Copyright by Alberto Ángel Requejo Ansó 2003
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Copyright by Alberto Ángel Requejo Ansó 2003 The Dissertation Committee for Alberto Ángel Requejo Ansó certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: A Study of Jesús Guridi’s Lyric Drama Amaya (1910-1920) Committee: Andrew Dell’Antonio, Supervisor Elliott Antokoletz Hanns-Bertold Dietz Kathleen Higgins Michael Tusa A Study of Jesús Guridi’s Lyric Drama Amaya (1910-1920) by Alberto Ángel Requejo Ansó, M.M., B.M. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2003 In memory of my grandparents: Alberto Requejo Tamayo Alejandra Díaz de Espada López de Armentia Ángel Ansó Marcilla Tomasa Beramendi Inza Acknowledgements I am indebted to many people for their generous help and encouragement towards the completion of this dissertation. I first of all must offer my gratitude to Dr. Andrew Dell’Antonio whose scholarly counsel, patient editing, encouragement, and enthusiasm were a constant source of assistance and inspiration. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee for their experienced help, careful reading, and insightful comments: Professors Michael Tusa, Kathleen Higgins, Hanns-Bertold Dietz, and Elliott Antokoletz. This dissertation was facilitated by a research grant from the Government of Navarra, to whom I am deeply grateful, and by a Graduate Student Professional Award from the University of Texas at Austin. I am particularly grateful to María Jesús Guridi for facilitating me invaluable information and materials from the composer Jesús Guridi. I am grateful to Dr. Jon Bagüés, who for the first time directed my attention towards the subject of Amaya, and to the very helpful staff at the Archivo de Compositores Vascos Eresbil in Rentería, Guipúzcoa. I thank especially Fr. Pablo Bilbao Aristegui and Víctor Pliego de Andrés who provided me with essential research information about Guridi and his work. I am also indebted to the staff at the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores in Madrid, who facilitated access to the score of Amaya and to the catalogue of Guridi’s works published by Unión Musical Española, to the staff of the Biblioteca de la Diputación Foral de Vizcaya, the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, the Biblioteca del Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, and the Deposit of Dissertations at Université de Paris IV (Sorbonne). I must also thank my family and close friends who have always given me moral and logistic support and encouragement. My parents have been a special v inspiration for their constant moral and practical help in my graduate studies and dissertation. I reserve particular appreciation to my wife, Sadie, who patiently proofread and inspired my work. vi A Study of Jesús Guridi’s Lyric Drama Amaya (1910-1920) Publication No. Alberto Ángel Requejo Ansó, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2003 Supervisor: Andrew Dell’Antonio In this dissertation I study the literary sources of Jesús Guridi’s lyric drama Amaya, the historical background and the events that led to its composition and performance, its reception, and its musical and dramatic structure. Jesús Guridi Bidaola (1886-1961) wrote the lyric drama Amaya during the years 1910-1920 on a libretto written in Castilian by José María Arroita-Jauregui and translated into Basque by Friar José de Arrue. The drama was based on the novel Amaya o los vascos en el siglo VIII published in 1879 by Francisco Navarro Villoslada. The novel by Villoslada itself had two main sources. The first was the narration, in a book published in 1774 by Friar Thomas de Burgui, of a medieval legend of an involuntary parricide. The second was the work of the scholar of Oriental languages and visionary Joseph Augustin de Chaho whose article Aïtor, Légende cantabre, published in 1843, became the foundation of Villoslada’s Romantic epic novel. Both Chaho’s and Villoslada’s writings became cornerstones vii of the fuerista movement that followed the defeat of the Carlists in Bilbao in 1876 and that prompted the creation of the Basque nationalist movement. Guridi, who had been a student of Vincent D’Indy at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, bases some of the musical themes in the lyric drama on Basque popular songs that he knew or that had been collected by authors such as Charles Bordes, J. D. J. Sallaberry, or Resurrección M. de Azkue. He uses these and other themes of his own invention as musical leading motives that would be transformed to originate new themes and that would provide the musical foundation of the drama. The use of popular melodies responds to a strict aesthetic ideal that Guridi followed throughout his musical production and which he formulates in his speech of acceptance of a place at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1947. Amaya was performed on 22nd May 1920 at the Coliseo Albia in Bilbao and subsequently in Madrid, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, San Sebastián, and Prague. Its reception varied according to the places of performance and, despite its magnitude within the composer’s output, this work had a much more limited performance history than his other more popular works. In 1952 Guridi wrote an adaptation of Amaya for a film directed by Luis Marquina. viii Table of Contents Introduction 1 A preview of Guridi’s work 1 Chapter I: Historical precedents 4 The path towards national opera: 4 History and dialogues about national genres Survey of 17th-century genres with respect to 5 the program of a nationalist opera in Spain The 18th-century: changes in the Spanish court and the provinces: 6 The prevalence of Italian fashion as a prelude to the creation of a national consciousness National aspects of the operatic activity at the court 9 The Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País and 10 El borracho burlado as precursors of Basque opera The 19th century: Music and critics towards the establishment 12 of a national opera in Spain The problem of a national opera 13 Peña y Goñi’s monograph on a national Spanish opera 15 Morel Borotra’s account of Basque opera and basquitude 21 Radical nationalism and theatre as means of propaganda: 25 Arana Goiri, Azkue’s Vizcay’tik Bizkaira, and zarzuela with political implications The evolution of the notion of basquitude in the musical theatre 34 Evolution of nationalist ideals: Sota y Llano and Echave 37 A different genre in Basque: the opera Pudente 38 ix Zapirain’s Chanton Piperri 40 Towards a theory of Basque opera: Gascue 42 Usandizaga’s Mendi Mendiyan and Guridi’s Mirentxu 46 Some attempts by Azkue: Ortzuri and Urlo 48 The fate of Basque opera after the 1910 season in Bilbao 51 The steps of folklore research and Azkue’s exhortation to the 53 Folklorists Popular song acquires official status: a competition for song 54 collections Chapter II: A biographical overview of the work of Jesús Guridi 57 with emphasis on the lyric drama Amaya Main sources 57 Childhood and early education 59 Bilbao 60 Guridi’s education abroad 63 Brussels and Cologne 66 Return to Bilbao: Sociedad Coral and Amaya 67 Guridi’s pastoral lírica Mirentxu and the movement of 68 Basque opera Correspondence between Guridi and Usandizaga on the question 73 of popular song The interim between Mirentxu and Amaya 75 Amaya 78 x Amaya’s score 80 The libretto of Amaya 82 The composition of Amaya 86 Reception of Amaya: Bilbao 87 Lamote de Grignon explains Amaya after its first performance 89 and other reviews of this event Suite de Amaya in Madrid and the lyric drama Amaya at the 97 Teatro Real Amaya in Buenos Aires 101 Amaya in Barcelona 103 Prague and other performances of Amaya 105 Euzko Irudiak and XXII canciones del folklore vasco 106 A different path: El Caserío 107 Reception of El Caserío in Bilbao 109 El Caserío in San Sebastián and the members of El Cuartito 110 La Meiga and other works 112 Guridi as an established writer of zarzuelas, film music, and 114 other genres Peñamariana 117 Guridi académico of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de 118 San Fernando Guridi’s late period 123 xi Chapter III: Origin of the libretto for Amaya 127 Fray Thomas de Burgui: The legend of Don Theodosio de Goñi 128 The legend in its historical context 129 Involuntary parricide in Fray Thomas de Burgui’s account 131 Excursus: the subject of the involuntary parricide in 133 Greek literature: Oedipus Involuntary parricide in medieval Christian literature: 136 San Julian el Hospitalario Assessment of the subject of the parricide in different contexts 138 Parricide as a paradigm for nationalism? 139 Joseph Augustin de Chaho 139 Chaho’s Aïtor, Légende cantabre 151 Philosophie des religions compareés: voyants, croyants, and 153 other categories Tradition according to Chaho 155 Objections to Chaho’s doctrines 156 Navarro Villoslada and his novel Amaya 161 Some biographical information about Navarro Villoslada 163 Amaya o los vascos en el siglo VIII 165 Primitive religion as a symbol of tradition in Villoslada’s novel: 166 Amagoya The characters in the parricide in Villoslada’s novel: Teodosio 171 Asier 177 xii References to Islam in Amaya 180 Questions of genre 182 Epic and novel according to Bakhtin 188 Arroita-Jauregui’s libretto 194 Chapter IV: Prolegomena for a dramatic and musical analysis of the 195 structure of Amaya Act I 196 Act II 215 Act III 226 Epilogue 235 Conclusion 245 Appendix 1 Peña y Goñi about Navarrese and Basque composers 252 Appendix 2 Alzaga and Zapirain’s Chanton Piperri (1899) 253 Appendix 3 Arroita-Jauregui’s Warning in Amaya 256 Appendix 4 Chronica de los reyes de Navarra by the Licenciado 257 Mossen Diego Ramírez de Abalos de la Piscina (1534) Appendix 5 Don Esteban de Garibay y Zamalloa: Compendio historial 258 de las chronicas y vniversal historia de todos los reynos d’España, donde se escriven las vidas de los Reyes de Navarra (1571) Appendix 6 Arroita-Jauregui relinquishes the property rights 260 Appendix 7 Guridi’s works for the stage 261 Appendix 8 Vocal works by Jesús Guridi 262 Appendix 9 Jesús Guridi’s song collections 264 xiii Appendix 10 Review of Amaya by L.