programme was insanely long, containing practically three

concertos, six orchestral movements, and a symphony by the conductor—an

ingeniously horrible work, lasting forty-five minutes, full of what the

programme...called syncopations, but which were in fact Procrustean torturings of

two-four themes into three-four time.83

Surely the inclusion of such a work for an audience hungry for "authentic" Spanish

music was a miscalculation? Perhaps it was, but just as Albéniz and Sarasate before

him had resisted popular wisdom about Spanish performers, it seems that Albéniz was

trying to establish Breton's credentials as a composer and to present a wide variety of

Spanish compositional styles. The Daily News correspondent expressed some of the

confusion surrounding the work:

His Symphony in E flat has nothing whatever of the Spanish element about it, and the

audience—who were not let into the secret by any explanation of this matter in the

official programme—must have felt some astonishment that almost from first to last

it appeared to be a plain imitation of Beethoven and (particularly as to the first

movement) of the "Eroica" symphony. We are, however, credibly informed that the

resemblance was perfectly intentional. It seems that while still studying at Rome

Senor Breton wrote, merely as "exercises," two symphonies, one in the style of

Mozart and the other of early Beethoven. The fact being avowed, no charge of

plagarism can of course even be suggested...It is, however, a pity that such a work

was introduced into a programme more or less Spanish.84

Pedro Morales, writing over thirty years later in A Dictionary of Modern Music and

Musicians, noted that Breton's contributions to Spanish music through works for the

concert hall, zarzuela and opera, were unequalled.85 He also mentioned the reaction

to the Symphony in Eb from the 1890 concert and reported: "one of the leading critics

advised him to abandon the imitation of the classics and devote his talents to the

music of his country. Breton took the hint in the right spirit."86

ß3 World, 12 Nov. 1890, 74. ß4 Daily News, Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 62. 85 Pedro Garcia Morales, `Breton, Tomas,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A. Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 60. 86 Ibid.

98

Two works on the programme, Breton's En la Alhambra (1888) and Chapi's Moorish

fantasy Los gnomos de la Alhambra (1889), were representative of the Spanish

Alhambrist movement.ß7 In Spain this movement was characterised by nostalgic

representations of the Alhambra and Moorish themes.

Breton's En la Alhambra and the Prelude to his opera Guzman el Bueno (1876) were

more favourably received than the Symphony in E1 :

It is a fact that Senor Breton's talents as a composer were displayed to infinitely

better advantage in two less pretentious pieces—the one a delicious and quite

characteristic little serenade entitled "En la Alhambra," and the other a prelude which

commences some of the principal melodies in his opera "Guzman el Bueno.sS8

First performed in Madrid in 1888, En la Alhambra is one of the most attractive

pieces to come out of the Alhambrist movement in Spain, and London critics

celebrated the hints of Spanish colour to be found in the piece. The work is clearly

influenced by Breton's study of French composers, particularly the orchestration of

Emmanuel Chabrier's (1841-1894) Espana (1883). This piece came closer to

matching the expectations generated by the publicity for this concert, leading one

critic to claim he heard echoes of the Moors in it: "Far better was a serenade, In the

Alhambra (the Alhambra of Granada, and not, of course, that of Leicester Square), in

which the characteristics of Moorish music were strongly apparent."89

Breton's conducting ability was universally praised. The orchestra is reported to have

played well despite the large programme and a number of critics wrote of their hope

that he would soon return to London as a conductor. However, stereotypes based on

national characteristics persisted as seen in the Daily Graphic's assessment that

S7 According to Ramon Sobrino, "The most representative work [of Spanish Alhambrism] is...En la Alhambra, serenata by Breton." Ramon Sobrino, `Introduction,' Mûsica Sinf6nica Alhambrista (Madrid: ICCMU, 1992), xvi. In his discussion of the Alhambrist movement Sobrino writes, "More than a fully-developed stylistic entity, Alhambrismo in nineteenth-century music was a fashion, a type of `sound' which can be linked with a pictorialist tendency and the recreation of the mood of Spanish music of the first half of the nineteenth century", Sobrino, Mûsica Slnfonica Alhambrista, xv. 88 Daily News, Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 62. 89 Figaro, 8 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 68.

99

Breton's conducting lacked the "animation and impetuosity one associates with a

Southerner."90

Of all the works on this programme, Chapi's Los gnomos de la Alhambra in four

movements elicited the most polarised views. Referred to in the English press as a

Moorish Fantasy or symphony, the colourful and vibrant orchestration was

acknowledged, however, the work was judged by some to be a mere novelty piece,

unworthy of the concert platform. While The St. James' Gazette reported, "The

Moorish Symphony by Senor Chapi, which stood first in the programme, is full of

Spanish and Oriental colour",91 more numerous were the voices mocking the vulgar

and showy orchestration and extrovert nature of Chapi's score. The Figaro

correspondent observed,

In regard to Mr. Chapi, his Moorish fantasia, the "Court of Granada," contains a

barbaric march, a long-drawn-out "Reverie," a flimsy serenade, which for some

reason was repeated, and a finale. The fantasia partakes, to a certain extent, of the

character of Eastern music, but it is wholly unsuited for a classical programme at St.

James's Ha11.92

The audience were no doubt feeling generous at the beginning of the concert, which

may account for the encore of the Serenade movement. Most reviewers were not so

enthusiastic, particularly the writer for The Pall Mall Gazette who recognised the

piece as a curio but could find no redeeming features in this music:

The novelty of the evening came first on the programme—a "Moorish Fantasia" by

Ruperto Chapi...The composer devoted himself at an early age, as an executant, to

the cornet-a-pistons...the entire composition bears the taint of this blatant

instrument...It is cheap, trashy noise, hardly worthy of the sacred name of music.93

90 Daily Graphic, 10 Nov.1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 74. 91 St. James' Gazette, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 80. 92 Figaro, 8 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 68. 93 Pall Mall Gazette, 8 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 70.

100

Likeminded critics criticised the "sheer tea-garden blatancy" of the finale, or

compared it to "circus music."94 Some writers looked in vain for Moorish elements

in these works and blamed their inability to find any on a lack of familiarity with the

style: "The whole is supposed to be written in the Moorish style, but the knowledge of

that style among English hearers is more limited than the acquaintance with Spanish

music, and much must be taken on faith."95

The programme for this concert provoked varied reactions from disappointment, to

interest, to reflections on the state of contemporary Spanish music. Thwarted in his

anticipation of a piece that evoked the sound world of Carmen or Chabrier's Espana,

the Daily Graphic's critic was dismissive:

Those who looked forward to a feast of national music, rich in piquant rhythms and

characteristic melody, must have been sorely disappointed. After all, national music

is not always created by native musicians. The best exponents of Hungarian music

are the gypsies, and similarly Bizet...has given us a truer musical picture of the life of

the Peninsula than any of the composers represented last night.96

His colleague at the Morning Post concurred, declaring that the Spanish programme

provided evidence that "now, as in times past, there is no distinguishing school of

Spanish music."97 The critic of the Daily Telegraph was much more supportive of the

whole venture, although he too referred to Bizet's Carmen as the standard by which

Spanish music was measured. He admitted that English audiences needed to be

educated about Spanish music:

Acquaintance with Spanish music, apart from dance measures, is practically limited,

indeed, to a few works introduced by Mr. Sarasate and to the admirable imitations of

it found in "Carmen." The Albéniz concerts are certain to amend this state of things

somewhat, and, it may be, prove that the present development of music in Spain

deserves to be taken into account as a distinct feature connected with European art.98

94 Daily Graphic, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 74; Referee, Nov. 9 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 72.

95 Morning Post, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 78.

96 Daily Graphic, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 74. 97 Morning Post, 10 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 78.

98 Daily Telegraph, 10 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 76.

101

Other critics pondered on whether Spanish musicians had learnt how to integrate the

characteristic features of Spanish music into the recognised classical forms such as

the concerto or symphony. Albéniz and Breton must have hoped that the Symphony

in Eb would be an interesting companion piece to Breton's other, more

characteristically Spanish, works in the programme and would illustrate Breton's

credentials as a serious composer. The result, however, was a misunderstanding

about the nature of Spanish music. In the Athenaeum, a writer asked whether,

Native composers have yet appeared capable of engrafting the characteristics of

Spanish music on to the higher forms of composition—a process the equivalent of

which has been accomplished successfully by musicians of genius in Poland,

Hungary, and Bohemia. The concert of Friday last week left this question

unanswered, for the works by composers of the Iberian peninsula were least

characteristic where they were most entitled to consideration as abstract music.99

Questions were asked about the motivations of Vert, the promoter of this concert.

Some critics felt that he was exploiting Albéniz:

I don't think Senor Albéniz is likely to be very successful in his endeavour to

popularise Spanish instrumental music. It is said that the clever pianist is being

exploited by an enthusiastic capitalist, and the statement is credible, for no ordinary

concert agent would waste hundreds of pounds in advertisements, and also smother St.

James's Hall with programmes.10°

Lessons were learnt from this first concert and the second, on 21 November was

shorter and the music more accessible, including works by Scarlatti, Chopin and

Weber in addition to Spanish works by Albéniz and Breton. Curiously, the concert

opened with a Wagnerian style Dramatic Overture penned by the young English

composer Arthur Hervey (1855-1922) who conducted the orchestra for this concert.

The programme is reproduced in Figure 6:

99 Athenaeum, 15 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 86. w° Modern Society, 15 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 94.

102

Figure 6. Programme for Albéniz's second London concert of Spanish Music.

St. James's Hall, 21 Nov 1890. 1°1

Programme

Part 1

Arthur Hervey

Isaac Albéniz

Isaac Albéniz

Dramatic overture for orchestra

Concerto Fantastique (piano and orch.)

Piano solos: Pavane—Scherzino

"Reves"—Champagne Valse

Isaac Albéniz Orchestra: Idyll, Serenade—

Rhapsodie Cubaine

Part 2

Tomas Breton

Scarlatti

Weber-Tausig

Chopin

Orchestra: prelude from the Opera,

Gli Amanti di Teruel

Scherzo from Trio

Piano solos: Toccata—Sonata

Invitation a la Valse

Andante Spianato et Grand Polonaise

(piano and orchestra)

Breton Zapateado (Spanish Dance)

The audience for this concert was larger and more enthusiastic than for the concert

two weeks earlier and the critical reception focused more on Albéniz's own pieces

1°t `Serfor Albéniz's Second Grand Orchestral Concert,' Musical Star, 29 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 120.

103

and his talent as a performer than his compositional skill. Albéniz was clearly the

main protagonist and his playing was applauded, however, the level of orchestral

playing was of a lower standard:

Senor Breton and a scratch orchestra somewhat distract the attention from that which

is edifying in the pianist to that which is ambitiously unsuccessful in the orchestra.

We must confess also to a feeling that Senor Albéniz is more successful as an

interpreter than as a composer, the works from his pen last night being less acceptable

than his work on the pianoforte. His compositions are no more inspired than his

pianism, but they are less technically skilled.102

Elsewhere Albéniz's compositions were praised for their Spanish character.

Particularly well received were his piano works:

Some of the chief characteristics of Spanish music are introduced in these works,

which met with a very enthusiastic reception from the audience. Three solos for the

pianoforte, composed and played by Senor Albéniz, proved specially attractive,

graceful in style, and containing much that is original and artistic. These pieces gave

the audience great pleasure, and the pianist was enthusiastically encored.'°3

The critic in The Era was also taken with Breton's works and praised their "freshness

and novelty."'"

However, there was far from universal admiration for these works. The Musical

Star's critic wrote that Albéniz's concerto was an "agreeable, if not a forcible work",

and that his solos were "too much in the drawing-room style for a concert-room."1°5

Curiously, in the same review, the Rapsodia Cubana (1881) was said to have "failed

to satisfy strict connoisseurs.s106 As Clark has noted, it is hard to imagine how many

English connoisseurs of Cuban Rhapsodies there were in London at that time.107 This

reviewer did find more to admire in Breton's works and stated that his works had

102 Pall Mall Gazette, 22 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 100. 103 Era, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 138. 1°4 Ibid. '°5 Musical Star, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 120. '°6 lbid. 107 Clark, Albéniz, 81, fn 29.

104

"unquestionable merit in the modern sense." 108 In this instance Breton had

contributed an operatic overture and a Zapateado which came closer to the audience's

expectation of rhythmic and colourful dance-inspired Spanish music.

The readership of the Pictorial World were used to having their concert reviews

mixed with snippets of gossip and comedy, and the review of Albéniz's second

concert lived up to this formula. In a biting twist, the writer compared Spanish

musical culture with a fictional character from the novels of Charles Dickens:

There is no distinctive school of musical art belonging to the [Spanish] nation,

and...its music is but a pale reflection of French art or German thought. Even the

rising English school of art, which is now assuming definite form and shape, has

more individuality of style than so-called Spanish music. It has gone out of use—if it

ever was to the fore—with Cordovan leather and liquorice, or Baracco juice. Spain

has been called the Mrs. Harris of nations, and, as far as its artistic music is

concerned, it may be said, with Mrs. Gamp, "we don't believe there ain't never no

such thing.s109

Sarah Gamp was a popular character from Dicken's novel The Life and Adventures of

Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844). A hopeless alcoholic, she was often heard in

extended conversations with her imaginary friend Mrs Harris. At this time, English

composers, like their Spanish counterparts, were grappling with issues of identity and

national style.

By contrast, the Daily Chronicle reviewer was at least interested in hearing more

Spanish works, however, the tone was not overly enthusiastic,

For several generations Spain is supposed to have been in the back ground in the

matter of high-class music, but after what we have heard of late at St. James's Hall

through the medium of Mr. N. Vert, we begin to be doubtful respecting the truth of

the imputation. It is quite possible that other nations have been wilfully blind as well

108 Musical Star, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 120. 109 Pictorial World, 22 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 138.

105

as deaf to the labours of Spanish musicians. At all events Senor Albéniz's concerts

have demonstrated that it would be judicious to extend inquiries in this direction."°

The conductor Hervey, whose Dramatic Overture opened the concert, took the

unusual step of writing a review of the concert for Vanity Fair. It was clearly partisan

and overwhelmingly positive in relation to Albéniz, without any of the uncertainty or

disappointment present in the other reviews,

The largeness of the audience...is a proof of the hold that this artist has been gradually

acquiring over the public. This is all the more flattering, considering the

comparatively short time in which it has been accomplished...Senor Albéniz may

well inscribe upon his escutcheon the words, "Veni, vidi, vici"; and I am sure that

everyone will be glad to hear that he has elected to make London his own. His two

orchestral concerts have been interesting in many ways, and have the means of

directing public attention to the present school of Spanish composers. It is of the

highest degree of importance for the progress of art in this country that we should be

kept au courant with the musical doings of other nations. "'

Hervey declared that Albéniz's Concierto Fantéstico for piano and orchestra "should

undoubtedly find a permanent place in the repertoire of pianists" and he responded to

the exotic elements of the score, "Listen to the Rhapsodie Cubaine, with its peculiar

Southern colouring, and visions of a land where flourish the platanes, where love-

birds make the air alive with their melodious chirpings, and beautiful creoles

languidly recline in their hammocks, will unfailingly come to your mind."112

By 1891 Albéniz was clearly an established and respected presence on the London

scene and he maintained a busy performing schedule, as indicated in the society

magazine Queen:

Few instrumentalists have been more prominently before the public latterly than

Senor Albéniz, whose portrait we give, for scarcely a week passes without

11° Daily Chronicle, 22 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 98. Ill Vanity Fair, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 128. 12 lbid. Torres notes that the Concierto Fantâstico is the same work as the Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 1, in A minor (1887). Torres, Catâlogo, 175.

106

opportunity offering itself of hearing the artist at some one of our many London

concerts, where his efforts are invariably received with favour and appreciation.' 13

After 1891 Albéniz's concerts in London would be less frequent, as composition for

the theatre became his first priority, beginning with the light opera The Magic Opal

written in 1892 to a libretto by Arthur Law. According to Morales, Albéniz had

originally agreed to co-write the music for The Magic Opal with his friend Arbos,

who shortly thereafter withdrew from the project.114 The Magic Opal ran from 19

January 1893 until 4 March at the Lyric Theatre resulting in forty-four

performances.115 The work was presented in two acts: an Overture and twelve

numbers followed by an intermezzo and eleven items. Spanish colour was included in

the second act with a Ballet scene which featured the Spanish dancer Candida. Three

significant musical items in The Magic Opal were pre-existing Albéniz compositions:

the Overture is the same as "En la Aldea", the first of Albéniz's Escenas Sinfônicas

for orchestra, premiered under the baton of Breton in Madrid in March 1889. The

Intermezzo came from the earlier Serenata Arabe, written between 1884-1885, and

the music for the Ballet from the Rapsodia Cubana, premiered in Cuba.116 All three

of these pre-existing works were highly evocative Spanish character pieces and lent

the work a distinctly Spanish flavour.

The story of The Magic Opal is set in Greece, with exotic themes and characters,

including bandits, woven into the story. The Spanish colouring of some of Albéniz's

music conveyed a generic Mediterranean atmosphere to the English audience. The

plot concerns an opal ring which gives the wearer magical powers, so that the first

person of the opposite sex to touch the wearer of the ring falls deeply in love with

them. The remainder of the story is a complicated mixture of plotlines featuring the

cunning and humorous manipulation of the ring and its powers.117

1t3 Queen, 11 Apr. 1891, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 65. 114 See Morales, `Albéniz.' Arbbs claimed that he had a hand in writing two numbers. See Torres, Catâlogo, 110. 115 Torres, Cathlogo, 102. 116 Ibid., 103. 117 See Clark, Albéniz, 85-92, for a summary of the plot.

107

The Spanish elements of Albéniz' music for The Magic Opal,' 1 s particularly in the

Overture, Intermezzo and Ballet sections, evinced the almost obligatory comparisons

with Bizet's Carmen: "The name of Bizet will also arise to the mind, and several

pages of the present work could well have been signed by the composer of

`Carmen' ""9

The initial reviews for The Magic Opal were largely positive. Albéniz was at the

height of his popularity and a successful run was widely predicted, however, Law's

libretto was widely criticised. The central theme was already very familiar to

audiences and The Star's critic lamented, "Are we not heartily tired of the love charm

which gets administered to the wrong people?"12° Most critics judged that the music

was far more successful than the libretto,

Were the libretto supplied by Mr. Arthur Law as good as it might well have been, this

new production would rank as one of the most successful of comic operas heard

within recent years. There is much originality in its music, and a freshness of

treatment that is very acceptable is apparent throughout the score...Even in its present

shape, the opera bids fair for a long and prosperous run—a fate it well deserves.

thanks to the delightful art of Senor Albéniz, for whose music there can be nothing

but recommendation.121

Some commentators wondered why a celebrated concert performer and composer of

piano pieces would write such a work. The critic of The Musical Times lamented the

fact that Albéniz was working in lower forms of music theatre and observed, "The

gifted Spanish pianist can write strains of a higher class than shop ballads and dance

tunes."22 However, the crossing of genres was not uncommon in London at this

118 Rhythms based on Spanish folk styles, typical syncopations and the use of modes associated with southern Spanish music. 19Morning Post, 28 Feb 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 122.1. 120 Star, 20 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 202.1. 121 Stage London, 26 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 186.1. 122 The Musical Times review continued, "His melodies, if not invariably original, are certainly always refined; his part-writing and orchestration show the hand of a true musician; and the pleasant Spanish colouring in many of the numbers is not found incongruous, though the scene of the opera is laid in Greece. We hope in due course to welcome Mr. Albéniz in the ranks of those who contribute to the more enduring forms of lyric drama—ranks by no means too well filled at present." `Lyric Theatre,' Musical Times and Singing Class Circular 34, no. 600 (1 Feb. 1893): 91.

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time,123 and Albéniz's musical ideas and orchestration were recognised as being a cut

above the usual quality of comic opera.'24

The lyrics to the love-duet "Little Bird" (act 2, no. 19) from The Magic Opal illustrate

the mismatch between Albéniz's music and Law's lightweight libretto. The

protagonists of this duet were Carambollas and Olympia, played by two favourites of

the London stage, Harry Monkhouse and Susie Vaughan. The character of

Carambollas is the pompous mayor of the Geek town of Karakatol and Olympia is an

elderly spinster, who successfully pursues the magic ring. This duet was one of the

most successful items of the opera.125 The lyrics were reproduced in a review in

Paddock Life because it was an "excellent skit on the love-duet of serious opera."126

Olympia:

Dicky bird, dicky bird, twitter your lay!-

Carambollas:

Come, then, sweet birdie, come hither I pray.

Olympia:

Sing it, oh sing it to poor little me.

Carambollas:

This is the song I would warble to thee:-

Ducky-darling, sweety-meaty, kissy-missy-me,

Nicey-picey, periwinkle, tickle-ickle-ee,

Lovey-dovey, rosey-posy, oh kernoodle do,

Popsy-wopsy, kicksy-wicksy, winky-pinky-pool 127

123 From the Bazaar, "Comic opera seems to offer increasing attractions to all classes of composers. Not only the writers of professedly light music, such as Planquette and others, but even musicians whom one is accustomed to associate with the severer walks of the art, appear with one accord to be essaying it. Senor Albéniz, who is best known to the London public as a very admirable pianist and the exponent of classical compositions on his favourite instrument, has for a while deserted Beethoven and Mozart and come forward as a composer for the comic-opera stage." Bazaar, 25 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 194.2. '24 Bazaar noted, "The music from Senor Albéniz's pen is of an essentially superior style. Replete with pure and graceful melody, it does not leave any frothy impression on the mind, but satisfies the musical sense almost as completely as the light works of the Italian lyric stage. Part of this unusual impressiveness is certainly due to the able manner in which the piece is scored. In this respect Senor Albéniz has set an example which deserves to be followed. He scores his work as carefully and as elaborately as if it were some serious composition intended for Covent Garden rather than the Lyric." Ibid. 125 Torres, Carcilogo, 100. Torres lists it as number 19 of the opera's 24 numbers. 126

Paddock Life, 14 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 94.1. 'z7 Ibid.

109

Little wonder that Albéniz had some trouble setting the English text! 128 The actors

played this duet as a spoof, adding in comic touches of their own,

"Little bird" was given in so exquisitely droll a manner by Mr. Monkhouse and Miss

Vaughan, that the audience insisted upon its repetition, and we shall not be surprised

to learn that it has become one of the great features in the opera. The fairy-like dance

and toe-solo indulged in by Mr. Monkhouse at its conclusion convulsed the audience.

In this Miss Vaughan also did work of a most amusing nature.129

The forms of comic opera and burlesque were in flux at this time as the popularity of

comic opera was declining and writers were desperately trying to breathe life into a

tired form.13° The libretto for The Magic Opal combines elements of burlesque and

light comic opera, whilst Albéniz's music moves between light opera, comic opera

and even grand opera style. A critic in the Lady questioned whether this mix could

ever work successfully:

Comic opera like most things just now, appears to be in a transitive state, one of

complete uncertainty, and this is exemplified by "The Magic Opal." It is called, with

equal justness, either light opera or comic opera. As a matter of fact, the composer

has chosen to attempt a compromise between both styles, and, moreover, has made

several departures into the field of grand opera. Whether such a course is exactly a

wise one is doubtful.131

Changing tastes were partly responsible for the decline in popularity of comic opera,

but increasing costs were also a factor. As the following extract from the Truth

illustrates, it was no longer possible to let a work run for three months at a loss while

it built up and audience,

128"You are reminded here and there that he is not an Englishman, and has therefore handled an occasional line awkwardly, and he is much more at home with the orchestra than which the chorus." Star, 20 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 202.1. 129 Stage, 26 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 186.1. 130 The English manager of the Gaiety Theatre George Edwardes led the move away from burlesque and comic opera to musical comedy. Richard Traubner notes the effect of the new musical comedies such as The Shop Girl (1894), "Edwardes had effected a change that hit much of Europe in the 1890s, when the public clamoured more for modern-dress stories than for satiric or burlesque plots." Richard Traubner, Operetta: A Theatrical History (New York: Routledge, 2003), 198. See also Jeffrey Richards, Imperialism and Music: Britain 1876-1953 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), 261-2. 131 Lady, 3 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 62.

110

When a pretty and artistic work like Senor Albéniz' "Magic Opal," despite tasteful

mounting and a capital cast, cannot attain to a career of more than seven weeks, and

when almost every light opera theatre in London is preparing for a change of bill, it is

obvious that something is wrong. It may, of course, be that the making fashionable of

the music halls has done most of the mischief...Or it may be that the cost of

producing and casting a "comic" opera is so high that nothing but a succession of

nearly full houses will pay a manager...I am authoritatively informed that the

expenses of "The Magic Opal" exceed £720 a week. The theatre, if every seat were

occupied (which even at the best houses they never are), would hold about £1,800 a

week, so that there should at any rate be an ample margin for profit, if the audience

only half filled the house every night...Indeed the expenses are now so heavy that no

comic opera manager could afford, as Henderson more than once did in the old days,

to run a piece at a loss, hoping that two or three months later the business could be

worked up. Henderson did not pay a third of the salaries for which entrepreneurs are

now called upon.132

In the 1890s the inclusion of dance or ballet scenes was commonplace in both high

and low forms of opera and a Spanish dancer named Candida was engaged to perform

a ballet scene in The Magic Opal. This will be discussed further in the section on

Spanish dance in Chapter 4.

After its initial London season ended, The Magic Opal was revised and retitled as The

Magic Ring. Albéniz wrote three new pieces to replace existing items and some

numbers were deleted.133 The story was modified, and a new writer, Brandon

Thomas, was brought in to revise the libretto. Albéniz conducted the revised version

at the Prince of Wales Theatre for the first time on 11 April 1893. The Magic Ring

was less successful than its predecessor and ran for only thirty-seven performances,

ending on 19 May. The changes made by Albéniz and Thomas were unable to

disguise the weaknesses of the original:

The incongruities which marred the piece on its first production are as glaring as

ever; the two low-comedy merchants treat it a la burlesque, and although the action

12 Truth, 23 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 182.2. 133 See Torres, Cattilogo, 110-112 for details of the changes made by Albéniz.

111

takes place in Greece, introduces all kinds of Cockney wheezes. The music of "The

Magic Ring" is much too characteristic and serious to be wedded to these

meaningless gags.'34

Shortly after the demise of The Magic Ring, Albéniz was involved in London

performances of a musical comedy called Poor Jonathon. This was a German

musical comedy with music by Karl Millöcker (1842-1899). For London

performances in June 1893 the work was adapted by Charles Brookfield with the

addition of songs and instrumental pieces by Albéniz, who also conducted the

performances.

As we have seen in the example of The Magic Opal, the 1890s was a period of swift

transition for genres such as burlesque and comic opera. Poor Jonathon was a prime

illustration of the emerging genre of musical comedy. The Standard's critic explained

the effect of these changes:

A short time since comic opera of a conventional pattern was to be heard in all

directions; but the thing was apparently overdone. That taste died out, and for the

present has been supplanted by what is called "musical comedy;" the bright attire of

the recognised type of comic opera is done away with in favour of unpicturesque

modern dress, and the plays approach mainly to what are known as "variety

entertainments." Of this new fashion Poor Jonathon is an example.'35

Burlesque and musical comedy shared a fondness for topical references. The Era's

review listed some of the themes that were "worked over" in Poor Jonathon:

In regard to being "up to date," a consideration highly prized in these light pieces,

Poor Jonathon may claim to be not an hour behind in discussing the latest topics,

Ibsen, bogus companies, divorce, speculation, the latest scandal, and the chit-chat of

the clubs, fashions, the opera, woman's rights, and female colleges are among the

subjects gaily satirised in music, speech, or humorous stage business.'36

134 St. James' Gazette, 14 Apr. 1893. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 178. 135 Standard, 16 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 71. ►36 Era, 17 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 202.1.

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While viewed as a variety entertainment of dubious artistic merit, The Standard did

not preclude its success,

The result [is] apparently quite to the taste of audiences, if that of last night is to be

accepted as fairly representative. That there is anything very brilliant or witty about

Poor Jonathan cannot be said. Mr. Brookfield has clearly done his best with a

somewhat unpromising theme; for at least one moment a species of sentimental love

interest is suggested, and at another preposterous farce is put forward; but there are

some amusing sketches of character, some tuneful music, and some capital dancing,

and, as two or three somewhat similar pieces have been successful of late, the same

prospect should attend this.137

Albéniz was still a favourite of the critics. As with The Magic Opal, his music was

regularly singled out for praise:

Senor Albéniz's music, for instance, is nearly always delightfully charming and

graceful, and more than once he gives us some real comedy in his orchestration;

indeed, his share always stands well the test of comparison with Millöcker, who is

answerable for the remainder.138

This work was even further removed from serious music than The Magic Opal and

again questions were raised about Albéniz' involvement. He must have seemed oddly

out of place and the Daily Graphic expressed some sympathy for him,

After witnessing a performance of this "musical comedy," however, we are inclined

to think that Senor Albéniz, and not Herr Millocker, is the more to be pittied. The

additions to the score for which which the Spanish composer is responsible are in

nearly every instance superior in construction, charm, and elegance to the work of the

original composer.139

The question of competing musical styles was also raised by the Morning Post,

17 Standard, 16 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 71. 138 Morning Leader, 16 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 71. 139 Daily Graphic, 19 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 170.

113

Senor Albéniz, who conducted the piece, has added to the music of Millocker some

graceful compositions of his own beautifully scored for the orchestra and full of

charming effects. These were, it must be confessed, almost too artistic in style and

idea for the somewhat flimsy plot and eccentric situations.14°

Poor Jonathon was performed in this version fourteen times between June 15 and 30

1893.141

Albéniz left London for Spain in 1893 but maintained the contacts he had made

during his time in London. 142 He had attracted the attention of the wealthy

businessman Francis Money-Coutts who became his patron and commissioned

Albéniz to write a series of operas for which he would supply the libretti.143 The first

of these was the opera Henry Clifford, on which Albéniz started work in London in

1893 and continued to compose in Barcelona and Paris where the work was

completed in 1895.144 The work followed the fortunes of a soldier during the War of

the Roses. Henry Clifford received only five performances in Barcelona in 1895 and

was not performed again in Albéniz's lifetime. Money-Coutts and Albéniz also

collaborated on the opera Pepita Jiménez (1896), based on Juan Valera's 1874 novel

of the same name,145 and Merlin (1902), part of a projected Arthurian trilogy.146

Neither opera was a success and there were no English performances in Albéniz's

lifetime.147 His lasting fame and influence on Spanish and French music can be

attributed to the success of his piano suite Iberia; and the introduction of these works

to London audiences by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and Percy Grainger will be

discussed in Chapter 5.

Sarasate and Albéniz were two of the most significant Spanish musicians active in

Europe in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. They were both multi-

14° Morning Post, 19 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 194.1. '41 Tones, Catdlogo, 115. '42 According to Clark Albéniz decided to leave London in the autumn of 1893 and eventually settled in Paris sometime before August 1894. Clark, Albéniz, 109. 143 Clark provides a detailed discussion of the relationship between Money-Coutts and Albéniz. Ibid., 102-108. 144 Ibid., 109 and 125. 145 Ibid., 136-177. 146 The three operas were to be Merlin, Launcelot and Guenevere, based on the fifteenth century romance written by Sir Thomas Malory. Clark examines the influence of Wagner on Albéniz in the writing of Merlin. Ibid., 178-189. 147 The first performance of Merlin was in Barcelona in December 1950. Ibid., 269.

114

dimensional figures who, in some respects, were considered quintessential Spanish

musicians, yet in other ways challenged and expanded the English appreciation of

Spanish music. Through a range of activities, Sarasate and Albeniz helped to loosen

the shackles that had previously tied Spanish music to early nineteenth century exotic

clichés.

115

Chapter 4:

Estudiantinas and Spanish dancers as popular entertainment in

fin-de-siècle London

Chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis focused on the reception of Spanish music and dance in

opera, ballet and the concert hall. Equally important for the dissemination of Spanish

stereotypes were forms of entertainment popular in Victorian London, as featured in

the increasingly fashionable music halls. Variety theatres and music halls reached a

peak of popularity in the 1880s and several new theatres were opened or upgraded.'

This expansion coincided with a new wave of Spanish musicians and dancers who

arrived in London and performed in a variety of popular entertainments. Among the

most successful visitors to England during this period were the Estudiantinas, or

Spanish students, and their unique brand of Spanish music featuring plucked string

instruments. The Estudiantinas introduced a new type of Spanish music, which was

closely linked to the subsequent proliferation of the guitar as both a folk and concert

instrument.

In the realm of dance, a new style performed by Spaniards and incorporating elements

of flamenco began to make a mark in London in the 1890s. Spanish dancers were

regularly accompanied by Estudiantinas as they performed in the music halls and

theatres of London. La Belle Otero was the main exponent of this new dance style in

London at the same time as her inspiration Carmencita impressed audiences in New

York, and both dancers were considered to be the epitome of the Carmen character.2

The links between Spanish dance and Carmen were maintained into the Edwardian

era with the presentation of Carmen as a very successful ballet.

1 J. S. Bratton, Music Hall: Performance & Style (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1986) x. The Empire of Leicester Square opened its doors in April 1884, the London Pavillion was rebuilt in 1885 and the Alhambra reopened as a theatre in 1883 after a fire that gutted the building in 1882. See also Alexandra Carter, Dance and Dancers in the Victorian and Edwardian Music Hall Ballet (Aldershot:

Ashgate, 2005) 1-28. 2 Carmencita (1868-1899) was born Carmen Dauset Moreno in Almeria, Spain. For information on her life and career, see Navarro Garcia and Navarro, Carmencita Dauset. Otero's full name was Augustina Carolina Otero (1868-1965) and she was born in the village of Valga in Galicia.

116

Estudiantinas and spectacle in Victorian London

A performing troupe of Spanish students, known as an Estudiantina, arrived in Paris

in March 1878 for the annual Carnival. They played in the streets to great acclaim

and news of their success was widely reported abroad.3 The Estudiantina revived the

vogue for Spain, with its exotic Renaissance student costumes and distinctly Iberian

ensemble predominantly featuring plucked strings. After further success at the Paris

Exposition Universelle in 1878, professional Estudiantinas formed and toured

extensively throughout Europe and the Americas into the early twentieth century.

The first Estudiantinas reached London in the summer of 1879 where they had an

enduring impact on perceptions of Spanish music and dance.

There were two key historical precedents for the Estudiantina revival of 1878: the

centuries old tradition of Spanish university student groups and the folk-based

Spanish plucked string ensembles known as rondallas.4 The modern Estudiantina

movement borrowed heavily from these two models. When the Spanish students first

played in Paris they performed mainly outdoors and en masse (around 50 performers),

reinforcing commonly held stereotypes about Spanish musicians performing outdoor

serenades.

The musical instruments featured in these groups were the Spanish steel string

instruments the bandurria and the laud, s Played with plectra, these instruments are

similar in range and sound to the mandolin and the mandola, although tuned in fourths

and with a flat-backed construction. Guitars were an integral element of these groups

and provided chordal accompaniment, bass lines and inner voices. Violin and

percussion completed the ensemble, including at times massed singing by the

instrumentalists.

3 The Daily News reported from Paris, "The Spanish students, whose appearance in the streets in the costume of Salamanca collegians of the 16t century is the great event of this Carnaval." Daily News, 4 Mar. 1878. 4 For background to the history of the Estudiantinas and Rondallas in Spain see Felix M° Martin Martinez and José M° Ovies Alonso, `Estudiantina [rondalla, tuna)' in Diccionario de la Mzisica Espanola e Hispanoamericana, ed. Emilio Casares (Madrid: SGAE, 1999). s Pepe Rey, `Bandurria,' Diccionario de la Musica Espanola e Hispanoamericana, ed. Emilio Casares (Madrid: SGAE, 1999) and Pepe Rey, `Laùd,' Ibid.

117

Figure 7. The Spanish Estudiantina in Paris, 1878.6

Many nineteenth-century Spanish zarzuela composers evoked the sound of the

Estudiantina in their works.? The "Jota de los Estudiantes" from the zarzuela El

Barberillo de Lavapiés (1874) by Spanish composer Francisco Barbieri (1823-1894)

interpolates the traditional Estudiantina ensemble into a typical zarzuela orchestra and

provides an aural snapshot of these groups in Spain in the 1870s. Barbieri played an

important role in the zarzuela revival of the 1850s and 1860s and had begun his

musical life as a folk musician and skilled performer on the bandurria.8 In the "Jota

de los Estudiantes" he utilized the traditional Estudiantina line up of laird, bandurria

and guitar to great effect (see Example 4).

6 Le Monde Illustré, 16 Mar. 1878. For example, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri in Pan y Toros, A. Vives in Dona Francisquita and F.

Alonso in La Linda tapada. Martin Martinez and Ovies Alonso, `Estudiantina [rondalla, tuna],' 837.

8 Paul Sparks, The Classical Mandolin, 24.

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Example 4. Francisco Barbieri, bandurria, laud and guitar parts, "Jota de los

Estudiantes," El Barberillo de Lavapiés, act 1, no. 6, ms.23-29.9

When the Spanish students first performed in London during the summer of 1879,

they appeared in a range of venues, from the rose show at the Crystal Palace to a

season of twelve performances at the Alhambra Theatre. The timing of their arrival

was fortuitous as the London premiere of Carmen the year before had been the

catalyst for a growing interest in Spanish music. Throughout the ensuing period the

guitar and plucked string instruments became even more strongly associated with

Spanish music.

An 1879 article entitled "Spanish Minstrels at the Alhambra", published in The Era,

described the Spanish students sitting in three rows with legs crossed wearing all

black costumes and caps decorated with the image of a spoon. They are portrayed as

exhibiting "extreme Spanish gravity."10 A commentator in The Guardian remarked

on the distinctly Spanish nature of the outfits, and commented that "the black doublet

and breeches, the sombre cloak, the hat adorned with the significant silver spoon, are

more Spanish than Spain itself."11 The spoon was a symbol of the shared student

experience of communal dining.

Many of the touring Estudiantina performers were not students at all, leading a writer

in The Guardian to muse,

9 Franciso Asenjo Barbieri, El Barberillo de Lavapiés: zarzuela en tres actos, edited by Ma. Encina Cortizo and Ramon Sobrino (Madrid: ICCMU, 1994), 4. 1° `The Spanish Minstrels at the Alhambra,' Era, 27 July 1879.

Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7.

119

It was something of a shock to their admirers to find that they were not students at all,

but only accomplished guitarists, who might originally have been mere barbers (the

Spanish shaver has been since Quevedo's day, a renowned practitioner on the guitar,

and a guitar is even now part of the furniture of his shop, where it does the function

filled amongst us by the morning paper), and had nothing of the scholar about them

but the traditional costume.12

The professionalization of the Estudiantinas from their student origins did not affect

their success and according to The Era, "the audience received them with so much

enthusiasm that the applause continued long after the curtain fell...the Spanish

Students could not have wished for a more favourable reception."13

While the Estudiantina was perceived as an exotic spectacle, the musicianship of the

performers was widely appreciated. The strong attack and rapid decay of plucked

strings make larger ensembles hard to coordinate and precise ensemble playing is not

easily achieved. The Estudiantinas were very well rehearsed and drew praise for their

superior sense of timing and ensemble. As a correspondent in The Era wrote, "At the

signal of the conductor the chords were struck and the rapid passages executed with

the precision of clockwork, or rather with still greater exactness, for sometimes clocks

do not keep time."14

Estudiantinas also cultivated a broad audience because of their diverse repertoire,

which featured Spanish songs and dances alongside generic waltzes and mazurkas.

Their Spanish pieces ranged from flamenco-based examples such as the malaguena to

popular dances like the jota. They also arranged well-known numbers from the vast

zarzuela repertoire, particularly the new genre of revista or reviews that emerged in

Spain in the 1880s. The most successful of these reviews was La gran via (1886)

with music by Federico Chueca (1846-1908) and his collaborator Joaquin Valverde

(1846-1910). Items from these reviews were played by Estudiantina groups alongside

arrangements of overtures, arias and movements from the light classical repertoire,

and especially composed works by composers such as Dionisio Granados, one of the

first leaders of the renowned Estudiantina Figaro.

12 Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7. 13 Era, 27 July 1879. 14 Era, 27 July 1879.

120

The Estudiantinas varied their repertoire according to the type of performance and

venue. Printed below is a list of repertoire performed by Estudiantina Figaro in

Vienna in late 1878, after their success in Paris but prior to the performances in

England. Between October and December 1878 they gave 56 performances in the

Josefstadt Theatre, playing in the interlude between short theatrical works. The

majority of the pieces are popular Spanish dances or songs, many written and

arranged by Granados. Well-known instrumental pieces from the opera repertoire by

Giuseppe Verdi, Friedrich von Flotow and Luigi Arditti complete the program along

with an arrangement of a Jota by Chueca.

121

Figure 8. Repertoire from the Estudiantina Figaro's Viennese tour October-December

1878.15

El Turia (Waltz)

Potpourri of Spanish Songs

Madrid (Waltz)

Hamburg (Mazurka)

El' Paraiso (Waltz)

Malaga (Polka)

La Crux, Roja (March)

Emmy, Bremen, Cavara and Primavera (Polkas) Dionisio Granados

Granadina (Mazurka) Caro and Dionisio

Granados

La Mandolinata Paladille

Overture, Martha Flotow

Giralda Adam

Stiffelio and Aroldo Verdi

In Genua (Gavotte) Arditti

Los Cadetes (Pasodoble) Metra

Granado (Polka) Mora

Marie (Jota Espagnol) Chueca

Some English commentators expressed a desire to hear these groups play more

Spanish repertoire: "unfortunately, they do not confine themselves to the

interpretation of Spanish music; on the contrary, they affect the stuff that is European,

base, common, and popular."16 There was a sense of frustration that the Estudiantina

was not playing enough music deemed to be quintessentially Spanish. What sort of

music would fulfil those expectations? The Guardian correspondent imagined

Spanish music to be, "romantic and peculiar" or "national and curious."17 Elusive and

15 Repertoire list from Franz Fellner, "'Verfall" und Wiederentdecking der Mandoline in Wien. Zur Kultur-und Sozialgeschichte eines Instruments im 19. Jahrhundert,' in Wiener Geschichtsblätter, Jahrgang 1996, 81. 16 Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7. Earlier in the same article the reviewer admired the national character of the costumes, describing them as "more Spanish than Spain itself' and commented on their authentic "look" and the prominence of the national instrument the guitar. "Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7.

122

vague descriptors that evoked images of Spain were drawn from nineteenth-century

travel writers, novelists and artists, and their obsession with exotic stereotypes.

Similar ensembles began to tour throughout Europe and America from the late 1870s,

and the most famous was the Estudiantina Figaro, a touring company of ten to twenty

artists, more manageable and economically viable than the initial Estudiantina groups.

These groups performed in a wide range of venues from the music hall to high society

balls and became the standard accompanying ensembles for Spanish dance in London.

Figure 9 gives an incomplete list of countries visited between 1878 and 1884,

demonstrating the extent of Estudiantina Figaro's itinerary.

123

Figure 9. A list of countries visited by Estudiantina Figaro between 1878 and 1884.18

USA (574 concerts)

Spain (232 concerts)

Austria (134 concerts)

Mexico (133 concerts)

Cuba (114 concerts)

France (35 concerts)

Russia (including 10 private concerts in the private palace of the Tsar)

England (including 10 private performances for the Prince of Wales)

Belgium

Canada

Costa Rica

Ecuador

El Salvador

Guatemala

Italy

Peru

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Rumania

In late nineteenth-century London, Estudiantinas remained an accessible touchstone

for Spanishness, especially when compared with less diatonic and instrumentally

polished Spanish folk music and flamenco encountered in Spain. In 1887 the Pall

Mall Gazette printed one Englishman's travel notes featuring his impressions of two

contrasting musical performances. He wrote,

We were a day and a half at Seville, and duly saw the sights, the evenings being

occupied by the performances of the so-called gipsy dancing girls and the

"Estudiantina." Of the dancing, and the music that accompanies it, both at Seville

1B `Tunos.com,' accessed 6 July 2012, www.tunos.com/historico/lofiversion/index.php/t1666.html.

"Tras una exitosa trayectoria artistica en Europa, dando conciertos en los teatros de las principales ciudades de Espana (232 conciertos), Portugal, Francia (35 conciertos), Italia, Austria (134 conciertos), Rumania, Rusia (10 funciones privadas en el palacio del Zar), Bélgica, Inglaterra (10 funciones privadas en los salones del Principe de Gales) y Holanda, emprendib rumbo a América en 1879, presentando su espectaculo en Canada, Cuba (114 conciertos), EE.UU (574 conciertos), Puerto Rico, México (133 conciertos), Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador y Perû."

124

and at Granada, all that need be said is that it is as vulgar and degraded as ever...The

"Estudiantina," however, or Students' Musical Society, which has greatly advanced

in recent years, is a first rate institution...I strongly recommend all travellers in Spain

to spend their money on obtaining, if they can, the services of these excellent and

picturesque young musicians in place of the gipsies.19

After a break of a few years, Spanish Estudiantinas returned to England in 1889, the

same year Albéniz arrived in London and a Spanish Exhibition opened at Earls

Court,20 the third in a series of shows that had previously featured North America and

Italy. Commentators engaged with these increasingly visible Spanish events with

greater knowledge and sophistication. From a Spanish point of view, the exhibition

was an opportunity to promote Spain abroad with a view to enhancing commercial

and industrial ties with Britain.21 The exhibition was also designed to immerse

patrons in Spanish culture, history and landscape while a variety of oil paintings,

"enable[d] the visitor to glean impressions of various phases of Spanish history and

life."22 There were gardens where military bands performed, and in which there were

representations of famous Spanish monuments or scenes. Views of the Alhambra

and its surrounds, and a Spanish market place were chosen as authentic

representations of Spain. The Paris Exhibition of 1889 also featured scenes of

Granada and gypsy musical performers, and events such as this gradually positioned

Granada as the spiritual home of flamenco in Andalusia.23

Nineteenth century technology was also on show through a diorama and cosmorama.

The diorama was a theatrical experience offering audiences a changing panorama of

images and light and the Spanish Exhibition featured a diorama of a bullfight, that in

the words of one commentator, "enables the spectator to assist at a gory bullfight

19 Pall Mall Gazette, 4 Nov. 1887 20 The English scholar Kirsty Hooper has researched the Spanish Exhibition of 1889 and some of her findings are detailed in the working paper presented at the `Contact and Connection' symposium, University of Warwick Institute of Advanced Study, 27 June 2013. The paper is titled "`Moorish Splendour' in the British Provinces, 1886-1906: The Spanish Bazaar, from Dundee to Southampton", available online at www.kirstyhooper.net/2013-06_PAPER_Bazaars.pdf 21 "La Exposici6n Espanola de Londres esta destinada â levanter la reputaci6n de Espana en elextranjero y A extender su comercio, y de consiguiente su industria." "London's Spanish Exhibition will elevate the status of Spain abroad and this will extend to Spain's commercial and industrial sectors." La Dinastia, 12 June 1889, 2. 22

`The Spanish Exhibition,' Times, 3 June 1889, 6. 23 See Fauser, Paris World's Fair.

125

without any prickings of conscience or nervous tremors."24 The cosmorama or

perspective pictures with many lenses offered views of various Spanish monuments

and landscapes. Examples of Spanish handicrafts were exhibited and a wine vault

displaying barrels of a range of Spanish wines was among the highlights. Music

featured prominently in the gardens at the Spanish Exhibition, with items including a

troupe of Spanish Serenaders (singing, dancing and playing), vocalist José Rio who

performed the Toreador song from Carmen, a guitarist by the name of Antonie

Espade and "dancing by Senoritas Carmencita, Garcia, Lola and Prados [who] proved

to be extremely graceful and enjoyable."25

While the Spanish exhibition was not an overwhelming success,26 the number and

variety of London shows featuring Spanish music and dance grew exponentially. The

Era reported in May 1889, "We are greatly in want of a craze this season, and there

seems to be no reason why a Spanish boom should not be worked very successfully in

London this year."27 In 1889 Spanish music and dance was reaching a more

sophisticated audience and The Era predicted success for the Estudiantinas in this

year: "They ought to be a perfect God send to society hostesses on the look out for

some new thing; and what with private engagements and public success they should

return to their country well satisfied with the results of their visit."28

The Estudiantina set the stage for the popularity of mandolin and guitar orchestras

throughout Europe and America. With the establishment of guitar and mandolin

groups in England, they became social meeting places, before the bicycle clubs

assumed this role. In America, corresponding ensembles formed part of the

burgeoning Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar or BMG movement, which was clearly

linked to the popularity of the Estudiantinas. A critic in The Times commented in

1889,

Amateurs of the instruments played by the Estudiantina, as well as those who prefer

the mandoline or banjo, will be especially interested in the concerts, and many of

24 `The Spanish Exhibition,' Times, 3 June 1889, 6. 25 Era, 26 Oct. 1889. 26 See Hooper, www.kirstyhooper.net/2013-06_PAPER_Bazaars.pdf, 4. 27 `The Spanish Students,' Era, 25 May 1889. 28 Ibid.

126

them might profitably follow the example of the Spanish players in the matter of

expression and precision. The band should be welcome in fashionable ball-rooms.29

As the Estudiantinas continued touring and the 1889 Spanish Exhibition tried to

capitalize on the interest in Spain, Spanish dance was viewed with renewed interest.

Critics began to discuss styles of Spanish music with greater authority, for example,

"Two Andalusians...did some Spanish dances; a jota and a Flamenco dance. The

former is the most characteristic of all the North Spanish national dances."30 The

writer had some reservations about the success these dances would have with an

English audience and continued, "There are other Spanish dances, however, which are

more consonant with British notions of Terpsichorean excitement, and we advise the

introduction of certain of these."3 ' Extrovert and demonstrative Spanish dances were

the most likely to satisfy audience expectations. At this time a new wave of Spanish

dancers were refining their acts in Paris and New York and would soon make an

impact in 1890s London.

Spanish dance in late Victorian and Edwardian London

The Spanish dancer Carmen Dauset Morena (1868-1910), better known as

Carmencita, came to prominence at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and later

performed in New York to considerable acclaim. She was a key figure in the

popularization of Spanish dance in the USA and Europe in the late 1880s and early

1890s. In London she was best known as the subject of a portrait painted by the

American artist John Singer Sargent, who was fascinated by Spanish painters, in

particular Velasquez, and travelled to Spain for the first time in 1879. Sargent was

particularly struck by the south of the country and the music and dance of flamenco

inspired his famous painting of a flamenco dance spectacular El Jaleo (1882).32

Sargent lived in London from 1884 and was an influential figure on the London scene,

promoting Spanish music and organising concerts of Spanish music. His portrait of

Carmencita was first shown in London at the Royal Academy of Art in 1891 and

29 'Spanish Concerts,' Times, 20 May 1889, 11. 3° 'The Spanish Students,' Era, 25 May 1889. 31 Ibid. 32 Michael Jacobs, 'Colour and Light: From Sargent to Bomberg,' The Discovery of Spain, ed. David Howarth (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2009) 119.

127

introduced the exotic dancer to London.33 The Times' critic described the picture as,

"a full length of La Carmencita, who, for two or three years past has been turning the

heads of New York society."34 The painting was reported to portray "an

extraordinary sense of vitality...it is the living being itself and when the music strikes

up she will bound away in the dance."35 In a later article printed in The Times,

Sargent's painting of Carmencita was described as the, "all but life-size semblance of

a young Spanish woman born with the genius of the dance." 36 It was important to

readers that she was a native Spaniard with an inherited affinity for Spanish dance.

The success of Carmencita motivated the American impresario Ernest André Jürgens

to travel to Paris in an effort to source talented acts, especially Spanish dancers. He

discovered Carolina Otero and was responsible for refining her act and introducing

her to New York audiences in 1890.37 She was billed as a competitor to Carmencita

and made her London debut in 1892. A poem from the weekly newspaper the

Clarion highlighted the captivating charm and allure of the dancer now known as "La

Belle" Otero (1868-1965),

Figure 10. Poem from the Clarion in praise of Otero.38

Ne'er a sweeter

Senorita

Than D'Otero you can see.

Her Spanish fling

Is quite the thing—

And she's the girl for me.

Woe is me Alhambra!

Otero's first visit to London in 1892 was promoted with little fanfare but highly

anticipated by dance enthusiasts. Otero drew on imagery and themes from the opera

Carmen in her portrayal of Spanish dance and she even invented a Carmenesque

33 Carmencita was also painted by other North American artists including James Carroll Beckwith and William Merritt Chase. 34 'The Royal Academy,' Times, 2 May 1891, 14. 35 Ibid. 36 `The Champ-De-Mars Salon,' Times, 14 May 1892, 17. 37 Otero's relationship with Jürgens is discussed in Lewis, La Belle Otero, 28-43. 38 Clarion, 15 Oct. 1892.

128

backstory to her life, claiming that she was born in Andalusia and of gypsy blood.

The reality is that she was from the north-western Spanish region of Galicia.

Otero had a long and successful career and visited London numerous times between

1892 and 1913,39 and often employed Estudiantina-style ensembles as her backing

groups. Spanish dance existed comfortably in both high art and popular contexts.

Otero played her first London shows at the Empire Theatre, squeezed in between two

comedians.4° This was fairly typical of the music halls where everything that did not

play in the serious theatre was represented, however, it was not uncommon for

performers to move between the music halls and more high-brow forms of

entertainment:"

For English aficionados of Spanish dance, the first visit of Otero to Britain was highly

anticipated:

I have often wondered that managers of English music halls have done so little in the

way of bringing over Spanish dancers, and I was therefore enchanted to find, the

other day, that the famous and beautiful Otero, whom I had seen two years ago at

Paris, was appearing at the Empire.42

Otero's dance was immediately identified as something new to London. Her exotic

looks and unique routine captivated critics who were quick to comment on the novelty

in her dancing. Otero tapped into long held notions of Spanishness and added a

perceived authenticity that only a true Spaniard could portray. Drawing on

knowledge of Spain, increasingly common to English travellers, the Sunday Sun

wrote of Otero, "It is dancing of a kind that, as far as I know, London has not seen

39 After her performances at the Empire in 1892, Otero returned in 1898 for a season at the Alhambra

Theatre. Later visits came in May 1899, July 1902 and 1913 when she performed at the London Opera House in the musical Come Over Here. See Jane Pritchard, "More Natural than Nature, More Artificial than Art": The Dance Criticism of Arthur Symons.' Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 21, no. 2 (2003): 45. 40 ',

Sandwiched between the tedious antics of a `peculiar American Comedian' and the cockney humour of Miss Marie Lloyd, the exquisite performance of the Spanish dancer meets with a cold approval." `Otero,' National Observer, 29 Oct. 1892. 4 Carter, Dancers in the Victorian and Edwardian Music Hall Ballet, 1. 42 `

Otero: The Spanish Dancer who Skims over the Empire Stage,' Star, 24 Sept. 1892.

129

before. Everyone who has been to Spain—and everyone has been in Spain, because

everyone has been everywhere nowadays—knows something of Spanish dancing."43

For her first performances Otero danced and sang songs in both French and Spanish

but as the Pall Mall Gazette wrote, "the dance, however, is the thing."44 To some

critics, Otero's dance was most notable for what it was not. There was, in the words

of Pall Mall Gazette, "no jumping about, no mighty rushes from the loins, no suave

simply curving lines."45 The dance featured more dramatic, less familiar movements

such as, "staccato movements, sudden tossings of the head and stampings of the feet,

like a fresh horse suddenly pulled up. Upward movements of the legs, rather fierce

and angular, and bendings of the body that seem dangerous to the bodice."46

One of the most erudite dance critics of this period was Arthur Symons (1865-1945).

He had a particular fondness for Spanish dance and wrote reviews of Otero that were

reprinted in several London newspapers.47 For Symons, and a number of other critics,

Otero's distinctly Spanish physique was an integral part of her appeal. His review of

Otero at the Empire described the features that distinguished her dance from the other

Spanish dancers seen in London up to that time:

Otero is doing a new dance at the Empire, and the occasion seems a fit one for

attempting an appreciation of so admirable a representative of the curious and subtle

art of Spanish dancing. "Spanish dances," as was pointed out in an article on a

Spanish music-hall, published in the Fortnightly for May, "have a certain

resemblance with the dances of the East. One's idea of a dance in England is

something in which all the movement is due to the legs. In Japan, in Egypt, the legs

have very little to do with the dance...Spanish dancing, which, no doubt, derives its

Eastern colour from the Moors, is almost equally a dance of the whole body, and its

particular characteristic—the action of the hips—is due to a physical peculiarity of

the Spaniards, whose spines have a special and unique curve of their own." The

dances that one sees in Spain are not always possible to be seen in England. They are

much too definitely erotic for the English taste—too suggestive, as it is called. But

43 `Theatre and Music: Senorita Otero at the Empire,' Sunday Sun, 25 Sept. 1892. 44 Nina de Otero at the Empire,' Pall Mall Gazette, 22 Sept. 1892. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibld. 47 Jane Pritchard, `Criticism of Arthur Symons,' 37.

130

such dances as those which Otero is giving at the Empire, though somewhat toned

down to suit a colder public, are quite characteristically Spanish, and should certainly

be seen by those who are interested in "the various poetry of vital motion" and its

varying national qualities. 48

Symons believed he was observing a real Spanish gypsy of southern heritage who

synthesized the centuries old traditions of the Moors and the Spanish characteristics

of Carmen. He ends his review with the statement, "Of Otero herself it need but be

said that she realizes Carmen."49

Numerous writers believed the dances of Otero were linked to Spain's ancient past

and uncorrupted traditions. The Sunday Sun referenced the writings of Richard Ford

in making the following glowing remarks about Otero:

Certain of the Spanish dances are, according to Ford, the remnant of the ancient

dances of the Gades which delighted the Romans and scandalised the fathers of the

Church...

Scholars have expounded at great length upon the dances of antiquity which have

been preserved in their integrity in Spain. The wise who visit the Empire and watch

the movements of Senorita Otero may share for once in the amusements that

delighted Horace, that delighted Martial.5°

Otero's exotic appeal carried over to her daily life and she was famous for her liaisons

with notable political and royal figures.st

Later in the same article, Symons referred to stereotypes reinforced by the opera

Carmen of Spanish women as tempestuous and violent. He claimed that Otero

expressed,

The Spanish temper, its fury of love and hate, as perfectly as the English temper is

rendered in the calm circle of the English skirt-dancer. She can be tigrish and

48 Arthur Symons, `Otero at the Empire,' St. James Gazette, 21 Oct. 1892. 49 Ibid. 50 'Theatre and Music: Senorita Otero at the Empire,' Sunday Sun, 25 Sept. 1892. SI Robert Greene in his book The Art of Seduction discusses Otero's legendary sexual prowess. Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction (New York: Penguin, 2003) 395-396.

131

languishing; she enchants, appeals, rejects—is scornful and enticing...the dance

becomes vivid with meaning, accentuated as it is by sudden almost singular leaps and

a calculated and expressive abruptness in pause. It is by this gesture in dancing, this

dramatic quality, this new cunningly broken rhythm, that the dancing of Otero, that

Spanish dancing, is so wonderful. It has not the classic qualities; it was decadent

before that term was invented; but for London, certainly, it is a new sensation.52

The initial reception of music hall audiences to Otero was lukewarm, perhaps due to

the incongruous performance context. According to the newspaper The News of the

World, the audience, "stared vacantly, waiting for some development in the manner of

Miss Lottie Collins, and finally grumbled out a little disappointed applause."53

According to some writers it was the structure of the dance that felt new and fresh,

"utterly unlike anything that has gone before."54 The Lady's Pictorial observed,

"There is no climax, no last astonishing pirouette, no pretty wave of tiny, dashing feet

and dainty flounces."55

Otero's looks and physique were often commented upon and her appeal was closely

linked to her exotic appearance. The dark colouring of her skin and eyes and her

distinctive posture and walk were characterized as distinctively Spanish.56 The Star

wrote of Otero, "Tall, slender, with the Spanish pallor, the Spanish depth of darkness

in hair and eyes, Otero glides onto the stage with that curious catlike motion which

gives such indescribable grace to the walk of Spanish women."57 She went on to star

in the ballet Round the Town at the Empire, leading the critic of the Evening Citizen to

declare that "No lover of dancing in its highest form should miss seeing the senorita

as an exponent of poetry in motion.s58

52 Arthur Symons, `Otero at the Empire,' St. James Gazette, 21 Oct. 1892. A brief film of Otero dancing was made in 1898. The original clip has no sound but it is possible to observe a guitarist dressed in a toreador's costume and two Spaniards playing the castanets accompanying Otero. She is wearing an ornate costume topped with a broad brimmed hat, gesticulating enthusiastically and demonstrating her twists and rapid feet movement. The clip may be seen on YouTube. `Film of La Belle Otéro,' accessed 10 July 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVi8Pfls_eU. 53 World, 19 Oct. 1892. 54 `Senorita Otero at the Empire,' Lady's Pictorial, 1 Oct. 1892. 55 Ibid. 56 `Otero: The Spanish Dancer who Skims over the Empire Stage,' Star, 24 Sept. 1892. S7 Ibid. S8 Evening Citizen, 10 Oct. 1892. The Evening Citizen described Otero's style as "piquant, easy, and confident, and is perhaps best expressed in her dancing. This is eminently characteristic and the body

132

In the same season the Spanish dancer Candida was featured in a ballet scene in

Albeniz's The Magic Opal. After the lukewarm reception given to Otero in 1892,

audiences were still not ready to appreciate a subtle, less demonstrative style of

Spanish dancing and critical reaction to the ballet scene was mixed. The Sketch

bemoaned the disinterested reception of Candida's performance,

The comparative failure of Signora Candida, the new Spanish dancer, who appears in

"The Magic Opal," brings out sadly the public's inability to appreciate subtle beauty;

of this there was also proof in the cold greeting of Otero at the Empire last summer.

Both of them are not merely lovely women, but dance with marvellous ability in a

finely-restrained, original style; yet because their characteristics are novel and not

blatant, the public is indifferent, and the critics are nearly silent.59

The Sketch also published an evocative description of Candida's dance:

Candida's dance in the second act of the new comic opera has a strange flavour of

mystery. One sees a tall woman, with dark-brown hair streaming down her back,

clad in a rather barbaric dress, which consists of a fawn-coloured silk jersey, closely

moulding the figure, surmounted by some heavy spangled gold and brown cloth, cut

so as to show a finely-sculptured neck and bust; below it a sash of similar material,

and then long, dark electric-blue silk gauze skirts. She steals onto the stage and

moves about in rhythm with the music, holding her arms above her head and clicking

her fingers and thumbs with a sound suggesting castanets. Hardly does she raise her

feet, save in a few steps where she beats time sharply in a staccato way. In every

movement there is a fine supple beauty: each muscle seems called into play without

effort, and to be obedient to the music. One thinks of some mystic enchantress

making mute incantations. The end is characteristic: the almost snake-like

movements grow slower and slower, the music becomes fainter and fainter, till she

sinks back into the arms of a man, her hands still raised heavenwards. Grace of

movement is hers to absolute perfection.60

is brought into play almost as much as the feet. Rapid and rhythmic stamps of the feet, swift jerks and twists of the body, quick movements of the head, and occasionally agile and graceful aerial flights of the leg, all enter into a style of dancing not seen too often in this country." 59

Sketch, 8 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 70/2) 60

Ibid.

133

Many critics appreciated the novelty of this dance, and saw it as a more authentic type

of Spanish dancing. Music Trader Review, for example, expressed this view,

The second act likewise introduces Mlle. Candida, who has been specially engaged

from Madrid, and for the first time in England gives us an idea of a genuine national

Spanish dance. It is of an entirely novel character, and is accompanied by an

imitation of the castanets executed by the dancer herself, who snaps her fingers in

time to the measure. Her poses are most graceful.61

When The Magic Opal was reworked as The Magic Ring a new Spanish dancer was

engaged, perhaps in an attempt to make the dancing more accessible for London

audiences. The Dispatch noted that her dancing lacked the novelty of Candida's work,

"Mdlle. Rosa dances capitally, though with less originality than Mdlle. Candida, in

the second act."62

The fascination with Spanish dancers continued in 1890s London, including

Carmencita's much-anticipated visit to London in 1895. Carmencita did not live up

to the expectations of Symons who admitted that he "came to the Palace last night

with expectations which were no doubt utterly exaggerated and unreasonable."63

Otero returned to London and the Empire for successful seasons in 1898 and 1899

and the Andalusian dancer La Tortajada made her London debut in 1893, returning

for regular visits between 1897 and 1902.64 The rising star of Spanish dance, Rosario

Guerrero appeared in London for the first time in 1899 and along with Tortajada

spearheaded a new wave of Spanish dance. Major Fitzroy Gardner, writing about the

London theatre in the fin de siècle period remembered, "Tortajada and Guerrero

61 Music Trader Review, 20 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 68/2

62 Dispatch, 16 Apr. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 88/2

63 'Carmencita at the Palace. Some Attitudes of Last Night,' Star, 26 Feb. 1895, Quoted in Pritchard `Criticism of Arthur Symons,' 71. Symons admired Carmencita's expressive movement of her arms but complained that "in the pirouettes. And in some of the steps which she introduced in her dances, we get, not quite the genuine thing, but a more civilised modification of what is undoubtedly, in its essence, barbaric, oriental, animal." 64 Pritchard, `Criticism of Arthur Symons,' 72.

134

created a vogue for Spanish dancing."65

The Carmen ballet

Queen Victoria died in January 1901 just as a new era in English political and cultural

life was commencing. The Edwardian era saw the introduction of a new generation of

Spanish artists, including flamenco performers, to English audiences.

The Spanish dancer who defined Spanish dance in Edwardian London was Rosario

Guerrero. The details of Guerrero's early life are sketchy, however, she claimed to

have been born in Seville and reminisced about playing on the banks of the

Guadalquivir river as a child. In a 1905 interview with The Illustrated Sporting and

Dramatic News Guerrero remembered, "When I was five years old, and that's just

twenty years ago...I used to play on the banks of the Guadalquivir, the sweetest river

in all Spain, and dance to the castanets of the shepherd-boys."66

She first danced in London in 1899 and was immediately hailed as a successor to

Otero.67 The writer Symons was among her admirers and wrote in a letter to his

future wife, "I have gone wild over a new Spanish dancer—La belle Guerrero. She is

quite a splendid creature: I go see her every night I am free."68

Guerrero returned to London to dance at the Alhambra Theatre in September 1902,

however, it was with her scenic portrayals of Carmen in 1903 that she truly made her

mark and revolutionized representations of the gypsy. In that year Guerrero was

contracted to appear in a one-act ballet-pantomime version of Carmen at the

Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square. This work made use of an adaptation of

Bizet's score by musical director and composer George Byng (1861-1932), with the

addition of two original pieces of his own. With this ballet Carmen was presented to

English audiences in yet another dramatic shape. The emphasis of the production was

on spectacle and dramatic realism and it ran for close to a year in London before

moving to New York and a tour of the United States in the following year.

65 Fitzroy Gardner, More Reminiscences of an Old Bohemian (London: Hutchinson, 1926), 147. 66 'A chat with La Guerrero,' Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 22 Apr. 1905. 67 "It is quite true that she has less jewels but more talent than La Belle Otero." Country Gentleman, 22 July 1899, 902. 68 Karl Beckson and John M. Munro eds., Arthur Symons: Selected Letters, 1880-1935 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1889), 132.

135

Guerrero's performances introduced elements of flamenco dance to a broad audience.

Like Otero, she was praised for her realization of Carmen and considered by some as

an "ideal Carmen."69

Figure 11. Carmen as played by a real Spaniard. Signorina Guerrero at the Alhambra.

July 1903.7°

1..1K711'7Si !IAN K1) 1{1 A 1t P:A11 aI"AN1Aft. I)

1tftiWi'tr%," t mer n.t+i 1I10 AIIia>1r9140

.r. ..i,

. û„ .â. :.....: ..,: .e ,...:.

Critics were fascinated to see a real Spaniard play the part of Carmen, even if the

forum was the ballet and not opera. The ballet was seen as an ideal medium for

69 `The Alhambra,' Times, 8 May 1903, 7. 70 Unknown paper, July 1903. London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box. The caption at the bottom of the page reads, "Signorina Guerrero has made a great success of the part of Carmen in the ballet at the Alhambra which has been extracted from Bizet's work. She is extraordinarily vivid. Here she is seen with the young soldier whom she enthralls. He is acted with grim reality by M. Volbert.

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Carmen and Olga Nethersole's failed dramatic reinterpretation of the role was still

fresh in the memory.'' Ballet scenes had been interpolated into operatic Carmen

productions for many years and these interludes had begun to incorporate elements of

Spanish dance.72 The authenticity of the performance was discussed in the press with

the same scrutiny as the performances of singers like Calvé in the operatic role. The

Carmen of Merimée's novella was recognized as the real source of the character and

Guerrero was often said to embody the pre-Bizet conception of the Spanish gypsy.

One critic made this point vividly, writing,

With a Carmen available of the right nationality, it was a happy idea of the Alhambra

management to turn the opera to which Merimée's heroine gives her name into a

ballet, or really a strenuous play in pantomime. The more so as Guerrero, the artist in

question, realizes [sic] most vividly the Carmen of the author's imagining—a

splendid, treacherous, ruthless, passionate anima1.73

Guerrero was celebrated for her Spanish physique and temperament. According to

The Daily Telegraph, "as a dancer Senorita Guerrero possesses all the grace and

suppleness of the Southern Spaniard."74 Her beauty was described as uniquely

Spanish and a large part of her attraction.75

Byng composed music for additional dances in the show and while his original

numbers were not considered distinctly Spanish in style, his music drew praise for

highlighting qualities of the dance.76 Bizet's music was also featured and reinforced

71 "Prosper Merimée's story of Carmen lends itself admirably to stage treatment. It has already done splendid service in more than one dramatic shape...Carmen, too has inspired more than one playwright, and it is but a year or two ago that Miss Olga Nethersole essayed at the Gaiety the character of the fascinating Spaniard." `Alhambra,' Daily Telegraph, 8 May 1903, 10. 72 Of a production of Carmen starring Zelie de Lussan in July 1899 one writer observed, "the whole performance was enlivened by the real castanet dance in the second act, instead of the usual conventional ballet." Country Gentleman, 22 July 1899, 902. 73 `The "Carmen" Ballet at the Alhambra'. Unknown paper, 1 May 1903. London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box. 74 `Alhambra,' Daily Telegraph, 8 May 1903, 10. 73 The Sketch critic proclaimed, " she has been most generously dowered by nature with that beauty for which the women of Spain or Spanish birth are famous." Sketch, 3 Sept. 1902. 76

"For the music of the various interpolated dances he [George W. Byng] is himself responsible, and, although his numbers are hardly to be described as characteristically Spanish, they have a swing and strenuous quality essentially fitted to the requirements of the occasion." Daily Telegraph, 8 May 1903, 10.

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the relationship to the opera. In the words of a writer in The Times, "we had Bizet's

music, very respectfully treated, with a few exceptions."77

In all it was the combination of the exotic location, costumes, music and dance that

made the production such a success, as The Times reported,

The action is simple, the interest human and passionate—moreover, the story is well

known. The languorous Spanish scenes, the Southern atmosphere, the gorgeous

dresses, the rhythmic Spanish dances, the haunting music by Bizet—all unite to make

a piece of great sensuous charm.78

The Carmen ballet ran with success into the early part of 1904,79 and the role of

Carmen was played by other dancers after Guerrero left for New York in October

1903, most notably Maria La Bella.80

The Spanish guitar in London from Francisco Târrega to Angel Barrios

The popularity of the Estudiantinas and the subsequent growth of the amateur BMG

movement in the 1880s provided an audience for and impetus to the dissemination

and popularity of the Spanish guitar in late Victorian and Edwardian London.81 In

this same period there were sporadic tours by Spanish guitar soloists and the most

notable Spanish guitarist to visit London in this period was the virtuoso performer,

arranger and composer for the guitar, Francisco Târrega (1852-1909).

Through his arrangements, compositions and teachings Târrega provided the technical

framework and much of the repertoire for the twentieth century renaissance of the

classical guitar in the hands of Spanish guitarists such as Miguel Llobet (1878-1938),

77 `The Alhambra,' Times, 8 May 1903, 7. 78 `The Alhambra,' Times, 28 Dec. 1903, 10. 79 A commentator for The Times reported on January 22 1904, "The ballet of Carmen is still performed nightly." `The Alhambra Theatre,' Times, 22 Jan. 1904, 4. 80 Maria La Bella was also credited with returning the story to Merimée's original vision, "Senora Maria La Bella, who is at present playing the title-role, pictures forth a Carmen such as Prosper Merimée himself imagined." `The Alhambra,' Times, 28 Dec. 1903, 10. 81 The amateur BMG (Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar) movement came to prominence in England and North America after the first successful tours by Estudiantinas in the 1880s. The repertoire played by these amateur groups included orchestral and chamber music arranged for plucked strings, alongside more popular salon-style works. The peak period of activity of the BMG movement was from the 1880s until 1920 and coincided with the publication of numerous dedicated periodicals in both Britain and the USA. See Noonan, The Guitar in America: Victorian Era to Jazz Age, 21-40.

138

Emilio Pujol (1886-1980) and Andres Segovia (1893-1987). Tarrega's transcriptions

of Spanish piano music and his arrangements of works written for piano by Chopin,

Albéniz, Granados and others, created the mould for the classical guitar repertoire

well into the twentieth century.82

Tdrrega toured extensively in the years from 1885 to 1903, including visits to London

in 1880 and the early 1890s.83 Clark writes of Tarrega's visit in the early 1880s, "He

next travelled to London, where his reputation had preceded him and he was warmly

received as the leading guitar virtuoso of the day. He would travel to London again in

the early 1890s."84 Tdrrega had other connections to England in the form of wealthy

patrons. The Englishman Dr. Walter James Leckie had lessons with Tdrrega,

supported him financially, and often accompanied him on tour. One of the most

important collections of Tarrega's work is the two-volume set of manuscripts known

as the Leckie Collection, containing pieces, exercises and studies written out by

Tdrrega for his student Leckie.

In spite of Arcas' earlier tours and Tarrega's visits to London, the influence of foreign

guitarists in England after the middle of the century was limited. Two English

guitarists, Catherina Peltzer (1821-1895), better known after her marriage in 1854 as

Madame Sidney Pratten, and Ernest Shand (1868-1924) were active performers and

teachers in the second half of the nineteenth century and through their teaching,

compositions and performances they were the main local practitioners of a declining

instrument. Stuart Button puts the issue into context thus:

From around 1850 the influence of foreign guitarists began to cease, and a new

generation of English players began to emerge, but they were never able to raise the

guitar to its previous popularity. They were handicapped in the sense that in England

there had never been a tradition of guitarist-composers. Music and guitars were in

82 Walter Aaron Clark writes of Tdrrega's contribution to the guitar repertoire, "Tarrega's output, then, includes not only original compositions but also many transcriptions of works by famous composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To be sure, he was not the first guitarist in history to transcribe works from other media to his own. This had been going on since the sixteenth century. But he did so more extensively and influentially than any of his predecessors, and he thus established a practice continued by virtually every guitarist since his time." Walter Aaron Clark, `Francisco Tarrega, Isaac Albéniz, and the Modern Guitar', Soundboard Magazine: The Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America 36, no. 1 (2010): 5. 83 Frederick M. Noad, The Romantic Guitar (New York: Amsco Publications, 1986), 13. sa

Clark, `Francisco Tdrrega,' 8.

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short supply, and there began a rise of interest in related instruments, particularly the

banjo and mandolin.85

Pratten was the daughter of the notable German guitarist Ferdinand Peltzer, who, in

addition to publishing the Giulianiad in 1833, was very active as a guitar teacher and

music educator.86 Early in her career she sought to re-establish the guitar as a serious

concert instrument in Britain, utilizing the works and teachings of Sor as a model. As

the following excerpt shows, she became focused on teaching the nobility,

particularly young ladies. Pratten wrote, "The guitar is a charming and graceful

instrument, capable of much execution, intense pathos and a variety of effects

peculiarly its own, and is admirably adapted as an accompaniment to the voice."87

She composed some works for the guitar but neither her repertoire nor her own

compositions demonstrate any overt Spanish influences.

According to Button, Ernest Shand was a pivotal figure for the guitar in England.88

He came at a time when interest in the guitar had declined and he was able to revive it

to some extent through his compositions, performing and technical excellence. Shand

was oblivious to the technical developments in Spanish guitar playing in the late

nineteenth century and his musical style comes out of the Victorian music hall

tradition. His guitar playing was more closely linked to popular song and light music.

There are no obvious Spanish titles or stylistic touches in a recently published

collection of his guitar music.89

The typical Estudiantina instrumentation of laiid, bandurria and guitar was well suited

to smaller trios and quartets playing more elevated salon music and concert repertoire.

The Trio Iberia was founded by the Grenadine guitarist Angel Barrios (1882-1964)

and featured Ricardo Devalque playing bandurria and Candido Bezunatea on the laid.

Barrios grew up in Granada, surrounded by Andalusian folk music, especially

flamenco. His father, known as "El Polinario", was a well-known Grenadine singer

and local identity. Barrios played flamenco guitar and was also involved in arranging

85 Button, Guitar in England, 202. B6 Stuart Button, `The Teaching of the Guitar in England during the 19t1 Century,' European Guitar Teachers Association (1992), accessed 21 Feb. 2012. www.egta.co.uk/content/england. S7 Madame Sidney Pratten, `How to Play the Guitar,' The Girl's Own Paper, 26 Feb. 1881, 349. B8 Button, Guitar in England, 152. 89 Stanley Yates, Ernest Shand: 23 Guitar Solos from Victorian England (Pacific, MO: Mel Bay, 2000).

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and composing for the Trio Iberia, which enjoyed success in Paris in the early years

of the twentieth century, where Barrios met and became friends with Albéniz and

Falla. 9° The trio travelled to London in 1908 and 1909 where they performed for

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, an enthusiastic amateur musician who

played the mandolin. The Trio Iberia's repertoire consisted of transcriptions of

Spanish music, with a special focus on the works of Albéniz. A program from a

concert at the Stationers' Hall in London in July 1908 includes three arrangements of

Albéniz piano works, two pieces from Carmen, works by Albéniz's close friend, the

composer Breton, and two items by Barrios himself, most notably the tribute to his

home town, Recuerdo de Granada.91

The popularity of guitar and mandolin groups reinforced the image of the guitar as a

Spanish instrument and paved the way for the ensuing presence of these instruments

on the concert stage. Guitarists such as Llobet and Pujol, both of whom were students

of Tdrrega, were pioneers in developing a new repertoire for guitar and performing

internationally. When the Spanish guitarist Segovia first performed in London in

1926 he played to an enthusiastic public prepared by decades of exposure to Spanish

music.

As I have demonstrated in this chapter, it is essential to consider the popular, or "low-

art" manifestations of Spanish music and dance in order to understand changing.

attitudes and performances in London. The most prominent Spanish visitors of the

late Victorian era included touring Estudiantinas which introduced a new plucked

string sonority and a fresh representation of musical Spain. These groups were

extremely important for the ensuing popularity of the Spanish guitar through the

consequent Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar movement.

Away from the operatic stage, Carmen continued to influence notions of Spanishness

in the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras as Spanish dancers such as Otero

engaged with the Carmen myth while simultaneously introducing elements of

flamenco in their routines. These dancers often performed with Estudiantina

90 M ichael Christoforidis, `Angel Barrios,' Diccionario de la Mûsica Espanola e Hispanoamericana (Madrid: SGAE, 1999). See also Ismael Ramos, Trio Iberia (Granada: Centro de Documentacibn Musical de Andalucia, 2003), 17-18. 91 Ramos, Trio Iberia, 22.

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ensembles and together they cultivated the audiences that supported the twentieth

century manifestations of Spanish music and dance.

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Chapter 5:

English fin-de-siècle literary and musical evocations of Spanish music

The fin-de-siècle was a time of transition for the relationship between England and

Spain. Railways began to be developed in Spain in 1848, and with the major lines

finished by the 1870s, the country became much more accessible and tourist numbers

increased dramatically.' Politically, England and Spain were becoming more closely

aligned and the evolution of this alliance is discussed in Chapter 6. The images of

Spain promoted by Carmen, music hall parodies, Spanish dance troupes and

musicians, had became part of the popular English imagination and a new generation

of English travel writers stamped their authority on perceptions of Spain in the

twentieth century.

In this chapter a snapshot of English evocations of Spanish music and dance is

provided through an examination of three travel writers, specific works by Edward

Elgar (1857-1934) and the performances of Percy Grainger.

Three Edwardian travel writers on Spain

The first book discussed in this chapter is Spanish Life in Town and Country by L.

Higgin (1837-1913), published in 1902 as part of the series entitled Our European

Neighbours edited by William Harbutt Dawson.2 The second book is by Havelock

Ellis (1859-1939), perhaps better known for his writings on sex and eugenics, and

titled The Soul of Spain (1908).3 Ellis had the highest profile of the three authors

discussed in this chapter and this volume is widely quoted and cited in later literature

on Spain. Charles Bogue Luffman's (1862-1920) Quiet Days in Spain of 1910 is the

third travel book considered for insights into English perceptions of Spain in the

Edwardian period.4

In her book Spanish Life in Town and Country Higgin drew attention to the recent

I Kamen writes, "The first line to be built in the peninsula was a short link from Barcelona to Matar6 in 1848, and government legislation in the 1850s facilitated further foreign investment in railways, with the main network being completed by the 1870s." Henry Kamen, The Disinherited: The Exiles Who Created Spanish Culture (London: Allen Lane, 2007), 216. 2 L. Higgin, Spanish Life in Town and Country (London: George Newnes, 1902). 3 Havelock Ellis. The Soul of Spain (1908; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937). a C. Bogue Luffman, Quiet Days in Spain (London: John Murray, 1910).

143

increase of travellers to Spain. The Spanish-American war of 1898 caused a hiccup in

tourism but Higgin reported that, "To-day, however, everyone is going to Spain."5

She recognized that many of the old stereotypes that had gained currency in the mid-

nineteenth century no longer applied and the writings of Ford and Borrow were in

many ways out-moded:

Ford is answerable for many of the fixed ideas about Spain which it seems quite

impossible to remove. Much that may have been true in the long ago, when he wrote

his incomparable Guide Book, has now passed away with the all-conquering years;

but still all that he ever said is repeated in each new book with unfailing certainty.6

Higgin aimed to give an even-handed survey of Spain and Portugal, with due respect

given to each region, thereby avoiding an overemphasis on the south. She

documented the regional varieties of music and dance and took great care to

emphasize the contrasts between provinces.

Writing enthusiastically on Spanish music and dance, Higgin emphasised the need to

seek out the more authentic forms of gypsy dance in an age of tourism:

So much has been written about the Spanish national dances that an absurd idea

prevails in England that they are all very shocking and indecent. It is necessary,

however, to go very much out of one's way, and to pay a good round sum, to witness

those gypsy dances which have come down unchanged from the remotest ages.

As in the writings of Irving, the guitar and castanets provided a constant counterpoint

to the dances Higgin documented. She described men and women of lower classes

engaging in spontaneous music and dance in their leisure time.8 In a clear departure

from earlier travelogues, Higgin noted that the musical aspirations of Spaniards were

changing as the country was modernizing. She noted,

S Higgins wrote, "Only in comparatively late years has the Iberian Continent been added to the happy hunting-grounds of the ordinary British and American tourist, and somewhat of a check arose after the outbreak of the war with America." Higgin, Spanish Life, 1. 6 Ibid., 49. ' Ibid., 105. B "Wherever two or three men and women of the lower classes are to be seen together in Spain during their play-time, there is a guitar, with singing and dancing. The verses sung are innumerable short stanzas by unknown authors; many, perhaps, improvised at the moment." Ibid., 106.

144

The guitar is, of course, the national instrument, and the songs never have the same

charm with any other accompaniment; but the Spanish women of to-day are prouder

of being able to play the piano or violin than of excelling in the instrument which

suits them so much better. The Spaniard is nervously anxious not to appear, or to be,

behind any other European nation in what we call "modernity," a word that signifies

that to be "up-to-date" is of paramount importance, leaving wholly out of the question

whether the change be for the better or infinitely towards the lower end of the scale .9

Unlike many of her contemporaries, Higgin engaged with a broad range of Spanish

music, from the Renaissance masters Cristobal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero and

Tomas Luis de Victoria, to the zarzuela, which she claimed "appears to have been the

forerunner and origin of all musical farce and `opera comique,' only naturalised in our

country during the present generation."10 She also explored folk music traditions

outside of Andalusia, including those from the Basque region, Galicia and other

northern provinces.

At this time both Spanish and English composers were working to create a national

style of music and native folksong was an important source of inspiration. In England

composers and folksong collectors active in this field included Cecil Sharp (1859-

1924), Grainger, and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), and their Spanish

counterparts were composers such as Pedrell, Granados and Albéniz. Higgin also

noted the importance of Renaissance music and a variety of national folksongs to this

new generation of composers.) t

Like Higgin, the English writer Ellis was concerned with correcting false stereotypes

about Spain and Spanish culture. His book The Soul of Spain was first published in

1908 and is referenced by later important writers on Spain such as Van Vechten and

9 Ibid., 215. I° Ibid., 108.

Higgin wrote, "To the end of the seventeenth century a galaxy of brilliant names carried on the national history of Spanish music, both on religious and secular lines; and though in the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth centuries there was a passing invasion of French and Italian fashion, the true and characteristic native music has never died out, and at the present time there is a notable musical renaissance in touch with the spirit and natural genius of the people." Ibid., 106.

145

J.B. Trend (1887-1958).12 Ellis wanted to direct the reader away from the common

clichés propagated by the opera Carmen towards a more subtle and well-informed

appreciation of Spain and its people.

Writing on flamenco, Ellis described a dance scene in some detail, categorizing it as

"the most primitive and African of all Spanish dances."13 Ellis' description of the

intense "bacchante-like fury of dancing" and deeply personal nature of the individual

performance styles is much more detailed than similar passages in Ford or Borrow.

He called attention to the difference between this dance and some of the exponents of

Spanish dance seen in London by emphasising that, "there is no high kicking, yet

every normal movement of the body is harmoniously displayed in the course of the

dance."14

Ellis devoted a chapter of his book to Spanish women and attacked the lazy

stereotypes disseminated by Carmen. He complained that,

In foreign representations the Spanish woman is usually a brilliant and reckless

creature, passionate but cruel, peculiarly adapted to occupy a place in novels and

pictures, but on the reverse side, ignorant, bigoted, lazy, and dirty. Mérimée's and

Bizet's Carmen...crystallizes into a whole the more picturesque elements of this

conception, and is doubtless largely responsible for its wide dissemination."

He also lamented the changing nature of Spain and expressed concern about the effect

new inventions were having on the traditions of Spanish music:

It is a little depressing to find a cinematographic show set up in the market-place of

even the remotest cities, to hear the squeak of the gramophone where one has once

heard the haunting wail of the malaguena, or to have to admit that the barrel-organ is

taking the place of the guitar.16

12 See Van Vechten, Music of Spain, 39, and J.B. Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain: Men and Music (London: Constable, 1921), 3. Trend's writings on Spanish music will be discussed in detail in Chapters 7 and 8. 13 Ellis, Soul of Spain, 184. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid., 87-88. 16 Ibid., 9-10.

146

According to Ellis, Spaniards were sick of the ignorance of tourists who "seem to see

the population of Spain symbolized in gypsies who dance or tell fortunes and beggar

boys who lie in the sun eating oranges."17 He quoted the Galician author Emilia

Pardo Bazân who declared that Spain "is not merely the land of the gipsy with his

guitar.s18 Ellis wrote perceptively on music and was concerned that many Spanish

traditions were being lost. Luffman was equally impressed by the spirit of musical

performance in Spain and like Ellis sought to educate his readers on the nature of the

true Spain.

Born in England in 1862, Luffman worked in the agricultural trade in Italy, France

and in 1893 he travelled through Spain, publishing an account of his wanderings in A

Vagabond in Spain (1895). Luffman migrated to Australia in 1895 where he

successfully pursued a career in horticulture.19 He returned to Iberia in 1908 and

1909 and his experiences formed the basis of the book Quiet Days in Spain, published

in 1910. Out of the 49 provinces that existed in Spain at that time, he visited 42 and

covered more than 7,000 miles in his travels.20 Like Higgin and Ellis, Luffmann

wanted to present an accurate picture of Spain, correcting the wrongs perpetrated by

earlier writers. He took Borrow to task, writing that while "no British writer has

written more entertainingly of Spain than George Borrow...no man has created a

more erroneous impression.s21 Borrow was charged with the crime of exaggeration in

the name of a good story.

Luffman was not especially interested in music but focused mostly on provincial

differences and Spain's natural resources. He did, however, provide some detailed

thoughts on the topic of Spanish song. Music was clearly an important part of

everyday life in the Spain encountered by Luffmann, who wrote of the "soul for

music" in Spain, which he described as, "a sense of feeling, power, and interpretation

which is most rare elsewhere."22 The spirit of musical participation in Spain

fascinated English writers who saw this lacking in their own culture. In the process of

industrialization in Britain many traditions had been lost, whereas Spain was still poor

17 Ibid., 38-39. 18 Ibid. 19 Luffman wrote the landmark work, The Principles of Gardening for Australia (Melbourne, 1903). 20 Luffman, Quiet Days, v. 21 Ibid., vi. 22 Ibid., 64.

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and under-developed, and many traditional musical practices remained intact.23

Luffman did not view Spanish folk music in primitive terms. He praised the music

for its "refinement of emotion" and when writing of Spanish singing described voices

"most full of expression and delicacy of sound."24 However, he noted that Spanish

song was an acquired taste and the structure was "not easily apprehended." 25 To help

inform the English public of the refinement of Spanish song forms he quoted

examples of Andalusian and gypsy couplets with detailed explanations.26 Quiet Days

in Spain was widely read and was reviewed favourably in the Daily Mail by the

prominent novelist and author of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad.27

For Higgin, Ellis and Luffman, increased tourism to Spain meant that greater

awareness of the "real" Spain was possible and the English could now strive for a

more sophisticated understanding of Spanish music and culture. They were

concerned about the challenges facing the traditional way of life in Spain and

endeavoured to provide correct and up to date information on the country for an

English readership.

Edward Elgar and Spanish Music

To most music lovers, the name Elgar does not conjure up images of Spain, however,

like Sullivan, he had a penchant for Spanish music. In his introduction to Van

Vechten's book The Music of Spain (1919), the Spanish critic Pedro Morales added

Elgar's Piano Quintet (1918) to Van Vechten's list of "Spanish" works by composers

of other nationalities.28 There are passages in the first movement of Elgar's Piano

23 On this note Luffman wrote, "The town (Pontevedra) has a population of nine thousand, and though it is old-fashioned and quiet it provides more solid entertainment than most British communities with ten times the number of people." Ibid., 270. 24 Ibid., 64. 25 Ibid., 64-66. 26 Ibid. 27 Joseph Conrad, `A Happy Wanderer,' Daily Mail, 23 July 2010, 8. 28 Morales, preface to Music of Spain by Van Vechten, xxii. He wrote, "In the domain of Chamber Music, of all works, Elgar's Piano Quintet and E. Goosen junior's Spanish Nocturne for Cello." Morales was a composer, conductor and writer on Spanish music and art. Born in Huelva in 1879 he studied first at Seville University and later at the Royal College of Music in London. Morales established himself as an important presence in the London music scene. He began organizing concerts of contemporary Spanish music in 1918 and continued these activities as conductor, performer and composer for a number of years. His role in the promotion of Spanish music in London will be discussed further in Chapters 7 and 8.

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Quintet where a Spanish influence is apparent and it is just one of a number of

compositions where his predilection for Spanish music may be heard. In his first

"Spanish" pieces the sonority of the Estudiantinas is a perceptible influence, an added

element to the musical style of "Spanish" music written by earlier English composers

such as Sullivan.

Elgar's first "Spanish" composition was the Intermezzo Moresque, premiered in

Worcestershire on 4 April 1883. It later reappeared in Elgar's Three Characteristic

Pieces op. 10 (1899) as the middle piece with the title "Serénade mauresque" and is

the longest and most significant of the three pieces.29 Robert Anderson describes the

piece as "an early example of Elgar's penchant for "Spanish" inflections, with exotic

intervals and pattering pizzicato."30 In Example 5 a descending pizzicato scale in the

second violin is doubled by the oboe and bassoon in staccato articulation, while the

first violins play guitar-like triplet semi-quavers. This imitation of plucked strings

suggests the early influence of the Estudiantinas on Elgar's "Spanish" music.

29 In an example of exotic confusion, the Moorish quality of the piece was described as `Slavonic' by a critic in 1888. Anderson, Elgar, 363. 30 Ibid.

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Example 5. Edward Elgar, Sérénade Mauresque, op. 10, no. 2, ms.5-6.31

Oboe

Clarinet in Bb

Bassoon

Violin I

Violin 11

Cello

dim.

Elgar achieved his first London performance with his Sevillana op. 7 for orchestra in

1884.32 He called the piece "an attempt to portray, in the compass of a few bars, the

humours of a Spanish fete,"33 and described the opening as "an imitation of a Spanish

folk-song, played by the violins on the fourth string."34 According to Julian Rushton,

Elgar's "exoticism is based on conventional evocative signs rather than fieldwork,

and much of Sevillana is frankly a Viennese waltz; in Spanish vein."35 However, this

was typical of many projections of Spanishness in salon instrumental music, for

example in the waltzes of Émile Waldteufe1,36 and Moritz Moszkowski,37 which were

31 Edward Elgar, Sérénade Mauresque (London: Novello, 1899), 2. 32 "Like the Intermezzo moresque, Sevillana revealed a fascination with the music of Spain, a country he never visited." Anderson, Elgar, 363. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35 Julian Rushton, `In Search of the Symphony: Orchestral Music to 1908,' in The Cambridge Companion to Elgar, eds. Daniel M. Grimley and Julian Rushton (Cambridge: CUP, 2004), 140. 36 The French waltz composer Waldteufel was well known for his Estudiantina waltz (1883), an arrangement of a melody composed by Paul Lancome. He was the author of the popular dance Espana (1886) after the work of the same name by Chabrier. See Andrew Lamb, 'Waldteufel, Emile.' in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 30 Jan. 2013, www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/29819. 37 Moszkowski wrote three groups of Spanish Dances for piano published as op. 12, op. 21 and op. 65. Other Spanish themed works were Caprice Espagnol op. 37 and Guitarre op. 45 no. 2. He completed an opera based on the legend of Boabdil and the expulsion of the Moors from Granada titled Boabdil der letze Maurenkönig op. 49. See Martin Eastick, `Moszkowski, Moritz,' in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 30 Jan. 30, 2013,

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also performed by Estudiantina ensembles.

Elgar's next Spanish work was the part-song Spanish Serenade op. 23 written in May

and June of 1892. The work is scored for voices with orchestral accompaniment and

the text comes from Act 1 of The Spanish Student, a play by the American writer

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow originally published in 1843. Elgar imagined a

Spanish scene for the work and on the manuscript score he wrote an imaginary stage

direction: "A street in Madrid. Enter Chispa followed by musicians with a bagpipe,

guitars and other instruments."38 Originally scored for two violins and piano, Elgar

subsequently made a version for voices accompanied by muted strings and

tambourine, an allusion to the sound of an Estudiantina. These works were written

early in Elgar's career and it was not until 1918 that Elgar would return to a Spanish

theme in his music.

The Piano Quintet is Elgar's most substantial chamber work and incorporates Spanish

allusions in a more abstracted manner. Written in the summer of 1918 it was first

performed on 21 May 1919 by a group that included Elgar's close friends the

violinists Willie Reed and Albert Salmonds and the Australian pianist William

Murdoch. Elgar wrote the Piano Quintet while staying at his peaceful country retreat

Brinkwells in the Sussex countryside. The rural landscape and in particular a group

of gnarled trees sparked Elgar's imagination. The novelist Algernon Blackwood

came to stay and may have had a part in associating these emaciated trees with a

community of Spanish monks who had lived in the area. Robert Anderson wrote that

the monks "were supposed to have been struck dead while celebrating impious rites"

and "the trees are their withered forms."39 As commented on by Morales and other

writers, the Spanish section, depicting the trees, begins at bar 78 of the first movement

of the Piano Quintet,40 and forms the second subject of the first movement.41 The

Spanish quality is achieved through a suggestion of the Phrygian mode, articulation in

the strings that suggests Spanish folksong and melodic phrasing across the bar.

www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/19207. 38 Quoted in Anderson, Elgar, 274. 39 Robert Anderson and Jerrold Northrop Moore, foreward to Elgar Complete Edition, Vol. 38, Chamber Music, ed. Robert Anderson (London: Novello, 1988), vii. 4o Ibid. 41

Anderson, Elgar, 386-8.

151

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Example 6. Elgar, Movement 1, Moderato-Allegro, Piano Quintet in Amin. op.

84, ms.78-92.42

In his last years Elgar considered writing an opera to a libretto adapted from Ben

Jonson's play The Devil is an Ass from 1616. Elgar produced the libretto with his

friend Barry Jackson and they renamed the opera The Spanish Lady. The project

struck a number of difficulties and remained unfinished, however, there are Spanish

pieces among the extant sketches. Willy Reed, the leader of the London Symphony

Orchestra and a friend of Elgar's, remembered playing through sections of The

Spanish Lady with Elgar and although he remained confused about Elgar's

intentions,43 he clearly recalled the Spanish-themed music Elgar had written: "We

42 Edward Elgar, `Piano Quintet' in Elgar Complete Edition, Vol. 38, Chamber Music, ed. Robert Anderson (London: Novello, 1988), 67. 43 Reed said of The Spanish Lady: "If I am ever asked what it was all about, I shall have to confess that I have not the faintest idea." Quoted in Anderson, Elgar, 274.

152

began playing through a lot of it [The Spanish Lady] on my violin and his piano.

There was a Spanish dance, a country dance, a bolero, and a sarabande."44 The music

assembled for the opera was an eclectic mix of styles. Elgar raided his sketchbook for

musical material and planned a number of Spanish-themed pieces. The only item that

was partially scored was a "Bolero", based on a Polonaise for violin and piano written

in 1879.45 The work references seventeenth-century Spanish and English music, in

accord with the neoclassical tendencies of the time. However, Elgar's musical take

on Spain remained firmly based in the nineteenth century, as evidenced by the amount

of material taken from earlier sketches. The blending of contemporary and early

music sources evident in the neoclassical music of Manuel de Falla and other Spanish

nationalist composers did not influence his musical approach in this piece. Elgar

worked on The Spanish Lady until 5 February 1933 when poor health intervened and

he died just over a year later.

Elgar never published a work for the guitar but he did compose a small sketch for the

instrument in combination with violin and mandolin in January 1907. The sketch

shows that he was familiar with the Spanish guitar and its serenading and Estudiantina

associations. The fragment was written in Italy and inspired by a trip to the

barbershop. A letter from Elgar's wife to Mrs. Nicholas Kilburn described the

musical encounter, "This morning E. went over to the Barber's to have his hair cut,

the Barber was always playing the Mandolin, so E. took up a Violin & they performed

a Duet, then a Guitarist arrived & they performed a Trio brilliantly to a delighted

audience! E. so gay and amused."46 Elgar's writing demonstrates a degree of

understanding of the guitar and typical chords and figuration.

The guitar remained popular in Edwardian London through the BMG movement, and

this is attested to by the publication in 1914 of Phillip J Bone's book The Guitar and

Mandolin, a milestone for the instrument.47 Containing entries on hundreds of players,

composers and enthusiasts, Bone dedicated his book to "the noble band of enthusiasts,

44 Percy M. Young, foreward to Elgar Complete Edition, Vol. 41, The Spanish Lady, ed. Robert

Anderson (London: Novello, 1991), ix. 45

Anderson, Elgar, 273. 46

Anderson and Moore, foreward to Elgar Complete Edition, vi. The musical fragment is reproduced on pages 164-5. 47 Bone, Guitar and Mandolin.

153

of all nationalities, who are ever striving for the advancement of their beloved

instruments—the guitar and mandolin."48 He acknowledged the strong folk music

associations held by these instruments when he observed, "the guitar and mandolin

are seldom studied seriously, or even heard to advantage, in this country."49

The ability of the guitar to cross social and genre boundaries is exemplified in the life

and work of the Spanish guitarist and teacher Alberto Obregon (1872-1922) who was

inspired by hearing Târrega in concert in Barcelona and subsequently had lessons

with the maestro.50 Obregon settled in London where he wrote light pieces for the

guitar, conducted a mandolin and guitar group and performed several times for King

Edward and Queen Alexandra who, according to Bone, "evinced sincere interest in

the artist and his instrument."51

Percy Grainger and Spanish Music

The Australian pianist and composer Grainger admired the Estudiantina settings of

mandolin and guitar and included these instruments in some of his compositions and

arrangements. Grainger is not normally associated with the Hispanic world, yet as a

pianist he was recognised for his early performances of Spanish music in Britain and

America. An active performer and promoter of the piano music of the modem

Spanish school, most notably Albéniz's piano suite Iberia, Grainger's ideas relating to

Spanish music would even have an impact on his compositions.

Grainger's interest in Spanish music was cultivated through his francophile

connections in Edwardian London, and especially through his close ties with Sargent.

The piano music of the modem Spanish school had predominantly developed in fin-

de-siècle Paris, and was closely aligned to various currents of new French music.

Albéniz, with his close ties to the Schola Cantorum and the Conservatoire, was at the

vanguard of this movement, and his magnum opus Iberia was published in four books

between 1904-1909, and considered a groundbreaking work of Spanish and French

pianism.

48 Ibid., 4.

48 Ibid., 5. so Ibid., 260-1. si Ibid., 261.

154

Grainger's respect and admiration for Sargent extended to his musical taste and

shaping of musical fashion in London. In his memoir of Sargent, written shortly after

the artist's death in 1925, Grainger wrote, "John Singer Sargent was one of the most

outstanding musicians I have ever met; for although his musical technic [sic] was not

as developed as his painting technic, he had the rarest of all esthetic gifts—

individualistic, balanced, critical judgement."52 Grainger not only admired Sargent as

a visual artist and for his musical taste, but was also taken by the naturalness of his

pianism and wrote, "To hear Sargent play the piano was indeed a treat, for his pianism

had the manliness and richness of his painting, though, naturally, it lacks that polished

skillfullness that comes only with many-hourly daily practice, spread over many

years.s53 Grainger confirmed the artist's predilection for French and Spanish music,

declaring: "He delighted especially in playing his favourite, Fauré, and in struggling

with the fantastic difficulties of Albéniz's Iberia, which later he had mastered to the

point of making it a musical joy to listen to at his hands; a task that might stagger

many a well-equipped concert pianist."54 For Sargent, Albéniz's music was a modern

pianistic incarnation of the flamenco music and guitar playing that had fired his

imagination. He was also very familiar with some of the principal flamenco dancers

and guitarists of the period, having befriended Angel Barrios and his father, "El

Polinario" during his travels in Granada.

Grainger appreciated and embraced amateur guitar and mandolin ensembles and

included guitars in numerous pieces and arrangements. Through the use of open

tunings and plectrum-style strumming, Grainger was an early advocate of massed

guitars in the concert hall. In keeping with the role of the guitar in Estudiantinas and

mandolin and guitar groups, Grainger used the guitar primarily as a rhythmic and

harmonic instrument. Notable examples include, Random Round (1912-15), which is

an early exploration of aleatoric principles, an orchestration of Shallow Brown (scored

1910) with parts for 4 guitars, the use of multiple guitars in his arrangements of

Father and Daughter (1908-09),55 and Scotch Strathspey and Reel (1901-39).

52 Percy Grainger, 'Sargent's Contribution to Music (1927),' in Grainger on Music, eds., Malcolm

Gillies, and Bruce Clunies Ross (Oxford: OUP, 1999), 169. 53 Ibid. sa

Ibid. ss Ded icated to John Singer Sargent.

155

It may be that Grainger's fascination with the guitar, and his extensive use of it in his

ensemble music of the early twentieth century, was in part indebted to Sargent's

contacts with the instrument. However, according to Grainger's later reflections,

Sargent was not so taken with Grainger's inclusion of guitars in his arrangements:

As long as my compositions were not publicly performed Rathbone and Sargent

seemed to take a keen interest in them. Between 1904 and 1912 (1913-1914?) they

were always engaging me to play (and shout out the prominent voices) such things as

English Dance, Green Bushes, Father and Daughter to their friends, at their `at

homes', etc. There was always lively speculation as to how the orchestration, the

guitars, etc., would sound.56

Grainger speculated that, "Perhaps they felt that my `special instruments' (guitars in

`Father and Daughter', xylophone and guitars in `Scotch Strathspey and Reel') were a

bit foolish in actual concerts. But the guitars in `F and D' surely must be said to have

made their mark."57

Albéniz's premature death in 1909 brought his music to greater notice, although it

took a number of years for Iberia to be considered a ground-breaking modern classic

outside of Paris. Grainger was indeed a pioneer in this area outside of France and

Spain, practising and performing some of the works from Iberia at least as early as

1909. In letters from January of this year to his partner Karen Holton and to his

mother he mentions practising two pieces by Albéniz. In August of that year he

performed them in Copenhagen and reported to his mother Rose on 30 August 1909,

"The Albéniz's make a remarkably great impression on Scandinavians, so I must do

them over here all I can."58 On 1 December of the same year The Times reported

Grainger's performance of two of Albéniz's pieces which were played with

"marvellous clearness and dexterity."59 One of these pieces was probably Triana,

included by Grainger in a programme for a concert in Yorkshire on 20 February

1910.60 He had the utmost respect for Albéniz's piano writing and in the words of the

56 Gillies, Pear, and Carroll, eds., Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger, 193. 57 Ibid., 194. S8 Dreyfus, ed., The Farthest North of Humanness, 351. 59 `Music, Mr Percy Grainger's Recital,' Times, 1 Dec. 1909, 14. 68 Letter to Rose dated 20 Feb. 1910 from Copenhagen. Reproduced in Dreyfus, The Farthest North of Humanness, 359.

156

critic D.C. Parker in a promotional booklet from 1918, "[Grainger] pays an eloquent

tribute to Albéniz, whom he describes as `in several ways the greatest pianistic advent

since Chopin'.s61 Grainger continued to play Albéniz's works for the rest of his

performance career.62

There are a number of Albéniz's piano scores with annotations by Grainger in the

Grainger Museum Collection at the University of Melbourne.63 The markings on

these works illuminate some of the features that attracted Grainger to this music, most

notably: cross-rhythms, the novel use of alternating right and left hands and very

specific use of the pedals.

One of the pieces Grainger performed repeatedly was "El Puerto", from the first book

of Iberia. His score is full of markings detailing the length of time notes need to be

held with the sustain pedal and also where notes should be damped. On page 1 he

wrote, "Study in cross-rhythms and the use of damper pedal for purely rhythmic

effects (while sustain ped. holds down pedal-notes)."64 Grainger highlighted the

rhythmic function of the pedals and Albéniz was also known for his disinclination to

over-pedal, particularly when clarity of texture might be compromised.65 Grainger

also marked the 2 against 3 rhythmic effects, a feature of many genres of Spanish

music and an integral part of this piece. He indicates that these passages should be

kept strictly in time.

Another of the annotated Albéniz scores in Grainger's library is "Almeria" from the

second book of Iberia. In this piece Albéniz notated the cross rhythms by juxtaposing

4/4 and 6/8 (3/4) time signatures. Again Grainger writes that the 2 against 3 rhythm

should be kept strict. Albéniz would have approved of Grainger's emphasis on

rhythmic precision as he himself was known for exactness and restraint in his piano

playing.66 As had been the case with Albéniz, English critics sometimes described

61 Gillies and Pear, Portrait of Percy Grainger, 92. 62 It is unfortunate that there are no available recordings of Grainger performing the music of Albéniz, given the high regard he had for the genius of this Spanish composer and his pianism.

The works with the most markings are Triana, El Puerto and Almeria. 64

Grainger Museum, MG C1/ALB-2. 65

"Beethoven's intentions were realised' when Albéniz played the first movement of the `Moonlight' Sonata without making use of the pedals,' which resulted in an appropriate absence of `blurred sound'." Vanity Fair, 21 Feb. 1891. See also Clark, Albéniz, 82. 66

See Clark, Albéniz, 80.

157

Grainger as a performer of precision but lacking in Romantic flair and expression.67

Grainger's promotion of Albéniz's Iberia and some pieces by Granados, alongside

pieces from the modern French school, particularly Debussy and Ravel, added to his

reputation as a specialist of modern piano repertoire.68

In his article on piano music from 1915 Grainger also wrote a paragraph on `The

Influence of Spanish Gipsy Music.' Here he shows his interest in the guitar and

mandolin effects apparent in Spanish and Spanish-influenced piano music. Grainger

wrote, "It is highly interesting to trace the influence of guitars, mandolins, etc., in

pieces such as Debussy's La Soirée dans Grenade and Minstrels, Ravel's Alborada de

Gracioso, and Albéniz's Iberia."69 He continued by praising the piano writing of

Albéniz and hinting at the influence of Sargent's keen interest in Spanish Renaissance

and eighteenth-century painters, most notaby El Greco and Goya:

Albéniz developed the `two-hand' technique perhaps more than anyone else. His

piano style might also be nicknamed a `concertina' style, so much does it consist of

`right, left, right, left' devices. Albéniz seems to me to give us a volume of sonority,

a dashing intensity and glowing brilliancy that we have been lacking in composers for

the piano since Liszt and Balakirev, and without which we should be very much the

poorer. At other times the vibrating gloom of his music suggests old Spanish pictures.

But in all his phases he appears to me a real genius, occupying a wholly unique and

precious niche amongst the greatest pianistic composers of all time.70

Grainger continued to play Albéniz in his English concerts until his departure for

America in 1914.

67 These comments on Grainger's piano playing and temperament come from The Times, "In some ways it was a pity that Mr. Grainger had chosen Schumann's concerto, for although elaborate polyphonic writing suits the player's clean, analytical style, he does not succeed in convincing us that he is by temperament really in sympathy with such warm, full-blooded stuff as Schumann is here giving us." `Concerts,' Times, 14 Mar. 1907, 11. b8 From The Times in May 1912, "Another encore was insisted upon ...which was made up of interesting works of the utmost "modemity"—Albeniz's "Almeria," one of Granados's Spanish dances, and Debussy's "Toccata." All were most brilliantly given, and full sympathy was manifested with the music of all the various schools." `Mr Percy Grainger's Recital,' Times, 31 May 1911, 12. 69 Percy Grainger, `A Blossom Time in Pianoforte Literature,' in Grainger on Music, eds. Malcolm Gillies and Bruce Clunies Ross (Oxford: OUP, 1999), 75. 70 Ibid.

158

In Edwardian England some writers, performers and composers sought to modernize

the image and sound of Spain. Ellis and Grainger engaged with the emerging Spanish

nationalist movement, whilst others such as Elgar continued to write "Spanish" music

informed by late nineteenth-century styles. As we shall see in the following chapter,

modern Spanish musical nationalism began to be accepted and promoted in England,

largely through its association with the new French school.

159

Chapter 6:

Changing Political Alliances and Spanish Music: From the Entente

Cordiale (1904) to the death of Granados (1916)

The loss of empire experienced by Spain in the late nineteenth century, and the threats

being posed to English global influence at the same time, resulted in both countries

cultivating new political alliances. The French invasions of the early nineteenth

century left Spain a divided country and political instability marked the remainder of

the century.1 The Spanish-American War of 1898 saw Spain lose sovereignty over

Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam,2 and this loss of colonial power

provided further impetus to the artists and thinkers of the Spanish Generation of 1898

who were already grappling with issues of Spanish national identity.3 For much of

the nineteenth century England had been the most powerful country in the world but

found its authority in Africa threatened by the events of the Second Boer War (1899-

1902). This encouraged a belief amongst other nations, notably Germany, that the era

of English domination was coming to an end. England looked abroad for allies and

signed agreements with Japan, France and Russia.4

As the era of imperialism drew to a close, the political relationship between England

and Spain grew closer with the signing of the Entente Cordiale in 1904,5 and the 1906

marriage of Spain's King Alfonso XIII to Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess

Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.6 In this chapter I will highlight the important

influence that new political alliances had on the reception of Spanish music in London

in the early twentieth century. A significant catalyst for this evolution was the

influence of French critics who saw Spanish music as a subset of French music. Two

I See Enrique Moradiellos, `Spain in the World: from Great Empire to Minor European Power,' in Spanish History Since 1808, eds. José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), 110-121. 2 Enric Ucelay Da Cal discusses the rise of nationalism in Spain and other European countries in `The Restoration Monarchy and the Competition of Nationalisms,' in Spanish History Since 1808, eds. José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), especially 124-127. 3 Vincent, Spain 1833-2002, 79. 4 Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902), Entente Cordiale (1904), Anglo-Russian Entente (1907). 5 The Entente Cordiale was an agreement between England and France with specific reference to Spain. For a discussion of the importance of the Entente Cordiale to Spanish interests in Morocco and the vital role played by Britain in the agreement see Moradiellos, `Spain in the World,' 118. 6 For background to the marriage between Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenie see William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, A Concise History of Spain (Cambridge: CUP, 2010), 234-5.

160

such writers with close connections to Spanish music were Henri Collet (1885-1951)

and Raoul Laparra (1876-1943). They were part of a wider group of writers on

French music, including London-based critics Edwin Evans (1849-1921) and Georges

Jean-Aubry (1882-1950), who engaged with Spanish music. Although Collet and

Laparra were most active in France, Laparra's opera La Habanera (1908) was

performed at Covent Garden and introduced a new type of "realistic" Spanish music

to London audiences. Their writings and the French movement to engage with and

promote Spanish music as part of a broader Latin alliance influenced developments in

England after World War I.

Manuel de Falla visited London for a concert of Spanish music facilitated by Jean-

Aubry in 1911, however, the recital attracted little attention in the press. This was in

marked contrast to the wave of enthusiasm that greeted the new Spanish ballet with

music by Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat, in London after the war. What had

changed? The catalyst for a new wave of promotion of Spanish composers in Britain

was the death of the Spanish composer Enrique Granados aboard a civilian steamer in

the English Channel in 1916. After this tragedy, Spanish music began to receive

more performances and was discussed with greater seriousness than previously in the

English musical press. Although Spain was neutral during World War I,7 it retained

strong ties with England and nationalist sentiment was partly responsible for the re-

evaluation of Spanish music. The music of other Spanish composers such as Albéniz,

Turina, and most notably Falla benefited from this wave of interest.

Throughout this period Spanish music was ever-present in popular entertainments in

London, such as the reconstituted English version of the Spanish review La Gran Via,

visiting flamenco dance troupes, and the fashion for the tango, which, although

Argentine in origin, formed part of London's Hispanic musical milieu. All of this

activity informed the reappraisal of Granados' music after his death and prepared the

way for the London premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat in 1919 (see Chapter 7).

7 The neutral stance of Spain during World War I and the benefits and problems it caused for Spain are highlighted in Ibid., 236.

161

The Entente Cordiale and Spanish music in Edwardian London

Prior to the signing of the Entente Cordiale, France, Britain and Spain had been

engaged in secret negotiations over the partitioning of Morocco, reaching agreement

in 1904. The following extract from Article 8 of the Entente Cordiale between the

United Kingdom and France outlines the special role of Spain in this agreement and

illustrates the political balancing act achieved in this document.

The two Governments, inspired by their feeling of sincere friendship for Spain, take

into special consideration the interests which that country derives from her

geographical position and from her territorial possessions on the Moorish coast of the

Mediterranean. In regard to these interests the French Government will come to an

understanding with the Spanish Government. The agreement which may be come to

on the subject between France and Spain shall be communicated to His Britannic

Majesty's Government.8

The British presence at Gibraltar was a decisive factor in the discussions between

France and Spain on the subject of Morocco. France and Spain agreed to divide

Morocco into two zones and to work together to further their colonial interests. With

Morocco divided between France and Spain and safe from German influence, Britain

effectively maintained control of the Straits of Gibraltar.9

The 1906 marriage of King Alfonso XIII to Princess Victoria Eugenie had a political

dimension, reinforcing the Entente Cordiale, and maintaining the hegemony of

European royal families. A writer in The London Morning Penny Post commented on

this after the engagement was announced:

The authoritative announcement made by the Standard correspondent at Madrid of

the engagement of the King of Spain to Princess Ena of Battenburg marks the end of

a long campaign of domestic plotting on the Continent in which politics have also

played a part.10

s Quoted in Melvin E Page and Penny M Sonnenburg, Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003), 1000. 9 See Moradiellos, `Spain in the World,' 118-119. 1° London Morning Penny Post, 9 Dec. 1905, 3.

162

The vogue for all things Spanish in high society reached a peak at the time of the

Royal wedding in 1906 and the British theatre musician Ernest Irving (1878-1953)

highlighted this fashion in his autobiography as he remembered a tour to Spain in

1907. He was the musical director of a light opera company that presented musical

comedies such as The Geisha, A Greek Slave, The Circus Girl and numerous others

for seasons in Madrid. In response to being offered the chance to visit Spain, Irving

wrote,

Spanish affairs were making the headlines then in the English papers, as Princess Ena

of Battenberg had just been married to the King of Spain, and if everybody in

England was not studying Spanish, everybody in Spain was learning English. I leapt

at the chance of visiting Madrid, and proceeded as rapidly as possible to assimilate

Hugo 's Teach Yourself Spanish»

This interest in Spain led to performances of Castles in Spain, an English re-working

of the zarzuela La Gran Via in London in 1906-07. As mentioned in Chapter 4, La

Gran Via had great success in Spain and musical items from the work became

standard pieces in the Estudiantina repertoire. La Gran Via toured successfully to

Paris, Vienna, Prague, and repeatedly in Italy and Latin American countries, however

the productions of Castles in Spain in London and New York were less popular. Van

Vechten argued that a reason for this lack of success was that "the zarzuela, to be

fully enjoyed, in fact, must be seen in Spain. Like Spanish dancing it requires a

special audience to bring out its best points."i2 Morales laid the blame for the poor

reception with English theatrical managers. He reasoned that, "the English theatrical

manager's customary treatment robs the continental importations of their character.

Chueca's music was introduced in a show arranged ad hoc, entitled Castles in Spain.

It was neither English nor Spanish."13 English writers Cosmo Hamilton and Eustace

Ponsonby wrote new lyrics for the show and the music hall singer Henry Fragson

added extra musical numbers. The new material was presented alongside the main

numbers originally written by Chueca and Valverde for La Gran Via. A writer in The

11 Ernest Irving, Cue For Music (London: Dobson, 1959), 41. 12 Van Vechten, Music in Spain, 78. 13 Pedro Garcia Morales, 'Chueca, Federico,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians. ed. Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 94.

163

Manchester Guardian commented on some positive aspects of the work but remained

unimpressed with the way the original Spanish material was treated:

The mixture is not altogether happy, if only because Mr. Fragson suffers so much by

comparison with the Spanish composers, whose music has an abundance of vigour

and colour. True, it bears a great family likeness to a deal of other Spanish music we

know, but it has a distinct character, whereas Mr. Fragson's own music is an

undistinguishable mixture of everyday French and English idioms.14

In the pre-war years Spanish music maintained a regular presence on the London

stage in popular forms of entertainment, however, music by Spanish composers was

rarely heard in the concert hall. Indeed, there had been something of a hiatus in

performances of Spanish concert music since Albéniz left London in the early 1890s.

The situation was very different in Paris where Spanish music continued to be an

integral part of the music scene. Most ambitious Spanish composers and musicians

spent formative years in the French capital. Albéniz had given successful recitals in

Paris in the 1880s and returned there in 1894, staying until his death in 1909. His

works stimulated the French interest in Spanish music and his piano suite Iberia was

lauded as a masterpiece in France.15 Albéniz was highly regarded as a composer by

Debussy and Ravel, and some scholars have suggested that Albéniz influenced

Debussy's Spanish pieces.16

14 `Comic Opera in London,' Manchester Guardian, 19 April 1906, 7. 15 See Clark, Albéniz, 220-67. 16 See Michael Christoforidis, 'Invasion of the Barbarians:" Spanish Composers and Challenges to Exoticism in Belle-Epoque Paris,' Context: Journal of Music Research 29/30 (2005): 113; Jacqueline Kalfa, `Isaac Albéniz à Paris: Une Patrie Retrouvée (1893-1909),' Revue Internationale de Musique Française 26 (1988): 19-36. Debussy and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) both wrote Spanish-themed works. Debussy's Lindaraja (1901) for two pianos is based on the habanera rhythm also used by Ravel in his two-piano piece Habanera (1895), later orchestrated as part of the suite Rapsodie Espagnole (orch. 1907-08). The title Lindaraja refers to a garden room at the Alhambra in Granada and foreshadows another piece inspired by Granada (a place Debussy never visited) and the habanera rhythm, "La soirée dans Grenade" from Estampes (1903). Debussy also composed an orchestral homage to Spain, the suite Ibéria (1905-08). Ravel's contributions to the list of Spanish works include the four-movement Rapsodie Espagnole and the one-act opera L'heure Espagnole (The Spanish Hour) (1907-9). His piano suite Miroirs (1905) was first performed by the Catalan pianist Ricardo Vigies in 1906 and includes the "Alborada del Gracioso," a work with Spanish style themes and rhythms. Other significant Spanish works by French composers from the late nineteenth century include Chabrier's Espana (1883) and the sixth movement, "Pas Espagnol" from Gabriel Faure's Dolly Suite op. 56 (1884-87).

164

Granados went to Paris to study in 1887, staying for two years and sharing a room

with his compatriot Ricardo Vines (1875-1943), who would become one of the most

in demand interpreters of new French and Spanish music.17 Of the younger

generation of Spanish composers, Turina arrived in Paris in 1905 and helped his

friend Falla find a place to stay when he came to the French capital in 1907. Both left

France before the onset of war in 1914.

During the early twentieth century there was a change in how French intellectuals

viewed their relationship with Spain.'8 Responding to concerns about German

military and cultural influence, a group of French writers on music advocated a Latin

coalition of nations and promoted Spanish works as part of an anti-German musical

alliance. Their influence was crucial in the gradual development of awareness of

new Spanish music in London. Falla came to London in 1911 for a concert of

Spanish and French works expedited by the London based French writer Jean-Aubry.

Although this concert was not a huge success, it marked the beginning of a

determined effort to bring Spanish concert music to the London public before World

War I.

Spanish music and French music in London

Two of the leading French writers on Spanish music were Collet and Laparra who

both influenced the critical debate in London and maintained close ties with Evans

and Jean-Aubry. With his opera La Habanera, Laparra aimed to present a more

realistic portrayal of Spain than familiar works such as Carmen. London audiences

and critics were not attuned to his interpretation of Spain which they found too far

removed from familiar tropes of Spanishness. The work was performed in London in

1910 but failed to attract significant interest or repeat performances.

'7 Morales wrote of Vines in 1924, "The prominence of his name in the history of modern music cannot be sufficiently emphasised...He was one of the first to understand, and make others understand, the new French school, through his wonderful exposition of its pianoforte works which for a long period he monopolised. The new school of Spain and, to a great extent, that of Russia, owe him a similar debt." Morales, `Vines, Ricardo,' Dictionary, ed. Eaglefield-Hull, 513-514. ie

Llano, Whose Spain?, 3.

165

One of the French writers on music who championed the cause of Spanish music, was

Collet.19 Collet composed "Spanish" music throughout his life, including ballets,

symphonic and chamber works and even a zarzuela. In Paris, he became friends with

Falla with whom he shared an interest in Spanish music from the Renaissance and

Baroque periods. In 1913 Collet penned an influential study on Spanish musical

mysticism.20 He was a prime mover in the promotion of Spanish music in France and

called for the emergence of a vibrant school of Spanish composition, independent of

the prejudices and clichés that had come to characterize Spanish music. He saw Spain

as a key ally of France in the fight against German cultural imperialism. The anti-

German rhetoric of writers such as Charles Maurras exerted a strong influence on

Collet, who in his 1909 obituary of Albéniz gave expression to these ideas.21 In

writing of Albéniz's brief time spent studying in Leipzig in 1876, Collet wanted to

show that Albéniz was immune to German influences in his music: "In those German

milieux...Albéniz acquired enough mastery to begin confronting high composition,

while preserving that freedom of attitude, that charming negligence and that

spontaneity by which Spain remains impervious to Teutonic pedantry."22 In the

partnership between French and Spanish music Collet clearly thought of France as the

dominant partner. According to Collet, Albéniz's success would not have been

possible without his success in France: "Albéniz is therefore ours, despite his apparent

exoticism...Albéniz's impressionism often sounds like Debussy or Fauré rather than

Spanish."23

Like Collet, the French critic and composer Laparra expressed his fascination with

Spain in his own compositions and writings. He met Collet during a visit to Spain in

1902, however, his views on Spanish music differed substantially from those of

Collet: he did not view Spain as part of a union against Germany, rather, he urged the

19 See Llano, Whose Spain? for a fascinating discussion of Collet's writings on Spanish music, particularly Chapter 1 "`Spanish Music" as Allied Propaganda,' 3-48. ° Henri Collet, Le mysticisme musical espagnol au XVI Siecle (Paris: Librairie Felix Alcan, 1913)

referenced in Michael Christoforidis, `From Folksong to Plainchant: Musical Borrowings and the Transformation of Manuel de Falla's Musical Nationalism in the 1920's,' in Manuel de Falla: His Life and Music, ed. Nancy Lee Harper (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005), 216. 21 Llano, Whose Spain?, 8-15. 22 Ibid., 11. 23 Ibid., 12.

166

preservation of Spanish musical integrity without hybridization.24

Laparra's first opera, La habanera was first performed at the Opéra Comique in 1908

and in 1910 at Covent Garden. He aimed to dispense with familiar stereotypes of

Spanish music and culture and according to Samuel Llano, this work "constitutes the

first [French] large-scale work entirely focused on Castile with the purpose of

dislodging, from the popular imaginary, representations of Spain solely based on

stereotypes from the southern region of Andalusia."25 Although the work is set in

Castile, Laparra did include some Andalusian elements and mixed cultural material in

an eclectic manner.26

After the London premiere, comparisons with Carmen, still the benchmark for new

Spanish productions, appeared in the London press. A critic in The Times judged the

realism of La habanera as unsuccessful:

The single novelty offered by the management of Covent Garden this year may be

best described as being everything that Carmen is not. In the first place, it is

genuinely Spanish in character, representing not the gay, sunny, southern atmosphere,

but the true Spain that is so much less effective for stage purposes.27

By "the true Spain" the reviewer may have been referring to the violence of Laparra's

libretto.28 The story concerns two brothers who are in love with the same girl. The

elder brother decides to commit suicide but ends up killing his brother. He is haunted

by the ghost of his brother (who appears playing a guitar at one point) and more

tragedy ensues.

There are common elements shared by La habanera and Carmen, namely the dual

themes of murder and jealousy and the habanera rhythm, although in Laparra's work

the habanera is used as a recurring theme. It may have been Laparra's desire to move

24 Samuel Llano, 'Hispanic Traditions in a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Raoul Laparra's La habanera

(1908) and French Critics,' Journal of the Royal Musical Association 136, no. 1 (2011): 97-98. 25 Llano, Whose Spain?, 74. 266

Llano, 'Hispanic Traditions,' 98. 27 'Royal Opera, "La Habanera",' Times, 19 Jul. 1910, 12. 28 Llano discusses the violence of Laparra's libretto in Llano, 'Hispanic Traditions,' 130-131.

167

beyond Carmen stereotypes, towards a more realistic style of Spanish opera, however,

by comparison with Bizet's opera, La habanera was deemed to be lacking in

originality and compositional ski11.29

Paris was an important centre for Spanish composers and musicians in the years

before Falla's arrival in 1907. Exchanges between French and Spanish musicians in

the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries played a crucial role in the

development of Spanish nationalist music.30 In Paris Falla met the composers Paul

Dukas (1865-1935) and Debussy who were impressed with his opera La vida breve,

completed in 1905.31 Among the Spanish musicians Falla encountered in the French

capital were Vines, Albéniz, and the guitarists Llobet and Barrios. During this time

Falla attended meetings with a group known as the Apaches, comprised of influential

French musicians, poets and artists, and a number of Spaniards.32

Falla found the artistic climate necessary for his career to advance in Paris, and he

later wrote of the importance of the move from Madrid:

Without Paris, I would have remained buried in Madrid, done for and forgotten,

laboriously leading an obscure existence, living miserably...To be published in Spain

is worse than [not] being published at all. It's like throwing the music into a we11.33

There were close connections between the critics and musicians who supported Falla

in Paris and the network of friends and supporters he developed in London. Falla's

first visit to London in 1911 was for a concert of Spanish music at the Aoelian Hall

where he performed with pianist Franz Liebich and the singer Suzanne Berchut on 24

May.34 In the words of Chris Collins, the cosmopolitan Liebich was "British by birth,

German by training, French by musical sensibility."35 He was an advocate for the

29 "He has a strong poetic imagination. But this is not the same thing as being a skilful stage-craftsman, or an original or successful composer." `Royal Opera,' Times, 19 Jul. 1910, 12. 3° See Llano, Whose Spain?; Bergadà, Les Pianistes catalans à Paris. 31 La vida breve was first performed in Nice in April 1913 and later that year in Paris. 32 Arbie Orenstein, introduction to A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews, ed. Arbie Orenstein (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 3. 33 Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope, 188. See also Chris Collins, `Falla in Europe: Relations with His Contemporaries' in Manuel de Falla: His Life and Works, ed. Nancy Lee Harper (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005), 247-284. 34 Chris Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 35. 35 Ibid., 35.

168

music of Debussy and his wife wrote an early biography of Debussy, published in

1908.36 Liebich and his wife became friends with Falla and firm supporters of his

music. The Aoelian Hall programme included Falla's Pièces espagnoles and Trois

mélodies, a two piano arrangement of Debussy's Ibéria and pieces by Turina and

Antonio de Cabezôn. The concert received little critical attention, perhaps due to Sir

Edward Elgar conducting the premiere of his Second Symphony on the same night.37

Falla's friend Jean-Aubry had a hand in organising this concert and bringing Falla to

London.

Jean-Aubry championed modern Spanish, Italian, English and French music and was

an ardent supporter of Falla. His zealous promotion of Spanish music was tied to the

anti-German sentiments espoused by Collet and others who thought of Spanish music

as a colonial offshoot of French music. Jean-Aubry was closely connected to the

English music scene and lived in London after 1915, working for the music publisher

Chester and editing the in-house music journal The Chesterian. Through his articles

in the Musical Times, Jean-Aubry helped to focus attention on the renaissance in

Spanish music and played a key role in organising Falla's subsequent visits to

London.38 They collaborated on the work Psyché (1924) in which Falla set one of

Jean-Aubry's poems for mezzo-soprano, harp, violin, viola, cello and flute. His

writings on Spanish music will be discussed in Chapter 7.

While efforts were underway to promote the new Spanish school of composers in

London, Spanish music and dance continued to thrive in popular entertainment.

Spanish dancers inspired by the Ballets Russes developed idiosyncratic and

increasingly modern styles of Spanish dance. At the same time flamenco groups

begin to appear in the tradition of touring Andalusian dance troupes. All of this

activity continued to be informed by stereotypes and myths derived from Carmen, as

demonstrated by the successful revival and reworking of the Alhambra Theatre's

Carmen ballet in 1912.

36 Mrs Franz Liebich, Claude-Achille Debussy (London: J. Lane, 1908).

37 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 35. 38

Ibid., 34.

169

In 1908 the Spanish dancer Tortola Valencia (1882-1955) featured in the Gaiety

Theatre production Havana. Valencia was dressed in a costume modelled on

Sargent's painting of Carmencita.39 She went on to develop a distinctly personal style

of Spanish dance and was influenced by the new and exotic dance styles of the Ballets

Russes and Isadora Duncan.40 Iris Garland notes that while it is likely Valencia was

raised by a foster family in London, she followed the example of earlier Spanish

dancers and invented a romantic history for herself. In the words of Garland,

"Valencia, who was notorious for self-invention and imaginative stories to the press,

claimed her mother was a gypsy and her father was a Spanish nobleman."41 The

London press were confused about her identity in November 1908 when she was

described as "a Moorish dancer...an Algerian by birth who dances in the costumes of

her country."42 The following month, with her nationality now firmly established as

Spanish, a London writer described the novelty of her dance:

Dancing was represented by Tortola Valencia, a Spanish lady attired in a wonderful

flame-coloured skirt, which she whirls round her in serpentine convolutions. Some of

her arm action is rather suggestive of the overhand stroke affected by certain of the

Channel swimmers 43

Flamenco dance groups began to visit with greater frequency in this period, most

notably the Sevillian flamenco dance master José Otero who came to London with "a

troupe of Spanish Dancers and a quintet of bandurria players in 1911.'44 The Carmen

ballet was revived in January 1912 and touted as a new production of the show first

seen in London in 1903. A troupe of Spanish dancers were brought from Madrid to

support the stars of the ballet, among them La Malagueflita and La Andujar, who were

promoted in The Times as "two famous Spanish dancers."45 Staged at The Alhambra

Theatre with George Byng's musical adaptations of Bizet, these dancers provided an

up-to-date model of Spanish dance. The Times declared, "the Spanish ladies swagger

39 Iris Garland, 'Early Modern Dance in Spain: Tortola Valencia, Dancer of the Historical Intuition,' Dance Research Journal 29, no. 2 (1997): 6. 4o Iris Garland, 'Tortola Valencia' in International Dictionary of Modern Dance, ed. Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf and Glynis Benbow-Niemier (Detroit: St. James Press, 1998), 791. 41 Ibid., 791. 42 'Theatrical Arrangements,' Times, 30 Nov. 1908, 13. 43 'Palace Theatre,' Times, 9 Dec. 1908, 8. 44 'The Variety Theatres,' Times, 29 May 1911, 8. 45 'The Variety Theatres,' Times, 15 Jan. 1912, 10.

170

and fascinate and strut in the true Spanish style," and La Maleguenita drew the notice

of critics who described how "her castanets purr and talk and scream."46 The coarser

and less refined nature of the dance, which had greater flamenco influence than the

original 1903 production, drew notice as The Times commented, "it would be

ungracious to complain that none of the dancing is supremely good, because none of

it is of the kind that can achieve supreme beauty."47

All of this activity constituted a revival of the fashion for Spanish dance:

In the matter of dancing the mode of the moment seems to be the Spanish school.

Only a few weeks ago at the Palace we saw Estrellita, a powerful and passionate

danseuse, while we have now simultaneously at the Alhambra Miss Réjane who is

pretty, Maria la Bella, who is inspiring, and Maleguenita, who is amazing. This week

it is once again the turn of the Palace, where Tortola Valencia is exhibiting a series of

hieratic and Oriental dances 48

The fashion for the tango in London of the early 1910s is demonstrated by the

popularity of "Tango teas," social gatherings where the new Hispanic dance was

featured as a social entertainment. Although Argentine in origin, the tango was

appreciated as a broadly Hispanic style, particularly due to its similarity to the

habanera rhythm that had distinguished Spanish instrumental music in the wake of

Bizet's famous "Habanera" from Carmen. The popularity of the tango opened the

way for other South American dances. A tango revue at the Palladium in November

1913 showcased the Argentine dance alongside dances from Brazil, Chile and

Venezuela 49 A critic in The Times commented on the popularity of the tango and

observed that "the appetite of the public for Tango teas continues unsatiated."5°

Spanish dancers such as La Belle Otero performed at these events and Otero was

reported to dance the "real Argentine Tango."51

46 `New Ballet at the Alhambra,'Times, 25 Jan. 1912, 8.

47 Ibid. as `Oriental Dancing at the Palace,' Times, 21 Mar. 1912, 9. 49 ,

Tango Revue at the Palladium,' Times, 25 Nov. 1913, 10. so Ibid. S' `The Theatrical Season,' Times, 27 Oct. 1913, 12.

171

At the Alhambra Theatre in 1914, a young Argentine-born Spanish dancer, La

Argentina (Antonia Mercé y Luque, 1890-1936), was featured in a Spanish

entertainment titled El Embrujo de Sevilla that had been playing in Paris. In this

show she performed with celebrated gypsy performers and deepened her knowledge

of flamenco dance.52 After World War I La Argentina would become one of the most

prominent and influential exponents of Spanish dance and collaborated with Falla.53

Another Spanish singer and dancer associated with Falla was La Argentinita

(Encarnacion Lopez Jûlvez, 1898-1945). She was involved in the Cante Jondo

Competition of 1922 and performed in London with the English dancer Anton Dolin.

La Argentinita was a close friend of Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) and was the

dedicatee of his Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejlas (1935).54

In the pre-war years the new school of Spanish composers had not yet achieved

significant recognition in England. The most successful Spanish entertainers were

working in the popular theatres such as the Gaiety and the Palace, presenting new and

varied representations of Spanish music and dance. It was the death of Granados in

1916 that triggered greater awareness of the modern Spanish school of composition in

England and facilitated the success of Spanish composers after the war.

The Death of Enrique Granados, Anglo-Spanish relations and Spanish

music in London

The man who made modern Spanish music known to the rest of Europe was Enrique

Granados...(He) seemed to bring something that was new into pianoforte music, and

his fame was definitely established when it became known that he had lost his life in

the Sussex, torpedoed in the English Channel in 1916.55

The cross-channel steamer Sussex was torpedoed in the English Channel by a German

submarine, the UB-29, on 24 March 1916. Passengers on board included Granados

52 Ninotchka Bennahum, Antonia Mercé, "La Argentina": Flamenco and the Spanish Avant Garde (Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1999), 49. 53 According to Bennahum, La Argentina probably first met Falla in 1914. They worked together on the choreography for Falla's El Amor Brujo. Ibid., 94. 54 See Caroline Rae, The Music of Maurice Ohana, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), 10. 55 Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music, 32-33.

172

and his wife Amparo who both drowned after the attack as did a number of

Americans. This incident was part of a series of similar attacks that drew strong

criticism, especially from the USA, Spain and England. The following discussion

will explore the impact of the torpedoing of the Sussex on relations between Spain

and England, and the repercussions it had on the dissemination of Spanish music in

London. The circumstances surrounding Granados' death are often incorrectly

reported and have acquired almost legendary status in histories of Spanish music.56

Prior to his death, Granados' reputation in England rested primarily on a few of his

Spanish Dances, only a handful of which were performed regularly. Even as late as

1924, Cecil Gray assessed the contributions of Falla, Albéniz and Granados in the

following terms, "Spanish national music has so far produced no Borodin or

Moussorgky, but only three Rimsky-Korsakovs—which is three too many."57 In

March 1916 Granados was returning to Europe after a successful tour to the United

States where his opera Goyescas had been performed in New York to mixed

reviews.58 Although the music was generally well received, the dramatic structure of

the work was questioned by a number of critics as was the effectiveness of the

relationship between music and dramatic action. Furthermore, three scene changes

and elaborate sets meant that Goyescas, at little more than an hour in length, was

expensive to stage.59 Other opportunities followed and Granados was invited to

perform in a number of concerts, most notably at the White House in front of

President Woodrow Wilson. Granados rearranged his travel plans to perform at the

White House's "musicale series", both as a soloist and accompanist to the Dutch

singer Julia Culp.60 After the concert Granados and his wife wished to sail directly to

Spain, but were unable to cancel their previous booking so they returned to New York

and sailed for England on 11 March where they would spend a few days before

catching the S.S. Sussex across the Channel to France.61

56 For a brief account of the circumstances surrounding the torpedoing of the Sussex see David Walton,

The Last Journey of Enrique Granados (Knockholt: Iberian and Latin American Music Society, 2007). 57

Cecil Gray, A Survey of Contemporary Music (London: OUP, 1924), 244. SB

Clark, Enrique Granados, 155. 59 Hess, Enrique Granados; a Bio-Bibliography, 30-31. 60 Clark, Enrique Granados, 163. He performed a selection of Sonatas by Scarlatti, a Chopin Nocturne and some of his own piano works. 61 The Sussex was a 1,353 ton steamer built in Dumbarton in 1896. It was owned by the French State Railways and consequently sailed under the French flag with a predominantly French crew. It was

173

Whilst in London Granados and his wife Amparo stayed with the Catalan sculptor

Ismael Smith with whom they discussed a possible London premiere of Goyescas.62

The couple boarded the steamer Sussex on the morning of 24 March 1916. During

the previous two days the 5,000-ton steamer Englishman had been sunk and two other

steamers, the Kelvinbank and the Norwegian König were torpedoed in the Channel

without warning.63 The Germans had recently increased their attacks on civilian and

other non-military vessels from both enemy and neutral countries.64

The Sussex left Folkstone at 1.25pm with about 380 passengers, including Granados

and his wife, and 50 crew, bound for Dieppe. The vessel was also carrying Indian,

Colonial and French mails. According to the Times approximately 270 of those on

board were women and children, representing almost a dozen nations.65 At 4.30pm

distress signals were received and various English and French vessels went to assist.

The captain of the Sussex and other eyewitnesses reported seeing a torpedo approach

from about 100 yards away. An attempt was made to avoid the torpedo but it

exploded in the engine room killing several of the crew and occupants of an adjoining

cabin.66

There have been many varied and incorrect assertions about the details of Granados'

death.67 Some writers maintain that Granados went down with the ship and a number

of accounts say that the Sussex sank 68 The Sussex stayed afloat and most of the

survivors either stayed on board or returned to the steamer in their lifeboats. Most of

managed by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company and had recently been used on the service between Folkstone and Dieppe. 62 Clark, Enrique Granados, 164. 63 `Dominion Liner Sunk,' Times, 25 Mar. 1916, 8. 64 The most famous sinking of a passenger ship by a U-boat was the assault on the British ocean liner the Lusitania in May 1915 with the loss of over 1000 lives. This tactic was initiated in February 1915 when Germany, attempting to cripple Britain's ability to trade, declared a war zone around the British Isles in retaliation for the British blockade of Germany. 65 `Channel Boat Torpedoed,' Times, 25 Mar. 1916, 8. 66 `The Torpedoed Sussex,' Times, 27 Mar. 1916, 9. 67 Walton, Last Journey, 30-42, outlines the various myths, theories and conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Granados. 68 For example, the notes to EMI Classics recording: De Falla and Granados (Manuel Barrueco guitar). The author of the notes to this recording, Matthias Henke, writes: "As Granados was returning to Spain, his ship was the object of a murderous torpedo attack by a German submarine. The ship sank, sucking Granados to his death with it." Matthias Henke, notes to De Falla and Granados, Manuel Barrueco guitar, EMI, 7544562, 1993.

174

the fatalities were caused by drowning as people leapt into the water or crammed into

already overloaded lifeboats which then capsized. It is not known exactly how

Granados and his wife Amparo perished. According to his good friend Pablo Casals,

"Granados had an almost morbid fear of travelling—especially by sea—and for years

he adamantly refused to cross the Atlantic."69

The sinking of the Sussex and other civilian boats by the Germans around the same

time had political ramifications in both Spain and America. There was widespread

condemnation of the attack and it was a catalyst for much discussion in both countries

about the wisdom of appearing to maintain friendly relations with Germany. The

Spanish stance of neutrality was being seriously debated in early 1916. Spain

remained neutral in the war but certain sections of society began to move toward

support for the Allies at this time.70 The newly elected Prime Minister Conde de

Romanones was much more involved in the conflict than his predecessor. In 1914 he

had expressed sympathies for the Allied powers and a desire to collaborate more

closely with France and Britain, however, he had to temper these remarks

significantly in order to gain political power, finally realizing his goal in December

1915.71 After the death of Granados, Romanones took a stronger stance and

proposed taking official action against Germany.72

Germany had important economic interests in the Iberian Peninsula, with 70,000

nationals living there and over 40 vessels sheltering in Spanish ports.73 Both the

Allies and the Central Powers subsidised newspapers, giving many of them a

distinctly german6filo or aliad6ftlo bias.74 In broad terms the pro-Allied side was led

by Liberal and progressive intellectuals and the upper middle classes, while the

clerical world, the army and the reactionary politicians were, on the whole, pro-

German.75 The Germans were more aggressive in their funding of the press whereas

the British only half-heartedly wanted Spain to abandon its neutrality and enter the

69 Pablo Casals, Joys and Sorrows (London: MacDonald, 1965), 148.

7° Francisco J. Romero Salvadc , Spain 1914-1918: Between War and Revolution (London: Routledge, 1999), 60. 71 Ibid., 60-61. 72

Hess, Manuel de Falla, 63. Salvadb, Spain 1914-1918, 61.

74 Hess, Manuel de Falla, 63. 75 Madariaga, Spain, 393-4.

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war on the Allied side. The fear was that the Spanish would want concessions on, fo

example, the question of Gibraltar. Militarily Spain was only a minor player on the

world scene. It was involved in an intractable dispute in Morocco and had not

recovered fully from the disastrous war in Cuba in 1898.

Reports from Spain express indignation at the continued German attacks on neutral

vessels. Two weeks after the torpedo attack on the Sussex, The Times' Spanish

correspondent wrote:

The torpedoing of the Spanish steamer Vigo by a German submarine, following so

closely the death of the great Spanish composer Senor Granados in the Sussex, has

profoundly moved public opinion here. While the Germanophile Press has

maintained an embarrassed silence the more independent papers openly express

surprise that the German navy, while carefully avoiding meeting with the British

fleet, should devote itself to sinking harmless merchant vessels.76

The English press reported the increase in pro-Allied sentiment in Spain with gusto.

A "Declaration of Faith" in the justice of the Allies' cause was signed by hundreds of

Spanish intellectuals and artists in early April 1916. An English response in the form

of an "address of acknowledgement" was signed by eminent British and Irish

people.77 An article in The Times on April 14, with the heading "Our Friendship with

Spain," records a speech written by Lord Northcliffe given at a luncheon hosted by

the Newspaper Proprietors Association for three eminent Spanish journalists visiting

the United Kingdom. The speaker, Lord Burnham, emphasised the deep-rooted and

widespread commercial ties and the traditional friendship between the two countries.

He apologised for not addressing the Spaniards in their own tongue and suggested that

Spanish language and literature should be taught more widely in English schools and

institutions.78

The attack also caused a new outburst of resentment against Germany in the United

States. The French newspaper Le Temps reported that other neutral countries were

waiting for a lead from the United States as to how they should respond to the Sussex

76 `Neutrals and German Barbarities,' Times, 7 Apr. 1916, 7. 77 `News in •Brief,' Times, 13 Apr. 1916, 7. 78 `Our Friendship with Spain,' Times, 14 Apr. 1916, 7.

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incident.79 On 19 April President Wilson wrote a letter to the German government in

protest at submarine war and made it clear that the United States would not tolerate

such attacks.80

The Germans denied responsibility for the attack for weeks after the incident,

claiming that a mine had been responsible. After remnants of a torpedo were

discovered in the damaged hull Germany caved into international pressure to pay

reparations to some of the families affected, including the Granados family. The

Granados orphans received 666,000 pesetas from the German government and in

January 1917 an official apology for the death of Granados was offered by Foreign

Minister von Jagow.8

Due to the tense political situation and the desire to proclaim Granados as a martyr to

the Allied cause, some writers exaggerated his influence in the articles and obituaries

written in his memory. In the June 1916 issue of The Monthly Musical Record,

Joshua Barnard proclaimed:

No one has done more to spread the gospel of Spanish music than Enrique Granados

y Campina...this most truly representative of Spanish composers is dead—"dead ere

his prime." He went under with the Sussex—"a victim of German frightfulness...his

unclouded inspiration may be surprised [sic] on every page, and it is such that lives

forever in the memories of men."82

Sir Thomas Beecham conducted a benefit concert for the Granados orphans at the

Aldwych Theatre on 24 July 1916 and in attendance were diplomats, politicians and

prominent musicians such as Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Léo Delibes and

Granville Bantock.83 They wrote messages of sympathy in a book of condolences,

many expressing outrage at the barbaric German approach to warfare.84 In the printed

"'Sussex Outrage,' Times, 10 Apr. 1916, 7. a° Hess, Enrique Granados, a Bio-Bibliography, 32. a' Ibid., 33. 82 Joshua Barnard, 'Enrique Granados: 1868-1916,' Monthly Musical Record (June 1916): 162. 84

Clark, Enrique Granados, 167-168. as Ib id., 167.

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program for the concert Granados was acclaimed as "the greatest of modern

composers".85

In the December 1916 issue of The Musical Times, the French writer Jean-Aubry

published an insightful and more balanced article. He cautioned against over-stating

the importance of Granados' legacy, instead drawing a picture of him as a composer

interested in "traditional aesthetics and the forms favoured by Chopin and Liszt".86

Jean-Aubry argued that Granados' name deserved to live on because of a selection of

piano works from the collections of Spanish Dances and his two books of Goyescas.

He reasoned that,

A certain haste and some exaggeration in the homage paid to Granados since he died

ran the risk of injuring his reputation...By trying to magnify unduly the role of

Granados and his achievements, we may well be doing him injustice. Both he and his

work must be kept in their proper place; a place which indeed, is quite glorious

enough, being so personal and peculiar.87

Of Granados' Spanish Dances Jean-Aubry wrote, "I feel that they are not quite free

from the defect which is apparent in many of Granados' works: the too numerous

repetitions of a theme."88 The Spanish Dances are not over-burdened with expressive

markings or dynamics and it is left to the performer to interpret the work so that the

repetitions do not become tedious. Granados' own playing exhibits the subtlety and

nuance which brings these pieces alive.89 Jean-Aubry followed up his article on

Granados with full-length articles on the life and music of Albéniz and Falla in

1917.90

This newfound interest in Spanish music and Granados in particular is evident in an

article by the normally pro-Germanic music critic Ernest Newman (1868-1959).

Newman's essay entitled "The Granados of the Goyescas" argues that Granados' set

85 Ibid. 86 Georges Jean-Aubry, `Enrique Granados,' Musical Times 57 (1 Dec. 1916): 535-537. 87 Ibid. 88 Ibid. 89 Granados can be heard playing his Spanish Dances no.s 7 and 10 on Composers in Person: Granados, Falla, Mompou, Nin. EMI CD Classics CD 7548362 90 Georges Jean-Aubry, `Manuel de Falla,' Musical Times 58 (1 Apr. 1917): 151-154; Georges Jean-Aubry, `Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909),' Musical Times 58 (1 Dec. 1917): 535-538.

178

of Goyescas were by far his best works and proposed that Granados needed the

inspiration of Goya's paintings to realise his best work.91 In his inimitable style,

Newman wrote, "There was a certain amount of good music in him that had to come

out. It was brought out of him by Goya, as it has been brought out of other composers

by a woman."92 Newman went on to emphasise the important role of the piano in

Granados' musical thinking and discussed the transformation of the Goyescas from

the piano to the stage. Newman, was deeply impressed by Granados' ability to

compose for the piano and wrote, "The basis of the technique is Chopin; but the style

has the polyphonic quality that is too often lacking in Chopin."93

Many critics and musicians agreed that Granados was a superb pianist and compared

his style to that of Chopin. Casals declared that, "He made me think of Chopin.

Chopin as I imagined he was; nervy, delicate, listless, ailing, not a great worker but a

born pianist. He could tackle any of the big works written for the piano, and would

improvise passages to avoid working at them, without the slightest compunction."94

A recording of an improvisation based on his piano piece "El pelele", a late addition

to the Goyescas, is evidence of his skills as an improviser.95 Falla also singled out

Granados' skill as a pianist in his tribute to his compatriot.96

Henry Wood (1869-1944) was one of the influential English musicians to champion

Spanish music, in particular Granados' orchestral works. On 28 October 1916 Wood

conducted a performance of Granados' symphonic poem Dante in the Queen's Hall

symphony concert series. Wood had been sent the piece in 1914 by the American

pianist Ernest Schelling,97 and remembered in his autobiography that Dante "made a

deep impression."98 The work is a symphonic poem in two movements for mezzo-

soprano and orchestra inspired by a painting by English painter Dante Gabriel

Rossetti. An early version of Dante was performed in Barcelona in 1908 and after

91 Ernest Newman, `The Granados of the "Goyescas",' Musical Times 58 (1 Aug. 1917): 343-347. 92 Ibid., 343. 93

Ibid., 347. 94

Casals, Joys and Sorrows, 150. 95

This improvisation can be heard on Composers in Person: Granados, Falla, Mompou, Nin. EMI CD Classics CD 7548362 96 Manuel de Falla, Writings on Music and Musicians, trans. by John Thomson and David Urman (London: Marion Boyars, 1978), 92. 97 Schelling met Granados in 1912 and gave the London premiere of Goyescas at the Queen's Hall on 9 December 1913. 98 Henry Wood, My Life of Music (London: V. Gollancz, 1949), 302.

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Wood performed the work with the Queen's Hall Orchestra on 9 September 1914,

Granados revised the score before publication in 1915. In his analysis of the work,

Clark draws attention to the influence of Richard Strauss in the orchestration and an

overtly Wagnerian style of chromaticism in the music.99 The piece received mixed

reviews, partly because it was not written in an obviously Spanish style, although

Ernest Newman wrote that Dante was the only work by Granados comparable to the

Goyescas. On the other hand, Jean-Aubry believed it was an immature piece which

did not represent current developments in Spanish music.100 An anonymous critic in

The Musical Times complained that it could have been written by a non-Spanish

composer, lamenting that, "the music displays no definite idiom that could be

characterised as specially Spanish. It displays cosmopolitan influences, and might

have been written by an accomplished musician of any nationality.' lol

At another concert in this series on 11 November Wood conducted an orchestral

symphonic poem by Turina, La Procesion del Rocio.102 Unlike Dante, this work was

deemed to incorporate features of Spanish music which attracted the same reviewer,

Joaquin Turina is one of the most distinguished of the band of Iberian composers that

has, by force of ability, recently asserted its right to a hearing...Unlike Granados'

Dante, Turina's music has the colour and glow that are generally associated with

Spanish music.lo3

The following year Wood conducted his own orchestrations of five of Granados'

Spanish Dances with great success.1o4 The Musical Times critic remarked

enthusiastically, "The immediate appeal they made to every musical sensibility brings

with it fresh pangs of regret that the composer was the victim of a vile German

outrage on humanity. Such music should be in the repertoire of every good

orchestra."los

99 Clark, Granados, 148-150. loo Jean-Aubry, `Enrique Granados,' 535-537. 101'Queen's Hall Symphony Concerts,' Musical Times 57 (1 Dec. 1916): 553 102 An Andalusian procession or pilgrimage. 103 `Queen's Hall Symphony Concerts,' Musical Times 57, 553 104 In 1938 Wood wrote of Granados, "His was indeed a Castilian temperament which is evident in all his works. I orchestrated five of his original piano dances and have played them for many years here [England], on the Continent, and in America." Wood, My Life of Music, 302. 05 Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts' Musical Times 58 (1 Oct. 1917): 465.

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In spite of the efforts of Wood and others, the continued success of Granados' music

was obstructed by the lack of major orchestral works in his oeuvre, especially those

which displayed the overtly Spanish characteristics heard in some of the Spanish

Dances. An unresolved financial dispute between Granados' son Eduardo and the

publisher Schirmer also made some of his published work unavailable.1o6

The culmination of the increased interest in Spanish composers was the enormous

critical and popular success of Falla's music for the Ballets Russes' production of The

Three-Cornered Hat, premiered in London in 1919. While Falla's music showed the

influence of modem trends, especially Stravinsky's music, Granados was seen as a

product of the previous century. However, as some critics pointed out, the success of

The Three-Cornered Hat, to be discussed in Chapter 7, could not have been achieved

without London audiences' increased exposure to Spanish music after Granados'

death.

106 Clark, Enrique Granados, 175.

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Chapter 7:

Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat and Flamencos

After the devastation of World War I, new political and cultural alliances were

developed, including closer political ties between England and Spain. These new

relationships were mirrored in the artistic domain where English writers such as

Edward Dent and Arthur Eaglefield-Hull (1876-1928) endorsed a cosmopolitan

pantheon of musical nations and Spain was one of the countries promoted with

newfound zeal 2 The Ballets Russes' production of The Three-Cornered Hat (1919),

with music by Manuel de Falla, was first performed in London in this context and the

work brought a modern style of Spanish music, dance and painting to the attention of

London audiences and critics. Other ballet companies, inspired by The Three-

Cornered Hat, brought Spanish dance productions to London in the 1920s, with

varying degrees of success. Musical societies and associations such as the

International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), founded in 1922, endorsed the

new cosmopolitanism of the post war period. A notable example of the English

engagement with Spanish music in this period is the major orchestral work Fantaisie

Espagnole (1919) by Lord Berners (1883-1950), who was influenced by the evolving

panorama of Spanish music and dance in the 1910s.

The 1919 premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat at the Alhambra Theatre introduced a

new type of Spanish entertainment to London. Critics praised Falla's music, Pablo

Picasso's sets and Léonide Massine's choreography. Most importantly, for the cash-

strapped Ballets Russes, audiences flocked to see The Three-Cornered Hat, making it

one of the most popular works in their repertoire. The ballet owed its genesis to the

close connections between the Ballets Russes and Spain that were shaped during

World War I when the company spent prolonged periods in Spain at the invitation of

King Alfonso XIII. During this time the bonds were formed that unified the creative

I I am indebted to my supervisor Michael Christoforidis for his work on the reception of The Three-Cornered Hat in London, particularly the article `Issues in the English Critical Reception of The Three-Cornered Hat,' Context 19 (Spring 2000): 87-94. 2 Eaglefield-Hull was a prolific English writer, composer and organist. He edited the Monthly Music Record, Dent's International Library of Books on Music series and was the general editor of the Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (1924). The cosmopolitan nature of this dictionary and the space given to entries on Spanish musicians will be considered in Chapter 8.

182

team of the ballet.3 Massine in particular was taken with Spain and its people,

especially the region of Andalusia.4 The close connections between the Ballets

Russes and Spain influenced the work and helped to create the perception of it as an

authentically Spanish production. London audiences and critics had been prepared

for the work by the upsurge of interest in Spanish music since Granados' death in

1916 and the success of The Three-Cornered Hat was due to the confluence of a

number of factors: the return of the Ballets Russes to London after World War I,

changing tastes and audiences, greater interest in Spanish music and the success of

modernist aspects of the work.

In the years before World War I Diaghilev's Ballets Russes performed opera and

ballet at Drury Lane and Covent Garden for audiences which included royalty,

politicians and the cream of London's aristocracy.5 From 1911-1914 the Ballets

Russes graced these venues as part of regular opera seasons and cultivated an elite

audience, although a closer look reveals a mixture of high society, serious music-

lovers and people on modest incomes.6 As a producer of opera, Diaghilev introduced

London audiences to Russian works such as Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and

Borodin's Prince Igor, and the success of these three operas in 1913 focused

Diaghilev's efforts on more operatic production. The English discovery of Spanish

music by Falla, Granados, Turina and Albéniz in the years from 1916 to 1919 echoed

the enthusiasm for Russian works in the pre-war years. In both cases the interest of

London critics and audiences was encouraged and fostered by closer political ties,

firstly with Russia and later with Spain. The advent of World War I and Revolution

in Russia in 1917 dried up the financial resources the Ballets Russes had relied on in

the years before 1914. Diaghilev set about reinventing the company and focused on

tours to countries without an active involvement in the war, especially the United

States, South America, Spain and Italy.

Diaghilev and Stravinsky both identified strongly with the folk culture of Spain in

which they recognised elements of Russian popular music and dance. In 1916 the

Christoforidis, `English Critical Reception of The Three-Cornered Hat,' 88. 4 Vicente Garcia-Marquez, Massine, 68.

Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 300-306. 6

Ibid., 301. Christoforidis, `Igor Stravinsky,' 88.

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company was invited to perform in Madrid by the Spanish king Alfonso XIII and they

opened their first Spanish season on 26 May with the Spanish King and Queen, Prime

Minister Conde de Romanones and other diplomats and politicians in attendance. The

season was a huge success, paving the way for a number of short tours to Spain

during the remaining war years.8

The company rehearsed two Spanish works in Rome in 1916, although they were

never publicly produced: Espana with music by Ravel and Triana, to music by

Albéniz.9 Both ballets were choreographed by Falla's collaborator for The Three-

Cornered Hat, Massine. In June 1916 Diaghilev journeyed to Granada with Falla and

Massine for a performance of Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Diaghilev

toyed with the idea of turning this work into a ballet.10 Newspaper reports in El

Defensor de Granada stated that Diaghilev and Falla were thinking of collaborating

on a ballet." The first Spanish-themed ballet produced by Diaghilev was Las

Meninas (1916), inspired by the Velazquez painting and featuring costumes by the

Catalan artist José-Maria Sert (1874-1945) and music by Fauré.12 The premiere was

given in San Sebastian on 21 August 1916 with members of the Spanish royal family

in attendance.

Diaghilev wanted a Spanish work for a performance in Rome in January 1917 but

Falla was busy working on the music for the pantomime El corregidor y la molinera,

a collaboration with the librettist Gregorio Martinez Sierra (1881-1947) based on

Pedro Alarcôn's (1833-1891) novel El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered

Hat, 1874).13 After the premiere of El corregidor y la molinera in Madrid, Falla,

Martinez Sierra and Massine began work on the development of a new ballet based on

s The smaller populations of Madrid and Barcelona could not sustain the longer ballet seasons of London, Paris or the big American cities, and the longest season in the larger Spanish cities was two weeks, forcing the company to travel in search of new audiences. A more extended tour of provincial theatres was undertaken in 1918. See John K. Walsh, `Espana y los Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev. Contexto hist6rico: Espana durante la Primera Guerra Mundial,' in Los Ballets Russes de Diaghilev y Espana, ed. Yvan Nommick and Antonio Alvarez Canibano (Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla, Centro de Documentaciön de Mûsica y Danza, 2000), 27. 9 Christoforidis, ̀ The Three-Cornered Hat,' 87 fn 2. 10 Ibid. 11 Walsh, 'Espana y los Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev,' 28. 12 Las Meninas was first performed in London for the visit of King Alfonso XIII on 2 July 1928. 13 A number of the works attributed to Gregorio Martinez Sierra, including El corregidor y la molinera have been found to have been largely written by his wife Maria Lejârraga. See Hess, Sacred Passions, 74-75.

184

the work.14 In 1917 Falla, Diaghilev and Massine travelled through Spain collecting

ideas and inspiration for extending and transforming the work and Falla's score was

expanded to include more flamenco elements and full-scale dance numbers which

enabled the exploration of the dance styles Massine had observed during his time in

Spain.15 The result of this collaboration was the ballet The Three-Cornered Hat.

The English critical reception of The Three-Cornered Hat

Falla arrived in London a month before the premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat to

help supervise rehearsals. As for his previous trip to London, the French music critic

Jean-Aubry helped to organise the composer's journey and accommodation.16 Falla

was not fluent in English and was aided by several Spaniards resident in London,

including the writer Salvador de Madariaga (1886-1978) and the poet and composer

Pedro Morales, who represented the Sociedad de Autores Espafioles (Society of

Spanish Authors) in London and as such acted as Falla's agent in Britain.17

Just a few hours before the London premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat on 22 July

1919, Falla had to return to Spain, missing the performance. News had reached him

of his mother's serious illness and she died on the same day, although Falla was

unaware of her death until he reached Spain a few days later.

Two things emerge very strongly in the press reception for The Three-Cornered Hat:

the enthusiasm and excitement that greeted each new work by the Ballets Russes and

the great sense of anticipation for a major Spanish orchestral work. The story was

summarized as follows by the theatre critic of The Stage:

There is little, if any, originality about this tale set in eighteenth-century Spain. It is the

familiar story of the husband, the wife, and the lover, the characters in this instance

being a miller and his spouse and an amorous and elderly Corregidor—in other words,

the governor of the province—the said corregidor being sadly fooled at the finish... [in]

14 Andrew Budwig, `The Evolution of Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat (1916-1920),' Journal of Musicological Research 5 (1984): 191-212. 15

Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 85-86. 16 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 33-48. Jean-Aubry's influence as a critic and promoter of Spanish music will be discussed later in this chapter. 17 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 34.

185

an invigorating mix-up finale... [which] takes the form of a lively Jota.18

The excitement of the first performance is described in this excerpt from The Sporting

Times,

Another great night at the Russian ballet! I have never seen the Alhambra

(theatre) looking more brilliant, or filled with a more enthusiastic audience

than at the premiere of `The Three-Cornered Hat' on Tuesday. The uniform scheme

of Peace decorations...enhanced the nobility of one of the finest auditoriums in

Europe. As for the enthusiasm—it defies description. It was tremendous. There is

no other word.19

The popular press made jokes on Falla's name and singled out the "jota" for particular

attention. In the espagnolades which had been staged in London's music halls over

the previous century, the "jota" was seen as the quintessential Spanish dance 20

To-night there will be much excitement among the ultra-artistic set and lovers of the

Russian ballet generally. For a new ballet will be produced by the wonderful

Massine...This is `The Three-Cornered Hat,' with music by Manuel de Falla, the

Spanish composer (who is a very clever falla indeed)21

This was the end of the Ballets Russes' first post-war season and comparisons were

being made between the new school of Spanish music and the revival of English

music, echoing closer ties between the two countries. An anonymous writer in The

Daily Mail observed,

There seem to be several analogies between the present state of Spanish music and of

English music. Both schools produced noble and distinguished work in Renaissance

music. Both were in rather low water in the greater part of the 18th and 19th

centuries. Both countries now seem on the verge of a great musical revival.22

18 Stage, 24 July 1919. 19 `See Them Dance the Jota,' Sporting Times, 26 July 1919. "For example the headline `Alhambra Dance Sensation: Spectators Electrified by the Jota. The Super Romp,' Daily Express, 23 July 1919. 21 `Mr Gossip: Echoes of the Town,' Daily Sketch, 22 July 1919, 5. 22 `Music Notes,' Daily Mail, 19 July 1919, 2. Quoted in Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 33.

186

Due to political ties that were forged during World War I composers from Latin and

Slavic countries were promoted with a new-found zea1,23 and the beginnings of this

phenomenon can be seen in the reaction to Granados' death, as discussed in Chapter 6.

The musical public had been prepared for Falla's music by performances of works by

Granados, Albéniz and Turina, as well as those of Stravinsky and other contemporary

composers.

Falla's harmonic language separated his music from Albéniz and Granados. His

orchestration was more sophisticated and his use of folk sources less literal.24 The

critic Dent who was to become a close friend and supporter of Falla during his next

visit to London in 1921,25 highlighted the difference between Falla and his Spanish

predecessors,

Albéniz and Granados were both largely under German influences, like most

nineteenth-century composers, and their German idiom, while on the one hand it serves

to make their ideas clearer to musicians who have never crossed the Pyrenees, relegates

them on the other hand so completely to the past that modern audiences are inclined to

find them somewhat tediously conventional.26

This quotation shows Dent distancing Falla from his precursors in order to underline

the innovations of the new work. In an interview given to the Daily Mail in the lead

up to the first performance of The Three-Cornered Hat, Falla distanced himself from

the German classical tradition, claiming, "Most nineteenth-century music is to be

mistrusted, and as regards the classical symphonies and sonatas, the teacher's one

duty is to utter warnings against them."27 His music was often compared with the

music of Stravinsky and a critic in The Russian underlined the connection,

Falla's music is that of a composer altogether new to London...The value of the most

modem harmonic devices is also perfectly understood by him, and he has something of

23 Christoforidis, ̀ The Three-Cornered Hat,' 88.

24 Ibid., 90. Zs

Collins, 'Falla in Britain,' 36. 26

Dent, 'Spanish Ballet,' 691. 27 'To the Young Composer: Senor Manuel de Falla and German Formalism,' Daily Mail, 18 July 1919.

187

Stravinsky's complexity of texture...however, this must on no account be mistaken for

weakness. The fine way in which he occasionally suggests local colour is enough to

prove it. But, of course, there is also a good deal of castanet noises which seems to be

inseparable from Spanish music 28

The impact of The Three-Cornered Hat extended beyond the ballet theatre and

concert hall to encourage a new interest in Spain:

With its music by Manuel de Falla, choreography by Massine and designs by Picasso,

the ballet was a sensation. Once again London became entranced by all things

Spanish. Soon there were Spanish dancing schools, a wave of enthusiasm for Spanish

literature, history, music and architecture, and an exodus of tourists to Spain to see

the bullfights and the art of Madrid and Barcelona.29

In spite of the ballet's success and the amount of press coverage it received, some

specialist critics believed English audiences were not capable of appreciating

authentic Spanish music. Writing in 1920, Morales noted the recent increase in

interest, and emphasized the lack of insight shown by many writers,

More newspaper articles on the subject of Spanish music and folk-lore have appeared

during the last five years in all Europe, than during the previous fifty or sixty years

together. Yet the general public is still very far from being enlightened on this subject,

as the value of the said writings...is not always in keeping with their profusion.3o

The Three-Cornered Hat proved to be a turning point in Falla's career and remained

his most performed work in Britain. It helped him to gain the support of influential

critics in England and made his name familiar to the concert-going public. The ballet

continued to be performed throughout the next decades and in some respects replaced

Carmen as the touchstone for Spanishness on the London stage. As a consequence

Falla became known as the premier Spanish composer of his time and secured a

lucrative contract with London publisher Chester, a deal facilitated by his friendship

with Jean-Aubry.

28 `The Russian Ballet's New Triumph,' Russian, 31 July 1919, 12. 29 Jessica Douglas-Home, Violet: The Lives and Loves of Violet Gordon Woodhouse (London: Harvil Press, 1996), 181. 30 Morales, preface to Music of Spain by Van Vechten, xi-xii.

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The Ballets Suédois and Cuadro Flamenco

Encouraged by the success of The Three-Cornered Hat, other ballet groups

introduced Spanish-themed ballets to London, most notably the Ballets Suédois with

two productions that portrayed both traditional and modern visions of Spain and

dance. The Ballets Russes also continued their representations of Spanish music and

dance with Cuadro Flamenco (1921), a relatively unmediated flamenco performance

presented in a ballet theatre.

Formed in 1920 as an alternative to the Ballets Russes, the Ballets Suédois or Swedish

Ballet aspired to the ideals of artistic collaboration and innovation.31 Based in Paris,

they performed ballets to music by composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Satie and Cole

Porter. Among the pioneering modern works created and produced by the Ballet

Suédois in Paris were Les mariés de la tour Eiffel (1921), La creation du monde

(1923), Within the Quota (1923) and Relâche (1924). The choreographer Jean Börlin

(1883-1930) and the director Rolf de Maré (1888-1964) were the artistic team behind

the Ballets Suédois which gave its first English performances in November 1920.

One of the pieces they programmed for this season was entitled El Greco, based on

paintings by the Spanish Renaissance artist Doménikos Theotokôpoulos (1541-1614),

better known as El Greco. Set in a market place in. Toledo, it was not a conventional

ballet but a series of gestures and poses derived from El Greco's paintings, set to

music written by the French composer Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965), a

former student of Debussy.32 Börlin described the ballet as "mimed scenes,"33 and

like The Three-Cornered Hat, El Greco had a strong focus on visual design and

modernism.

El Greco was a major influence on twentieth century modernist painters who

rediscovered his work in the 1910s.34 The London National Gallery exhibited a

newly purchased El Greco painting in 1919 and in the following year the noted art

32 The correspondence between Debussy and Inghelbrecht is reproduced in Debussy's Letters to Inghelbrecht: The Story of a Musical Friendship, annotated by Margaret G. Cobb (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2005). 33 Hager, Ballets Suédois, 18. 34

See Beat Wismer and Michael Scholz-Hansel, eds., El Greco and Modernism (Ostfildern: Hatje Canz Verlag, 2012).

31 Bengt Hager, Ballets Suédois (The Swedish Ballet) (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1990), 7.

189

critic Roger Fry wrote that the Director of the National Gallery had "given the British

public an electric shock. People gather in crowds in front of it, they argue and discuss

and lose their tempers.s35 In reference to the painters who came to see the El Greco

painting Fry wrote, "That the artists are excited—never more so—is no wonder, for

here is an old master who is not merely modern, but actually appears a good many

steps ahead of us, turning back to show us the way."36 Börlin's modern approach to

the choreography of this ballet tapped into the public fascination with El Greco's

work, and according to a writer in The Manchester Guardian, "It is a most

extraordinary reconstruction of the art of the apocalyptic genius whose works have

become the passion of the day."37

Some writers complained that El Greco was not a ballet at a11,38 but more damning

was the implication that dancing did not come naturally to the Swedes. Ernest

Newman reported, "The Swedish Ballet has been a disappointment to most of us...we

had to admit reluctantly that the Swedish Ballet has no claim to be judged by the same

standards as the Russians".39 Two years later The Observer's critic concurred,

remarking that, "Ballet dancing seems particularly to be a gift to the Russians and the

Spaniards."4°

On their return to London in 1922, the Ballets Suédois included in their programme a

more explicitly Spanish ballet, Iberia, set to the music of Albéniz. The music was

arranged by Inghelbrecht who provided ornate orchestrations of the following

movements from Albéniz's piano suite Iberia: "El Puerto", "El Albaicin" and "El

Corpus Christi en Sevilla".41 Given the revival of interest in Spanish composers such

as Albéniz and Granados and the recent success of The Three-Cornered Hat, the

Swedish company might have expected success with a ballet based on the music of

Albéniz, but responses to the work were largely negative. There are clear reasons

35 Roger Fry, Vision and Design (London: Chatto and Windus, 1920), 134. 36 Ibid., 134. 37 `The Swedish Ballet,' Manchester Guardian, 9 Dec. 1920. 38 "They repeat the performance of `El Greco,' which is not a ballet at all, but a series of poses or living pictures." `The Swedish Ballet,' Observer, 29 Oct. 1922. 9 Ernest Newman, `The Week in Music,' Manchester Guardian, 16 Dec. 1920.

40 'The Swedish Ballet,' Observer, 29 Oct. 1922. 41 At the premiere in Paris on 25 October 1920 the orchestra played two movements from Debussy's Iberia in between the two acts of the ballet. Hager, Ballets Suédois, 78.

190

why audiences and critics did not connect with the ballet.42 Börlin did not include

any traditional Spanish dances or references to flamenco in his choreography. In his

book on the Swedish Ballet, Bengt Hager described Börlin's intentions in Iberia,

With Iberia, Börlin aimed at a synthesis of Spanish daily life and the atmosphere of

Spain in a festive mood. The choreography, rather than comprising well known

popular dances, or flamenco, was based on Spaniards' natural movements, reflecting

a human behaviour and body language that is characteristically Iberian.43

The costumes and sets by the artist Théophile Steinlen (1870-1923) drew on images

understood as traditionally Spanish but were realised with the aesthetic awareness of

modern art and colour 44 The interpretation of Spanish dance in Iberia was esoteric

and unconnected to familiar tropes of Spanish dance, furthermore, inadequate

rehearsal and the difficulty of the orchestral writing compounded the problems of the

production.45 As with El Greco, there was a perception that only the Russians and

Spaniards knew how to convey the essence of Spanish music and dance, and

audiences who had been won over by the modern, but still picturesque, image of

Spain projected in The Three-Cornered Hat, did not fully appreciate the more abstract

interpretations of Spanishness offered by the Ballets Suédois.

In between El Greco and Iberia, another ballet company brought a Spanish-themed

work to London. The Danish Ballet, formed in 1771, was one of the oldest in Europe

and its most influential choreographer was August Bournonville (1805-1879) who led

the company for over half a century from 1828 until 1879. A number of the works he

created in this period have stayed in the repertoire of the Danish Ballet until the early

twenty first century. When the Danish Ballet made their London debut in 1921, they

chose to perform one of Bournonville's ballets with a Spanish theme, a one-act work

called La Ventana (The Window), which was originally created in 1854. In his

autobiography My Theatre Life, Bournonville indicated that in La Ventana he aimed

42 Ibid., 15. 43 Ibid. 44 See Ibid., 76-87, for reproductions of drawings of the costumes and sets by Steinlen. 45

A critic in The Times wrote of the performance of Inghelbrecht's Albéniz orchestrations "the players only half knew it, and the audience in the stalls did their best to drown it with conversation." `Swedish Ballet,' Times, 7 Nov. 1922, 10.

191

to combine the grace and charm of classical dance with subtle Spanish influences.46

The story is inspired by the characteristic Romantic scene of a man with a guitar

serenading a young lady at her window. Needless to say, what passed for Spanish

local colour in the Romantic ballet tradition of 1854 was vastly different to what was

expected by London audiences nearly sixty years later. This archaic style would have

been familiar to 1850s Londoners through the profusion of the Bolero school and

Spanish items included in the Romantic ballet, but for 1920s audiences the costumes

evoking the majos and majas of early nineteenth-century Spain, and the Romantic

ballet's stylized postures of love, lacked any hint of passion and failed to attract the

interest of the new London balletomanes. In The Observer the Danish dancers were

criticised for not capturing, "the Spanish gravity and fire, wildness and spite, that

made such a marvel of `The Three-Cornered Hat'.s47 These observations also point

to the fact that at this time English audiences were being increasingly exposed to

flamenco dance troupes and flamenco-inspired music, which became the new

benchmarks of Spanishness. These styles contrasted sharply with the Romantic ballet

depictions of Spain based on the so-called escuela bolera or what had passed as a

Spanish turn in the pre-war music halls.

In 1921 the Ballets Russes presented Cuadro Flamenco, a bold attempt to feature

authentic Spanish music and dance in the theatre. The stage was set for a flamenco

performance and this "ballet" was vastly different to any other production presented

by the Ballets Russes. Writing in the Manchester Guardian, Ernest Newman set the

scene:

The one novelty so far produced—"Cuadro Flamenco"—is not a ballet but a

reproduction of a scene of Andalusian song and dance of the popular sort by twelve

Spaniards, two of whom are guitarists. The performance is given on a raised platform

on the stage, the artists sitting in a loop and stepping forward one by one or two by

two as their turn comes. The performances are ethnologically interesting, and one or

two of the dances have charm: but I doubt whether this part of the show will keep its

attraction very long...Evidently the performances are very true to Spanish popular

life; and for this reason...no one should miss them.48

46 August Bournonville, My Theatre Life (1847; London: A. and C. Black, 1979). 47 Observer, 15 May 1921, 9. 48 Ernest Newman, `Cuadro Flamenco,' Manchester Guardian, 2 June 1921.

192

The atmosphere was informal and relaxed and most critics enjoyed the exotic

snapshot of Spanish folk music it provided. The Times reviewer wrote:

For all the notice they appear to take of the audience, as they sit tuning and

strumming upon their guitars, smoothing their skirts or exchanging jests from side to

side, they might be shut up in the four walls of a country inn-room...you get the

novel zest of seeming to peep through a window at an unacted scene of folk-life 70

years old.49

While the exotic nature of Cuadro Flamenco was appreciated, critics were undecided

about the merits of basing an entire ballet production around the art of flamenco.

Were audiences more interested in authentic folk music and dance or the mediated

and modernized forms pioneered by the Ballets Russes in earlier productions? One of

the telling reviews was entitled, "The Ideal and the `Real' Thing", and presented a

comparison of back-to-back performances of The Three-Cornered Hat and Cuadro

Flamenco.50 The critic acknowledged the value of hearing folk music of the sort that

inspired Falla, however, preferred its presentation through the prism of modernist

dance, orchestral music, costumes and scenic design:

It is the "real-thing" undoubtably—but who cares, at the Russian Ballet of all places,

for the "real thing"—for its own sake! In Spain...the dances could be counted "racy

of the soil," the very apotheosis of "local colour,"...But at the Princes Theatre they

did not fit. The Russian Ballet, after all, gets our money on the pretext of being the

last, most exquisite flower of an effete civilisation.5'

In the following year extensive reporting of the Conte Jondo Competition in Granada

provided the English public with further insights into flamenco. This flamenco

festival, organised by Falla, aimed to uncover the "pure, unadulterated" origins of the

style. Several writers emphasised the progression from The Three-Cornered Hat to

Cuadro Flamenco and then the authentic musical source of these works, capte jondo.

49 `The Russian Ballet: Andalusian Dances,' Times, 1 June 1921, 8.

50 `The Ideal and the 'Real Thing",' Observer, 5 June 1921.

51 Ibid.

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Falla and images of flamenco

The Concurso de Cante Jondo (Cante Jondo Competition) was held in Granada on 13

and 14 June 1922. This event played a crucial role, both within Spain and abroad, in

drawing attention to traditional Andalusian music or capte jondo. Along with

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) and Lorca's friend Miguel Cer6n Rubio, Falla

helped to organize the competition. Falla laid out his aims in an essay printed in the

local paper El Defensor de Granada on 21 March 1922 where he protested against the

corruption of the traditional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic aspects of capte jondo.52

The competition also marked the point in time when Spanish intellectuals and artists

such as Falla, Lorca, Santiago Rusiflol, Fernando de los Rios and Juan Ramon

Jiménez declared their support for this music. The involvement of international

critics and musicians increased the prominence of the competition and ensured that

the events were reported widely. The desire for greater authenticity in the

performance of Spanish music, at home and abroad, made this event the ultimate

experience of Andalusian music, in the ideal setting. Some of those involved,

including Falla, were reportedly unhappy with the outcomes of the competition,53

however, in terms of perceptions of Spanish music in Britain and the responses of key

critics, this event led to the increased awareness of both modern and traditional

Spanish music.

By the 1920s Granada seemed the logical choice for a festival of capte jondo or

traditional flamenco music. Ever since he first visited the city in 1915, Falla wanted

to spend more time in Granada and finally moved there with the help of Angel Barrios

in 1920. Barrios was a native "Granadino" whose father El Polinario was a well

known flamenco performer. As discussed in Chapter 1, early nineteenth-century

Romantic writers such as Irving, Borrow and Ford celebrated the Moorish legacy of

Southern Spain and the Alhambra in particular. French authors, namely François René

Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Théophile Gaultier also depicted Granada as the last

bastion of Arab culture in Europe and the large gypsy population of Granada were

52 Manuel de Falla, `La proposiciôn del Cante Jondo,' El Defensor de Granada, 21 Mar. 1922, cited in Manuel de Falla, Manuel de Falla y la Alhambra (Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla, 2005), 78. 53 Falla was upset about the ensuing arguments regarding the money earned from the competition. See Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 115. Falla was also tired of the administrative work and the apathy of many Spaniards towards conte jondo. See Hess, Sacred Passions, 131.

194

thought of as living inheritors to this Arab history.54 Granada was promoted for its

Moorish history and the exotic cave-dwelling gypsies of the Sacromonte and rose to

prominence as a centre for flamenco history and culture. The fascination with gypsies

and Granada was aligned to notions of Primitivism that were prominent in Parisian

arts discourse, especially among artists associated with the Ballets Russes.

To open the competition an event was organized at the Alhambra Palace Hotel on 7

June 1922.55 Lorca read from his Poema del Cante Jondo at this event and the

classical guitarist Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) reportedly played some guitar pieces

in a flamenco style.56 Segovia's international career was just beginning and he was

yet to fully distance himself from traditional flamenco guitar music.

Trend wrote a lengthy and well-informed article on the Concurso, simply labelled

`From a Correspondent'. Although the author is not mentioned there is no mistaking

Trend's insights and turn of phrase and the writing is indicative of his desire not only

to report the events but to elucidate the nature of authentic Spanish music. Trend

begins by describing Granada as a "place of pilgrimage for musicians from all the

world."57 He clearly identified Falla as the lynchpin for the competition: "Falla has

always been an earnest student of Southern Spanish folk-song, and his use of its forms,

rhythms, and harmonic effects as a basis for cultivated music will be remembered by

everyone who witnessed the ballet of The Three-Cornered Hat. s58

Trend also pointed to Falla's move to Granada as the catalyst for his increased interest

in authentic Andalusian song or the "real thing." Trend was at pains to differentiate

between authentic capte jondo and the more recently popularized forms of cante

flamenco, characterizing capte jondo as the style of "traditional purity" and cante

34 See Michael Christoforidis, `Manuel de Falla, Flamenco and Spanish Identity,' in Western Music and Race, ed. Julie Brown (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), 231-232. On Falla's fascination with Spain Christoforidis writes: "He (Falla) began to read the seminal French texts by François René Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Théophile Gautier which disseminated the nostalgic vision of the Andalusian town of Granada, and by extension Spain, as the last European refuge of Arab culture and presented its gypsy dwellers as their progeny or exotic substitutes." Ibid., 231. S

Built in the first decade of the twentieth century, the Alhambra Palace Hotel was situated alongside the Alhambra with magnificent views overlooking the town of Granada and the surrounding plains, just a short walk from Falla's carmen. It provided luxury accommodation and boasted an ornate Moorish style theatre. See Hess, Sacred Passions, 130. 56 Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 115. 57 [J. B. Trend], 'Spanish Folk-Song: A Musical Festival at Granada,' Times, 24 June 1922, 12. ss Ibid.

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flamenco as tainted by "an affectation of gipsy manners."59 These thoughts are

clearly aligned with Falla's vision:

We would not have gone to the trouble of organizing this competition for the sake of

flamenco songs now in vogue... What we propose is to bring about a renaissance of

an admirable Andalusian folk art that was about to disappear for ever, victim of the

couplet and modern flamenco songs, which are about as Andalusian as I am

Chinese.60

In the Concurso only the singers with links to the traditional, "pure" style would be

rewarded, however, in an ironic twist, professional gypsy singers such as Nina de los

Peines acted as judges.

The purity and authenticity Falla and his circle of friends and admirers were searching

for was mirrored by the desire of British audiences to discover and experience

authentic Spanish music and dance. Trend was preaching to a public used to

discussions of what was and was not authentically Spanish when he wrote,

The object of the competition which has just been held at Granada was to attract all

those singers who could sing the real, primitive melodies, so that they should be

heard before all memory of them was lost under the additions and distortions of the

flamenco manner—to show, in fact, native Andalusian song in its classical purity.61

In his account of the Concurso, Trend made reference to the connection with Cuadro

Flamenco recently presented in London by the Ballets Russes: "The singing was,

superficially at any rate, of the same kind as that with which London audiences

became acquainted in the Quadro [sic] flamenco imported by M. Diaghilef but how

different it sounded!"62 Trend insisted that the singers at the competition were on

another level and the experience was enriched by the location. He wrote, "Several of

the voices would have been considered good anywhere; here one had the traditional

native singing in its own surroundings, with every accessory which Nature and Art

59 Ibid. 6o Christoforidis, `Manuel de Falla,' 236. 61 [Trend], `Spanish Folk-Song: A Musical Festival at Granada,' Times, 24 June 1922, 12. 62 Ibid.

196

could provide."63 He ended his report by declaring the competition contained

moments that were "the complete and perfect expression of the place and its

tradition."64

During Falla's stay in London for the preparation and premiere of The Three-

Cornered Hat, he met several of the English critics who became friends and

advocates for his work, among them Leigh Henry (1889-1958).65 Henry attended the

cante jondo competition and brought with him the English soprano Ursula Greville

(1894-1991). Editor of the magazine The Sackbut, Greville was married to the

conductor and writer on music Kurt Schindler who was also present in Granada.66 In

recognition of a shared musical vision, a concert of English music performed by

Greville was organized at the Alhambra Palace Hotel shortly after the Concurso.

Leigh Henry introduced the concert with a talk on folksong use by English composers

and the list of composers represented on the program contains few names familiar to

twenty-first century audiences: Martin Shaw, Maurice Besly, Edgar Bainton and

Leigh Henry.67 Greville was accompanied by Kurt Schindler for the most part,

although Falla fulfilled this role in folk song arrangements by Maurice Jacobson.68

Henry, Greville and Schindler each contributed a short article on the competition for

the local paper El Noticiero Granadino.69

The aims of the Concurso included the desire to gain both local and international

exposure for traditional Andalusian song forms. The attendance and participation of

international dignitaries was important to Falla and visitors such as Henry and

Greville were treated as honoured guests.70 This event helped pave the way for the

63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 65 As Chris Collins points out in his article 'Falla in Britain,' Henry was a useful contact for Falla. Henry was very impressed by Falla's music for the The Three-Cornered Hat and wrote favourably of the work in an article in two parts for The Musical Times titled "The New Direction in Spanish Music", published in August and September 1919. Their relationship led to Henry commissioning Falla to write a piece for the first edition of a magazine he was publishing. Falla's Fanfare pour une fete was published in the first issue of the new Fanfare magazine in October 1921 and was conducted for the first time by Eugene Goosens shortly thereafter. See Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 36-7. 66

Hess, Sacred Passions, 130. 67 Collins, 'Falla in Britain,' 38. 68 Ibid. 69

Jorge de Persia et al., 1 Concurs° de capte jondo:: ed. Conmemorativa 1922-1992: una reflexion critica. (Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla, 1992), 61, fn 43. 70 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 38. Falla also wanted to invite Stravinsky and Ravel. See Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 114.

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recognition of Spanish nationalist music in England, and informed the English

reception of Falla's neoclassical works.

Critics writing on Spain: Georges Jean-Aubry and J.B. Trend

Specialist critics promoted a new vision of modern Spanish music in the post-war era.

The French writer Jean-Aubry was an influential presence in the London music scene

and as a critic promoted closer ties between modern French, Spanish and English

music. English writers began to endorse contemporary ideas about Spanish music and

none more successfully than Trend.

Jean-Aubry first visited London around 1909 and maintained a strong presence in the

English musical scene,71 cultivating friendships with important French, Spanish and

English composers.72 His most influential book was La musique française

d'aujourd'hui (French Music of Today), published in 1915 with a foreword by Fauré.

It was translated into English by Evans and published in London in 1919, while the

Spanish translation contained a preface written by Falla.

One of Jean-Aubry's stated aims was to situate French music at the centre of

European musical development. He fought against German influence in music and

promoted the French principles of moderation, restraint and concision. In opposition

to the German trend for ever-larger musical forces Jean-Aubry was an advocate for

smaller orchestras. In The Musical Times article titled "A Plea for the Small

Orchestra", he noted, "It is high time we came back to saner ideas, and returned to

traditions of moderation and proportion from which the German mind has

departed."73

71 In an article for The Musical Quarterly, Jean-Aubry wrote, "about 10 years ago when I first came to England I attempted to form an opinion of the musical resources of this country." Georges Jean-Aubry, 'British Music Through French Eyes,' The Musical Quarterly 5, no. 2 (Apr. 1919): 192-212. 72 Jean-Aubry was a close friend and supporter of Debussy. In his activities to promote French music in London, and through his contacts with the German-born pianist Franz Leibich and Edwin Evans, he organized and facilitated concerts of Debussy's music. In 1908 he helped to bring Debussy to England and was trying to organize another visit when Debussy died. Jean-Aubry wrote in 1918, "The last time I went to see Debussy we spoke at great length of his coming to England." Quote taken from Georges Jean-Aubry, 'Some Recollections of Debussy,' Musical Times 59 (1 May 1918): 203-209 73 Georges Jean-Aubry, 'A Plea for the Small Orchestra,' Musical Times 59 (1 Sept. 1918): 421-422

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In April 1918 The Musical Times printed an article about Jean-Aubry, authored by an

English acquaintance named Robert Mouren.74 Written before the end of the war, this

piece espouses the anti-German sentiment so common at this time and Mouren makes

special mention of Jean-Aubry's work to promote Spanish composers, stating,

Thus while fighting in behalf of French art wherever he could, he undertook to

defend Spanish music, whose riches and expectations he had learnt to appreciate.

And here we must recall that it was due to his influence that the first concert wholly

devoted to modern Spanish music ever given in any country—including Spain

itself—took place at Havre in December 1910. His personal acquaintance with the

most original among Spanish composers, Albéniz, Granados, Manuel de Falla, Turina,

made him wish to pay homage to their merits.75

Sadly, Mouren was killed in France fighting against the Germans before the article

was published, making the following words about Jean-Aubry especially poignant:

"I-le had grown incensed to exasperation at finding that Germany was looked upon as

the sole realm of music, and that, misled by this false notion, people should be

indifferent to the glorious part played by France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain."76

Jean-Aubry met many Spanish musicians in Paris, including the aforementioned

composers and the pianist Ricardo Vifies,77 and encouraged a closer relationship

between French and Spanish music, although he saw French music as the more

developed and well-established partner.78 The parallels between English and Spanish

music in the early twentieth century were of interest to Jean-Aubry and he believed

the nations were brought together through their opposition to the German musical

hegemony of the nineteenth century.79 In an informative article written for the

74 Robert Mouren, 'Jean-Aubry,' Musical Times 59 (1 Apr. 1918): 153-154. 75 Ibid., 154. 76 Ibid. 77 Writing about Vicies and his repertoire Jean-Aubry commented: `One wondered how he even had time to read all the music he actually played from memory'. Quoted in Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope, 169. 78 In highlighting the importance of Paris to the musical evolution of Spanish composers, Jean-Aubry wrote, "Following the example of his elders, Albéniz and Granados, de Falla had already looked towards France. He was one of the first to spread in Spain a curiosity and taste for modern French music, including in his concerts the latest French musical productions". Georges Jean-Aubry, `Manuel de Falla,' Musical Times 58 (1 Apr. 1917): 151. 79 Jean-Aubry made a comparison between the eccentric English composer Joseph Holbrooke, and one of the more established Spanish composers, Conrado del Campo, writing, "There is perhaps, at this

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American journal Musical Quarterly in 1919, entitled `British Music Through French

Eyes,'80 Jean-Aubry detailed his hope that England "may soon resume the

magnificent place she formerly held in European music."81 In the same way that

Spanish music had been lacking in a distinctive national school, he claimed that, "For

more than a century and a half England has been devoid of genuinely national

music."82

Jean-Aubry also referred to the crucial role played by critics in promoting an

awareness of new music and made special mention of Dent and Newman as important

advocates for English composers.83 Folksong was important to this rebirth in both

England and Spain and amongst British composers, Jean-Aubry singled out Ralph

Vaughan Williams (1872-1858) as "one of the first Englishmen to understand the real

value of folk-song and the use to which it could be put...he has so far entered into the

spirit as to do for English folk-song what masters like Chopin and Albéniz did for

Poland and Spain."84

Jean-Aubry furthered the cause of new English and Spanish music in The Chesterian,

a music periodical issued by the Chester publishing house in London between 1915

and 1961, which he edited between 1919 and 1923.85 The journal promoted a

cosmopolitan, post-war vision of music with an impressive list of contributors, among

them composers at the vanguard of new nationalist musical styles such as Turina and

Falla.86

J.B. (John Brande) Trend was one of the first English critics to take up the challenge

of writing about Spanish music, partly due to the influence of his mentor Dent. The

moment (with the exception of M. Conrado del Campo in Spain) no young composer more prolific and more unequal." Jean-Aubry, `British Music Through French Eyes,' 202. 80 Ibid.,192-212. 81 Ibid., 192. 82 Ibid. 83 Jean-Aubry described both Dent and Newman as being "studious but venturesome and gifted with great breadth of vision and intellectual avidity." Ibid., 201. 84 Ibid., 203. 85 Llano, Whose Spain?, 20-21. 86 Joaquin Turina, `Manuel de Falla,' Chesterian (May 1920): 193-196; Manuel de Falla, `Letter to the editor,' Chesterian (July 1920): 49. Other contributors included Edwin Evans, ̀ The Three-Cornered Hat,' Chesterian (May 1921): 453-456; and `Master Peter's Puppet Show,' Chesterian (Nov. 1924): 53-55. Jean-Aubry also wrote for Chesterian, see Georges Jean-Aubry, `The Glory of Manuel de Falla,' Chesterian (June 1928): 214-218.

200

two met in 1908 when Trend was a student at Christ's College Cambridge, where

Dent had been elected a Fellow in 1902.87 According to the hispanist Edgard. M.

Wilson, "Dent taught him the techniques of musical analysis and criticism and

encouraged his enthusiasm."88 He lived in Spain for a year in 1919 while working as

a correspondent for the Athenaeum. An intrepid traveller, Trend was not afraid to

explore remote corners of the country and he had a great admiration for Ford and

Borrow.89 He wrote of these pioneers, "It was precisely their difficulties which made

their knowledge so complete.i90 In Trend's mind, any decent writer on Spain had to

spend time in Spain, travel widely and experience life amongst the Spanish people.

Becoming fluent in Spanish through his travels and studies, Trend wrote on politics,

literature and art, but music was the aspect of Spanish culture he was most drawn to.

During his stint in Spain for the Athenaeum Trend met Falla and the two became close

friends and cultural allies. In A Picture of Modern Spain: Men and Music, published

in 1921, Trend provides the following account of his first meeting with Falla:

The first time I met Don Manuel de Falla was on a blustering September evening at

the "Villa Carmona" on the Alhambra Hill. It was the first suggestion of autumn.

The tops of the Duke of Wellington's elm trees swayed in a high wind, and the

pomegranate under which we were dining dropped pips in luscious, sticky envelopes

on to the tablecloth. Suddenly there was a burst of rain, and every man seized his

bread, plate and glass and ran for the house; I never realized the possibilities of a

romantic situation so thoroughly as when I trod on a rotten quince which was lying

on the garden path. Sr. de Falla described the whole episode as a mixture of "La

Soirée dans Grenade" and "Jardins sous la pluie"; but the setting was, he added, more

thoroughly Spanish than Debussy could have known, for his acquaintance with

Granada was derived from books and picture postcards of the Alhambra which Sr. de

Falla had shown him.91

"Dent was Professor of Music from 1923-41 at Cambridge where Trend joined the staff as the first Professor of Spanish in 1933. Trend was the executor to Dent's will, and helped establish the Dent Archive at King's College, Cambridge. 88

Quoted in Buesa. `La recepcibn de la mûsica espafiola de The Criterion,' 155. 89

Trend was a strong advocate for Ford's book Gatherings from Spain, writing, "The excellence and reasonableness of Ford's `Gatherings' have been forgotten in the poetry and humour of Gautier's `Voyage' and the romantic nonsense of Alexandre Dumas." Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 54-55. 90 J.B. Trend, Alfonso the Sage and Other Spanish Essays (London: Constable, 1926). Quoted in Dennis, ed., Manuel de Falla-John B. Trend: Epistolario, 201. 91 Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 237-8.

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When Trend was invited to give lectures at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid,

he extended his circle of Spanish contacts and met both established and younger

artists. 92 A Spanish institution in the style of an English university hall of residence,

the Residencia opened its doors in 1915 with the support of influential patrons.93

Music was well catered for at the Residencia with Falla, Ravel, Stravinsky, Milhaud

and Segovia among the visiting musicians. Many first performances of Spanish

works were given there, especially those by composers who would later form part of

the so-called Generaciôn del 27.94

Trend was dedicated to explaining for an English readership the nature of "true"

Spanish music and situating the music in the context of its native environment. Many

of Falla's preoccupations and thoughts on Spanish music were endorsed by Trend and

their close relationship infiltrated his writings. The state of early and modern music

in both Spain and England preoccupied Trend and he wrote about the developing

cultural relationship between the two countries. In relation to Spanish music, he was

eager to dispel myths and misinformed stereotypes for his English readership. Many

of Trend's his newspaper articles were reprinted and reworked in his books. He was a

prolific writer and his work appeared in The Times, The Times Literary Supplement,

The Morning Post, the Athenaeum, Music and Letters, and from 1924 until 1929 the

literary magazine created by T.S. Eliot, the Criterion.95

A Picture of Modern Spain: Men and Music, written in the wake of World War I, was

Trend's first book on Spain. In the first chapter, titled "Spain After the War" he

commented on the relationship between Spain and England, with a focus on common

national traits and characteristics.96 On self-expression he wrote, "Listening to

Spaniards I have often felt that they are expressing a point of view which is very

'English'...In modern Spain it frequently happens that people say things and do

92 Ibid., 39-40. 93 The Residencia attracted a very distinguished list of guest lecturers including H.G. Wells, G.K. Chesterton, Albert Einstein and others. See Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 79-81. 9a The Generaci6n del 27 was an influential Spanish movement in the arts. Composers who were active in this group include Salvador Bacarisse, Gustavo Pittaluga, Julian Bautista and others. See Ibid., 82. 95 Trend wrote seven extended essays on Spanish music for the Criterion. See Buesa, `La recepcibn de la mûsica espanola de The Criterion,' 153-180. 96 Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 1-16.

202

things in a way which seems more ultimately English than you ever heard in any

country but England itself."97 Trend pointed out differences in outlook between

Spaniards and Englishmen following the War and felt that while England was weary

after years of War, Spain, by remaining neutral, was revitalized and in a position to

advance.98

According to Trend, hardly any Englishmen had understood or written well about

Spain. Those he admired, such as Borrow, Ford and Ellis, lived there for a time and

endeavoured to look beyond commonly-held clichés about Spain. As Trend

explained,

The few reliable Englishmen who have written on Spanish things bring out one point

very clearly. Travellers like Ford and Havelock Ellis, possessed el vivo afan de

comprender, the real desire to find out the truth and understand it, and had no wish to

construct a romantic, imaginary Spain for home consumption.99

Spanish literature occupied a special place in Trend's work and A Picture of Modern

Spain features an extended chapter on Spanish writers.100 He drew attention to

important modern Spanish novelists he believed should be better known in England:

"Some Spaniards are inclined to be sceptical and incredulous when you tell them that

people in England have become interested once more in Spanish things...they learn

from you with astonishment that, except for Blasco Ibanez, no really modern Spanish

novelist has been translated into English.s101 The idea that foreigners had been

seduced by a "literary fiction" about Spain concerned Trend and he extended this

idea to the arts of painting and music.102 He apportioned the blame for these myths to

nineteenth-century French writers and the power of the Carmen character, "nearly all

modern ideas about Spain are secondary emotions. They are not ideas of Spain, but

97 Ibid., 1. 98 "While every man and woman in the rest of Europe has been involved in war, Spaniards have been catching up their more progressive neighbours, and making good the loss of time, money and individual happiness which came in the nineteenth century...It is a most striking thing about the Spaniards of to-day, of all classes, that they have more personality than many people in England. Here many of us have been left limp and thoughtless by five years of war." Ibid., 6. 99

Ibid., 3. loo Ibid., 45-79. 101 Ibid., 56. 102 Ibid., 54.

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of the Spain invented by Gautier and Dumas and decorated by Prosper Mérimée; they

are notions obtained at second hand. The fiction of `Carmen' dies hard."103

Persistent stereotypes derived from Carmen were a genuine annoyance to Trend and

in spite of the success of works such as The Three-Cornered Hat, for many English

readers and audiences, Carmen remained a strong marker of Spanishness. In his book

Spain from the South (1928) he wrote, "It is impossible to understand Spanish art or

Spanish life, or even Spanish music and Spanish dancing, without clearing our heads

of all this `Carmen business'."1o4 He advised readers to dispense with the myth

altogether:

For the traveller in Spain, however, it is important to realize that the figure of Carmen

herself is not an ordinary Spanish or Andalusian type, but a very extraordinary one;

and it is a striking example of the thick-headedness of Europe in particular and the

world in general that ever since the production of the opera in Paris in 1875, Carmen

and all her surroundings have been accepted as literally true of normal Spanish life.'05

Cultural misunderstandings existed on both the English and Spanish sides and Trend

urged his English readers to learn about the context of Spanish music, encouraging

them to experience a broader range of Spanish popular and concert music better to

understand the works of Falla and his contemporaries. One of the operas championed

by Trend was EI Avapiés (1919) by Spanish composers Conrado del Campo (1878-

1953) and Angel Barrios, to which he gave special mention in A Picture of Modern

Spain. The opera had recently been produced in Madrid during the 1919-20 season

and, according to Trend, was an example of a Spanish opera an English audience

might find appealing and valuable in contextualising the music of Falla.106 Trend

observed:

Music like that of Del Campo and Barrios is not only delightful in itself, but serves

the purpose of making other forms of Spanish musical thought intelligible. It is a step,

though not a very long one, in the direction of De Falla, whose music London has

approached from the wrong end. If we had had the chance of hearing "El Avapiés"

103 Ibid., 55. 104 J.B. Trend, Spain from the South (London: Methuen, 1928), 8. 105 Ibid., 7. 1°6 Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 179.

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and then De Falla's opera "La Vida Breve," no one would have found the music to

the "Three-Cornered Hat" cold or difficult to understand. Falla is the central figure in

the group of modern Spanish composers, and anything that helps one to understand

him is of value for that alone.107

Both Trend and Falla admired the guitarist, flamenco connoisseur and composer of El

Avapiés Angel Barrios as is evident in a later chapter of A Picture of Spain. Barrios

features in Trend's recollections of nights at the Alhambra in a chapter titled "Music

in the Gardens of Granada," a depiction of the magical qualities of the Alhambra, the

spiritual home of cante flamenco and soon to be home of Manuel de Falla.108 Making

a connection to the piano piece by Debussy, Trend paints a picture of a musical

"Soirée dans Grenade,"109 featuring a trio of guitar, laid and bandurria, in the mould

of Barrios' Trio Iberia. The repertoire consisted of pieces by Albéniz, Debussy and

Falla, alongside some original works for the group by Barrios. The plucked strings

lent a clarity and transparency to the works and Trend described the musical effect as

follows:

The great charm of a trio of "twangly" instruments is that it makes the music as clear

and translucent as Scarlatti played on a harpsichord. It was immensely interesting to

hear the little minuet of Debussy played as transparently as if it were held up against

the light—almost X-rayed, as it were—so that its workmanship was revealed far

more clearly than is possible on a pianoforte."°

In A Picture of Modern Spain Trend delved into the history of Spanish music from the

Renaissance and Baroque periods, and highlighted parallels with the state of English

music.111 As will be seen in Chapter 8, Trend's continued involvement with Spanish

107 Ibid. 108 Ibid., 237-245. 109 Falla greatly admired Debussy's La Soirée dans Grenade for piano and quoted the piece in the coda of his guitar piece Homenaje a Debussy (1920). Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 238. According to Falla, Debussy successfully captured the essence of Spain in his music. In Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music Trend observed, "Debussy (Falla concludes) wrote `Spanish' music, not by using authentic tunes, but by `feeling' them, by realizing the foundations on which they rest and conveying the essence of them in music which was all his own." Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music, 55. 110

Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 242. 111 For example, in a chapter titled `The Foundations of Spanish Theatre Music' Trend wrote, "A performance of an old Spanish play was, in fact, almost as much a musical event as the `Midsummer Night's Dream' with Purcell's music lately performed at Cambridge." Ibid., 182.

205

music in the 1920s anticipated the development of a neoclassical Spanish style of

music and the associated rise of the classical guitar.

Lord Berners and the Fantaisie Espagnole

The English composer Lord Berners engaged with changing representations of

Spanish music in his orchestral work Fantaisie Espagnole (1919). This work was

informed by his studies of French and Russian musical representations of Spain, and

his intimate knowledge of the Spanish works produced by the Ballets Russes. In

contrast to the nineteenth century style of the "Spanish" music written by of Sullivan

and Elgar, Berners' Fantaisie was influened by more current modes of European

composition. Berners is remembered as an eccentric character, active as a painter,

writer and composer at different stages of his life.112 Born Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson in

1883 he inherited the title of 14th Baron Berners in 1918. From 1911 until 1918 he

worked as a diplomat at the British Embassy in Rome where he was part of a thriving

artistic community. He befriended Diaghilev and Stravinsky and became close to

members of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev eventually commissioned Berners to write

the music for The Triumph of Neptune for the Ballets Russes in 1926, one of only two

English ballets he commissioned, the other being Constant Lambert's Romeo and

Juliet (1924-5).113

Stravinsky regarded Berners highly as a composer and they shared an appreciation of

Spanish music,1 4 and during their time in Rome together Berners gave Stravinsky

recordings of Spanish music.115 In Rome Berners had aligned himself with the

futurist movement in art, a progressive group that included representatives from the

visual arts, music and literature. The Italian composer Alfredo Casella (1883-1947)

was an advocate for the music of Berners and played his Trois petites marches

funèbres for piano at the Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome on 30 March 1917, the first

professional performance of his music.116 In a series of contemporary music concerts

112 See Mark Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric (London: Chatto and Windus, 1998). 113 Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 82. 114 In his library Berners kept scores of Granados' Goyescas and Falla's El amor brujo [first edition with drawings by Gontcharova]. See Dickinson, Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter, 178 for a list of scores in Berners' library. 115 Letter from Tyrwhitt to Stravinsky, 6 June 1917, translated in Stravinsky, Selected Correspondence, vol. II, ed. Robert Craft (London: Faber, 1984) 143. Ils Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 15.

206

Casella regularly programmed works by Berners alongside those of Falla, Ravel and

Stravinsky.l 17

Berners' music was published by Chester and according to Peter Dickinson, in the

1920s Berners "brought an international sophistication to British music to offset the

obsession with folk music.s118 He enjoyed the support of influential critics like Jean-

Aubry, whose poetry he set in Trois chansons (1920), and Edwin Evans, whose 1920

series on modern British composers in The Musical Times included a feature on his

music.119 Evans recognised Berners as the most international of English composers:

"He has a sense of humour which corresponds to a national trait, but the manner of

expression is international. It is English fun with a Latin pungency."I20

The Fantaisie began life in a version for solo piano in late 1918 and, after completing

the orchestral score in June 1919, Berners arranged the work for piano duet.121 The

piece is in three movements, Prélude, Fandango and Pasodoble, played without a

break. The Fantaisie was first performed at a Proms concert on 24 September 1919

and again at the Proms on 7 June 1921 in a program featuring the first concert

performance of The Rite of Spring in England. Writing in 1920, Evans suggested that

the Fantaisie was Berners' most important work to date, and noted the use of humour

and the exaggeration of Spanish musical elements.122 In reviews of the Fantaisie,

comparisons with Falla's ballet were made, for example a critic in The Observer

wrote of the second Proms performance, "The Berners `Spanish Fantasy' was given a

much more pointed and detailed performance than before, and came out brilliantly. It

improved wonderfully at a second hearing (but in certain places Lord Berners is

obviously merely talking through his three-cornered hat)."123 Even though The

Three-Cornered Hat may not have been the chief model for the Fantaisie, it drew on

similar influences such as Stravinsky's language and use of folk materials, Ravel's

Rapsodie Espagnole and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol (1887).

117 D ick inson, Lord Berners, 144. 118 D ick inson, Lord Berners,23.

19 Edwin Evans, `Modern Spanish Composers: VII — Lord Berners,' Musical Times 61 (Jan. 1920): 9-

13. 120

Quoted in Dickinson, Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter, 25-6. 121 Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 52-3. 123

Edwin Evans, `Modern Spanish Composers: VII — Lord Berners, 9-13. 123

Observer, 26 June 1921.

207

The orchestration of the Fantaisie is expansive,124 demonstrating the extent to which

Berners had studied Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio and Chabrier's

Espana.125 Berners employed triple and quadruple woodwinds, a substantial brass

section, five percussion instruments, two harps and a celeste. Ravel's Rapsodie is a

key model and the movements of this work, `Prélude à la nuit', `Malaguena',

`Habanera', and `Feria', mirror the structure of Berners' work.126 The strong balletic

overtones of Berners' Fantaisie show that he was aware of The Three-Cornered Hat

and other Spanish-inspired works such as Las Meninas performed by Ballets Russes.

There are a number of ways Berners combined Spanish melodies and rhythms with

contemporary influences. Ostinato passages are prominent throughout the work and

at times offset by dense chromatic passages in other parts. The influence of

Stravinsky, is prominent throughout the work and, as the correspondence between the

composers demonstrates, Berners was familiar with Stravinsky's recent music.127 The

sophisticated use of layering and abrupt rhythmic shifts in Stravinsky's works such as

the Étude pour pianola, later orchestrated and renamed Madrid and included as the

fourth movement of the Quatre Études (1928), made an impression on Berners.128

Characteristic Spanish rhythms and repetitive devices form the basis of the second

and third movements. Distinctively Spanish melodic phrases and ornamentation are

prevalent in the Fantaisie and Berners was evidently proud of its melodic profile,

claiming to have identified at least seventy melodies in the work.129_The Fantaisie

begins with a delicate Prélude marked Moderato tranquillo assai.

The subtlety of the orchestration points to the influence of the first movement of

Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole, "Prélude à la nuit." Example 7a shows sustained D and

124 Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole (London: Chester, 1920). '25 Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric, 64. '26 Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 54. 127 See the correspondence between Tyrwhitt and Stravinsky, in Stravinsky, Selected Correspondence, 135-159. Jones notes that the ending of the final Pasodoble movement of the Fantaisie is the "most clear-cut allusion to Stravinsky in all Berners' music." Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 60. 128 Letter from Tyrwhitt to Stravinsky, 8 Jan. 1918, Ibid., 149. For a discussion of Madrid and the influence of Picasso and the plastic arts on Stravinsky see Michael Christoforidis, ̀ Madrid de Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso y la vanguardia de las artes plâsticas,' in Campos Interdisciplinares de la Musicologia: V Congreso de la Sociedad Espanola de Musicologia, (Barcelona: Sociedad Espafola de Musicologia. 2002), 1303-1309. 129 Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric, 65.

208

A pedal notes in the double basses which are accompanied by ostinati in the clarinet,

harp, violins, violas and 'celli, with a plaintive melody introduced in the oboes.

209

Piccolo.

Flaute I. Ftauti II e III.

IFlaute III-Piccolo.)

• obolIc II.

Corno Ingle+;o.

Clarinetto I in La.

Clarinetti II e III in La

Clarinetto basso.

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Timpani. . Xilofono.

Campanelli. Tamburino basco. Tamburo militare.

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' ASS*.

Celesta.

Arpe I e II.

Example 7a. Lord Berners, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.l-6.130

2 it G. Francesco Malipiero.

Fantaisie espagnole. Prélude.

oderalo tranquillo aseai. A190. Lord Berners.

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210

The melody played by the oboes in Example 7a evolves to take on a distinctly

Hispanic character with the addition of a melodic ornament to complete the phrase, as

in the bassoon line of Example 7b:

Example 7b. Berners, bassoon melody, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.20-21.131

ritual

Bassoon

3

The energy and abandon of parts of the second and third movements recall the end of

Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio and the final movement, `Feria' of Ravel's Rapsodie.

The second movement is a fandango, marked Allegro Feroce and written in an

insistent 6/8 with strong accents on every dotted crotchet beat. As shown in Example

8a, an F# Phrygian scale is featured in the woodwinds and violas, while rhythmic

stabs in the contra bassoon, brass, percussion and strings, propel the music.

p mollo espress.

131 Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 5.

211

Example 8a. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.1-5.132

Fandango.

Allegro teroce.(J..too)

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132 Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 9.

212

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The rhythmic intensity increases later in the movement when every quaver pulse is

accented and the ferocity is realized. To subvert the regular rhythmic flow Berners

used hemiola rhythms, changing phrase lengths and off-beat accents.

Another technique used to create tension is the insertion of moving chromatic parts

into an otherwise harmonically static texture. In example 8b the flutes, clarinet and

first violins play repeated notes while the bassoons and horns insert sliding chromatic

harmonies and horn 1 and violin 2 play a strident melody.

Example 8b. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.62-64.'33

Flute I

Flute 2

Clarinet in A

Bassoon I

Bassoon 2

Horn in F 1

Horn in F 2

Violin I

Violin II

The large orchestral forces are fully utilized in the final Pasodoble which opens with

characteristic Spanish phrases in the woodwind that suggest the Phrygian mode.

Percussion instruments are skilfully employed in the final sections of the movement,

as the piece builds intensity through a series of tempo changes. Distinctive Spanish

133 Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 18.

213

musical tropes are exaggerated and embellished in the work and it may be said that

Berners both pays homage to, and parodies, Spanish music in this piece. The

beginning of the final `Feroce' section, highlighting the pasodoble rhythm and

expansive orchestration is shown in Example 9:

214

J. W. C. 80.

Example 9. Berners, "Pasodoble," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.140-148.134

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134 Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 44.

215

In the Fantaisie Berners exhibits the musical traits that set him apart from the

emerging English nationalist school of composers. His musical excursion to Spain is

a unique example of an English composer writing "Spanish" music informed by a

broad range of contemporaneous compositional approaches. Writing in 1934,

Constant Lambert remembered the impact of the Fantaisie:

It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the Spanish National style was

invented by a Russian, Glinka, and destroyed by an Englishman, Lord Berners; for

after the latter's amazingly brilliant parody of Spanish mannerisms, it is impossible to

hear most Spanish music without a certain satiric feeling breaking through.'35

The Three-Cornered Hat presented a modern style of Spanish music and dance to

English audiences familiar with Spanish entertainments. There were imitators, most

notably the Ballets Suédois who presented a new take on Spanish ballet, but without

the success of the Ballets Russes. Amongst the musical imitators of a modern style of

Spanish music, Berners was the most overstated with his Fantaisie that paralleled

aspects of The Three-Cornered Hat. In the 1920s Spanish composers, most notably

Falla, engaged with early music, folk sources and flamenco, matching developments

in English music where folk music and early music were seen as suitable sources for

indigenous composers cultivating a national style. This similarity of thought

extended to a closer musical relationship between England and Spain, fostered by

anti-German sentiment of the post-war period. Falla continued to chart the course for

Spanish composers in the 1920s as will be discussed in Chapter 8.

135 Constant Lambert, Music Ho! (London: Faber and Faber, 1934) 152.

216

Chapter 8

Spanish Musical Nationalism, Neoclassicism and the guitar

Spanish nationalist composers entered a new period of achievement and recognition

after World War I. By the 1920s Falla's contemporaries Oscar Esplâ (1886-1976),

Conrado del Campo, Joaquin Turina and the Cuban-born composer and pianist

Joaquin Nin (1879-1949), had established themselves as leading composers of

Spanish music. Internationally, however, Falla remained the most conspicuous

Spanish voice, and in this chapter I will examine the reception of his music in

England in the 1920s, with a focus on two neoclassical works, El retablo de maese

Pedro (1919-1923) (Master Peter's Puppet Show) and the Concerto (1923-1926). In

these compositions Falla moved away from the Andalusian influence of his earlier

scores, towards a more universal Castilian musical language.' He created his own,

distinctly Spanish style of neoclassicism through a combination of early Spanish

music, folksong and stylistic elements drawn from the works of Stravinsky. His

neoclassical works were a major inspiration to the next generation of Spanish

composers, especially those associated with the "Generation of 1927" (Generaci6n

del 27) and known as the "Group of Eight" (Grupo de Ocho). 2

Led by specialist critics Trend and Jean-Aubry, the English press promoted and

endorsed Falla's stylistic transformation in El retablo and the Concerto. Falla's

earlier works such as Noches en los jardines de Espara (1916) and the Siete

canciones populares (1914) were performed repeatedly in London in the 1920s,

reinforcing the view of Falla as a composer grounded in Spanish folksong and music

from the south of Spain. In the same decade El retablo and the Concerto garnered

Harper divides Falla's output into five categories: Youthful Period (1896-1904), Period of Consolidation of Musical Language (1905-1914), Andalusian Period (1915-1919), Period Beyond Nationalism (1920-1926) and Period of Research for a Universal Synthesis (1927-1946). Harper, Manuel de Falla, 329-413. 2 Composers who formed part of the Group of Eight include Salvador Bacarisse (1898-1963), Rosa Garcia Ascot (1902-2002), Julian Bautista (1901-1961), Ernesto Halffter (1905-1989), Rodolfo Halffter (1900-1987), Gustavo Pittaluga (1906-1975), Fernando Remacha (1898-1984), Juan José Mantecbn (1895-1964) and Jests Bal y Gay (The Generation of 1927 refers to a movement originally associated with figures in Spanish literature, but extended to include artists, filmmakers and musicians. For a study of composers affiliated with the Generation of 1927 see Emilio Casares Rodicio, La mûsica en la Generaci6n del 27 (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 1987).

217

critical acclaim and earned him the admiration of his peers. In the process Falla

achieved a level of popularity uncommon for a composer of modern music.

As England recovered from the devastation of World War I, a select group of English

musicologists espoused the view that English composers needed to look beyond their

own borders and develop new musical affiliations. They promoted the music of

continental composers through their writings and publications, and encouraged the

formation of music societies to advance their aims. Two of the key protagonists who

promoted links with their continental colleagues, were Eaglefield-Hull and Dent.

Both men sat on the editorial board of the progressive A Dictionary of Modern Music

and Musicians (1924), which generously covered the burgeoning European schools of

composition. Spanish composers and performers were well represented in the

Dictionary through articles written by the London-based Spaniard Morales. Other

English critics endorsed the neoclassical bias of new Spanish music. In the 1920s

Trend published a monograph on Falla, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music (1929)

and two books exploring Spanish early music, Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas (1925)

and The Music of Spanish History to 1600 (1926).3 In this Chapter I will consider the

role of cosmopolitan English critics in encouraging a greater knowledge and

appreciation of Spanish music in 1920s London.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the guitar remained a

significant Spanish presence in London. The instrument underwent profound changes

in construction and appearance,4 and proved to be an adaptable instrument, moving

between highbrow and popular music contexts with relative ease. In the 1920s the

Spanish guitar entered a new phase of popularity, around which coalesced some of the

main themes pertaining to Spanish music in London: early music, flamenco and

modern neoclassical composition. Spanish guitarists Emilio Pujol and Miguel Llobet

had enjoyed some measure of success in London prior to World War I but the focal

point for the Spanish guitar revival in the 1920s was the Andalusian guitarist Andrés

Segovia. The neoclassical orientation of the new classical guitar owed much to ideas

3 Trend, Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas ; Trend, The Music of Spanish History to 1600. 4 The Spanish guitar maker Antonio Torres (1817-1892) revolutionized the way guitars were made. His system of fan-bracing was widely copied and his instruments were played by Arcas, Térraga and Llobet. For an examination of Torres guitars from a makers point of view see José L. Romanillos, Antonio de Torres, Guitar Maker: His Life and Work (Longmead: Element Books, 1987).

218

promoted by Pedrell and Falla, and representations of the instrument in modern art.5

After his triumphant London debut in 1926, the English capital remained an important

city for Segovia's career and in the subsequent history of the classical guitar. In the

last section of this chapter I will examine press responses to Segovia's London

concerts of the 1920s, with a focus on his playing of Bach and commissioning of new

works. The critical reception of these concerts demonstrates how perceptions of

Spanish music in London had changed since the 1870s. Spanish music was now a

partner in the European hierarchy of musical nations and acknowledged as a country

with a flourishing cohort of contemporary composers.

Falla and Spanish Neoclassicism in 1920s England

In performances of Falla's chamber opera El retablo de maese Pedro and the

Concerto, a new vision of Spain evolved that separated it even further from the

colourful folklorism of flamenco and regional dance. These pieces embodied a

modernist neoclassicism that drew on historic sources of Spanish music, clothed in a

musical style indebted to Stravinsky's neoclassical works of the 1920s. In both El

retablo and the Concerto, Falla further distanced Spanish nationalist music from the

exotic stereotypes of Spain that were created and perpetuated in Romantic scores.

El retablo de maese Pedro is a chamber opera in one-act based on an episode from

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The story centres on a puppet show conducted

by the puppeteer Master Peter and observed by Don Quixote and his companion

Sancho Panza. The work was written for performance in the drawing room of the

wealthy Parisian socialite and musical patron the Princesse de Polignac (1865-1943).

Born Winaretta Singer, the Princesse de Polignac had a penchant for commissioning

and supporting leaders in all fields of modern art.6

With El retablo Falla moved away from the influence of folk-song towards a variety

of historical sources, due, in part, to his desire to create a type of Spanish music with

universal appeal. Even before the work was performed in England, reviews and

articles appeared in the English press, most notably those written by Trend and Jean-

s Piquer Sanclemente and Christoforidis, 'Cubism, Neoclasicismo,' 6-10. 6 Other musical works commisioned by the Princesse include Stravinsky's Renard, Milhaud's Le Malheurs d'Orphée and Tailleferre's Piano Concerto. See Hess, Sacred Passions, 125.

M ichael Christoforidis, `Aspects of the Creative Process,' 39.

219

Aubry. As the leading exponent of neoclassicism in music, Igor Stravinsky approved

of Falla's musical transformation, writing "In my opinion these two works [El retablo

and the Concerto] give proof of incontestable progress in the development of his great

talent. He has, in them, deliberately emancipated himself from the folklorist influence

under which he was in danger of stultifying himself."8

In November 1921 a short article appeared in The Times, written by a Madrid

correspondent previewing the new musical work El retablo: "De Falla appears in a

new light in this work, the music of which is purely Castilian in character, based in

part on popular airs from Castile and on the music of the Castilian classics."9 The

repeated references to Castilian music indicated Falla's shift away from Andalusian

folkloric sources towards a more universal type of hispanicism.

Composers writing in a neoclassical style used musical forms, titles, structures and

elements of phrasing and ornamentation modelled on music from earlier eras, most

commonly the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In the years before the war

Debussy and Ravel used works by Rameau and Couperin as models.10 In the

composition of both El retablo and the Concerto Falla looked to early Spanish music

from the medieval period such as the Cantigas of Alfonso X and guitar music by

Spanish Baroque guitarist Gaspar Sanz. Falla had a deep interest in the modal aspect

of early music, echoing his fascination with modal elements of capte jondo. His

study and incorporation of elements of Spanish medieval, Renaissance and Baroque

music gave his version of neoclassicism a uniquely Spanish flavour.11

El retablo was first performed in a concert version on 23 March 1923 at the Teatro

San Fernando (Seville) conducted by Falla and played by members of the Orquesta

Bética da Câmara (Chamber Orchestra of Andalusia). Falla was involved in the

8 Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography (London: Calder and Boyars, 1975), 133. 9 `Don Quixote in Music,' Times, 3 Nov. 1921, 8. This piece possibly drew on an article by Adolfo Salazar published in El Sol, `Manuel de Falla, En Granada: El Retablo de Maese Pedro,' 25 Oct. 1921. 10 Examples include Debussy's Hommage à Rameau from the second book of Images (1905) and Ravel's suite in six movements for piano, Le tombeau de Couperin (1914-1917). For a detailed discussion of neoclassicism in France 1870-1914 see Scott Messing, Neoclassicism in Music: From the Genesis of the Concept through the Schoenberg/Stravinsky Polemic (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1988), 1-59. 11 Carol Hess writes, "his use of modality marked a suggestive new path for neoclassicism while subtly asserting Spanish identity, even in this presumably `universalist' context." Hess, Sacred Passions, 138.

220

creation of this ensemble in 1922 with the cellist Segismundo Romero and Eduardo

Torres, chapel master of the Seville cathedral. The premiere performance of El

retablo was a significant occasion for Falla's admirers who travelled to Seville for the

concert, with Trend amongst the attendees. Trend reviewed the premiere in The

Times and detected that the new work was not what audiences familiar with the sound

of The Three-Cornered Hat or El amor brujo would be expecting:

The music itself, when it is heard in London, will seem, perhaps, very little Spanish

in feeling. This is because there is nothing superficially "Spanish" about it; yet it is

not only profoundly Spanish, but intensely individual—no other composer but Falla

could have written it. If the Three Cornered Hat is Andaluz in spirit the Retablo de

Maese Pedro is Castilian.'2

The first fully staged version of El retablo was given at the Hotel Singer-Polignac in

Paris on 25 June 1923. Falla was the scenic director and Wladimir Golschmann

conducted the ensemble. Jean-Aubry described the Polignac salon performance of El

retablo as taking place "before an invited audience of 200 persons, consisting of

composers, writer's society people, all delighted with his [Falla's] work, who gave the

composer a true ovation."13 Further performances of El retablo followed in Paris,

New York, Zurich, Venice and Amsterdam, and the work was widely praised by

international critics.14

Performances in 1920s London of earlier Falla compositions such as the Siete

canciones populares, maintained his reputation as a composer with strong ties to

Spanish folksong. In concert reviews, the Southern Spanish and even Moorish

foundations of these songs were often commented upon:

Manuel de Falla's treatment of these songs is masterly: he enhances their warmth of

colour and piquancy of flavour, and the irony of the words is subtly reflected in this

music...The songs are particularly interesting because of their strong Oriental

seasoning, which shows that the Moorish invasion left not only architectural, but other

12 Trend, `A New Opera by de Falla,' Times, 3 Apr. 1923, 8.

"Georges Jean-Aubry, `De Falla Talks of his New Work Based on a Don Quixote Theme,' Christian Science Monitor, 1 Sept. 1923, 17. 14 Hess, Manuel de Falla, 201.

221

artistic monuments in Southern Spain. It is fortunate that they have found a restorer in

an Andalusian composer whose musical gifts, learning, and sense of tradition unite in

making him by far the greatest contemporary figure in Spanish music.15

The Three-Cornered Hat, familiar to London audiences in both the ballet and concert

versions, was the first major orchestral work by a Spanish composer to be performed

repeatedly by British orchestras. Another major Spanish work to receive multiple

performances in London in the 1920s was Falla's Noches en los jardines de Espana

(1916). The work evoked the Alhambra, the adjacent gardens of the Generalife and

images of Spain's Moorish past. A 1925 review of a performance of Noches en los

jardines de Espana given by piano virtuoso Arthur Rubinstein,16 drew attention to the

strong connection with Southern Spain:

For an almost visibly pictorial suggestion of Southern Spain, where Moorish elements

are still as clearly traceable in folk-song as they are in architecture, this music would be

hard to surpass. De Falla does not resort to the methods of the tourist bureau to attract

us to his country; he never exhibits the familiar views by means of which so many

musical travelling agents have long made us weary of Iberian superficialities. His

achievement is to bring home the lure of Spain by an unfamiliar presentation which we

vaguely feel to be based on profound truth.17

The first taste English audiences had of Falla's neoclassical compositional style was

at a festival of short operas in Bristol in 1924 where El retablo received its English

premiere. The week-long event was the brain-child of Philip Napier-Miles, a wealthy

local philanthropist and amateur composer with a strong interest in opera. Alongside

three works by Napier-Miles the festival programmed English operas by Vaughan

Williams and Purcell, making El retablo the only foreign work on the program.

Falla's short opera was performed next to Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and The Times

critic (probably Trend) drew a parallel between the two, noting that Falla's music was

"direct and simple, even as is Purcell's."18 The performance was given in English

15 'Mr. John Goss's Recital,' Manchester Guardian, 12 Apr. 1924, 12. 16 Falla's Fantasia Bética (1919) for solo piano was written for Arthur Rubinstein who premiered the work on 20 February 1920 in New York. The piece did not stay in his repertoire and does not seem to have been performed in England until the 1940s. 17 `Queen's Hall Symphony Concert,' Manchester Guardian, 9 Feb. 1925, 16. 18 `Opera at Clifton,' Times, 16 Oct. 1924, 12. Falla had been introduced to Purcell's music by Trend.

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with a libretto prepared by Trend who drew on Thomas Shelton's early English

translation of Don Quixote in preparation for his version.19 El retablo was performed

a total of six times in Bristol with conductors Adrian Boult and Malcolm Sargent.20

In the first performance given in the Polignac salon, all the characters were puppets.

The producer of the Bristol performances adopted an alternative suggestion noted in

the score that, "the puppets representing real persons may be replaced by living

actors; but in that case they should wear masks."21 According to Trend, this

arrangement made the work more intelligible 22 Reviews of the Bristol production of

El retablo were uniformly favourable and The Times critic praised Trend's English

translation of the text and applauded the sets and use of puppets.23 Falla's work was

singled out as the highlight of the week-long opera festival and The Times wrote, "the

special note of distinction is that which comes from Spain."24 Such was the success

of the work that the Bristol organisers programmed El retablo again in 1926.

Amongst the musical aims of neoclassical composers were the values of simplicity,

objectivity and clarity.25 This encompassed the use of smaller instrumental forces as

epitomized by Stravinsky in his Histoire du soldat (1918), scored for an instrumental

septet and three actors.26 Falla's emerging neoclassical aesthetic was propagated

through the activities of the chamber orchestra he co-founded, the Orquesta Bética.

The ensemble programmed modern compositions alongside music from pre-

nineteenth century traditions, and Falla made arrangements of works by other

composers for the group, including Rossini's overture to The Barber of Seville,

19 Shelton made the first translation of Don Quixote into English and completed his version of both parts of the novel in 1620. Trend compared the naturalness of Falla's word setting, in particular the use of declamation, with Purcell's setting of English in operas such as Dido and Aeneas, King Arthur and The Fairy Queen. Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music, 117. 2° Ibid., 138. 21 Ibid., 137. 22 Ibid. 23 "Among all the people concerned in this admirable production two seem equally to deserve the first congratulations; Mr. J.B. Trend who has given the opera an English text (based on Shelton)...and Miss Rachel Russell, whose scene and whose puppets present the most transporting combination of realism and fantasy." `The Operas at Clifton,' Times, 18 Oct. 1924, 10. 24 Ibid. Zs

Messing, Neoclassicism, 111. 26

Numerous French composers advocated a simplification of musical style and means before World War I. See Ibid., 59. The term neoclassicism was redefined through its association with Stravinsky in the 1920s. For a detailed discussion of Stravinsky and neoclassicism see Ibid., 87-149.

223

Debussy's modern classic Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and the opening

movement of Adolfo Salazar's (1890-1958) Preludios.27

In July 1925 the Orquesta Bética travelled to London for several concerts, the first of

which was organised by the Marchioness of Carisbrooke at the Ritz Hotel. Her

husband Lord Carisbrooke was Queen Victoria's grandson and the brother of the

Spanish Queen Victoria Eugenie. The Guardian critic noted that good reports had

reached England of the orchestra's activities in Spain, but he was somewhat

disappointed by the large number of English players employed to bolster the numbers

of the touring ensemble.28 Many of these players came from Anthony Bernard's

London Chamber Players, a small orchestra formed with similar aims to the Orquesta

Bética. Falla's suite from El amor brujo was well received and was described as

"racial and colourful."29 Halffter's conducting was praised but The Guardian

reviewer was scathing about another work on the program, Adolfo Salazar's string

quartet Rubaiyat (1924), describing it as "a shapeless and endless ebullition which

nowhere betrays the least sign of any artistic urge or creative facility.i30 Salazar, a

music critic who was also a composer, was a firm supporter of both Falla and the

orchestra, and this connection was hinted at by a reviewer who expressed his

disappointment at the inclusion of "one or two quite worthless elements which any

impartial judge would have at once eliminated."31

A few days later the Orquesta Bética presented a program at the Wigmore Hall

featuring music from El amor brujo, The Three-Cornered Hat and the finale of El

retablo, the first time any part of the work was heard in London. The performance

was under-rehearsed but there were still kind words for Falla's music.32 A writer in

The Times commented on positive aspects of Falla's compositions, especially "the

27 Harper, Manuel de Falla, 104. 28 "The Orquesta Bética da Camera, of Seville, an enterprising and progressive organization, of whose activity in Spain some glowing accounts have reached England lately. It is a little difficult to judge these artists fairly since they were liberally supplemented by English players." 'A Spanish Chamber Orchestra,' Manchester Guardian, 8 July 1925, 6. 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 A critic in The Times wrote of Falla's arrangement of Rossini's overture to The Barber of Seville, "The whole would doubtless sound well enough in a larger hall and with a better performance." The performance of El retablo was described as "somewhat scrappy and disjointed." 'A De Falla Concert,' Times, 14 July 1925, 19.

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freshness of the thematic material... [and] Falla's fine feeling for rhythm."33 The

same critic noted that much of Falla's music was originally intended for the theatre,

not the concert hall and "without the dramatic action it was bound to lose a good deal

in effect."34 In the brief excerpt presented at the concert, El retablo did not make a

significant impression. It was not until 1927 that London audiences were able to fully

appreciate Falla's stylistic transformation in a special concert devoted to his works.

Falla travelled to London to perform in this concert at the Aeolian Hall on 22 June

1927, featuring the first London performances of three of his pieces: El retablo, the

Concerto and the Soneto a Cordoba (1927). El amor brujo was also on the program

and Stravinsky was in London and attended the concert.35

The Aeolian Hall concert was a milestone event for those interested in Falla's new

music and most of the critical attention focused on El retablo and the Concerto.

Falla's reputation inspired The Observer's critic to write: "We have too much faith in

the music we know of de Falla not to be sure that what we have still to make the

acquaintance of will be worth the trouble."36 A few London critics noted Falla's

musical transformation and marvelled at his uniquely Spanish form of neoclassicism.

A commentator in The Guardian wrote, "although the music is wholly free from

conventional Hispanicisms, it is as Spanish as the immortal work of Cervantes

itself."37 One critic made a negative comparison with the Bristol performance of the

previous year, "Those who saw the admirable stage presentation of it at Bristol last

year could enjoy it with the aid of recollection. But the majority, who had not had

that advantage, must have wondered what all the freakish noises were about. It didn't

help that it was sung in Spanish."38 However, the Concerto was the piece that

attracted the most mixed reviews.

After finishing El retablo, Falla began to compose the Concerto for harpsichord, flute,

oboe, clarinet, violin and cello (1923-1926). The Concerto grew out of his

fascination with the harpsichord, an instrument Falla was introduced to through

33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35

Collins, Falla in Britain, 40. 36

'Manuel de Falla's Compositions,' Observer, 26 June 1927, 14. 37 'Music by Manuel de Falla,' Manchester Guardian, 23 June 1927, 15. 38 'Senor de Falla's Music,' Times, 23 June 1927, 12.

225

recitals given by his friend the Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (1879-

1959),39 and he had already incorporated it into the score of El retablo. He embraced

the harpsichord for its clarity, rhythmic precision and historical associations and the

work builds on Falla's preoccupations with the music of Domenico Scarlatti and

Spanish folksong.

Landowska wrote to her friend Lawrence Gilman, an American music critic,

explaining the genesis of the Concerto:

Four years ago I spent some time with my friend de Falla in Granada...I was able to

play for him a great deal during several days and we went deeply into the various

possibilities of the instrument. He became more and more interested and little by

little he reshaped entirely the keyboard part in his Retablo. His enthusiasm grew and

he resolved to write a Concerto for the harpsichord.°

In the end Falla did not call the work a "Harpsichord Concerto", but a Concerto for

harpsichord, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin and cello with the instruments interacting on

equal terms. In her letter to Gilman, Landowska also described the stylistic

transformation Falla had undergone which began with El retablo and continued with

the Concerto:

You will hear in the Concerto that the regional influences play a lesser role than in his

preceeding works. This new music is a composite of Hispano-Castillian elements

rather than an echo of impressions of Andalusia or another Spanish province. It is

extremely important to stress this point because naturally every concert-goer, and

even a musician, expects and rejoices in advance at the thought of hearing in the new

de Falla Concerto some languishing motifs of the Alhambra accompanied by

arpeggios imitating the guitar.41

At the Aeolian Hall in 1927 Falla played the Concerto on the piano at the beginning

of the concert and on the harpsichord as the closing item. Overwhelmingly critics

39 Falla had heard Landowska perform a program that included works by Domenico Scarlatti in Paris on 10 May 1911. Carol Hess, Sacred Passions, 51. 40 Letter from Wanda Landowska to Lawrence Gilman, 24 Dec. 1924, AMF, reprinted in Christoforidis, `Aspects of the Creative Process,' 522. 41 Reprinted in Ibid.

226

deemed the harpsichord version to be the more successful, making the piano version

seem redundant.42 As one critic observed,

It was difficult to care greatly for it at the first hearing, but when it was played a

second time in its proper medium all its delicacy and wit and grace emerged clearly.

It was as if a beautiful picture had at first been spoilt by bad lighting, and afterwards

revealed in all its charm by being properly hung.43

Other reviewers felt the musical language of the Concerto was difficult to

comprehend and The Observer commented on the unfamiliar language, complaining

that, "we do not feel that we know the concerto though he played it twice (on the

piano first and then the harpsichord), because it is, so to say, written in Spanish, and

Englishmen cannot be expected to divine instinctively all that is `written between' the

notes."44 The same writer recognised the influence of Scarlatti in Falla's score,

particularly his use of pedal points.45

Even though Falla's Concerto was difficult to appreciate on first hearing for non-

specialist critics, reviewers of the 1927 Aeolian Hall concert attempted to understand

the work through their knowledge of early and modern Spanish music, and recognised

that Falla's neoclassical works represented a significant development in Spanish

musical nationalism.

El retablo finally received a staged London performance in June 1928 at the Court

Theatre. The realization of Falla's original concept for the work met with a uniformly

favourable response: "It is only at a performance of this little masterpiece as it was

intended by the Spanish composer that the extraordinary aptness of his score makes

42 "If the idea was to convince us that the harpsichord sounds very much better than the piano in this

combination of instruments, and in the particular way de Falla uses them, the demonstration was entirely successful; but it seemed an ill-judged method of introducing a new work of some importance... We would have preferred to have heard two performances with the harpsichord." `Senor de Falla's Music,' Times, 23 June 1927, 12. 43 `Music by Manuel de Falla,' Manchester Guardian, 23 June 1927, 15. 44

'Manuel de Falla's Compositions,' Observer, 26 June 1927, 14. 45

"The characteristic thing about this music seems to be the fondness for `pedal points'—long persistent figures or reiterated chords, which lend it strength...The finale reminds one here and there that Domenico Scarlatti was for a long time an important musical figure in Spain". Ibid. In preparation for the last movement of the Concerto Falla studied rhythmic effects in the keyboard sonatas of Scarlatti. See Christoforidis, `From Folksong to Plainchant,' 235.

227

itself wholly felt."46 The Guardian critic went on to describe the success of the

performance and chose as highlights, "The character-drawing, the mixture of humour

and humanity, the local colour and period feeling which this music blends into a

wonderful synthesis of Hispanicism."47

At the end of the 1920s Falla enjoyed the support of influential critics and esteemed

peers such as Stravinsky,48 taking his place among the elites of European music.

Spanish music had journeyed a long way from the exotic clichés of the late nineteenth

century and London had played an important role in this journey for Falla in

particular and Spanish music in general. As Christoforidis has written of Falla's

stylistic evolution in the 1920s:

The progressive integration and conflation of folk and preclassical sources in Falla's

work of this period complemented his reinterpretation of Spanishness in terms of

"Castilian" or "general Hispanic" values, through which he consciously sought to

redefine Spain and its music, not as a manifestation of the exotic Other on the

European periphery, but as a culture linked to the continent's historical and artistic

traditions.49

Spain and English musical cosmopolitanism and the writings of Morales

and Trend

Anti-German sentiment in the post-war era led to the search for new political and

cultural alliances. Jean-Aubry, through his editorship of The Chesterian, promoted

new Spanish and French music to an English audience and Trend encouraged a

greater awareness of "authentic" Spanish music in his books and articles. Periodicals

and musical associations promoting new music also formed in other countries after

the war. The French periodical La Revue Musicale,50 founded in 1920 by the

46 `Three Small Operas,' Manchester Guardian, 13 June 1928, 5. 47 Ibid. 48 In his writings Stravinsky highlighted similarities between elements of Russian and Spanish popular music: "The Andalusians have nothing Latin in their music. They owe their sense of rhythm to their eastern heritage." Quoted in Messing, Neoclassicism, 120. 49 Christoforidis, `From Folksong to Plainchant,' 236. 5o An issue of the Revue Musicale published in 1920 with the title Tombeau de Claude Debussy featured short compositions dedicated to the memory of Debussy by Falla Dukas, Malipiero, Roussel,

228

musicologist Henri Prunières, supported a new generation of composers and in the

USA the New York League of Composers was established in 1923 and produced the

journal Modern Music from 1924. In the words of Carol Oja, Modern Music

"immediately became the single most important forum for American modernist

composers."51

The ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) was founded in Salzburg

in 1922 as a musical "League of Nations" of the post-war period. Dent, who later

became chairman of the ISCM, was a key figure in the new society and Falla was the

Spanish delegate for a period in the 1920s. The society had a central base in London

and Falla's music was well represented at its annual festivals. He travelled to Siena

for the fourth ISCM where El retablo and the Concerto were presented.52 In a letter

to Falla, Dent explained that "some of the composer's `English friends' would foot

the bill" for this journey.53 As an indication of Falla's international standing, he was

elected honorary officer of the ISCM in 1931. The other honorary members at this

time were Ravel, Sibelius, Strauss and Stravinsky.54

One of the stated aims of the Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians edited by

Eaglefield-Hull and published in London in 1924, was to "supply the musician and

the general music reader with a concise and practical survey of all modern musical

activities."55 The Musical Times critic commented on the pluralistic nature of the

dictionary: "The foreign side of such a dictionary, always important, is even more so

to-day, when the lines of intercommunication between the British and Continental

musical worlds, broken by the war, have not yet been fully repaired."56 An

impressive range of writers and musicians contributed to this volume, including

members of the editorial committee, which comprised Eaglefield-Hull, Granville

Bantock, Henry Wood, Hugh Allen and Dent. Many of the contributors to the

Dictionary were distinguished musicians themselves, for example the sub-committee

Loosens, Schmitt, Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel and Satie. Falla's tribute, the influential guitar work Homenaje a Debussy (1920), was first published in this issue. 51 Carol J. Oja, Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s (New York: OUP, 2000), 4. 52 Collins, `Falla in Europe,' 258. 53

Quoted in Hess, Sacred Passions, 165, fn. 99. 54

Collins, `Falla in Europe,' 267. 55

A Eaglefield-Hull, ed., preface to A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (London: J.M. Dent, 1924), v. 56

H.G., `A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians,' Musical Times 65, (1 Oct. 1924): 919.

229

organized to discuss the topic of harmony, included contributions from Béla Bartok,

Arnold Box, Eugene Goossens, Vaughan Williams and Donald Tovey. Experts were

engaged to write on national music styles and the task of writing the entries on

Spanish music was handed to Morales.

The sweep of the Dictionary is borne out by the list of 52 Spanish musicians,

including many lesser known names, with dedicated entries.57 This breadth was not to

the satisfaction of all critics and a reviewer of the Dictionary in Music and Letters

complained that the "Spanish and perhaps the Scotch and Belgian articles are a little

overlong".58 The Spanish composers who have the most substantial entries are

Granados, Albéniz and Falla. Devoting his longest entry to Albéniz, Morales wrote,

"He revealed to the world the artistic significance of Spanish music, and awoke

musical Spain to the reality of a modern sensibility."59

The Dictionary promoted a cosmopolitan view of music, and a number of musical

societies and organizations created in the post-war era provided a forum for the

performance of music from allied nations. The Anglo-Spanish Chamber Music

Society was formed in 1927 with the aim of promoting links between English and

Spanish music and musicians. The Society presented Spanish pianist José Cubiles in

a concert on 3 November 1927, performing well-known Spanish music by Albéniz,

Granados, Falla and Turina. According to The Guardian, he played, "with a dexterity

and conviction that would have persuaded us of the value of Isaac Albéniz, Granados,

Manuel de Falla, and Turina even if their work had been less familiar to us than it

is."60 Other Spaniards represented on the program were Ernesto Halffter, and the

eighteenth-century composers Antonio Soler and Mateo Albéniz, while the British

content was provided by the singer Miss Grainger Kerr who sang "groups of old and

modern English songs.s61

The following year the Aguilar Quartet, an ensemble of Spanish lutes, of the type

" For the full list see A. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (London: J.M. Dent, 1924), 471-2. 58 `A Dictionary of Music and Musicians,' Music and Letters (Oct. 1924): 374. S9 Morales, `Albeniz,' l0. 60 `Spanish Piano Music,' Manchester Guardian, 3 Nov. 1927, 4. 61 Ibid.

230

brought to London by Angel Barrios and the Trio Iberia before the war, was presented

by the Anglo-Spanish Chamber Music Society. Their program ranged from

arrangements of harpsichord pieces by little-known English composers Croft and

Clarke to dances by Albéniz and pieces from The Three-Cornered Hat.62 The clarity

of texture obtained by the plucked strings came to the fore in arrangements of Spanish

music from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This sonority attracted one reviewer

who considered it, "so beautiful and so evocative of a musical culture of which one

knows next to nothing that one would gladly have listened to more.s63 The only

modem composition on the program was Turina's La oraciôn del torero, originally

written for the quartet of lutes. A writer in The Guardian criticised Turina's work for

a lacking originality: "his mannerisms crop up everywhere with a familiarity that is by

turns agreeable and distressing, and there remains just the little picturesque talent for

which one has known him before this."64

Another music society actively promoting a cosmopolitan selection of repertoire in

the 1920s was the New English Music Society founded by the conductor of the

London Chamber Orchestra Anthony Bernard. Bernard championed the music of

young British composers and this organisation promoted new works alongside pre-

nineteenth-century works in line with the values of neoclassicism. The inaugural

concert of this group was held at the Park Lane Hotel on 31 March 1928 with a

program of works that ranged from Purcell to Vaughan Williams, Debussy, Casella

and Falla. The Manchester Guardian described the Society as devoted to "the

performance of old and modem music written for the small orchestral combinations

that were in use at the royal, electoral, and ducal Courts of Europe in the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries and are now once more cultivated by composers."65 The

aims of this English society were in sympathy with those of the Orquesta Bética, and

promoted the rise of the new nationalist school of Spanish composition alongside new

English works.

As I have discussed, specialist critics through their publications and engagement with

organizations such as the ISCM drew attention to Spanish music as part of a broader

62 `Lute and Guitar Hybrid,' Manchester Guardian, 11 Apr. 1928, 11.

63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 65 `

New English Music Society,' Manchester Guardian, 31 Mar. 1928, 18.

231

engagement with modern European music. Central to the new Spanish nationalism

was the rediscovery of Spanish music from golden age of the Renaissance and

Baroque periods.66 This was mirrored by trends in England where the recognition of

music from the Renaissance period was key to a new awakening of nationalist styles

in music 67 Trend explored these common themes in his writings on Spanish music in

the 1920s.

Early Spanish music occupied Trend in the mid 1920s. The Musical Times reviewed

Trend's book on the vihuelistas alongside new publications on Orlando Gibbons and

early Tudor composers. The reviewer remarked upon the simultaneous revival of

English lute music and its Spanish counterpart: "Just as we English are discovering

our lutenist composers, so there is a revival of interest in their Spanish equivalents,

the vihuelistas."68 Through his writings Trend fostered this revival in Spanish early

music at the same time as guitarists, notably Emilio Pujol, were transcribing and

publishing new editions of Spanish vihuela and baroque guitar music for the classical

guitar. As we shall see, this music became an integral part of the new classical guitar

repertory of Spanish guitarists such as Segovia and Regino Sâinz de la Maza (1896-

1981).

First published in 1929, Trend's book Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music was the

first volume in English devoted to Falla and his music.69 It contains in-depth analysis

of Falla's music up to and including the Concerto. In this monograph Trend referred

to English performances and premieres of Falla's pieces and articulated his belief that

Spanish music needed to be heard in the context of a broader knowledge of Iberian

music and culture.

The preoccupation with folksong was a common feature of both the English and

Spanish nationalist schools of composition and Trend drew the reader's attention to

these similarities:

66 The Golden Age, or Siglo de Oro in Spanish history refers to the period from the late fifteenth century through to the end of the seventeenth century. See Henry Kamen, Spain 1469-1714: A Society

of Conflict (London: Longman, 2005). 67 Meirion Hughes and Robert Stradling, The English Musical Renaissance, 1840-1940 (London: Routledge, 1993). 68 C.W., `Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas by J. B. Trend,' Musical Times 66 (1 July 1925): 618-619. 69 Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music.

232

Yet there is one accidental point of likeness between folk-song in Spain and in Great

Britain. The kind of Spanish music, cultivated or popular, which is best known

outside the Peninsula, the only kind which many people and many musicians

immediately recognize as Spanish is the kind which comes from Andalucia; while

foreign musicians are generally convinced that the only folk-music in the British Isles

is that which belongs to the "Celtic fringe." The "England" of the Spanish peninsula

is Castile; and Castilian folk-music, like English folk-music, has lately been coming

into its own.70

Trend compared the efforts of Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp in collecting

folksong with the work done by Spanish collectors of folk music such as Federico

Olmeda, Juan de Ledesma, Eduardo Martinez Torner and Felipe Pedre11.71

An illuminating chapter of Trend's book on Falla is titled "The Spanish Idiom" where

he discussed the nature of music accepted abroad as Spanish. He argued that the

template for Spanishness in music had not changed for fifty years and he revisited his

frustration with the Carmen stereotype:

Carmen has become, for the non-Spanish world, the mirror of the Spanish soul, the

pattern of Spanish music. Yet Carmen herself is by no means a normal Spanish type,

or even an abnormal Spanish type which is specifically Spanish, and the few

genuinely Spanish touches in the music are not derived directly from folk-song.72

Trend mentions Lalo's Capriccio and piano duets by Moszkowski as other examples

of music widely regarded as "Spanish" but written by non-Spaniards.73 He drew

attention to the acceptance of an internationally recognisable "Spanish" style, which

he believed was, "largely a creation of the eighteenth century."74 In his writings,

particularly those on Falla, Trend strove to overturn misconceptions about Spanish

music, and to help audiences appreciate and discover modern Spanish music firmly

based on tradition, folksong and the music of the past.

70 Ibid., 10. 71 Ibid. 72 Ibid., 17-18. 73 Ibid., 15. 74 Ibid., 16.

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According to Trend, two crucial elements of Spanish music were rhythm and the

sonority of plucked strings. In his article "Falla in `Arabia' he discusses the primacy

of rhythm in Spanish music and the importance of clarity of texture, the latter related

to plucked string sounds.75 After describing the trio of laud, bandurria and guitar and

the influence this texture had on Falla, Trend explained the importance of these

elements to an understanding of Spanish music:

Experience with plucked instruments affects the rhythmic sense of a Spanish

musician in another way...Pianists who are not Spaniards, when they play "Iberia" or

the "Goyescas" or Falla's Four Spanish Pieces, generally forget that at the back of

each composer's mind is a plucked instrument, the chords of which invariably give

the effect of an appoggiatura and produce a vital throb in the rhythm.76

Trend continued to write on Spain and the Hispanic world for the rest of his life.77

Andrés Segovia and the new classical guitar

As discussed in Chapter 4, the Estudiantinas of the 1880s and 1890s encouraged

greater interest in the guitar in London, particularly due to the subsequent popularity

of the Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar movement.78 Publications such as Phillips Bone's

The Guitar and Mandolin (1914) and the London Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar

magazine, first published in 1903, documented and encouraged the growth in guitar

activity. In the post-war era the guitar had not yet attained the popularity seen in the

1930s, however, it began to be seen and heard in emerging trends in popular music

75 "The feeling for Southern Spanish music lies partly, of course, in a feeling for Southern Spanish rhythms. Albéniz, Granados, Turina, Pérez Casas, Conrado del Campo, Oscar Espla, and most of all Falla, have an intense feeling for rhythmic effects." Ibid., 46. 76 Ibid., 47. 77 Later books by J. B. Trend include: The Origins of Modern Spain (New York: Macmillan, 1934), Mexico: A New Spain with Old Friends (London: Macmillan, 1940), The Civilization of Spain (London: Oxford University Press, 1944), Bolivar and the Independence of Spanish America (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1946), Lorca and the Spanish Poetic Tradition (Oxford: Blackwell, 1956). 78 Jeffrey Noonan discusses the rise in popularity of the guitar in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as part of the BMG movement in America. This movement in the United States had strong parallel movements in England, Australia and across the globe. Noonan, The Guitar in America: Victorian Era to Jazz Age, 3-20.

234

such as the crazes for tango and Hawaiian music, not to mention the expanded role of

the instrument in American folk music.79

Falla's teacher Pedrell was a chief advocate of the union of popular and high art

sources and the aesthetic of neoclassicism allowed for the incorporation of early

music and modern styles, alongside popular elements.S° In 1917 Falla positioned the

guitar at the centre of these concerns, as "an example of reconciliation between the

popular and high art traditions united in a stylised revival of the past."81 The guitar

featured prominently in cubist art and post-cubist classicism, as represented and

deconstructed by Spanish and French cubist painters, most notably Pablo Picasso,

Georges Braque and Juan Gris.82 The representation of the guitar in the visual arts

added to the allure of the instrument in modern music.

The Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia built a career as the most famous and celebrated

classical guitarist of the twentieth century. He helped to define the guitar as a concert

instrument and through his activities the modern classical guitar became an intrinsic

marker of Spanish music for English and international audiences. London was an

important city in Segovia's career, not just for the many concerts and recitals he gave

there, but because he gave regular broadcasts for the BBC and it is where made his

earliest recordings for the HMV label.83 From his first performance in London on 7

December 1926 Segovia found strong support and an enthusiastic public in the

English capital where the audience had been prepared through exposure to Spanish

music and performances of Spanish plucked string instruments, from the Spanish

Estudiantinas to post-war recitals given by Angel Barrios, Miguel Llobet and Emilio

Pujol.

79 For a summary of factors leading to the success of the guitar in the early twentieth century see Victor Coelho, `Picking Through Cultures: A Guitarist's Music History,' in The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, ed. Victor Coelho (Cambridge: CUP, 2003), 3-12. Kevin Dawe and Andy Bennett's introduction to the book Guitar Cultures is a fascinating overview of the global reach of the guitar in the twentieth century. Kevin Dawe and Andy Bennett, `Introduction: Guitars, Cultures, People and Places,' in Guitar Cultures, eds. Kevin Dawe and Andy Bennett (Oxford: Berg, 2001), 1-10. 8° Harper, Manuel de Falla, 24, 28. 81 Piquer Sanclemente and Christoforidis, 'Cubismo, Neoclasicismo,' 10. 82 Ibid., 8. 88 Wade, and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 68-69.

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Segovia was born in the Andalusian town of Linares in 1893 and grew up in Southern

Spain. In his autobiography, Segovia refers to a performance in Granada towards the

end of 1909 as his first recital.84 He began to perform regularly in Spain during the

1910s, developing his repertoire and performance style, both modelled on the school

of Târrega. He met Llobet in 1915 and incorporated some of Llobet's arrangements

into his concerts.85 Segovia's early programs consisted of music by nineteenth-

century guitarist-composers, such as Sor, Spanish pieces by Albéniz and Granados

(many of them modelled on arrangements made by Târrega and Llobet),

transcriptions of Bach, his own compositions and transcriptions of Romantic

composers such as Chopin and Mendelssohn.

Prior to his international success, Segovia was an influential member of the cultural

elite in Granada. According to Ian Gibson, in 1918 he was contacted by Lorca's

family for advice on an early manuscript by the young poet.86 He was known to

frequent the regular discussions of the Rinconcillo in Granada with Barrios,87 and was

also one of the guest artists invited to the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid during

its early years.88 In 1922, through his close ties to Falla, Lorca and other organisers of

the Cante Jondo competition, Segovia played a concert to open the proceedings and

possibly acted as a judge.

In Eaglefield-Hull's Dictionary, the extent of the entries on the guitarists Segovia,

Llobet and Pujol reflect their relative standing in London at that time. Pujol is

granted two sentences only and there is only a little more information on Segovia who

is identified as a "link between the Romantic school... and the modern style."89 By far

the most extensive entry is given to Llobet who was recognised as the pre-eminent

modern player, the "Casals" of the guitar.90 His friendships with influential French

84 Andrés Segovia, Segovia: An Autobiography of the Years 1893-1920, trans. W.F. O'Brien (London: Marion Boyars, 1976), 20. 85 Segovia learnt Llobet's arrangement of Catalan folksong El Mestre and Llobet's transcription of piano works by Granados by imitation from Llobet at this time. See Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 39. 86 Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 59-60. 87 Hess, Sacred Passions, 132 88 See Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 82; Hess, Sacred Passions, 90. 89 Pedro Garcia Morales, 'Emilio Pujol,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A. Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 400. 90 Pedro Garcia Morales, 'Miguel Llobet,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A. Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 302.

236

and Spanish composers were recognised and his status as the most notable Spanish

guitarist of the post-War era was confirmed by the dedication to him of Falla's only

solo guitar piece, the Homenaje a Debussy (1920). However, in just a couple of years,

Segovia's fame would eclipse that of Llobet and all other Spanish guitarists.

Pujol uncovered much Spanish vihuela and guitar music from the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries and published numerous editions of these works for the modern

guitar.91 Pujol performed in London in 1912 and there were conflicting reviews of his

performance of a Gavotte and Fugue by J.S. Bach. According to The Observer,

Pujol's performance of the Bach "shed a flood of lights on their contents" whereas

The Guardian thought it was "hopeless to attempt to arrange Bach and Schubert for

the guitar."92 Pujol's guitar playing was praised at both this recital and a repeat visit

to London in 1914. There was a noticeable difference in the critical response to

Segovia's appearances of 1926 and 1927 when he played programmes with a similar

range of repertoire. The revival of interest in Bach was tied closely to Stravinsky's

neoclassicism of the early to mid 1920s and formed one of the bases of anti-

Romanticism between the wars. Segovia capitalized on the interest in Bach on the

guitar and through his commissioning of composers such as Manuel Ponce (1882-

1948) and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) gave the modern guitar repertoire

a strong neoclassical bias.93

Segovia toured extensively in South America and Spain in the early 1920s before his

breakthrough Paris debut on 7 April 1924.94 Many important figures of Spanish and

French music were in attendance, among them Paul Dukas (1865-1935), Albert

Roussel (1869-1937), Falla and Joaquin Nin.95 The excitement generated by

Segovia's continental performances guaranteed a healthy audience at his London

91 Segovia included a number of Pujol's arrangements in his repertoire. 92

`A Guitar Recital,' Observer, 15 Dec. 1912, 17; `A Guitar Recital in London,' Manchester Guardian, 16 Dec. 1912, 4. 93

Works written for Segovia in the 1920s include the following pieces by Ponce: Sonata Mexicana (1925), Thème varié et Finale (1926), Sonata 111(1927), Sonata cl6sica (1928), Sonata romc ntica (1929), Suite en la Mineur (1929), written in the style of a Baroque lute suite by S. L. Weiss, and Variations and Fugue on La Folia (1929). Castelnuovo Tedesco began writing for Segovia in the 1930s and his works for guitar include the Sonata Hommage à Boccherini, op. 77 (1935) and the Guitar Concerto No. 1 in D major, op. 99 (1939). 94

For a thorough discussion of Segovia's concerts in Spain and overseas from 1920-1924 see Lopez Poveda, Andrés Segovia: Vida y Obra, 146-183. 95

Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 51.

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debut at the Aeolian Hall on 7 December 1926. Ernest Newman wrote in The Times,

"we went to Aeolian Hall on Tuesday afternoon expecting we did not quite know

what, but hoping, since Senor Andrés Segovia's reputation had preceded him...that

we should satisfy our curiosity about an instrument that has romantic associations".96

In reviews of his London debut, newspaper critics registered their surprise at the

musicality of his playing and amazement that a guitar could present such a broad

range of repertoire convincingly. The guitar was also linked to the burgeoning early

music scene, particularly the harpsichord, which it evoked in clarity of texture and

rhythm. The issue of limited concert repertoire for the guitar led naturally to a

discussion of new works. The Observer review of 12 December 1926 summed up the

enthusiasm of many English reviews of Segovia's London debut, "This Spanish

guitarist has given one of the most stimulating concerts of the season. There can be

no question that he is a very fine player with great command over his instrument and

much skill in managing the devices of its technique."97 Segovia's technical facility

was noted, as was his ability to vary the tone colour by movements of the right hand,

It was a revelation to hear what could be called forth from this instrument by an

expert, the variety of tone which could be obtained when the plucking hand was

moved gradually nearer the bridge: there was also a piercing quality in the upper

register and a rich tone in the lower strings which, in a succession of slow octaves,

gave out a sound that we feel is personal to the guitar alone.98

In response to Segovia's London debut a writer in The Times described the features of

the guitar that impressed the most: "This directness of touch makes possible subtleties

which even the violin cannot approach, still less the harpsichord, which is its nearest

relation in the matter of timbre."99 Segovia's performance of Bach works was singled

out for praise by the critic of The Observer who was less enthusiastic about the

modern repertoire for the guitar:

96 'A Guitar Recital,' Times, 9 Dec. 1926, 14. 97 Observer, 12 Dec. 1926. 98 Ibid. 99 'A Guitar Recital,' Times, 9 Dec. 1926, 14.

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The Bach Suite was played with fine phrasing. But the actual music of the modern

section was disappointing. It is true that guitarists have to rely to some extent on

arrangements. But there is de Falla's "Homenaje a Debussy," and there are the

compositions of Angel Barrios which we hope Don Andrés Segovia will one day let

us hear. The Turina that he played last week was interesting, the Albéniz (which we

suspect to have been a transcription) rather less so, the Torroba definitely dull. One

of the largest feats of performance was the Haydn Minuet, one of the most delightful

pieces of interpretation the Granados Dance.1°°

After the success of his London debut in December 1926, Segovia was invited back

for concerts in January of the following year.1°1 His performances of Bach and the

historical resonances of the guitar (both real and imagined) conjured up images of

Elizabethan lute music, and made at least one writer speculate whether this could be a

source of guitar repertoire:

The making of a programme for his instrument must present difficulties, and we

venture to call Mr. Segovia's attention...to the music of our English lutenists, which

would be admirably suited to his purpose. To have it revived by such a musician, and

on an instrument so closely akin to that for which it was written, would be of great

interest and also a great pleasure.102

Segovia, however, did not explore or play English lute works. It was left for the next

generation of performers, in particular Julian Bream, to uncover this vast treasury of

lute music.103 Segovia often featured brackets of works by Bach in his programs of

the 1920s and 1930s and at the Wigmore Hall in November 1927 he opened with ten

pieces by Bach.104 The London magazine Keynotes published Segovia's transcription

of Bach's Gavotte (from Suite BWV 1006a) in September 1929, 105 and his

loo Observer, 12 Dec. 1926. 10t Lopez Poveda, Andrés Segovia: Vida y Obra, 210. 102 `Weekend Concerts,' Times, 31 Jan. 1927, 17. 103 Julian Bream pioneered the performance and recording of Elizabethan lute music in the 1950s and 1960s. See Button, Julian Bream. 1°4 'Concerts,' Times, 1 Nov. 1927, 12. 105 Keynotes was connected to a shop that sold banjos and guitars. The magazine was later taken over by the B.M.G. magazine. These periodicals served amateur players of the banjo, mandolin and guitar and they tell the story of the growing popularity of the guitar which eventually outstripped the banjo and mandolin. See Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 67.

239

transcription of the Bach Chaconne confirmed Segovia's reputation as an interpreter

of Bach in the 1930s.106

The program from Segovia's recital of 29 January 1927 reprinted in figure 13 shows

an eclectic mixture of music from the Baroque and the nineteenth century alongside

new twentieth-century works in various styles that made up his repertoire at this point

in his career. This breadth of repertoire would not have been possible without the

numerous transcriptions for the guitar made by Târrega, Llobet and Segovia himself.

Figure 13. Program for Andres Segovia's concert at the Wigmore Hall, 29 January

1927.107

Composer Title Repertoire Category Part I F. Sor Andante and Rondo Nineteenth century

guitarist/composer

F. Moreno Torroba Danza Twentieth century composition

C. Pedrell Improvisation Twentieth century composition

E. Granados Tonadilla Romantic Spanish transcription

Part II G. F. Handel Sarabande Baroque transcription

J.S. Bach Gavotte et Musette — Loure Baroque transcription

F. Mendelssohn Canzonetta Romantic transcription

Part III

M. Ponce Theme varie et Finale Twentieth century composition

G. Samazeuilh Serenata Twentieth century composition

I. Albéniz Granada — Cadiz Romantic Spanish transcription

New compositions made up a substantial portion of Segovia's early programs.

Through his commissioning of new works Segovia reinforced the neoclassical

orientation of the modem classical guitar, although a number of established

composers who wrote works for Segovia found he did not play their works. Pieces by

106 Segovia published his transcription of the Bach Chaconne in 1934. Ibid., 89. 107 Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 65.

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Roussel (Segovia), Frank Martin (1890-1974) (Quatre Pièces Brèves) and three

English composers fall into this category. The English composers in question are

Eugene Goossens (1893-1962), Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) and Cyril Scott (1879-

1970) who all wrote pieces for Segovia that did not enter his repertoire. The

Goossens work has been lost but recent research has brought the Scott and Berkeley

works to light.'08

In the 1920s Cyril Scott was an established composer with a growing performance

profile in Europe.109 He counted amongst his friends Ravel and Debussy who both

organized performances of his works in Paris. Scott probably met Segovia through

their mutual friend Morales,10 and wrote a three-movement Sonatina for Segovia,

who only played the opening movement, under the title Reverie." In July 1927

Segovia wrote to Ponce that he was working on the Sonatina by Scott "without great

enthusiasm."112 The only London performance of Scott's guitar work took place at

Wigmore Hall on 11 May 1928. In a review in The Times, Scott's work was

compared unfavourably with Falla's Homenaje for guitar:

A "Reverie" by Cyril Scott, dedicated to the recitalist, was given its first performance,

but even Mr. Segovia could not make it hang together as a continuous piece of

musical thinking. De Falla's "Hommage a Debussy" provided a strong contrast to

this piece. It is rhapsodic in manner, and makes clever allusions, without any very

definite quotation, to various works by Debussy, and yet there is no feeling of

patchiness.113

108 The publisher Berben, in conjunction with the Andres Segovia archive in Linares, Spain, has ?ublished a number of previously unpublished scores from Segovia's library. 09 See A. Eaglefield-Hull, `Cyril Meir Scott,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (London:

J.M. Dent, 1924), 449. Eaglefield-Hull also penned a monograph on Scott. See A. Eaglefield-Hull, Cyril Scott, Composer, Poet, Philosopher (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1918). 110 In a letter to Manuel Ponce, Segovia described the stature of Morales in London, "I want to give you the address of a friend of mine in London, editor of several German and English journals, composer and one of the most faithful people you can imagine...he is Pedro Morales. In London he is considered an authoritative critic, and moreover, since he is a man of English high society, there is not an event in which he is not involved." Miguel Alcazar, ed., The Segovia-Ponce Letters, trans. Peter Segal (Columbus: Editions Orphée, 1989), 17. 111 The movement Segovia played is probably the first which is the most reflective of the three movements. In the published score there is no subtitle, just the direction ̀ Adagio quasi introduzione'. Cyril Scott, Sonatina, ed. Angelo Gilardino and Luigi Biscaldi (Ancona: Berben, 2002). 112

Alcazar, Segovia-Ponce Letters, 12-13. 113 Times, 14 May 1928, 21.

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Although Segovia later played Scott's piece in Buenos Aires, it is fair to assume that

Segovia did not like the work and he and Scott did not keep in touch. Scott made no

mention of Segovia in his autobiography.114

The English composer Lennox Berkeley studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris

between 1927 and 1932 and his Quatre pièces pour la guitar, dedicated to Segovia,

were probably written during this time.115 The four pieces were discovered in the

Segovia Archive in Linares by Angelo Gilardino in 2001, and exhibit an

understanding of guitar texture that Berkeley carried over to his later works written

for Bream and Angelo Gilardino.116 In a short review of a 1931 Segovia performance

in Paris Berkeley showed his admiration for Segovia's talent:

Another recital that roused great enthusiasm was Segovia's concert at the Opéra. I

think it is superfluous to praise Segovia's guitar playing—it will suffice to say that he

was at the top of his form and amply justified his choice of the Opéra to perform

in...the fact that one heard perfectly every sound bears witness not only to Segovia's

power of tone production but also to the acoustic properties of the Opéra.117

While Berkeley's Quatre pièces have only recently entered the guitar repertoire,

Berkeley's other guitar works, particularly the Sonatina (1957) have been played and

recorded many times in recent decades.

A key factor in Segovia's international success in the 1920s and 1930s was his

embrace of the medium of recording. Many of his early recordings were made in

London and reviewed in Gramophone magazine, from as early as August 1927.118

The guitar reached a new height of popularity in England as a result of Segovia's

success and on 13 October 1931 the Philharmonia Society of Guitarists honoured him

with a dinner, following similar occasions for guitarists Pujol and Mathilde

114 Allan Clive Jones, foreword to Cyril Scott Sonatina, 5. 115 Peter Dickinson, The Music of Lennox Berkeley (Rochester: Boydell Press, 2003), 185. 116 Berkeley wrote Sonatina, Songs of the Half Light and Guitar Concerto (op. 88) for Julian Bream. The Theme and Variations (op. 77) of 1970 was written for Angelo Gilardino. 117 Dickinson, Lennox Berkeley, 185. 118 Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 68.

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Cuervas.119 Segovia's membership of the Society and the health of society

membership was noted in the monthly B.M.G. magazine:

The Society will shortly celebrate its fourth anniversary and it is satisfactory to note

that the membership has increased by forty per cent. High society has also shown a

keen interest in the movement. H.H. Princess Galitzine, the Earl of Dries, Baron von

Haeften, and many other well-known people having become members. During the

past year, the celebrated guitarist, A. Segovia, became a member and practically all

the world's most famous players have now joined.120

The foundations for the ongoing popularity of the classical guitar in England were

laid during the inter-war period. In the 1930s Len Williams, father of the Anglo-

Australian guitarist John Williams (1941-), heard Segovia for the first time in London.

Both John Williams and his English contemporary Bream (1933-) would gain

prominence among the next generation of classical guitar virtuosi.

Spanish musicians continued to influence the trajectory of the classical guitar as the

twentieth century progressed. Segovia maintained a busy international touring

schedule until his death in 1989 while Spanish guitarists such as Narciso Yepes

(1927-1997) mapped a distinctly Spanish path for the instrument through the

commissioning of new works and creation of new transcriptions in addition to fresh

technical approaches to the instrument.121 Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo's

(1901-1999) Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) was the most performed concerto for the

guitar in the twentieth century and recorded by most of the leading guitarists of the

generations after Segovia.

London remained an important centre for the classical guitar throughout the twentieth

century, with the Wigmore Hall one of the world's most prestigious venues for guitar

recitals. A healthy number of London publishers and critics ensured that the Spanish

classical guitar continued to thrive in the English capital.

19 Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 75. 120 B.M.G, 39 (Feb., 1932): 99. Quoted in Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 75. 121 Bacarrise wrote his Concertino for Guitar and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 72 (1952) for Yepes. Yepes pioneered the use of the ten-string guitar and used it for his transcriptions of lute music and also modern works.

243

Through an examination of the English reception of Falla's neoclassical works and

the issues surrounding them in the 1920s, I have shown how Spanish music was

accepted as a genuine force in European music. In El retablo and the Concerto Falla

created a new type of Spanish music, distanced from nineteenth-century Romantic

stereotypes, with a conscious move towards a Castilian-shaped Hispanicism. In

Falla's construction of Spanish neoclassicism, he employed elements of Spanish early

music and drew on the example of Stravinsky who in turn endorsed Falla's stylistic

transformation. English-based critics such as Trend made vital contributions to the

dissemination of Spanish music in London in the 1920s. The continued performances

of Falla's earlier works in 1920s London ensured that he remained the most

prominent Spanish composer of the decade.

Falla's dual interests in Spanish early music and neoclassicism were united in the

repertoire of the classical guitar. The guitar was able to suggested ancient lutes and

vihuelas, while retaining its image as the quintessentially Spanish instrument. Both

the classical guitar and emerging flamenco guitar styles would come to define

Spanish music for an international audience during the years of Franco's rule and

beyond.122

122 Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain from 1936 until his death.

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Conclusion

In response to a 1931 performance of Noches en los jardines de Espana in London, a

writer compared Falla's achievements with those of the new English school of

composition,

His music is full of the shimmer of guitars and stamping dance-rhythms. But here is

no Spanish Rhapsody, or pot-pourri of folk-tunes. The native material has been

absorbed, as Vaughan Williams has absorbed it in England, and out of it a personal

style has been created.'

In this thesis I have focused on specific protagonists and events that contributed to the

English reception of Spanish music between 1878 and 1930. In that time the

landscape for Spanish music in London evolved from Romantic perspectives based on

exotic stereotypes to reflect some of the concerns of post-war musical modernism and

nationalism in a new cosmopolitan context. The recognition of Spanish music in

1920s London was due to the confluence of many factors and the culmination of

decades of English engagement with Spanish music.

The opera Carmen defined Spanish music for many during this period and was a

potent symbol of Spanishness in the English public imagination. In the 1920s the

enduring nature of stereotypes derived from the opera came to be seen as a hindrance

to the development of a sophisticated appreciation of Spanish music in England.

The strength and hybridity of popular entertainment in London's music halls and the

theatre meant that Spanish music was easily incorporated into popular entertainments.

This crossover between "low art" or popular music contexts and elevated ballet, opera

and concert settings ensured a broad dissemination of Spanish music and fostered a

diverse range of Spanish entertainments in the English capital.

Questions of what constituted "real" or "true" Spanish music comprised an important

element of the English engagement with Spain. Even the most prominent Spanish

'"The Musicians Gramophone", Times, 21 Jan. 1931, 12.

245

musicians were occasionally seen to be lacking the key ingredients of Spanishness

when compared to Bizet's music or tropes derived from Carmen. "Spanish" music

written by non-Spaniards could also be considered authentic and contributed to the

ongoing appreciation of Spain. What was deemed to be a "true" representation of

Spanish music was constantly changing and at various times all of the following were

considered authentically Spanish: nineteenth-century dancers trained in the art of the

Bolero school, visiting Spanish guitarists, the opera Carmen, estudiantinas, flamenco,

cante jondo, The Three-Cornered Hat, Falla's neoclassical works and the Spanish

classical guitar. Notions of authenticity and Spanish music continued to evolve as

visiting Spanish artists responded to the demands and expectations of English

audiences and critics, and as English audiences became more familiar with musical

developments in Spain and France.

In the late nineteenth century the images portrayed by travel writers heavily

influenced the English appreciation of Spanish music. In the Edwardian era and the

years after World War I some English writers cultivated a more complex appreciation

of Spanish music, becoming expert commentators and informing the English

reception of Hispanic works. The stimulus provided by French writers and musicians

to the modern appreciation of Spanish music was decisive in England. Without the

guiding influence provided by the French promotion of Spanish music, the English

perspective would not have been so richly nuanced.

In this thesis I have outlined different stages of appreciation of Spanish music in

England, which at times were mediated by extra-musical events and international

trends. Changing political relationships and international alliances also influenced the

reception and acceptance of Spanish music in England. While some stereotypes

associated with Spanish music persisted throughout the period under examination, it

is clear that Spanish music came to be considered beyond the confines of a timeless

and unchanging exotic "Other".

A number of topics explored in this thesis could be of interest for further research into

how English perceptions of Spanish music continued to change in the twentieth

century. In recent years scholars have begun to focus attention on the

cosmopolitanism of the inter-War years and the relationship between English and

246

Spanish streams of modernism. A resource worth examining in this context is the

Dent Archive at the library of King's College Cambridge which holds material

relating to Dent's work with the International Society of Contemporary Music and

correspondence between Dent and Trend.

It would be fascinating to consider the ongoing reception of The Three-Cornered Hat

in England in tandem with the revival in English ballet. Of the works by Falla

discussed in this thesis, The Three-Cornered Hat was the most frequently performed

in the decades that followed. Massine's association with the ballet in England from

the late 1940s underscored subtle transformations in the English reception of Spanish

music and dance at a time when the modern English ballet tradition was being formed.

He revived The Three-Cornered Hat for the Sadler's Wells Ballet,2 and continued to

champion the work in England until the 1950s.3 This period also witnessed the

proliferation of Spanish dance companies touring England, many of which were

influenced by the choreography of the Ballets Russes. It could be argued that the

continued popularity of The Three-Cornered Hat and Spanish ballet in England

obscured the appreciation of Falla's neoclassical works and Spanish modernist music

in the post-World-War-II era .4 It was not until the demise of General Franco in 1975

and the subsequent international fashion for Spain of the 1980s and 1990s that these

works began to receive more performances and recordings.

Another area ripe for future investigation is the rise to prominence of the Spanish

classical guitar in England from the late 1950s through the recordings and

performances of Julian Bream and John Williams. The popularity of the classical

guitar roughly coincided with Spain opening its borders to tourism through an

extended campaign of mass marketing.5 The Franco regime's tourist campaign of the

1960s had an impact on projections of the Spanish guitar in England and the way the

instrument was promoted internationally in the 1960s and beyond. Williams studied

guitar with Segovia and his father Len established the Spanish Guitar Centre in

2 Leslie Norton, Léonide Massine and the 20th Century Ballet (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004), 274. 3 Vicente Garcia-Marquez, Massine: a Biography (New York: Knopf, 1995), 311-315. 4 Although there was some interest in the music of the post civil-war Spanish émigré composer Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970). S

M. Barke and J. Towner, `Exploring the History of Leisure and Tourism in Spain,' in Tourism In Spain: Critical Issues, eds. M. Barke, J. Towner and M.T. Newton (Wallingford: CAB International, 1996).

247

London in the 1950s. John Williams recorded prolifically in the 1960s, and amongst

his best selling albums were those showcasing Spanish repertoire.6 By this time

Julian Bream was already well established as a recording artist and a number of his

recordings emphasised the Spanish orientation of the classical guitar. While

cultivating new repertoires for the instrument, they both continued to endorse the

image of the classical guitar as a Spanish instrument through recordings and

television appearances in the late twentieth century.8

The international fascination with Spanish music continued in the last decades of the

twentieth century. Spain joined the European Union in 1986 and international interest

in the country reaching a high point in 1992 with Barcelona hosting the Olympic

Games and the Universal Exposition held in Seville. This activity signalled a new

wave of interest in Spanish music and culture.

In the midst of this continued interest in Spanish music and dance, Carmen continued

to exercise its fascination on English audiences and act as a marker of Spanishness.

The recent advertising of two Carmen productions in London illustrates how the quest

for an authentic version of the work continues, while at the same time nineteenth-

century Spanish stereotypes persist. A 2012 production directed by Spanish director

Calixto Bieito at the English National Opera in London was promoted as an updated

production, faithful to Bizet's original conception of the work, while still engaging

with mythic Spanish elements in the opera:

In rejecting the opera's traditional touristic trappings and presenting it instead as a

full-on battle of the sexes, fought out in the near-mythic arena of a symbolic Spanish

bullring, Calixto Bieito's hugely popular production...is arguably truer to the spirit of

6 John Williams, A Spanish Guitar, Westminster, Wst14138, 1961; Two Guitar Concertos, Rodrigo and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, CBS 72439/6834, 1965; Two Guitar Concertos, Rodrigo and Dodgson, CBS 72661 /MS 7063, 1968; John Williams Plays Spanish Music, CBS 72728, 1970. See William Starling, Strings Attached: The Life and Music of John Williams (London: Robson Press, 2012). 7 Julian Bream, The Art of the Spanish Guitar, RCA, VCS 7057(2), 1970; Popular Classics for Spanish Guitar, RCA, SB6887, 1974. 8 Julian Bream filmed a series for television exploring the guitar music of Spain, first aired in 1984 and John Williams recorded a very successful album in the Royal Alcazar in Seville. John Williams, The Seville Concert, Sony 53359, 1993; Julian Bream, Guitarra! A Musical Journey Through Spain, first aired on BBC TV on 11 October, 1984.

248

Bizet's original conception than most more conventional stagings you'll ever see.9

By way of contrast, a recent Royal Opera House production of Carmen was

advertised with language reminiscent of nineteenth-century travel writers: "Spanish

heat and gypsy passion are brought to the stage in Francesca Zambello's vivid

production of Bizet's opera."10 As these two quotations demonstrate, Carmen has

retained its currency as a marker of Spanishness and many stereotypes about Spanish

music drawn from the nineteenth century have endured and been repackaged for later

generations. At the same time elusive notions of authenticity and what constitutes

"true" Spanish music and culture continue to resonate in the early twenty-first century.

9 'English National Opera,' accessed 16 May 2013, www.eno.org/see-whats-on/productions/production-page.php?item id=2133. 10 `Royal Opera House, Carmen,' accessed 16 May, 2013, www.roh.org.uk/productions/carmen-by-francesca-zambello.

249

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.

Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne

Author/s:

MURRAY, KEN

Title:

Spanish music and its representations in London (1878-1930): from the exotic to the modern

Date:

2013

Persistent Link:

http://hdl.handle.net/11343/57402

File Description:

Spanish music and its representations in London (1878-1930): from the exotic to the modern